Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Saturday, December 11, 2021

Glad Tidings: Unusual Historical Picks for December 2021

I honestly don't know how much the average reader pays attention to the vagaries of the publishing world - but even with the advent of self-publishing I can state for a fact that December tends to be The Dead Zone. It's traditionally been a very, very light month. That said, when my swashbuckling through Amazon's forest of terrible algorithms only netted three titles I thought "This can't be right."  So I looked at my Unusual Historical post for December 2020 and found....four titlesYeah.  So here it is folks! The last Unusual Historical post for 2021. She be small but she be mighty!  Enjoy!

 
 The Knight's Convenient Alliance by Melissa Oliver

The only man who’s tempted her… 

Now poses as her husband! 

When an injured knight arrives on Brida O’Conaill’s doorstep, the village assumes he’s her long-lost husband. But her only previous connection to Sir Thomas Lovent was an intense shared moment at a tournament years ago. Brida maintains the pretense while she nurses him, yet once he’s back to full, virile health, she cannot reveal Thomas is not her husband—or that she’s unmarried!—when everyone is expecting them to act like husband and wife…


Oliver's debut medieval romance landed in 2020 and here we are - already on book 4 of her Notorious Knights series. Do romance authors sleep?  Because seriously, I'm exhausted.  Anyway, the fake engagement/marriage/relationship trope is one of my all-time favorites (Forced proximity! Having to put on a show to convince others!) so I'm looking forward to this.



The Viking's Stolen Princess by Sarah Rodi

A kidnapped royal… 

Could be the Viking's undoing! 

After Brand Ivarsson of Kald abducts Anne of Termarth on the eve of her wedding, the Viking’s consumed with only one thing: revenge against her loathsome betrothed. But confronted with the stunning princess, so foreign to his world, Brand’s captivated not only by her beauty, but by her spirit and her kindness. Is Anne his prisoner…or is she the one who’s captured his scarred heart?


I spy with my little eye a debut author! It's got royalty, it's got a Viking, and it's got a revenge plot. I mean, what more could a girl possibly ask for?  Rodi has a background in magazines and is a long-time Mills & Boon fan, so one imagines she's chuffed to have gotten the call for this book - which she finished in one month (!) after being furloughed from her day job.  I'm not sure what I would do if I were furloughed - probably sleep for at least the first two weeks.  Finishing a novel that eventually sells sounds way more productive.


Protecting Virginia by Kate Bridges (Kindle Unlimited)

When Virginia is jilted at the altar, her former fiancĂ©’s brother Zack, a rugged Mountie, proposes a marriage of convenience. 

For Mountie Inspector Zack Bullock, marrying his brother’s cast-off bride would fulfill his family obligations. Zack could marry Dr. Virginia Waters and not get emotionally involved. Their marriage would have other benefits. He could continue his risky work as a detective, and she could blossom in her role as a new doctor. However, the awkward girl that Zack recalls has grown into a stunning, desirable woman and he finds himself emotionally entangled. 

Virginia survived the shame of a first botched wedding. Now she has to survive the humiliation of knowing that Zack is marrying her only because of his sense of duty. But when dangerous criminals put her safety in jeopardy, Zack wonders if the marriage will ever happen. He does everything he can to guard Virginia, and protect himself from his growing feelings of love.
Originally published by Harlequin Historical in 2004 with the title The Engagement, I'm telling you right now I think I have a print copy of that edition buried somewhere in the depths of what I affectionately call my "Harlequin cupboard." Bridges wrote several historicals set in Canada with Mountie heroes and she's been self-publishing them now that her rights have reverted.  She's written some very good books and reading this plot description - HOW HAVE I NOT READ THIS YET?!  I need it in my eyeballs now.

What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to reading?

3 comments:

Jazzlet said...

Don't get lost searching the Harlequin cupboard!

Wendy said...

Jazzlet: My Harlequin cupboard is pretty serious! I'll have to leave a trail of Harlequin Presents behind me to find my way back!

Dorine said...

I got Bridges' book this week. I actually bought all of this series since it was such a good price. I've loved the Mounties I've read so far. It seems to me that I might have read at least of the ones I bought, but I need more books on my Kindle, so the more the merrier. LOL