This week in the Romance readers back channel one of the many tropes that drives us nuts came up: “this whole manufactured conflict of a couple hundred pages could have been solved by a SINGLE DAMN CONVERSATION.” (h/t kdm). In some ways, that describes the entirety of My Dearest Enemy by Connie Brockway. At the very core of Romance novels, there is often a single fundamental misunderstanding, and in this one it’s the placing of the two main characters as antagonists to each other by […]
An Egyptian Road Trip
This book has been compared in other reviews to the movie, The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. I enjoyed that movie, with the swashbuckling hero and sassy heroine; this book, not so much. Ginesse Braxton is the heroine here, and she is the progeny of renowned archeologist parents. She also has six younger brothers that are making their mark in the world, and she longs to be taken seriously as well. During her studies at Cambridge, she stumbles across some papers that convince her […]
Another Whyte Wedding Romance
This book is set prior to “Bridal Favors“, which I reviewed recently and even though they are tied by the same wedding planning company there is no mention of the characters in that book. Here we meet Letty Potts, a music hall performer and sometimes con artist, who has escaped her ex-boyfriend/partner Nick Sparkle after he burnt down the rooming house she was staying at. Arriving at the train station in her only gown, and clutching her faithful little dog Fagin, she witnesses the elopement […]
A Victorian Rom Com
This was a light and airy Victorian romance, just what I needed after slogging through the vampire politics in the last couple of books I read. I have somehow missed reading anything by Connie Brockway before, but I read a glowing review of this one and decided to try it. It was available on my library Overdrive, so it was an easy decision and I really enjoyed it. Lady Evelyn has always known she’s not beautiful in comparison to her mother and sister, and has […]
In which Scots are comic relief and snow is the most effective matchmaker
3.5 stars The Lady Most Willing is a 3-for-1 romance brought to you by kidnapping, drafty Scottish castles, and a really egregious plot strumpet*. The charmingly flimsy plot is this: a batty laird wants so much to ensure the succession of his drafty Scottish castle that he kidnaps the most eligible local women during a storm — ensuring their being sufficiently trapped in the castle — with the intention of presenting them to his nephew(? It’s been a few weeks; I forget.) The complications are […]
House parties, horses, heroes and hide and seek
3.5 stars After Hugh Dunne, the Earl of Briarly, was thrown of one of his prized horses and comatose for more than a week, he has come to realise that he needs to get married and sire an heir before it’s too late. As his main interest and preoccupation is his stable and his horses, he doesn’t really have the time or the patience to go to social events like balls and the like. He asks his younger sister Carolyn for help to make a […]