3.5 stars First of all, I want to thank the ever lovely Mrs. Julien, who kindly sent me an Amazon gift card during my continued convalescence. Part of that gift card financed this story. This novella follows four full novels and a novella, which while they’re not strictly necessary to get the full impact of the story, are well worth reading. Start with A Week to Be Wicked, it’s amazing! Miss Elinora “Nora” Browning grew up next to and was taught lessons along with George […]
A romance in which I was annoyed by the subplots, but enjoyed the love story.
A while back narfna mentioned trying romance novels in audio book format and I thought it sounded like an interesting idea. Then Audible, those b@stards, had a sale (I may have overspent with them lately) and Tessa Dare’s One Dance with a Duke was there. I’m not sorry I spent that $5 – even though its far from my favorite romance I read this year. The basic premise from Goodreads: A handsome and reclusive horse breeder, Spencer Dumarque, the fourth Duke of Morland, is a […]
A novella I didn’t quite warm up to.
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 Visits with Favourite Characters
I have an addition to the Things That Occur to Me While Reading Historical Romance Novels: LUST IS IMPERVIOUS TO COLD. Never mind all those times people in these books get down to their skivvies in drafty old manor houses, lust’s powers are even greater than I supposed. How else could a person wearing a linen shift and corset while standing barefoot in a snow squall be aware of anything than the fact that she is bitterly cold? But I have gotten ahead of myself. […]