Grace Burrowes, bless her heart, makes us wait…and wait…and wait until these sad, stubborn survivors find their way to their Happily Ever After. And the wait is absolutely excruciating…but worth it. If you like Burrowes’ work in general and/or Scotland in particular, or if you just need a good wallow, you will not want to miss this book. Just be sure you have a box of tissues or three on hand. Full review is up at Heroes and Heartbreakers.
A Historical Romance with Bustles
The Importance of Being Wicked is a romantic comedy of manners of the “you are everything I never knew I always wanted” variety. Victoria Alexander’s dialogue is wonderfully droll. I should have loved the book and yet it took me forever to get through. As my romance total climbs, I sometimes think I am losing interest in the genre, but the real issue is that it is taking better stories to claim my attention. Winfield Elliott, Viscount Stillwell, has been engaged and left at the altar three […]
There’s $3.20 I’ll Never See Again
Amish melodrama set in 1880s Pennsylvania. Convinced by his beard twirling brother that Rachel, the love of his life, was going to marry him instead, Jacob abandoned his Amish family on the day of his mother’s funeral. He returns with twin children to rebuild his life and re-enter the insular farming community. His evil brother, Simon, succeeded in his nefarious plan and is married to Jacob’s childhood love and doing his best to break her spirit. Rachel is a barren and heartbroken bundle of perfection. […]
The one where I vow to not read “New Adult” anymore, at least till next time…
I’ve written before about “New Adult” and what crap it is, but I keep reading it because I never learn. I want it to be the equivalent of hangover watching Dirty Dancing on TBS while waiting for your roommate’s boyfriend to come back with hangover McDonald’s with a big fat hangover diet Coke, but it’s not. It’s not at all. It’s like discovering that Dirty Dancing has been replaced with, I don’t know, sports or something, and your roommate’s boyfriend got you a regular Coke […]
The one where I want Jamie Fraser to call me Sassenach…
I first read Outlander about fifteen years or so ago. My mom gave it to me, saying, “I know you don’t like time travel, but just get over that, and read this book.” Rarely does my mom do that, but when she does, she hits the mark. In fact, she gave me Harry Potter in much the same way, about four months before it exploded, saying, “Stick with it. Trust me.” After hearing about the upcoming series on Starz, and discovering it was only $1.99 for […]
Dreamy Italian Romance
“Dreamy” is an appropriate adjective for this wisp of novel. It is misty & poetic, with lovel moments. But it lacked the substance I like to round out my poetry & romance. Loosely based on Pellegrino Turri’s invention of the typewriter – very loosely – this novel focuses on the young recipient of that typewriter, the countess Carolina. Events revolve mostly around her journey into blindness, her world shrinking as she loses her peripheral vision, dwindling to a small window of sight, to finally nothing. […]