Thanks to Katie and Patty’s inspiring review and JR Ward, I miss Kresley Cole. All three of you should go stand in the corner and THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU DID! Paranormal romance is the portion of the genre with the most primal stories. There are strong tribal elements and the tropes tend towards traditional roles. Men are warriors, god-like iron-thewed lords capable of both shocking violence and macho tenderness. The women are fertility goddesses, sensual and beautiful, but with a core of steel. The mythological […]
No Alex and Still Not Olivia’s Book, But a Pleasant Historical Romance
Having just finished a book in which the main characters were rarely in the same country, it was a pleasant change to read a book in which the hero and heroine are almost always in the same room, and by one of my favourite authors as well. Julie Anne Long’s new, potentially penultimate, Pennyroyal Green novel, It Started with a Scandal, includes small visits from previous stories’ characters and the return of one of her most charming men, the displaced French aristocrat and raffish rogue […]
Long on the Historical, Short on the Romance
This novel came to me through a recommendation on my list of books sorted by author when a commenter wrote that she/he thought someone was missing from my reading list: Sheila Simonson. Always willing to look into a suggestion, I found one of this new-to-me author’s books available on e-loan from my library. Bar Sinister surely had the most authentic feeling historical elements of any romance I have read. (I say feeling because I am not a historian, just a pretentious reviewer.) I wasn’t expecting […]
Historical Romance with High Hopes and Uneven Tone
As a romance reader, I rely on recommendations since it’s a genre full of authors of wildly varying quality. Like any other group, there are a few greats that land on one’s autobuy list, then the excellent, very good, reliable, guilty pleasures, desperate measures, and so on. Finding good new-to-me authors always feels like a coup. My romance spirit guide, Malin, has pointed me in many the right direction, as has emmalita and others. Writer Courtney Milan suggested this author on her blog and who […]