Harlequin Historical

REVIEW: Coming Home for Christmas (Anthology) by Carla Kelly

REVIEW: Coming Home for Christmas (Anthology) by Carla Kelly

Dear Mrs. Kelly, I know that when I start a Carla Kelly book, I’ll get a certain number of things. An honorable hero, an unflappable heroine, some idiot secondary characters who may bluster and threaten to cause the hero and heroine some problems but who usually are mainly all hot air and dismissed as the [...]

REVIEW: Lawman by Laurie Grant

REVIEW: Lawman by Laurie Grant

Olivia Didn’t Believe in Second Chances She and Cal Devlin had been in love a lifetime ago, before she’d lost everything and been branded a “scarlet woman.” And though she longed for nothing more than to be back in Cal’s arms, their passion could only mean his ruin…! Caleb had learned that some Texans never [...]

REVIEW: Fool’s Paradise by Tori Phillips

REVIEW: Fool’s Paradise by Tori Phillips

Dear Ms. Phillips, I wanted to read this book because of the Tudor time period and the fact that the hero is not only a commoner but a bastard as well. Also, I had heard good things about your Harlequin Historicals of the 90s. It’s slightly bawdy for the time with Dicken doing his share [...]

REVIEW: The Dragon and The Pearl by Jeannie Lin

REVIEW: The Dragon and The Pearl by Jeannie Lin

Dear Ms. Lin: I’m thrilled that you are writing this series and thrilled that Harlequin is publishing it and giving us such in-your-face Asian covers instead headless bodies that hint at its Eastern origins. I am not super familiar with this area of history and I read this story more as if it were a [...]

REVIEW: Crusader Captive by Merline Lovelace

REVIEW: Crusader Captive by Merline Lovelace

“A strategic marriage to a powerful Saracen lord with a penchant for virgins will enable wealthy Lady Jocelyn to keep her fortress home. But at what cost? Her only hope of escaping the depraved lord’s harem is to lose her virginity—and fast! Captured and tortured knight Simon de Rhys is in no position to refuse [...]

REVIEW: The Widowed Bride by Elizabeth Lane

REVIEW: The Widowed Bride by Elizabeth Lane

Dear Ms. Lane, Harlequin Historicals will still occasionally branch out beyond Regencies and I’ve come to look for your books to be among those branchees. I’d started reading in this series two years ago with “The Borrowed Bride,” but will be honest and say that I’d lost touch with it since then. Now, a few [...]

REVIEW: The Admiral’s Penniless Bride by Carla Kelly

REVIEW: The Admiral’s Penniless Bride by Carla Kelly

Dear Mrs. Kelly, I see a book by you and I’m like Pavlov’s dogs – minus the barking. And the book then automatically goes on my list of “this will be read soon, if not sooner.” And though each one might not always climb the heights of my best reads for that year, you seldom [...]

REVIEW: The Smuggler and the Society Bride by Julia Justiss

REVIEW: The Smuggler and the Society Bride by Julia Justiss

Dear Ms. Justiss, Thank you for sending me a copy of your latest book, “The Smuggler and the Society Bride.” Despite it being the third full length book in the “Silk and Scandal” series, I found that I could jump right in without feeling I was missing vital information or at sea about who the [...]

REVIEW: Marrying the Royal Marine by Carla Kelly

REVIEW: Marrying the Royal Marine by Carla Kelly

Dear Ms. Kelly, At last, at last the final book in the Brandon Sisters series. Eldest sister Nan found love with a naval Captain, middle sister Laura married a naval doctor and now it’s youngest – by quite a few years – sister Polly’s turn. But instead of the Navy, the Royal Marines provide our [...]

REVIEW: Runaway Lady, Conquering Lord by Carol Townend

REVIEW: Runaway Lady, Conquering Lord by Carol Townend

Dear Ms. Townend, I’ve enjoyed several of your other books for Harlequin Historicals and was delighted when you contacted me offering a copy of your latest in the “Wessex Weddings” series for possible review. (Note: FTC discloser out of the way!) And the heroine is a Fallen Woman too. Even better. At first I didn’t [...]

REVIEW: From Waif to Gentleman’s Wife by Julia Justiss

REVIEW: From Waif to Gentleman’s Wife by Julia Justiss

Dear Ms. Justiss, You’ve been writing Regency set stories for years now so by now, I’m sure you’re more than familiar with all the conventions, the standard plots, the trope characters, all the things we’re used to seeing in this historical category. Well, I am too so when I come across something different, I’m liable [...]

REVIEW: The Viscount’s Kiss by Margaret Moore

REVIEW: The Viscount’s Kiss by Margaret Moore

Dear Mrs. Moore, After I had read “A Lover’s Kiss,” I fell in love with the secondary character of Lord “Buggy” Bromwell, friend to the hero of that book and the ones that preceded it. So when I checked out the August Harlequin Historical releases and realized that this was Buggy’s book, I pounced. Justinian [...]

REVIEW: The Surgeon’s Lady by Carla Kelly

REVIEW: The Surgeon’s Lady by Carla Kelly

Dear Mrs. Kelly, I’ve been a fan of yours for years. Back “in the day” when the traditional Regency still ruled and I could look forward to a book a year from your pen – or typewriter or hard drive – I was living the good life. But then came the bad years, the years [...]

Two for One Review: Harlequin Historical Undones

Two for One Review: Harlequin Historical Undones

The Rake’s Intimate Encounter by Ann Lethbridge I’m still not sure I completely understand the set-up of this novella. I realize it’s a prologue, so to speak, for Lethbridge’s historical series for Harlequin but even so I felt like I was dumped midway into a story without any map to point me in the right [...]

REVIEW: Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife by Michelle Styles

REVIEW: Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife by Michelle Styles

Dear Mrs. Styles, Yeah, finally book two in your Viking series. Or at least book two over in North America. I still don’t understand how Harlequin and Mills and Boon decide when to release what where. Greater minds than mine must be at work here somehow. Sela and Vikar have a past. A bad past [...]