What we have here, I think, is partly a novella problem, and partly a fanservice problem. Tessa Dare has written fabulous novellas — my favorites being The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright and Beauty and the Blacksmith — but I so frequently find myself underwhelmed by novellas in general that I can’t help but believe they’re just tricky by nature. They’re so short that character development must be sacrificed, and whatever obstacle standing in the way of the characters’ HEA needs to be overcome quickly […]
Historical Romance and a New B-List Author
Christi Caldwell is a historical romance author I have been meaning to try for a while and the free copy of Forever Betrothed, Never the Bride helped with that considerably. Pledged to each other as children, Lady Emmaline Fitzhugh and Lord Drake have spent virtually no time together and she is sick and tired of it. Relegated to the sidelines of her own life, Emmaline learns of Drake’s return to London and decides it is time to GET ON WITH IT ALREADY! She doesn’t really question […]
A Historical Romance with So Much YAY!
Having read Julie Anne Long’s eleven book Regency romance Pennyroyal Green series, I am not really in a position to judge how this novel reads as a standalone, but as a long-awaited end to the series, I have but two syllables: BRAVO! Somehow The Legend of Lyon Redmond manages to be both epic in the way required of its buildup and personal in its sweet and believable love story. What’s more, Long successfully tied up every single loose end I could think of from the […]
The guy on the cover is really pretty, though
Oh, dear. Well, it’s really not so bad as all that. But the bottom line is, I really, really wanted to love this book. I have loved the rest of the series. And, my very good friend — with whom I share the majority of my romance reads — recently asked, “Do you have a thing for Scots?” and I had to admit I do delve into Highland romance quite a bit, so this should have been such a home run. But it wasn’t. I […]