Archive for Romance
April 10, 2012 · Filed under Perkins Stephanie, Romance, YA Fiction
Funny and romantic, with nice appearances by Anna and St. Claire (from Anna and the French Kiss), which provides some nice epilogue-y updates to their story.
Sometimes I feel like every character in a YA novel is just too clever/talented/unique. Isn’t there anyone dull and boring? I guess they would be too dull to read about.
In this instance Lola is raised by her two gay dads in a fabulous house in San Francisco. Lola is an amazing and talented and quirky fashion designer. She used to be friends with the kids next door and then fell for the boy, thought her feelings were returned, but he abruptly left. Now he’s back and it looks like the feelings are still there.
April 10, 2012 · Filed under Adult Fiction, Romance, Webber Heather
This was every bit as delightful as the previous two Lucy Valentine books (Truly, Madly and Deeply, Desperately). In this one Lucy’s gift for finding lost objects (which is used to assist the police in finding missing/dead persons) has been revealed by the media and she’s been completely besieged by requests for help. She still lives in a charming cottage, has a saucy grandmother, good friends and strange pets, and a sexy boyfriend. I forget what the central “lost” mystery is, but this one includes the mystery of a strange do-gooder who showers Boston Common with money occasionally. Funny, romantic, and touching.
April 10, 2012 · Filed under Adult Fiction, Historical, James Eloisa, Romance
This is #3 in her fairy tales, this one is very very faintly reminiscent of the Princess and the Pea, in terms of a “true” duchess.
This has a little bit of adventure, nice historical detail about the war with France, and is very funny in typical James fashion.
Justin Fiebvre, is totally a take on Justin Bieber, who her daughter has a big crush on according to FB, so I assume that that was for her. Complete with describing his dreaminess and lock of hair sweeping across his face. A hoot.
Can’t wait to see her at a local bookstore signing at the end of the month!!!
January 4, 2012 · Filed under Adult Fiction, Fairy Tale, Historical, James Eloisa, Romance
This is the second in a new series of fairy tale related stories that one of my very favorite romance authors, Eloisa James, is doing. I thought this was wonderful and just loved it. The fairy tale connection is quite slim-basically a lovely young woman gets sent by her father to this cantankerous Duke’s castle. He has a reputation as a difficult beastly man, but due to some hilariously convoluted circumstances involving a gown that made her look enceinte, he is the only choice she has for marriage. Then of course they fall in love, despite their own protestations. The whole novel has James’s signature wit-the opening is particularly clever, frank, and funny. It was a bit steamier than I recall her other novels being–not for the prudish (but always in good taste.) The Duke is an interesting character-he’s a doctor and surgeon and has turned his castle into a hospital. He has no bedside manner whatsoever. I was reading and thought, “good grief, he’s just like House” and then when I read the afterward I saw that, in fact, the author had deliberately modeled him after House! Witty and beautiful Linnet is the perfect foil for him.
Delightful historical romance
January 3, 2012 · Filed under Adult Fiction, Historical, Quinn Julia, Romance
[Caveat: I'm trying to make good on my New Year's Resolution and get caught up to speed on this blog. That means I'm writing about books I read months ago, my memory might be spotty, and I'm just going to jot down a few sentences.]
Wow, it’s been quite a while since I read this, but I do recall loving it, thinking Julia Quinn is quite witty and I must read more of her, and eager to see what’s next in the series. The premise is that a highwayman is recognized as the long lost duke of Wyndham and is forced to go back to his castle and deal with the insanely nasty dowager duchess and sort things out. The nasty dowager is a spectacular character and it is her long suffering witty beautiful companion who is the romantic match to the Duke. Delightful historical romance-a must read if you like these or are a fan of, say, Eloisa James.
January 3, 2012 · Filed under Fairy Tale, Flinn Alex, Romance, YA Fiction
[Caveat: I'm trying to make good on my New Year's Resolution and get caught up to speed on this blog. That means I'm writing about books I read months ago, my memory might be spotty, and I'm just going to jot down a few sentences.]
I’m a sucker for fairy tale retellings so when I found out that Alex Flinn (a YA author I like and am amazed she can go between emotional reality and these retellings) had written more than just Beastly in that category, I had to give this a try. In this one a teenage boy(who, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t crazy about) comes across Sleeping Beauty’s hidden castle and awakens her. When she (and her whole castleful of people) awake they are in now in modern times. She is at odds with him, no one believes anyone about the fairy’s curse or what happened, and there is much bickering. I liked this approach to the fairy tale-what does happen when she wakes up 200 years later? And all the other people who had to fall asleep as well just because she pricked her finger? It has a great ending too-a nice way to wrap it all up.
October 13, 2011 · Filed under Adult Fiction, British, Browne Hester, Romance
I loved the Little Lady Agency books and was delighted when I saw this on the picked over shelves at Borders in its final days. The premise is that Evie Nicholson works for an antiques buyer and heads off to her sister Louise’s boyfriend’s Scottish estate to appraise the contents of the neighbor’s house (they need to sell some stuff to pay for upkeep, don’t you know.) Handsome men ensue. There were two interesting things about this book that I loved and gave it a lot interest and appeal.
The first is that Scottish dancing is a central part of the story. Evie and her sister are terrible dancers, but Evie is pressed into subbing for her sister at a big fancy annual gala where she will need to correctly dance some crazy Highland dances. After reading all about them I went straight to YouTube to view videos of these dances. And I dearly wished that I was part of something so steeped in tradition. <sigh>
The other is that Evie’s quirky character trait is that she is kind of a crappy antiques buyer because she looooooooves the past. Is simply in love with daydreams and stories of what role an inanimate object might have played in someone’s life. Getting to stay in the old castle practically makes her swoon. I loved every one of her little daydreams because I am the same way and it all seemed totally reasonable to me. How could you not descend the staircase in a castle without imagining yourself in the splendor candlelight with handsome Duke waiting for you? How could you not look at an old writing desk without imagining what letters might have been written on it?
The romance angle of this actually kept me guessing a bit. I felt like I knew who she was meant to end up with, but kept doubting it. So good for you, Hester Browne!
October 13, 2011 · Filed under Adult Fiction, Brockway Connie, James Eloisa, Quinn Julia, Romance · Tagged Regency
A Regency romance that is one continuous tale, but written in three parts by three well known romance writers. I’m not that familiar with Connie Brockway, but I adore the first two, so I was very pleased to pick this off the Borders shelf the day before it closed. The premise is that Hugh, a handsome titled gentleman with a passion for horses, has decided it’s time to take a wife (lest he die from a horse fall without leaving an heir.) He doesn’t have much time for wooing and romance so he asks his sister to make a list of eligible ladies and then invite them all to a house party. A wonderful setup for romantic hijinks and easily splits the novel into three parts–each author gets to write about Hugh’s attempts with one of the eligible ladies. It’s evident from the very first scene when Hugh asks his sister and his sister’s widowed best friend about this whole cockamamie plan that he will end up with the friend.
I enjoyed seeing how each lady did not work out for Hugh and all the usual trappings of fine Regency writing-a witty loving sister, parlor games, backstories of doing the right thing, loving someone from afar for years, and so on. The three parts connected practically seamlessly, though each section did have the touch of its author. Perhaps I’ll look into some other Connie Brockway novels.
January 5, 2011 · Filed under Adult Fiction, Epistolary, Lee Cavanaugh, Romance
This is a prepub that I read very quickly. In fact, my rockin’ New Year’s eve involved staying up in bed and reading this until I finished it in the new year at 12:30am. I am partial to stories told in letter or email and this one is all emails with the ones being “saved as draft” being the ones in which people say how they really feel but don’t send it and then you just feel irritated with them.
The story is basically one young woman who, at the beginning, chooses between two men-one a “match” on eHarmony and one a friend. Then you go back in time to when she first met the friend. And on an on and their lives are entangled and how the romance develops and flounders and so on. I wasn’t really crazy about this. For one thing, one of the characters ends up acting in a way that I thought his earlier character never indicated he would behave that way. It was just weird.
There are many many current day things mentioned (bands, tv shows, etc), so when one of the guys talks about using Blockbuster Online I thought it stood out because everyone uses Netflix.
December 28, 2010 · Filed under Anthology, Feather Jane, Jeffries Sabrina, London Juli, Romance
What’s more decadent at Christmastime than curling up with a Christmas themed Regency romance? Nothing, that’s what. This year’s book was Snowy Night with a Stranger. I believe I saw it at the grocery store, wrote down the title, and then Paul brought him home from the library a week before Christmas. Three stories, perfect length for busy Christmas season when your mind might be on wrapping and gifting and creating and baking. They were all delightful, though I believe my favorite was Julia London’s Snowy Night with a Highlander. Apparently it snows a lot during the winter in Scotland, as that was something that was a big part every story. Fiona has to go find her rake of a brother and the tragically scarred-brought to his senses man who accompanies her on the snowy journey is of the course the man for her (though he had foolishly spurned her when he was young and haughty.)
The stranded travelers in Sabrina Jeffries When Sparks Fly must stay at a baron’s home that hasn’t seen merriment since the death of his brother some years ago. The “Black Baron” as he is known now is your typical gruff, all because of people’s misunderstandings and tremendous guilt, afraid to love, heart of gold hidden by mean exterior type of character. The interesting thread in this story is that he is a bit of a scientist working on explosives. Also interesting? The traditional game of Snapdragon, wherein you pluck raisins from a bowl of burning brandy. I’m half tempted to try it!
Jane Feather’s A Holiday Gamble features a feisty heroine who is in a forced betrothal with a horrible brute of a man. She has plans to escape and fortunately for her a stranded traveler, the Viscount Allenton recently returned from India, not only is willing to aid and abet, but also turns out to be the one to show her true love and passion. There was a bit of excitement and mystery in this story, which I liked.
Delightful light Christmas reading!
Funny and romantic, with nice appearances by Anna and St. Claire (from Anna and the French Kiss), which provides some nice epilogue-y updates to their story.
