March 2, 2010

REVIEW: Dark Angel by Mary Balogh

JanineA- ReviewsEarl / England / London / psychological insights / Regency England / revenge-plot43 Comments

Dear Ms. Balogh, Your books have been an acquired taste for me. My early experiences of them were like my first taste of sushi. They too, seemed like something unusual, intense and raw, to which my palate was unaccustomed. At first I wasn’t sure they would appeal to me, since ... more >

January 5, 2010

REVIEW: On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

JanineA Review Category / A- Reviews / B+ Reviews / Need A Rec!alternate-reality / cinderella / Earl / Fairy-Tales / featured / Georgia / Magic / Romance / Urban-Fantasy32 Comments

Dear Ms. Andrews, On the Edge was the first of your books that I’ve read, but it will not be the last. Rose Drayton and her two young brothers, Jack and Georgie, live in the Edge, an area where two dimensions known as the Weird and the Broken overlap. In ... more >

December 4, 2009

DUAL REFLECTIONS, PART 2: Black Silk by Judith Ivory (Judy Cuevas)

JanetA Review Category / A Reviews / Book Reviews19th century / adultery / Earl / good characterization / good-description / Good-Dialogue / lawsuits / Love-Triangle / rake / widow31 Comments

Black Silk was one of the first two Romance novels I read, and to this day it remains one of my absolute favorites. Submit Channing-Downs, the woman who deeply mourns the husband who was almost three times her age, is so unlike most Romance heroines. Her hair has the quality ... more >

December 4, 2009

DUAL REFLECTIONS, PART 1: Black Silk by Judith Ivory (Judy Cuevas)

JanineA Review Category / A Reviews / Book Reviews19th century / adultery / Earl / good characterization / good-description / Good-Dialogue / lawsuits / Love-Triangle / rake / widow12 Comments

On rare occasion, I come across a novel that seems so rich, so sumptuous, and so sublime, that I am afraid to reread it. The first reading experience is so close to perfect that I don’t think anything can equal it. Such was the case with Judith Ivory’s Black Silk. ... more >

March 17, 2008

REVIEW: A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson

JanineA Review Category / A Reviews / Book Reviewsclass-difference / Earl / England / European-Historical / forbidden-love / good-description / rags-to-riches / Russia52 Comments

Dear Ms. Ibbotson, When Azteclady asked me to review one of your romances, I was both excited and challenged. You pack so many irresistible characters into less than three hundred pages that it is difficult to do justice to these delightful folk. And how would I explain the magic by ... more >