B Reviews / B+ Reviews / B- Reviews / Book Reviewsarranged-marriage / Asian characters / class-difference / historical romance / Historical-China / Lotus Palace series / mystery / POC / POC author / Reading lists / scholar / Tang Dynasty6 Comments
Several years ago I fell in love with Jeannie Lin’s Lotus Palace novels. Whether you consider them romances or mysteries (I think of them as romances), the setting, a pleasure quarter called the Pinkang Li, part of the Tang Dynasty capital, Chang’an, during the 840s CE, is beautifully rendered and ... more >
Book Reviews / DNF Reviews1880s / class-difference / Con / con-artist / Duke / England / erotic photograph / historical romance / Late Victorian / London / medium / mentorship / spiritualism4 Comments
Dear Julia Bennet, Your book, set in 1888 London, sounded like something I would enjoy so I took a chance and bought it. The story starts with a séance. The titular heroine is a “medium” while the hero, Alex (a duke), has a passion for unmasking con artists. He is ... more >
B- Reviews / Book Reviews1880s / Australia / Brindabella Secrets series / class differences / class-difference / forced-marriage / HistoricalNo Comments
New South Wales, 1885 When Alice Ryan wakes to find thugs surrounding her cottage, on the hunt for her no-good brother, she escapes into the surrounding bush. It is wealthy landowner Robert Farrer who finds her the next morning, dishevelled, injured, and utterly unwilling to share what she knows. With ... more >
B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Readsclass-difference / England / family relationships / Historical / London / mystery / Regency6 Comments
When one of his colleagues witnesses a robbery in which one of the participants, a child, bears a striking resemblance to a certain Bow Street Runner, John Pickett realizes he has a young half-brother who has been “apprenticed” to a criminal gang. The brutal murder of the pursuing constable makes ... more >
B Reviews / Book Reviewsclass-difference / England / Historical / Ireland / mystery / Regency / revenge3 Comments
Now you see her… Still haunted by memories of his last case, in which an innocent woman was accidentally killed, Bow Street Runner John Pickett welcomes the challenge of a new assignment in the West Country. Unfortunately, this time he’ll have to leave his beloved wife, Julia, behind, as he’ll ... more >
Need A Rec! / Reading Lists / Recommended Reads / Top Ten Lists#ownvoices / African American / Alpha & Omega / Asperger's / California / class-difference / Contemporary / Doctor / Eastern Europe / econometrician / escort / Fantasy / India / Italy / journalist / LGBTQIA characters / magic users / moneylender / monsters / Native Americans / Ocean changelings / Paranormal / POC / police / Psy-Changeling Series / queen / Rivers of London / The Founders Trilogy / thief / turn of the century / Urban-Fantasy / Washington DC / werewolves15 Comments
I love end-of-year reading lists so I hope our readers share their own favorite books of 2018 in the comments. Here are the 2018 releases I enjoyed most: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik Naomi Novik’s fantasy novel is the story of three young women’s quest for empowerment — a Jewish ... more >