Top 4 Unusual Historicals for December 2018

I’ve been a collection development librarian long enough to tell you that publishing in December is traditionally a dead zone. You’d think that would have changed somewhat with the mainstreaming of self-publishing, but not really. Things still seem to bunch up around the fall and spring months of the calendar. But I can always count on my old friend Harlequin Historical and there’s two westerns this month that are prodding me to take a closer look.

The Governess’s Convenient Marriage by Amanda McCabe

A lady turned governess…  

 A life-changing proposal!  

When Lady Alexandra Mannerly last saw Malcolm Gordston, he was a poor crofter’s son—someone a sheltered duke’s daughter would never be allowed to marry. But scandal has rocked her arrogant family, and Alex now leads a quiet life as a governess in Paris—where she meets Malcolm again! Now he’s a wealthy, powerful department store owner…and determined to make her his bride! 

Sometimes I legit wonder if authors have a window into my soul because OMG WHY AM I NOT READING THIS BOOK RIGHT THIS SECOND?! A heroine now living a life below the privilege she was born into, and a hero who is a department store owner. Oh, and it’s a marriage of convenience story! Happy holidays to me!!!! 

A Scandalous Winter Wedding by Marguerite Kaye 

From one snowy Christmas…  

…to a sizzling-hot reunion!  

 A Matches Made in Scandal story. Kirstin Blair has spent seven years trying to forget brooding Cameron Dunbar. Now self-made man Cameron needs her help to recover his missing niece, and Kirstin must face the truth—seeing him again sparks the same irresistible attraction that first brought them together! She must decide: resist, or give in to temptation and risk Cameron discovering everything she’s fought so hard to protect… 

This is the fourth and final book in Kaye’s Matches Made in Scandal series and it’s time for the mysterious Procurer (a Regency era “fixer”) to get her romance! This one features a reunited lovers theme, and a bit of a mystery, as the heroine is helping the hero track down his missing half-sister. I’m behind on this series, but I’ve found The Procurer so intriguing just from brief glimpses, I’m half tempted to jump ahead and read out of order. I’ve seen reviews indicting this stands alone, so I just might throw caution to the wind!

Bound for Temptation by Tess LeSue 

Having survived the Oregon Trail, Emma Palmer is ready for a fresh start, even if it costs her all the gold in California.  

Emma Palmer has had many jobs and has gone by even more names, but most recently she is known as Seline, madam of her own establishment. Her place is clean, her booze is cheap and her bedrooms are fancy. But when a would-be patron won’t take no for an answer, she is forced to don a new disguise and flee for her life. While the schemes she cooks up might seem outrageous to an outsider, they haven’t failed her yet.  

Tom Slater is a taciturn cattleman at the tail end of a long, hard season on the trail. He’s looking forward to a quiet winter at his old family homestead in Mexico. What he doesn’t plan on is escorting a group of women on the run to safety south of the border. Tom doesn’t need to be a trailsman to know that the woman with the sly, green eyes—the one he can’t keep out of his thoughts—will only lead to trouble. 

The third in a series, this book is prodding me to check out the first book currently languishing in my TBR. I love historical westerns but I’m not a “funny ha-ha” sort of reader by nature and reviews for book one indicated it was of the light, humorous variety (I like my historical westerns to run toward dark, angsty, are we going to survive winter?). But the heroine is described as a madam and frankly that means I at least need to download the sample to take a look.

The Valentine’s Curse by Jodi Thomas 

As a Yankee in Texas two years after the Civil War, cowboy Broderick Monroe is given the jobs no one else wants to do—including keeping company with the cursed Widow Allen at the annual Valentine’s Day dance thrown by his boss’s wife.  

After losing two husbands to the war, Valerie Allen has become a local pariah. Rumor has it that if a man touches her, he’ll be dead by morning. But Brody believes in curses about as much as he believes in love.  

One secret embrace in the moonlight leads Valerie to think she has found a kindred spirit, but fate—and the curse—aren’t done with her yet . . . 

This novella was originally published in the multi-author Be My Texas Valentine anthology in 2012 and is now available separately for the first time. It sounds positively delightful and nearly every review for the anthology singled out this Thomas story as the true gem in the collection. I nearly broke a nail one-clicking this.

What Unusual Historicals are looking forward to reading this month?

The Librarian's Dirty Secret

Today we're going to talk about the one aspect of library work that generally horrifies the public and that some librarians drag their feet on. Yep, I'm talking weeding. That process where librarians actually get rid of books. As in, take them off the catalog, stamp them "discard" and either 1) toss them in the nearest dumpster or 2) give them to the Friends Of The Library to sell.

The horror!

My experience with weeding is that the public doesn't understand it, and that some librarians really suck about doing it. Weeding has to be done people. It's part of the circle of life in Library Land. As much as we would like them to, books just plain flat-out wear out. Spines get busted. Pages turn crispy brown. And accidents happen. Someone drops the book in the bathtub. Or leaves it outside in the rain. A curious tot thinks it's a neat-o new coloring book. Or the dog thinks it's a tasty new chew toy. Shit happens. Sometimes literally (ewwww!) to library books. So they have to go.

When it comes to fiction, I tend to preach condition, condition, condition. Always weed on condition, first and foremost. Look people, I don't care if the darn book is The Great American Novel, if it looks like it was buried in someone's backyard for the past 10 years, it's time for it to go. If it's truly that important and vital, sooner or later some publisher will realize they can make money off it and reprint the darn thing.

But weeding is sometimes about hard choices. I had to make one today. Yep, it's time for my library to say goodbye to The Tender Texan by Jodi Thomas. Published in 1991 and currently out of print. According to OCLC, we have the only copy in the entire state. We've been housing it in our closed-stacks-storage section for a while now, given it's borderline fragile, not- so-appealing condition. This bad boy has been a circulation stats machine. We've sent it hither and yon. However, when I stumbled across it today in our InterLibrary Loan department, I knew it was time for it to go.

You know how the paper in mass market paperbacks goes yellow? Well this book has gone right past yellow and is now the color of dirt. The discoloration has gotten so bad, that the dirt brown is now bleeding past the margins and landing on the first few words of each line.

Ewwwww.

In the grand scheme of things, considering it's a 18 year old paperback that has circulated 67 times in the past 6 years, it could probably look worse. That said, it didn't look anywhere near "good." So even though we had the last copy in the state, and even though it circulated a ton for us, it's time for it to go. The Tender Texan has moved past tender, and is now overcooked and chewy.

So yes, while a little piece of me died inside - I weeded it.

Because that's how all good librarians should roll.

Oh, and in case anyone at Berkley is reading this? Maybe it's time to reprint some older Jodi Thomas. Just sayin'.

Assuming I'm doing my math right (always doubtful) this book circulated 32.6865 times every year, for the past 6 years. That sounds awfully high though. Especially when considering a 3-week check-out period. I wonder if this was an instance where our circulation stats actually carried over from our previous automation system? Either way, I'd say we got our money's worth out of the $4.95 this title originally cost. Holy crap!

And since I'm sure someone will bring it up in the comments section, yes - an ebook version would be nice. However I don't see libraries throwing print out on it's ear anytime soon. So yeah, print would be good.