Regency Romance

REVIEW:  Beauty and the Blacksmith by Tessa Dare

REVIEW: Beauty and the Blacksmith by Tessa Dare

Dear Ms. Dare, I may have had it with Spindle Cove, your Regency-era haven for unusual young women and the men who love them.* The place has become nettlesomely toothsome, rather like Gwyeth Paltrow gushing over adorable organic baby blankets. This novella, Beauty and the Blacksmith, is a quick, easy read, the equivalent of a(…)

REVIEW:  A Most Improper Rumor by Emma Wildes

REVIEW: A Most Improper Rumor by Emma Wildes

Dear Ms. Wildes: You are an author whose prose I’ve enjoyed in the past. Your 2009 novel, An Indecent Proposition (reviewed here by Jane), was a sexy fun read and I found the first book in the Whispers of Scandal series, Ruined by Moonlight, entertaining (My review is here.) Your latest, A Most Improper Rumor, however, left(…)

REVIEW:  One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean

REVIEW: One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean

Dear Ms. MacLean: The day before I wrote this review I was stuck in the library of a large public high school, waiting to be called to a debate tournament. I was there for eight hours and only judged one match. The rest of the time I spent re-reading One Good Earl Deserves a Lover(…)

REVIEW:  The Lady Risks All by Stephanie Laurens

REVIEW: The Lady Risks All by Stephanie Laurens

Dear Ms. Laurens, Your latest book, The Lady Risks All, is almost 500 pages. That was at least 350 too many for me. In many ways, this is a typical Laurens book—although it differs in one excellent way. The man has enough sexual experience to train several brothels; the virginal heroine is so responsive to his(…)

REVIEW:  Loving Lady Marcia by Kieran Kramer

REVIEW: Loving Lady Marcia by Kieran Kramer

Dear Ms. Kramer: Before Loving Lady Marcia, I had not read any of your books. However, when news of the book’s title hit online, it raised a lot of eyebrows, including mine, especially when your publisher disavowed any substantive relationship between the book and the “Brady Bunch” series. I fully admit that curiosity drew me(…)

REVIEW:  A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer

REVIEW: A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer

Dear Readers, Sourcebooks is having a sale on Georgette Heyer ebooks this week (August 14-20), so I thought it would be a good time for another Heyer review. I noticed that A Civil Contract is one of the books on sale, and I’ve been wanting to write about it. Heyer fans really split on this(…)

REVIEW:  An Heir of Deception by Beverley Kendall

REVIEW: An Heir of Deception by Beverley Kendall

Dear Ms. Kendall, It was a foregone conclusion I’d read An Heir of Deception, your latest entry into The Elusive Lords series. I’ve read the first two and novella and while neither the second book nor the novella rocked my socks like your debut novel A Taste of Desire, I’ve had fun reading them all. The heroes are gorgeous, dominant(…)