Top 5 Unusual Historicals for June 2018

Summer time! Sum-sum-summertime! The weather is warming up (for some of you it’s positively boiling…), my favorite sporting pastime time is in full swing (baseball!), and what better way to unwind during the busiest months at my day job than with some new historical romances. Here is what is catching my eye in June:

Pride and Passion by Carla Buchanan

Behind the soft smile, perfect manners, and helpful air, Constance Ray is a woman struggling to make it through the day. After her husband is killed in the Korean war, his death leaves her lost, knowing she can never be the woman she was before. Although, when a handsome navy officer shows up with a final word from the grave, Constance can’t ignore the message. She also can’t continue to be indifferent to the man who brought it, or his involvement in the war – the one for everyone’s right to be treated equally.

Nathaniel Kelly never means for it to happen, especially not with Constance. He is supposed to fulfill the final wish of the man he owed his life to, but he can’t help it when he instantly falls for the soften-spoken, bereaved preacher’s daughter. But as much as he wishes to court her, to love her, his loyalty to his friend and his obligation to make up for sins of the father, stand in the way. Remaining true to his friendship, and his mission, is hard when pride for the movement unites Nathaniel with Constance and his passion for her finally sets her free.

I know I have been featuring the latest Decades of African American romance book nearly every month, but seriously, how can I not?! These are settings you just don’t see every day in Romancelandia. A Korean War veteran? Seriously, tell me the last time (if ever!) you saw that in a romance novel. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

A Touch of Flame by Jo Goodman

 Dr. E. Ridley Woodhouse is like no physician Ben Madison has ever met--she's a woman. As the newly elected sheriff of Frost Falls, Colorado, Ben is tasked with welcoming Ridley to the community. But while Ben might be tempted by the new doc's charms, getting the town to accept a big-city, female doctor is no easy feat. To earn their trust she'll have to prove herself and Ben determines to help her...even if she's the most stubborn woman he's ever met.

When the husband of one of Ridley's patients threatens her, forbidding Ridley from treating his wife or children, all of Ben's protective instincts kick in. Ridley has come to rely on Ben's steady presence and the delicious tension that simmers just below the surface of their easy friendship--but as much as she trusts that his warnings to steer clear of Jeremiah Salt are sincere, she's never been one to back down from a challenge and she refuses to abandon her patient.

But sticking to your guns can earn you trouble in the rough terrain of the Wild West and danger threatens Ridley from unexpected places, forcing Ben to confront his deepest fear in order to save the woman he loves.

Goodman is a standard bearer in historical western romance, crafting well-developed historical worlds and creating meaty stories you can sink your teeth into. You’re not going to get a fluffy bit of brain candy with a Goodman western. She’s not an ideal candidate for me when it comes to pool lounging or beach reading - more like I want to shut myself in my bedroom one Sunday afternoon and not come up for air until I finish the last page.

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The Gunslinger’s Vow by Amy Sandas

Three runaway brides
Determined to escape their fates
Flee West to find freedom that can only be had in a cowboy's arms...

Alexandra Brighton spent the last five years in Boston, erasing all evidence of the wild frontier girl she used to be. Before she settles, she's determined to visit her childhood home one final time. But when she finds herself stranded far from civilization, she has no choice but to trust her safety to the tall, dark and decidedly dangerous bounty hunter, Malcolm Kincaid.

Now that Malcolm finally has the location of his brother's killer, he has no intention of wasting time protecting a pampered Eastern lady. But something about Alexandra speaks to the heart he long thought frozen—and her slow transformation from proper miss to wild-eyed beauty leaves him shaken. By the time they reach Montana, Malcolm must decide if seeking justice for past wrongs is worth losing a future with the woman he never expected to need…

A debut, of sorts. Sandas’ first three books for Sourcebooks were Regency England and she’s making the switch to the American West with this first book in a new trilogy. I’m a western fan from way back. I saw the mass exodus of western writers fleeing for English-set historicals in the early 2000s. Trust me, to have it happen the other way around is still not terribly common. I’m intrigued by the road romance premise of this one.

Secrets of a Wallflower by Amanda McCabe

A secret shared… But can she trust him?

In this Debutantes in Paris story, Diana Martin is thrilled to be a writer covering the Parisian Exposition. But her new role must be kept quiet—her parents would never allow it! When enigmatic Sir William Blakely discovers her ruse, he knows it could lead her into danger. With the sparks igniting between them, William realizes the only way to protect Diana is by staying as close to her as possible! 

Ah, Paris. Who doesn’t love Paris in the springtime? McCabe has a varied historical backlist, having written everything from mysteries, to Regencies, to Elizabethan. I’m looking forward to this one, a start of a new series for Harlequin Historical.

Beguiled by the Forbidden Knight by Elisabeth Hobbes

He’s her enemy…
…and she must not fall for him!

When her mistress is claimed as an enemy knight’s betrothed, handmaiden Aelfhild knows it would be too dangerous for her lady; she must go in her place. But there’s more to the scarred knight than she first thought—she isn’t expecting to fall for him! As the line between friend and enemy blurs, Aelfhild realizes she might be protecting her mistress, but not her heart…

I’ve hopscotched around her backlist, but so far Hobbes’ has been a very consistent writer for me and I’ve enjoyed all the medievals I’ve read by her. I love the high stakes often found in this era (where a matter of loyalty could get one killed) and enemies-to-lovers works really well within that framework. I can’t wait to dive into this one.

What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to this month?

#DeckTheHarlequin: Redeeming the Rogue Knight

There's that old saying about the villain being the hero of his own story, which is why I think so many romance readers love it when an author dusts off a villain from a previous book, redeems him and turns him into a hero.  There's always that added anticipation of "OK Author, how exactly are you going to pull this off?" and it makes for sigh-worthy reading when lo and behold, they manage to do it.

Roger Danby served as the villain in one of my memorable reads from 2016, The Blacksmith's Wife by Elisabeth Hobbes.  Roger isn't a twirling mustache kind of villain - no, he's somehow worse.  He trifles with the heroine, tries to "c'mon baby..." her into bed, discards her for greener pastures, and when she finally settles into marriage with his half-brother he comes slinking back around.  I'd say the guy has the morals of an alley cat, but that would be an insult to alley cats everywhere.

So how exactly is the author going to pull this guy off as hero-worthy in her latest, Redeeming the Rogue Knight?  Well, it's going to take some doing.

After wearing out his welcome in Yorkshire the last time, Roger left to fight in France, eventually joining a group of mercenaries.  He and his squire, Thomas, are back in England to deliver A Very Important Message and recruit men.  They're enjoying the hospitality of a Lord when Thomas makes the mistake of getting caught in a compromising position with the man's daughter.  As they beat a hasty retreat, Roger takes an arrow in the shoulder when they are, naturally, pursued.

However, as luck would have it, Thomas grew up in the area and his family's inn is close by.  Unbeknownst to Thomas, his father is dead and it's only his sister, Lucy, and his nephew, Robbie in residence.  Ahem, his bastard nephew Robbie.  Lucy, you see, never had the benefit of a husband. 

Her brother has been gone for four years.  Four. Long. Years.  So long that she had given up on his ever returning.  And now he's back, bringing trouble she doesn't need to her door.  As if this weren't shocking enough, the man who is with her brother is gravely injured, but still manages to accost her with a punishing kiss (that she enjoys) and a grope (which she does not).  Needless to say their relationship does not get off to the smoothest of starts.

This is a romance that offers sprinkles of both internal and external conflict.  Externally, we've got Roger's injury, the men who are pursuing him, and the message he has for King Edward squirreled away in his saddle bags.  Internally, we've got Roger's past (whoa boy...) and Lucy's tattered reputation.  She had other employment, but came home to the inn when she got pregnant, refusing to the name the father (although it's not kept a secret from the reader) and the only reason her father didn't disown her was because he was dying.  Needless to say, a woman with her reputation, with a bastard child, her inn isn't exactly thriving with business.

This will be a book that will likely divide readers as neither character is what you would call terribly "likable."  Anyone who read the first book already knows how problematic Roger is and he takes his sweet time redeeming himself into any semblance of decency for most of this book.  But you know what?  It works.  I would have loved more about his time in France, mostly because it would have sped up the redemption in the reader's eyes, but to have Roger go from smarmy to choir boy by the end of this book would have been too much.  Instead the author pairs him with the perfect woman and that's where the redemption comes into play. 

To call Lucy prickly would be the understatement of the century and I suspect there will be readers who will tar and feather her for it.  Our girl has had to make some questionable decisions and she spars with Roger for most of this book.  She doesn't trust him (at all) for at least the first half and after that it's wary at best.  I'm sure she'll be accused of being "too mean" to the hero but one, he deserves it, and two, when you factor in Lucy's past you can hardly blame the woman.

What I'll end up remembering most about this story are The Lady Truth Bombs that the author sets off like mini-grenades throughout the story (especially in light of current events). You know why Lucy is so mean to Roger?  Well, because he deserves it.  Even when he tries to do the right thing he's such a hypocritical ass about it that Lucy finally has to lose her last semblance of tolerance.

"I know you want me and you know I want you too.  I've resisted you and tried to ignore the feelings and desires I know will only lead to misery but it hasn't been easy."
... 

"But even if my heart did not race when you look at me in that manner, I won't be one of those women.  All men leave eventually.  It's just a question of time."

There's a certain amount of genius at play here.  Lucy, a woman who had sex, got pregnant, had her son, and is now living with the consequences of her tattered reputation is paired with Roger who has dallied, flirted, and bedded half the women in England and likely a quarter of those living in France.  Yet he is celebrated while she is the pariah.  Ultimately this is the internal conflict at play in the story that I found the most intriguing and made this romantic match-up rather delicious.  Through Lucy Roger sees what a monumental jackass he's been.

The pacing felt a little off to me at times, a bit too leisurely in the beginning and too much of a race in the closing chapters, but the romantic match-up is memorable and what the author says, through the character of Lucy, speaks to the female experience since...well, sadly, the dawn of time. 

Final Grade = B

Postscript: Sigh, I should probably mention that there aren't any sex scenes in this book since readers seem to get bent out of shape over such things.  Honestly?  I'm glad there aren't.  Given the baggage (Lucy's especially!) these two characters burning up the sheets would have felt jarring and out of place in the story's narrative.  Instead readers get some passionate kisses and a rather tender closed door scene that serves to build trust between the couple and bring them emotionally, closer together. 

Review: The Blacksmith's Wife

Admittedly I don't read a ton of medieval romances, but what drew me to The Blacksmith's Wife by Elisabeth Hobbes was the blacksmith hero.  Heroes in Medieval Romance Land tend to skewer heavily towards knights and warriors and warriors fighting knights.  I'm also happy to report that while our hero is the bastard son of a titled, wealthy man - it's not revealed in the end that he's some long, lost Duke or is going to inherit his father's lands.  No, he's a blacksmith and he stays a blacksmith.

After her family is wiped out by pestilence, Joanna goes to live with her uncle, a blacksmith and powerful member of the Smiths' Guild.  While he's not overtly cruel to her, let's just say Joanna is well aware that she's another mouth to feed and an added burden to her uncle's family.  So she's feeling the pressure to marry and start her own household.  She has set her sights on handsome knight, Sir Roger Danby, who intermittently travels to York for tournaments.  Joanna is convinced he's going to propose any day now, and while his forceful kisses leave her feeling a bit uncertain, she's madly in love. Isn't she? Well, she thinks she is and she thinks he is - but it soon becomes apparent Sir Roger is nothing more than a womanizing flirt with no intentions of proposing marriage to a blacksmith's niece.

Traveling with Roger, this time at least, is his bastard half-brother, Hal Danby.  Hal is in York to show his work to the Smiths' Guild, only to have the men tell him "you're not ready yet kid."  Joanna's uncle sees an opportunity though.  He suggests that if Hal marries Joanna and continues to hone his craft that maybe, just maybe, the Guild will look on him more favorably next time around.  Hal and Joanna have, naturally, already had run-ins with each other and Hal is smitten - never mind that she fancies herself in love with his brother.  Seeing the marriage as an advantageous match for his ambitions and Joanna, frankly out of options, the two get married.

There was a lot I liked about this story.  Both characters are outsiders in their respective families with much to prove.  Joanna lives with the knowledge that her uncle didn't want her, Sir Roger didn't want her, and now she's married to Hal only because it can further his career.  Hal has pride and while he married Joanna for her connections, he's determined to get into the Smiths' Guild on his own merit.  He's also smitten with her, but knowing that she loves his brother hasn't exactly instilled him with a ton of confidence.  He's hoping, over time, and with his brother always traveling for tournaments, that their marriage can be a partnership, if not an outright love match.  Although he's more than halfway there already.

Where the story started to stumble, at times, was in the conflict.  First, the good.  I loved (LOVED!) that Joanna was a romance heroine who actually thought about her virtue.  There's a scene very early on when she finds herself alone with Roger and he's putting on the full court press.  His kisses are punishing (not in a good way) and the encounter leaves Joanna feeling vaguely uneasy.  She knows that Roger is pressing her for something more, but our girl resists.  She is not "that kind of girl."  It also helps that Hal arrives on the scene shortly thereafter.  Throughout history a woman's worth has been tied to her virtue, and one of the more annoying aspects of historical romance is the ease in which some heroines just toss aside those years of ingrained fetishized (is that a word?) virginity because the hero is suitably Alpha and manly enough.  The fact that Joanna doesn't makes her a breath of fresh air as far as genre conventions go.

However, given that Joanna fancies herself in love with Roger and Hal's pride - well, a huge chunk of the conflict, especially in the second half, centers around the Big Misunderstanding and the fact that these two characters don't talk to each other.  Hal has no idea that Joanna is a marvelous sketcher (ergo she could really help him with his decorative design work!) because he doesn't ask and she doesn't tell.  He keeps secrets from her (Hal's been cleaning up Roger's messes for a while now...) and she keeps secrets from him (brought about in part when Rogers reappears on the scene....).  After a while this She Didn't Say, He Didn't Say, I Thought You Felt This Or That Way Etc. gets very tiresome.  Especially when we get towards the finish line and the couple are finally hashing everything out in the final chapter. 

So it's kind of a mixed bag.  The medieval flavor of the story is very good, I liked the characters, and I liked the general set-up of the story.  But I did find myself wearing down under the Big Misunderstanding conflict in the second half.  Still, it's a solid historical and a well-done medieval when those aren't necessarily thick on the ground.  Hobbes' has three books under her belt now (I've read, and liked, two) and I have every intention to continue following her career.

Final Grade = B-

Falling For Her Captor

Falling for Her Captor is Elisabeth Hobbes' debut novel, and helped her garner a two book contract with Harlequin Historical after it placed third in last year's So You Think You Can Write contest.  Harlequin Historical is probably my absolute favorite line in the category universe - having seen me through some pretty lean years when one mere mention of Almack's was enough to make my head explode.  So I was all on board to give this debut medieval a whirl.  I wasn't entirely in love with it, but there's enough meat on the bone to have me looking forward to the author's next book.

Her father and brother both dead, Lady Aline is technically next in line for the throne.  Technically because her grandfather has stipulated she must marry.  A single woman running the show doesn't exactly instill strength.  However the man has been indulging her, and so far Aline has turned away a number of suitors.  Unfortunately her time has run out.  She's been kidnapped and is to be taken to the Duke of Roxholm, a man who has designs on her family's land and kingdom.  The fly in the ointment?  Her kidnapper, Sir Hugh or Eardham.  The duke's cousin, he is bound by a deathbed promise (of course!) and a loyalty oath - which means taking Aline to Stephen.  A task that becomes much harder as Hugh finds his head getting turned by her fighting spirit, general feisty-ness, and the small matter that she ends up saving his life.

This was a second half read for me.  The kidnapping and "road romance" portion of the story is for about a third of the novel, and was for me the novel's weakest point.  As far as kidnappings go, Aline does try to escape, is a general pain in the butt, but quickly realizes that she's got no reasonable choice but to stay with Hugh if she wants to live.  And, you know, to give her grandfather's army time to rescue her.  Plus, Hugh, despite kidnapping her, is a nice enough sort and treats her well after they come to a truce.  Saving his life eventually brings them closer together.  By this point however, as close as they may have become, as much as they may be developing feelings for each other, Hugh is bound by his family ties and is unable, and unwilling, to throw that over just because he's smitten with Aline.

Complications ensue in the form of Stephen, who as far as villains go is one of the more memorable ones.  This guy is nasty and vile without being over-the-top.  Kidnapping Aline is all about a power and land grab - and if he can toy with his cousin at the same time?  All the better.

Where this novel didn't quite work for me was with the history.  Or lack thereof.  This is a generalization, but when I pick up a Harlequin Historical I "expect" a certain amount of history.  No, I'm not expecting a dry, dull info-dump.  But I do expect some seamless weaving of historical fabric in with the romance.  Harlequin Historical, generally speaking, is not a line where you find wallpaper.  Not that this book is wallpaper it's just not quite as detail oriented as I've come to expect from the HH line.  This is a medieval, but more so in tone than in time and place.  In fact, there's no discernible year and setting.  Europe - uh, sometime during the medieval period.  The feel is there, but not that extra oomph to carry it over the edge.  It's a nice romance and I enjoyed it - but compare it to some of the other medievals in the HH universe (Blythe Gifford's come to mind) - and they're operating on totally different levels.

Where the story makes a name for itself is in the second half, when Aline has to ascend to her rightful place of power.  This is something we don't see in historical romance all that often.  A woman who is in a position of power (as in, sitting on a throne), albeit things being a little uncertain.  This was rather refreshing, especially when Aline has to make the hard decisions - as in, someone is going to have to die.  War might be the only answer.  Tell me the last time you read that in a historical romance?  Yeah, me too.

I thought this was a pretty strong debut.  I had my quibbles, but the voice was engaging, the story interesting, and it kept me humming along all the way to end.  I also appreciated that the author didn't steep her story in a bunch of Sexy Times, which would have felt out of place.  Yes, sex happens - but towards the end of the novel, where it felt appropriate for the story.  I'm always happy to see new authors come to the HH line, and this debut is certainly worth a look.

Final Grade = B-

Note: This book is available in print - but, as far as I can tell, only through the Harlequin web site.