Hoyden: (n) a boisterous, bold, and carefree girl; a tomboy. Emma Harlow has built quite a reputation in London. She broke Sir Leopold’s record for racing a curricle from London to Newmarket (and she thinks she could have been even faster had propriety not required the presence of her brother in the carriage). She’s smart, she’s unconventional, and she’s funny, and no one wants that in a wife. She also really doesn’t like her twin sister’s fiance, Sir Waldo Windbourne (Emma calls him Windbag, for […]
An utterly ridiculous cover for a book that’s more about probability than rippling abs
I really like the cut of Cecilia Grant’s jib. Her romances read as refreshingly simple, high on practicality and low on histrionics. The leads each have set out to accomplish something, and they find that the other has complementary skills and therefore can help each other achieve their goals. Along the way, their respect for each others’ talents becomes admiration and love. It’s not romantic, in the traditional sense of the genre, with wind-swept hair and rain-soaked gowns and proclamations of love on cliff-tops. But […]
Sensible People Falling in Love
The last book in Mary Balogh’s excellent seven book historical romance Survivors’ Club series features the kindest man in the world and a happy spinster. About a decade ago, George, Duke of Stanhope, turned his estate into a hospital and took wounded Napoleonic War veterans into his home. Six of the patients, a woman and five men, stayed behind when the others left and over three years of healing formed an intense bond. Each of them has now had a love story and embarked on a new life, so […]
Half a Cannonball with a Full Classic
4.5 stars Venetia was my first Georgette Heyer novel which seems odd given my love of the genre and the author’s lauded status in it. I did try to read it once before, but didn’t get very far. This time, I kept going and was well rewarded for my determination. Venetia, as much as almost any romance I’ve read, is about the heroine’s effort and insistence on choosing her own life. Much of the tension in the novel comes from Venetia saying, “I want this,” repeatedly and dealing with virtually everyone else […]