Reading Lists / Recommended Reads / Top Ten ListsBest of 20206 Comments
Well, 2020 pretty much sucked. I suffered my way through a number of reading slumps and spent a long time doing something I hardly ever did before – re-reading. I turned to comfort reads for weeks at a time because things were just awful. I didn’t read as many new ... more >
Book Reviews / Letters of Opinionhome / private and public spaces19 Comments
Note from Janine: Guest poster and romance author Pam Rosenthal, whose novella A House East of Regent Street is being published in digital format for the first time tomorrow, has contributed the lovely essay below. How do you read during a pandemic? For facts or for escape? Survival information in ... more >
A- Reviews / Book Reviews / C Reviews / C- Reviews / Recommended Readsaristocrats / courtship / Earl / hero with a past / hidden identity / historical romance / inheritance / joint review / London / Regency England / social climbing5 Comments
Once again, Kaetrin and are reviewing one of Balogh’s Westcott novels together. – Janine Janine: Someone to Romance begins with Lady Jessica Archer, half-sister to the Duke of Netherby, escorted by a cavalcade of carriages to London. Jessica is twenty-five. She hasn’t met anyone special but she wants children and ... more >
B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / C Reviews / C- Reviews / D Reviews / DNF Reviews / Reading ListsBaron / Duke / Earl / marriage-of-convenience / mistress heroine / Reading lists / seduction / virgin / widow9 Comments
This past January, I read Mary Balogh’s Huxtables series. Although it was a mixed bag for me, even the Baloghs that don’t work for me often make for interesting reading. Here are my thoughts on the books: First Comes Marriage After a short prologue setting up the hero of book ... more >
A Reviews / A- Reviews / B+ Reviews / Reading Lists / Recommended Reads / Top Ten Lists#metoo / #ownvoices / 1870s / 1920s / 1970s / accountant / Agent/Spies/Undercover / arranged-marriage / Asian heroine / Asperger's / audiobook / book editor / California / class differences / Contemporary / custody battle / dragons / enemies to lovers / epistolary / f/f / Fairyland / fake relationship / family / Fantasy / farming / friends-to-lovers / gods / heroine in disguise / high-school / historical romance / Hong Kong based world / illegitimate-child / LGBTQIA / Literary fiction / London / look alikes / mafia / magical powers / Malaysia / martial arts / Mexico / nobleman / Northern Ireland / nurse / POC / POC author / political intrigue / quest / Reading lists / reformed hero / Regency-based world / romantic-elements / roommates / saga / single dad / streetwise heroine / Time-Travel / Vietnam / waitress / war19 Comments
I was tempted to make a list of my favorites among the 2019-published books I read this year. In the end I decided to focus on my favorite 2019 reads (first time reads; I didn’t include books I had read / reviewed in prior years) without regard to their year ... more >
Book Reviews / C Reviews / C+ ReviewsHistorical / joint review / long separation / novella / older MCs / second chance30 Comments
Janine: In book six of Mary Balogh’s regency-set Westcott series, Someone to Honor, Matilda, the 56-year-old maiden aunt in the Westcott family, did something scandalous in calling on Viscount Dirkson with only her niece’s stepson, Bertrand, for company. Matilda’s purpose was to inform the viscount that Gil, his illegitimate son, ... more >