Unusual Historical Top Picks September 2019

September is the time of year where I seriously begin to question my decision to leave the Midwest - which this time of year is cooling off, the leaves are turning, and every mile marker or so you can find apple cider and homemade donuts. Instead, I’m living in the land of triple-digit temperatures with the constant specter of wildfire danger. Seriously, I miss the cider and donuts. But I still have historical romances, which are equally as delicious and, quite frankly, much lower in sugar. Here are some of the Unusual Historicals catching my eye this month:

The Rat-Catcher’s Daughter by K.J. Charles

Music-hall singer Miss Christiana is in serious debt, and serious trouble. She owes more than she can pay to a notorious criminal, and now he plans to make an example of her. There's no way out.  

But Christiana has an admirer. Stan Kamarzyn has watched her sing for a year and he doesn't want to see her get hurt. Stan's nobody special--just a dodgy bloke from Bethnal Green--but he's got useful friends, the sort who can get a girl out of trouble, for a price. Christiana's not sure what it will cost her...  

The two slowly reach an understanding. But Christiana is no criminal, and she can't risk getting mixed up with the law. What will happen when Stan's life as the fence for the notorious Lilywhite Boys brings trouble to his doorstep?

A trans f/m asexual romance novelette (17,000 words). 

Novelette? I prefer my terminology: Lunch Break Read. Clocking in around 50 pages, this short story takes place two years prior to Any Old Diamonds. This should be just the thing to tide fans over waiting for the next book in The Lilywhite Boys series.

Stolen Kiss with the Hollywood Starlet by Lauri Robinson

An innocent country girl…  

With stars in her eyes! 

In this Brides of the Roaring Twenties story, hotshot lawyer Walter Russell knows an innocent country girl like Shirley Burnette is going to find it tough in cutthroat Hollywood. A stolen kiss with this bright, young singer may be worthy of the silver screen—but Walter hates show business and has sworn off starlets. He knows he should steer well clear…if only he wasn’t so compelled to help her! 

A hero who has sworn off starlets who falls for...yeah, a starlet. Seriously, will these guys never learn? If I wasn’t hooked by the 1920s era, or the tension dripping off the back cover blurb, that cover would have been enough to reel me in.

Longing for Her Forbidden Viking by Harper St. George

 “Become my concubine.”  

But never his wife? 

Part of To Wed a Viking: Saxon maiden Ellan would rather wed a Dane than be forced into marriage by her father. In fact, she has one Dane in mind. But strong warrior Aevir has been ordered to marry for duty—all he can offer Ellan is a place as his concubine! She may be bold, but Ellan can never accept that! Even if his burning kisses make it incredibly tempting… 

I really enjoyed the first book in this duet, Marrying Her Viking Enemy, and I’m intrigued by sister Ellan’s story - namely because she, seemingly, does not have the same burdensome familial obligations that her older sister did in the first book. Ellan was already circling Aevir in the previous book, so it will be fun to see the author get these two together as a romantic couple.

Her Viking Warrior by Gina Conkle

When an outcast goes home and meets a woman seeking justice, hearts will clash…  

Eighteen years ago, Bjorn was exiled from Vellefold. Honor-bound to return, he’ll fight for the settlement…then walk away. First, he must work with his childhood friend, now a beautiful, high-ranking Viking lady.  

Fierce of spirit, Ilsa will do anything to save her people, including convincing the banished son to take the jarl’s seat. But she has her doubts about the stone-hearted Viking, despite the lust between them. It’s only a matter of time before Bjorn discovers that Ilsa is hiding dangerous secrets, secrets that may jeopardize all they’ve worked for.  

When the darkest hour comes, the once-rejected warrior must choose: rescue his men, the Forgotten Sons—or Ilsa, the woman he craves, body and soul. 

Carina has published historicals two months in a row, which sort of feels like a Christmas miracle in late summer. This is the second book in Conkle’s Forgotten Sons series and features a returned from exile hero and a heroine, his former childhood friend, now a high-ranking lady hiding dangerous secrets. I love life and death conflict, and that’s like shooting fish in a barrel in medieval and Viking-set romances.

What Unusual Historicals are sitting on top your TBR?

#TBRChallenge 2019: Day Late and a Couple of Dollars Short

The Book: Morgan's Woman by Judith E. French

The Particulars: Historical western romance, Ballantine, 1999, Out of print, available in self-published digital edition

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Who knows at this point - seriously, this has been buried in the TBR for a ridiculously long period of time. My best guess?  It's a historical western and I enjoyed another novel by French when I reviewed it for TRR.  While in good shape, I can tell my print copy was bought used.

The Review: In my experience, historical romances hold up better over time than contemporaries because you're a lot less likely to run up against pop culture references that haven't aged well (there was a time when Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise were major heart throbs).  But that doesn't mean there aren't potential land mines lurking, which is exactly what happened with this book.  I was met with a cold bucket of ice water at the 30% mark and while I might have let such insult slide had I been reading a bodice ripper from 1978, in 1999 the genre really, really should have moved on.  Which is a shame, because the heroine is a legit widow in this book and 1999 we were still Buried In Virgin Heroines for the most part. Alas...

It's 1865, the War is finally over, and Tamsin MacGreggor's husband is blessedly dead. She isn't exactly mourning his loss.  However, when she finds out that her not-dearly departed hubby managed to squander everything her grandfather built, only leaving her with two prized thoroughbreds (one stallion, one mare) - she's even less sorry he's dead.  The lawyer thinks she's nuts, but she decides to take the two horses and head to California.  She can start a new life out west.

Original Cover

She lands in Sweetwater, Colorado for the night and when she goes to collect her horses from the livery in the morning she discovers they've been stolen.  She finds out who has them, but he's the brother of the town judge and...yeah.  She heads out to his place anyway only to interrupt an argument between the man and brother judge.  She sneaks back in the middle of the night to steal back her horses only to discover the man dead, shot in the back in his own barn.  It doesn't look good for her, so she takes her horses and hits the road.

Ash Morgan is a bounty hunter who has been tracking Tamsin because he thinks she's an outlaw's paramour.  Then he's hauled before the judge who tells him that she murdered his brother and asks Ash to track her down.  Which...he does.  She's innocent, he doesn't believe her, and we're off to the races.

Honestly, this was fine for a while.  The plot is kind of all over the place and there are instances where I felt like the author left out bread crumbs in the trail (the whole Tamsin being an outlaw's lady thing takes a while to circle around), but it was fine.  Then it slides south rather quickly starting in Chapter 9 and I never made it to Chapter 10.

Ash doesn't trust Tamsin to begin with, and when she beans him over the head with a log that doesn't endear her any further.  So needless to say, he's going to restrain her going forward.  She resists, they tussle, she throws a punch, he pins her to the ground and then we get these touching moments (imagine all the sarcasm in the world - like Wendy firing the sarcasm cannon):

Having her helpless beneath him shattered the barrier he prided himself on possessing.  He shuddered, caught in a sudden rush of primitive lust that any decent man should keep in check. In vain he tried to smother a devilish urge to lift Tamsin's skirts and drive himself between her warm, soft thighs. 

The woman scent of her filled his head. He knew he was stronger than she was. He could have her here and now. Maybe she even wanted him to do it. Ash groaned and swallowed the sour gorge that rose in his throat. 

Maybe he was no better than the scum he'd vowed to destroy - the outlaws who'd raped and murdered his wife.

GOLLY GEE, YA THINK?!?!?!?!  

A few paragraphs later our "hero" heads to the nearby stream to cool off:

The frigid water couldn't wash away his desire, but it did keep him from making a total bastard of himself. He glanced back at her to make certain she wasn't stalking him with a rock. "You pack a mean right," he said. 

Tamsin's freckles stood out starkly against milky white skin. "I'm sorry," she stammered. Fear was still evident in her expression. She looked at him as if she expected him to tear off her skirts. 

The hell of it was, he wanted to.

THE HEROINE IS OFFICIALLY FRIGHTENED OF THE HERO (because, OBVIOUSLY!!!) AND HE'S STILL THINKING ABOUT RAPING HER!!!!!!!!!!!

Nope. Nope, nope, nopity nope nope.  I hit that last line, closed the book and am moving on.  Life's too short, my TBR is too big, and short of Tamsin ramming a fork through his eye socket and lighting his pants on fire using a blow torch there is literally no redeeming this "hero" for me.

Final Grade = DNF 

Late For My Own #TBRChallenge

Today is #TBRChallenge Day, featuring one of my favorite themes: Old School.  But alas, while I'm currently in the middle of my chosen book I have yet to finish it which means...Wendy cannot meet her own deadline.  For shame! I'm going to sit over here and not try to beat myself up too much - since I think this might be only the second time I've missed in a deadline in all my years of hosting.  Still, it's not a good look.  A review will come later this week, pinkie swear.

Review: The Downstairs Girl

Books like The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee always turn me into That Person.  The Old Person who shakes her fist at the "young whippersnappers" who don't realize "how good they have it nowadays" because "back in my day we read discarded newspapers left in the snow and the backs of old cereal boxes."  OK, not really.  But oh my, the wonders you can find in Teen Fiction in this day and age!

Jo Kuan is seventeen, lives with her "uncle" Old Gin (the man who raised her), and is making her way working for a milliner in Atlanta.  Well, until Mrs. English has to "let her go" never mind she's light years a better employee than her white counterpart.  Old Gin tells her no problem! She can go back to work for Paynes', one of Atlanta's wealthiest, most elite families.  The problem being that Jo will be a ladies maid to daughter Caroline, who is a spoiled and spiteful Southern bell.  But work is work and frankly, Mrs. Payne is paying her well.

Complications arise though when their housing is threatened.  For years Jo and Old Gin have been squatting in a basement underneath the home and business of the Bell family, who run one of the many newspapers in Gilded Age Atlanta.  The basement was once used by abolitionists, so it's very secretive and tricked out with all sorts of handy features like a "listening tube."  Which is how Jo knows the newspaper is in trouble.  If the Bell's go belly-up, that could spell doom for Jo and Old Gin.  They need to drum up sales, and Jo thinks she has the answer - an Agony Aunt column.  Which she writes and drops off anonymously.  And since Jo wrote it?  Well, there's plenty of sass, spunk, and controversy...which soon follows.  But hello?  Controversy sells.  The Bell's business is soon booming!

Sprinkled in between Jo navigating work at the Paynes' and writing the Agony Aunt column (while working to stay anonymous) is the story of her past.  She never knew her parents and other than saying she was literally left on his doorstep, Old Gin is tight-lipped on the subject.  Naturally, this being Teen Fiction, Jo's past eventually comes home to roost.

Lee starts this story with a number of threads, a number of characters, and eventually braids all those threads to reach our final conclusion.  It's kind of slow going in the beginning, with an array of secondary players and Jo's life juxtaposed between dealing with Caroline Payne, looking out for Old Gin, struggling with the secrets of her past, and trying to help the Bell's without blowing her cover.  Especially to Nathan Bell who Jo feels like she practically grew up with - just, you know, hiding underneath him in a old abolitionist's basement.

The author does an excellent job of addressing the harsh realities of Jo's life in Atlanta as one of a small population of Chinese, on the cusp of Jim Crow laws taking root.  There's racism and sexism, exclusion from the burgeoning suffragette movement (votes for women - but white women only thankyouverymuch) and yet there's a buoyancy to the narrative.  Jo knows her reality, but that doesn't make her powerless, and watching her navigate her way around obstacles is half the fun.  Anytime she backed Caroline into a corner was worth the price of admission alone!

While definitely Teen Fiction, this is a book I think many historical fiction and romance fans will enjoy.  This is definitely "romantic elements" and while I wanted MORE romance (I always want MORE romance!), I ultimately think the authorial choice to leave that part of the story as is was the best route to take.  This is ultimately a story of Jo's present reconciling with her unknown past and the complicated choices women throughout history have had to make for a bunch of super annoying, destructive and sad "reasons."  Buy it for a teen in your life, but maybe read it and enjoy it for yourself first.

Final Grade = B+

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is September 18!

Hey, hey, hey!  For those participating in the 2019 #TBRChallenge, a reminder that your commentary is "due"on Wednesday, September 18.  This month's theme is Kicking It Old School! (original publication date over 10+ years)

This would be the point in my reminder post where I drop the bomb that 10 years ago was 2009 (OMG!) - which means if your TBR is anything like my TBR - well, you've probably got a wealth of options.  Not to mention how many authors have been reprinting old backlist titles now that their rights have reverted back.  But maybe you're an overachieving and don't have older books languishing in your TBR?  Or maybe that book that's only a year old is calling your name?  Hey, no problem!  Remember that the monthly themes are always optional.

If you're participating on social media, please remember to use the #TBRChallenge hashtag so people can follow along.

And it's not too late to sign up!  Simply leave a comment on this reminder post.

You can learn about the challenge and check out the full list of blogging participants on the information page.

Retro Review: The Challenge

This review of The Challenge by Susan Kearney was originally posted at The Romance Reader in 2005.  Back then I rated this 2-Hearts (D Grade) with an MPAA sensuality rating of NC-17.

+++++

Another promising story shot down by an ass masquerading as a hero.

Tessa Camen is a Secret Service Agent charged with protecting the first female President of the United States. Despite a rough and lonely childhood spent in multiple foster homes, Tessa has become a self-reliant, self-sufficient adult with an excellent job and service record. And she doesn’t hesitate when the President is threatened. Tessa does what she is trained to do – she throws herself in front of an assassin’s bullet.

However instead of ending up dead, Tessa ends up several hundred years in the future. She’s on a spaceship with a hunky alien named Kahn who’s telling her she has been selected by Earth to compete in The Challenge. If she passes this mysterious test, Earth will be invited to join an intergalactic federation. This is vital since Earth needs the technology that the Federation can provide in order to clean up its highly polluted environment.

Kahn is shocked to realize that Earth has selected a woman for the competition. He’s totally ill-equipped to train her and flummoxed by her 21st century opinions. Silly notions like women are equal to men and can voice their own opinions, work outside the home, and fight in combat. Tessa may be living in the future now, but her trainer and love interest is stuck in Prehistoric times.

The positive in this story has got to be Tessa, who is actually a really kick-ass babe. She’s tough, trained extensively in martial arts, and used to men underestimating her abilities. While she was once in love, they never consummated their relationship and he was killed in the line of duty. Part of the reason Tessa was chosen for The Challenge is because she’s a virgin (2019 note: OF COURSE SHE IS!!!).  Kahn decides to awaken her latent psi abilities by putting her in a suit that sexually frustrates her. Tessa is obviously not happy with this plan, and begs instead for Kahn to train her like a man – you know, crazy ideas like hand-to-hand combat.

Instead Kahn spends the whole blessed book acting like a Neanderthal. After a while I forgot Tessa had a name because he kept referring to her as “Woman.” How’s that for romance? Then he proceeds to berate her over the entire course of the story because women from his planet obey their men, do as they are told, and don’t initiate sex. Men call the shots and that’s the way Kahn likes it. This leaves Tessa at a disadvantage since our poor girl has a mind of her own.

For her part Tessa puts up a bit of a fight, but eventually caves thanks to Kahn sexually humiliating her - and golly he’s just so dang hot! So instead of doing something useful, like finding a gun and shooting him, she continues to argue with him, train for The Challenge and look for ways to please him.

Excuse me while I cough up a hairball.

Original Tor Cover

The last 100 pages or so of the story do improve a bit because Kahn stops scrapping his knuckles on the ground. He still calls her woman – but we can’t expect miracles. The sex is also pretty hot, if you can get past the displeasure of Kahn humiliating Tessa on a couple of occasions by bringing her to the brink then abandoning her. My hero. It’s not really domination and submission play per se, but there is some kinkier stuff involved (such as spanking) that makes these scenes comparable to a romantica (2019 note: review written before we all settled on "erotic romance" as a term) novel.

Despite the intriguing promise of the plot, The Challenge is ultimately an extremely frustrating read. In her forward Kearney mentions that she first wrote this story in the early 1990s, but at that time no one was buying “sexy paranormals.” However it’s hard to find any book “sexy” when the hero leaves the reader so cold that it’s like shooting over Niagara Falls naked, in a barrel, in February. It’s really too bad Tessa never looked for a gun on that spaceship. She could have disposed of the hero that evolution forgot.

+++++

Wendy Looks Back: Oh, the mid-2000s. When paranormal became the hot sub genre du jour, publishers were begging for it, and every writer who read Warrior's Woman by Johanna Lindsey one too many times started unearthing every half-baked manuscript from depths of their filing cabinet. I remember this hero being of the intolerable Old School Bodice Ripper variety - and that was nearly 15 years ago.  I can't imagine he's aged much better in the intervening years....

Retro Review: Lion Heart

This review of Lion Heart by Tanya Anne Crosby was originally posted at The Romance Reader in 2000.  Back then I rated it 2-Hearts (D grade) with an MPAA sensuality content rating of PG-13.

+++++

Tanya Anne Crosby returns to the Scottish Highlands in this latest installment of her long running series. But while fans may find this return trip enjoyable, new readers will find this story less satisfying.

Broc MacEanraig was off playing on the day Englishmen murdered his whole family. Even though he was only 7 at the time, he felt he should have been there to defend them. Shortly thereafter, he is taken in by the MacKinnon clan, and grows up to be a loyal servant to the laird. Because of his guilt, Broc seems to be drawn into perilous situations by damsels in distress. So when he happens across the English Elizabet in trouble, he swears to see her to safety.

Elizabet is the bastard daughter of a courtesan, and her newly married father sends her and her half-brother, John, off to Scotland to live with his cousin, Piers de Montgomerie. Piers has no idea they are coming, and Elizabet fears they will be turned away. Even worse, her father sent her dowry along, and she fears that Piers just may wed her off. Traveling under the watchful eye of her stepmother’s brother, Tomas, Elizabet separates from the group in search of her wayward dog, Harpy.

She finds Harpy, along with Broc, and the two immediate begin bantering. But while Broc is intrigued, he’s not so distracted that he doesn’t notice a bowman in the woods, aiming right for Elizabet! He immediately takes her captive, determined to find out who would want to kill her. Not wanting to send her back into the path of danger, he decides to keep her hidden in the woods, until he can fully assess the situation.

Elizabet’s disappearance stirs up trouble in the highlands. Tomas wants her back, and enlists the help of Piers, his men, and several of Broc’s own friends to find her. None of them know Broc’s involvement, and Broc fears that once they do find out, the peace among the clans will be disrupted. The only way to keep Elizabet safe is to find out who the mysterious bowman is, and why he would want her dead. But that means hiding away with her in the woods, and their growing attraction is soon too intense for either of them to deny.

The main problem with long running romance series is that future books are soon overrun with characters. This story includes secondary characters that were once romantic leads in previous installments: Piers and Meghan, Colin and Serana, Iain and Page. Meghan and Colin are siblings and they have two brothers, Gavin and Leith. Iain also has children -- Cameron and Constance. Add to this menagerie Tomas and John, and while they don’t make appearances -- Elizabet’s father and stepmother -- and the list of characters to keep track of is out of control. Many of these characters simply take up space, which could have been better spent on Broc and Elizabet.

Original Cover

Elizabet is immediately problematic due to the ease in which she learns to trust Broc. She doesn’t have a very rosy view of men, no doubt due to her mother’s profession, and has sworn to never marry or fall prey to a man’s charms. Yet she almost immediately believes Broc’s story about the bowman, and voluntarily stays in hiding with him. She supposedly doesn’t trust men, but she quite willingly and expediently tumbles into Broc’s embrace. Some hesitancy would have made her more credible. 

Broc is a likeable sort of hero, but I soured on him the minute he begins to compulsively lie to not only Elizabet, but Iain (his own laird) and Colin (his best friend). Broc doesn’t tell the little white variety either, his lies are real doosies. And while he has his own reasons, they just aren’t good enough excuses to look past the things he chooses to lie about.

Readers who have followed this series from the beginning will probably get more pleasure out of Lion Heart than I did. Too many, unnecessary secondary characters cluttering the plot, Broc’s blatant lying, and Elizabet’s lack of hesitancy were just too much for me to overcome.