Tag Archives: historical romance

The American Heiress in London Series: When the Marquess Met His Match by Laura Lee Guhrke

book review January 30, 2014 Leave a comment

I have read one Laura Lee Guhrke historical romance already, Scandal of the Year, and while it had some nice moments, I did not rush out to track down her catalogue. Guhrke does have a book on All About Romance’s Top 100 list, And Then He Kissed Her, that I keep meaning to read, but for now, I’m reviewing the book they happened to have at my library.

When the Marquess Met His Match is the first book in Guhrke’s new “An American Heiress in London” series. The heroine, Lady Belinda Featherstone, came to England with her ambitious parents and a fortune. In short order, she was married, alternately ignored and insulted by her spouse, beggared, and, mercifully, widowed. She has set herself up as a matchmaker for rich American women and English men looking for a generously dowered spouse. Belinda prides herself finding suitable partners for her clients and sincerely tries to ensure their matches will be more successful than hers.

Nicholas, Marquess of Trubridge, is a classic romance rake: handsome, spoiled, and charming. He’s also beset by a difficult father. Cut off without a farthing until he marries according to the Duke’s wishes, he hires Belinda to find him a rich wife who can a. support him and b. tick his father off as much as possible. She is, of course, instantly attracted to him, but leery of his mercenary goals and his seeming resemblance to her twerp of a husband. Belinda agrees to work for Nicholas and he goes to work on her. Thrown constantly together through their efforts, Belinda decides to ignore her attraction and tells Nicholas that he needs to grow the hell up. Nicholas takes the scolding to heart and moves his life in a productive direction. They get married. The end.

The book was perfectly satisfactory, passing the time pleasantly enough, but not particularly involving. Guhrke described their attraction well, but beyond the physical appeal and some biographical details, there wasn’t a lot of time devoted to the falling in love portion of the story. Guhrke does gets my appreciation for not setting her books in the Regency, and for the evocative detail of the costumes, in particular the love scene including the time-consuming and exhaustive removal of a woman’s complete ensemble, buttons, bows, ribbons, hooks, and all.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go watch The Buccaneers as it has similar themes and is a costume bustlegasm.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

The Importance of Being Wicked & Lord Stillwell’s Excellent Engagements by Victoria Alexander

book review January 28, 2014 Leave a comment

The Importance of Being Wicked is a romantic comedy of manners of the “you are everything I never knew I always wanted” variety. Victoria Alexander’s dialogue is wonderfully droll. I should have loved the book and yet it took me forever to get through. As my romance total climbs, I sometimes think I am losing interest in the genre, but the real issue is that it is taking better stories to claim my attention.

Winfield Elliott, Viscount Stillwell, has been engaged and left at the altar three times. He has retreated to his home to manage his family finances and estates, as one does in a historical romance. When a fire destroys part of his ancestral home, he hires the only firm willing to do the work in the short  timeline he requires, and this brings Miranda Garrett into his life. She is a widow continuing what she claims to be her husband’s work, but is really her own. With the prevarication of a silent partner, she is able to work as an architect and oversee the rebuilding project. Miranda and Winfield (Win) spark and banter and fall in love.

Set in 1887, the subplots show women on the cusp of their first sustained attempt to win rights for themselves as voters and people. Win is conservative and needs to acknowledge that his views are entrenched in tradition rather than rationality. Miranda is trying to escape the people pleasing she was taught and undertook in order to be a “good” wife. They each find in the other their necessary foil and catalyst.

The Importance of Being Wicked is frequently laugh out loud funny. The characters are wry and self-deprecating, but at times it came across as a saucy P.G. Wodehouse novel. There just didn’t seem to really be anything at stake. I know that sounds odd for genre with clearly proscribed expectations, but the story needed a little less aplomb and a little more fire to be truly successful. Just a little more, and  less civilized, smolder, and the novel would have achieved a better balance and had more oomph.

But wait! There’s more… Continue reading →

Dangerous Books For Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels Explained by Maya Rodale

book review January 22, 2014 Leave a comment

As someone who has been reading romance novels virtually non-stop for two years, I have a lot of feelings on the subject. As a successful writer in the genre, Maya Rodale has feelings and actual research on the subject. I purchased her thesis, Dangerous Books for Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels Explained, because I wanted to understand why this mass market genre is so consistently derided not only by readers, but also seemingly by the book industry as well.  Many people read these books and publishers make a lot of money. Obviously, manifestly, clearly, profit does not equal quality, but why doesn’t it at least equal some respect for the readership?  What is with the titles? What is with the “clinch covers”?

Dangerous Books for Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels Explained is largely a historical overview, and, I think, a good one, providing context for the origins, specifics, and reputation of these books. A historical perspective seems a good place to start. If American attitudes are still frequently puritanical, why shouldn’t attitudes towards certain kinds of novels be understood through the prism of an earlier century as well? While reading, I kept waiting for an answering “CLANG!” in my brain to help me understand why reading romance is regarded with greater stigma than other genre fiction, including science fiction, spy novels, and murder mysteries. I was seeking vindication. These are the kinds of reactions I get when I people what I like to read:

“It’s pornography for repressed women.”  It’s 2014. If I wanted pornography, I could find pornography.

“I wouldn’t think you were the type.”  I don’t even know what this means. Is it that I have so carefully crafted the illusion of intelligence? I don’t seem pathetic? That is the general implication with statements such as these.

“They’re sexist.” No. Historical romance puts a bonnet on current social mores and uses the setting to create narrative distance and reinforce the elements of escapism. There are cultural limitations placed on the women, but these are obstacles not virtues.

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Jacob’s Return by Annette Blair

book review January 14, 2014 Leave a comment

Amish melodrama set in 1880s Pennsylvania and $3.20 I’ll never see again.

Convinced by his beard twirling brother that Rachel, the love of his life, was going to marry him instead, Jacob abandoned his Amish family on the day of his mother’s funeral. He returns with twin children  to rebuild his life and re-enter the insular farming community. His evil brother, Simon, succeeded in his nefarious plan and is married to Jacob’s childhood love and doing his best to break her spirit. Rachel is a barren and heartbroken bundle of perfection. Simon is petty, sanctimonious, and prideful. It’s not very Amish of him, really. I suspect it’s not very Amish for people to have looked away from Rachel’s suffering either. No doubt, many aspects of Jacob’s Return are not very Amish in the way that Regency romances are often not very historical.

There isn’t really a romance in Jacob’s Return. With a love defying distance and time, but not a nasty brother’s illogical machinations, Jacob and Rachel go straight back to being wild for each other while sharing a house and attempting to maintain an honourable distance. In a moment of mutual comfort, about page 40, they consummate their relationship. Using standard romance novel bait-and-switch infertility, Rachel becomes pregnant. With twins. Other things happen as well. A lot of other things. More pregnancies. Christmas. Micro-diaspora. Childbirths. Barn raising. Dynamite. Unappealing facial hair. Printing press purchases. Late pregnancy coitus. German words in italics. Printing press destructions. Death. Life. Boredom. Although, that last one was just me.

After Jacob’s Return, I will not be buying any more Annette Blair books, nor will I buy a book just because I enjoyed the scandalized reviews of offended “Christians” on Amazon, no matter how much I delighted in their shock and discomfort.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

My Response to Being Mocked for Reading Romance

book review January 10, 2014 Comments: 2

I posted this on Pajiba in response to my opinion being discounted because I read romance novels. Recently, I read a thesis on romance and its reputation which I will review, but for now I stand by this diatribe despite it’s need for augmentation. (Note the laughably low total book count when I wrote it.)

I do, I do read them, and I AM DEEPLY SHAMED, and I CAN’T STOP, and I have looked deep into the romance novel abyss and do you know what I see looking back at me? A tall, beautiful, dark-haired man with unusual eyes, and the body of a Greek God, who is deliciously sarcastic and sometimes autocratic (which I secretly love best of all), and he does things with fierce/rough/ferocious tenderness, and his name is usually Sebastian, and I can’t stop reading about him and all the Simons and Benedicts, and Dukes and Viscounts, who give those poor ignored women sideways glances that make their hearts beat wildly in a way they hope no one will notice as their knees turn to jelly, because then, oh then all of those Sebastians raise their Sardonic Eyebrows of Seduction, smile wryly, and kiss those women senseless, and I am lost because they are so charming and maybe kind of cynical, but they still can’t help themselves because they are besotted, and they keep all those “Annabelles” so safe, and they take care of them and the Sebastians help them find their own strength, and love them, oh, so very much, and I can’t even show enough weakness to buy a pink toothbrush because it’s somehow a sign of feminine frailty which I revile, or take off my armour long enough to let myself be cared for, because I am made of steel and not in a bad way, but I’m always strong, so strong, and the idea of being able to lean on someone and let that feeling steal over me is so appealing, even though I’d probably hate it, so, yes, I’ve been reading romance novels and telling myself that I only choose the good ones (which may actually be fair because I’ve stuck to just 3 authors after careful research), and giving nor asking for any quarter in my self-examination of this ignominious pursuit, and I tell myself it’s a phase and it will pass , but I just get more and more of them and, by the end of this coming weekend, I can guarantee I will have read a total of forty in the last two months, but at least I have the decency to hate myself for it.

Less Than Stellar Efforts

book review January 7, 2014 Leave a comment

These books are bad and mostly not in a good way.

Note: I love/hate Jennifer Ashley and I read all of her historical romances.

  1. The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie – Jennifer Ashley
  2. Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage – Jennifer Ashley
  3. Many Sins of Lord Cameron – Jennifer Ashley
  4. The Duke’s Perfect Wife – Jennifer Ashley
  5. The Seduction of Elliott McBride – Jennifer Ashley
  6. The Untamed Mackenzie – Jennifer Ashley novella
  7. The Wicked Deeds of Daniel Mackenzie – Jennifer Ashley
  8. Once a Duchess – Elizabeth Boyce
  9. When She Said I Do – Celeste Bradley
  10. Not My Wolf – Eden Cole novella
  11. The Warlord Wants Forever – Kresley ColeTHUNDER SEX™!
  12. A Hunger Like No Other – Kresley Cole VILE
  13. No Rest for the Wicked – Kresley Cole THUNDER SEX™!
  14. Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night – Kresley Cole THUNDER SEX™!
  15. Dark Deed’s at Night’s Edge – Kresley Cole THUNDER SEX™!
  16. Dark Desires After Dusk – Kresley Cole THUNDER SEX™!
  17. Kiss of a Demon King – Kresley Cole  THUNDER SEX™!
  18. Deep Kiss of Winter – Kresley Cole THUNDER SEX™!
  19. Macrieve – Kresley Cole (Uilliam/Chloe)  VILER
  20. Shadow’s Claim – Kresley Cole
  21. Undone – Lila DiPasqua *Worst of the Year 2013*
  22. Attracting Anthony – Amber Kell
  23. Wedded in Scandal – Jade Lee
  24. The Revenge of Lord Eberlin – Julia London
  25. An Introduction to Pleasure: Mistress Matchmaker – Jess Michaels
  26. The Lady’s Tutor – Robin Schone
  27. Penelope – Anya Wylde (Charles/Penelope) *Most Inept of the Year 2013*

Abandoned Novel #1 – Of Moths and Butterflies by V.R. Christensen

book review January 6, 2014 Leave a comment

Every couple of months, I go on Amazon and look for free historical romances. It’s worth it for either a. the occasional author discovery, e.g. Caroline Linden’s The Truth About the Duke series, or b. finding deliciously bad books. Of Moths and Butterflies by V.R. Christensen is neither of these things. It is option c. a well-written novel that gets bogged down for some reason, but shows potential.

Good Points:

The historical elements and details were fascinating and realistic. The heroine, Imogen, finds work as a servant at a Great House and the description of her days and responsibilities were an insight into the lives of people often ignored in these books. Additionally, the way Imogen’s relatives treat her in a social context, their manipulations, and Imogen’s powerlessness rang true. It was agonizing.

Why I Abandoned It:

I stopped reading after about 200 pages when I realised that the novel was going to go on in the same well-written and angst inducing manner for about another 300 pages. That is a lot of comeheregoaway and suffering.

Imogen was a victim of sexual abuse and I have a really hard time reading escapist literature that features this element. Christensen did not dwell unnecessarily on it, but the kind of experience she had would have been deeply scarring and I can’t get it out of my mind while reading.

Other:

I find it off-putting when a character is lowered in station and then it is OBVIOUS to everyone that they are “meant for better things” or should be “raised up”. It’s disrespectful to the lower class people in the story as the implication is that they somehow deserve their lot. Granted, Christensen was being historically accurate in her portrayal of the attitude that can be found summed below in “All Things Bright and Beautiful”, but it still galls me as a reader.

The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them high and lowly,
And ordered their estate.

The (Shameful) Tally 2014

The (Shameful) Tally 2014

book review January 1, 2014 Leave a comment

February 2015: Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful which includes all of the books I have read to date.

This is the yearly reading list I maintain.

Recommended books are in bold, but here is a ruthlessly streamlined recommendations list:
So You Want to Read a (Historical) Romance, this is an
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ROMANCES BY AUTHOR, and these are
Things That Occur to Me While Reading Historical Romance Novels.

The Autobuy List
Tessa Dare
Lisa Kleypas (except Crystal Cove)
Julie Anne Long
Sarah MacLean
Courtney Milan – The. Very. Best.

The Auto-Library/Cheap on Kindle List
Jennifer Ashley –  I love/hate her. I don’t recommend her.
Mary Balogh – predictable, but safe, well-written
Loretta Chase –  reliable, sometimes great
Meredith Duran – great character studies
Suzanne Enoch – B+ list
Elizabeth Essex – potential
Laura Florand – steamy and romantic contemporaries
Juliana Gray – B+ list, really strong, almost an autobuy
Cecilia Grant – interesting, massive potential
Lorraine Heath – B- list, so if there’s absolutely nothing else, maybe
Carla Kelly – sweet Regency romances, large back catalogue, newer work has Mormon themes
Caroline Linden – off to a good start, great potential
Julia Quinn – An excellent place to launch your reading. Start with The Bridgertons

Malin has excellent reviews on her site, and a broader range of books.

Name Tally August 31, 2014: Simon (8); Michael (7); Sebastian (7); William (7); Robert, Alec/Alex (5); Colin, Jack, Harry, James(4); Benedict, Charles, Edward, Gabriel, Gareth, Jackson, Julian, Lucien, Marcus, Tristan (3); and only one David.

My Favourite Characters

Other Authors and My Reading List for 2014 Are After the Jump

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The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas

book review December 17, 2013 Leave a comment

A historical romance featuring two people who are desperately in love and desperately terrified by it, The Luckiest Lady in London is by turns enjoyable and discomfiting, but always entertaining.

Felix, Marquess of Wrenworth, is ironically named. He is not happy, although he is in control of his world and has fastidiously created a public persona for himself that both he and Society refer to as the “Ideal Gentleman”. Felix is objectively perfect: smart, rich as Croesus, handsome, polite, athletic, and debonair. It is a beautifully crafted shell hiding a wounded heart.

Given a hero named Felix, I chose to look into the meaning the heroine’s name and I learned that Louisa means “renowned warrior”.  It’s appropriate. She needs her battle skills and instincts for self-protection. Too old to be a debutante, Louisa nonetheless has one Season to land a husband who can provide financial security for her family, including an invalid sister. Like Felix, she has meticulously fashioned the image she presents to the world: bright, relaxed, and winning. She has a realistic view of her charms and prospects, and she conducts herself accordingly. Louisa is not necessarily conniving, just extremely pragmatic. Felix is not even on her list of suitable husbands; she has set her sights on two appropriate men and while she does not expect to marry for love, she will not martyr herself for her family either.

Louisa and Felix first meet at a soiree and instantly recognize the truth, and its danger, in each other:  they are kindred spirits with carefully maintained facades. When their acquaintance expands and Louisa’s best prospects are found to be wanting, she and Felix begin their dance. They spar and tease even as something much more potent lingers beneath the surface. Felix and Louisa are intellectually fascinated, sexually volcanic, and emotionally fearful of each other.

My previous forays with Sherry Thomas have resulted in “I just can’t” as I usually find her books too heavy and serious. The usual sobriety is still present in The Luckiest Lady in London, but it was couched in such delightful writing and sincere characters that it did not get in the way for me this time. My only carp is that the angst did indeed make me writhe (and not the good kind of writhing I look to these books for) and that when the denouement proceeded, I felt it moved a little too close to cutesy given the tone established by the rest of the book.  But never mind that, I would still recommend The Luckiest Lady in London to readers looking for entertaining, slightly intense, and well-written escapism.

 The (Shameful) Tally 2013

A Handful of Gold by Mary Balogh (with Bonus Romance Review Template)

book review December 12, 2013 Leave a comment

I decided to fashion a fill-in-the-blank romance novel review to make these posts easier to write:

Part A. The Summary: (Title) is a romance of the (“you are everything I never knew I always wanted”/opposites attract/love story balanced with a strong subplot/teach me how to love/I know I am unworthy, but I love you so) variety: Boy meets girl. (Specify relationship obstruction). (Oblique hint at resolution). Boy and girl move forward together secure in their love and commitment.

Part B. The Introduction: A (historical/contemporary/paranormal) romance set in (location and time period) and written by (author’s first and last name), (title) is my (first/second, etc.) book by this author. (If this is an author you have read before, please complete the following:) I generally find her work (pleasant/a good time filler/spectacular/reliable/fun/vile, but the book was free). (Comment on previous work and link to other reviews where possible). I found (title) (suggested descriptors that can be supplemented as needed: enjoyable/lacklustre/misogynistic/soporific/,and/or romantic). I (will continue to/will not) seek out (author’s last name)’s other novels because this one (was nothing special/showed promise/was really good/passed the time pleasantly enough), (and/but/although) I (would/would not) recommend this particular effort.

Part C. The Plot: The main plot of (title) focuses on (the reformation of a rake/the awakening of a wallflower/a revenge plot/a road trip/an intrigue or mystery/their marriage of convenience/and/or the healing of a tortured hero and/or heroine). (Hero’s name and title, as appropriate) is (that rake/a protector). He is (insert three adjectives). (Comment on his general appeal or lack thereof, specify traits leading to this conclusion.) The heroine, (name and title, as appropriate), is a (wallflower/victim of circumstance). She is (choose three adjectives with special focus on her relatability). (Insert MacGuffin.) (Hero and heroine’s names) (are/are not) instantly attracted to each other. Over time, they come to discover that despite any challenges they face, they make an excellent team.

Part D. The Subplot: (Continue to Section E, if there is no significant subplot, or if it is uninteresting.)

The subplot in (title) revolves around (the reformation of a rake/the awakening of a wallflower/a revenge plot/a road trip/an intrigue or mystery/their marriage of convenience/and/or the healing of a tortured hero and/or heroine) It was (an excellent addition well-executed/cumbersome and got in the way of the main story).

Part E. Conclusion: (Reword opinions stated in Part B. The Introduction.) (Make general comments on the quality of the writing either positive or taking pleasure in being cleverly derisive). (If the book is not recommended, provide a suggestion for a romance with a similar theme more successfully presented.)

Part F. Closing: (Insert link to annotated list of available reviews for readers’ edification.)

© 2013 Mrs. Julien Presents

Let’s give the format a go with the Christmas novella A Handful of Gold by Mary Balogh …

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