I'm squeaking in during the 11th hour to finally bring y'all October's crop of Unusual Historicals. What can I say, a brutal reading slump, work being work, and a trip home to see the family had me distracted. However there's nothing quite like Airplane Reading (I do my best reading on airplanes...) and a week of sitting around my parents' house quite literally doing nothing to revive a girl. So without further ado...
Margaret Arden yearns to live like the passionate and daring women in her novel. The idyllic life at Mosely Cottage with her two younger sisters and mother is fine, but Margaret wants more than the demure and dainty existence she’s known. After a particularly brutal rejection from an annoyingly attractive publisher, Margaret fears being forced into marriage to protect her family if their financial situation doesn’t improve—until her cousin’s glamorous wedding masquerade brings her onto a collision course with scandal, notoriety, and even love.
Captain Bridger Darrow is starting over after fighting for his country. Now home, he is struggling to save his family from destitution and succeed in a new venture of passion: book publishing. It’s all going rather poorly, until he stumbles upon loose pages of an astonishing novel while in attendance at his dearest friend’s wedding. Bridger knows he must publish it. But upon meeting the author, Bridger is stunned to discover that he—she—is a woman, and he has already told her off in grand fashion.
While Bridger is keen to gain her trust and rescind the initial rejection, Margaret can’t help but be skeptical of his intentions. Sparks fly between the two, just as the wedding of the season starts to descend into chaos when a masked dance leads to a case of mistaken identities.
This back cover blurb has Regency romcom written all over it. She wants a bold (re: not dull as dishwater) life and he wants to make a success as a book publisher - only to realize that the book he accidentally discovers that is sure to make his reputation is written by the woman (gasp!) that he's just told off. The mention of a case of mistaken identity seals the deal.
Germany, 1936. Bruno, an electrician, and Karla, a seamstress, forge a powerful love amid the rise of the Nazi Party and Hitler’s ascent to power. Staunch opponents of the Nazi ideology, they live in perpetual apprehension as they risk being labeled dissidents, navigating a complex negotiation between moral principles and self-preservation. As World War II breaks out, Bruno faces a profound internal struggle when he is drafted into service, and he is eventually captured by the Russians and imprisoned in Siberia. His nearly two-year journey back to war-ravaged Germany reveals the devastating aftermath, with his city in ruins and family displaced.
Meanwhile, Karla, at home facing nightly bombings, struggles to raise their two young children and is forced into helping the Nazis. Through these tumultuous times, Karla and Bruno’s unwavering love becomes a testament to human strength and endurance amid adversity.
Dissidents in 1936 Germany fall in love, only to face countless struggles as he's drafted, then hauled off to Siberia, and she's faced with hard choices to ensure the survival of herself and her children. This one is based on the true story of the author's grandparents.
After turning society upside down with her debut story, provincial Charlotte Deveraux arrives in Paris poised for literary stardom. She’s not sure where her next rent payment will come from, but she’s determined to make a name for herself as a respected writer in the cultural capital of the world.
Antoine de Larminet is the last surviving son of an aristocratic family. In line to inherit a title, he has promised his parents that he’ll marry a peer and carry on the centuries-old tradition. He was raised in an antiquated world where love was often found outside of arranged society marriages. Even as the French aristocracy is losing relevance to modernity, Antoine never questioned this commitment to this family legacy--until his chance meeting with clever and beautiful Charlotte.
Their attraction is immediate, and the more they bump into each other at the clubs and salons of Paris, the stronger their attachment grows. But Antoine can’t marry Charlotte because she’s as proletarian as they come. And Charlotte will lose all credibility as a writer and social critic if she becomes the mistress of an aristocrat.
The world around them is changing, but if love is to win, one of them will have to give up everything they stand for.
Old world (him) clashes with new world (her). It's a relationship spelling certain doom for both of them: oh, only her credibility and his very way of life. High stakes conflict set against the backdrop of Belle Époque Paris.
Wallflower at risk of ruin…Secret femme-fatale in training Millicent Whittenburg needs to escape her unpleasant betrothal. Taking matters into her own hands, she plans her eventual ruin! Then she can disappear from society to carry out the Queen’s deadly missions. Step 1: seduce the one man who despises marriage more than her!However, she hugely underestimates her target. Major General Beaufort Drake. Fearsome private investigator, he’s notoriously cold and visibly battle scarred. But Millie’s scandalously public kiss awakens a deeply suppressed desire in Drake. Instead of allowing them both to succumb to shame he does the unthinkable, and offers for her hand in a convenient marriage.Nothing prepares them for the fireworks when a fearless damsel collides with a dangerous Major General! And as their secret missions align they face their hardest test on the glittering battlefield – a week long wedding house party where there is nowhere to escape…only new and wicked lessons to be learnt!
Book two in The Queen's Deadly Damsels series features a heroine desperate to escape a betrothal in order to carry out deadly missions for Queen and Country. To that end, she picks our hero, a Major General and a private investigator to be the object of her ruination - except the man does the unthinkable and actually proposes marriage!
The warrior she shouldn’t wantBut can’t resist!Viking Sibba has traveled to a Scottish island to attend a king’s wedding and maintain the fragile truce between their opposing clans. Not to engage in an impromptu archery contest with his son, Cal, with a kiss at stake if he wins…The Celtic warrior should remain forbidden, so Sibba’s shocked by how much she wants to kiss him. She ought to stay away, but when the king’s bride is kidnapped, Sibba must join forces with Cal to retrieve her before unrest rages through their kingdoms…and their dangerous desire overwhelms them both!
Heroine attends a King's wedding as a goodwill "see we're really friends now!" gesture, only to find herself in an archery contest with the King's son, with a kiss on the line should he win and she "lose." They're soon thrown further together when the King's bride is kidnapped and they join forces before war erupts between their clans.
In the ruins of war-torn Europe, upper-class officer Reginald Greaves finds more than just the enemy at his doorstep; he discovers Renée, a young woman navigating World War One by working at the Red Lamp, a place of refuge for those with no other options.Amidst the chaos that the war brings, Reginald leaves Renée with an unpaid debt. Chasing him across Belgium, Renée becomes Reginald’s unwilling nurse, tending to his injuries. As they spend more time together, their initial animosity slowly shifts into a love neither saw coming.Their relationship faces an unexpected threat when Elizabeth, the well-bred woman Reginald is expected to marry, arrives in France. With Elizabeth's arrival, a complex love triangle ensues, complicating their already tumultuous bond. As they battle their own demons and the advancing front lines, their lives intersect in ways they never imagined.Against the backdrop of duty, Renée and Reginald grapple with choices that could change everything—choices about family, loyalty, and the future they dare to dream of, even if it seems impossible.
Look, I have issues with love triangles (as a general rule) but World War I and a prostitute heroine - I'm only human. Also, this promises the kind of high stakes conflict I'm kind of desperate for right now in romance.
After her father’s suicide, Caroline Fairfield is left practically destitute and needing to find herself employment in a hurry. Her old friend, Ysella Beauchamp, now living in Cornwall, assures her that a family she knows is looking for a governess for nine-year-old Yves, the orphaned heir to his grandfather’s title and fortune, after the previous governess left under a cloud.He’s described as weak and delicate, but turns out to be anything but, and Caroline soon discovers that Mrs Treloar, Yves’s formidable aunt, has a distinct lack of concern for his welfare. To the point of seeming to want to put him in danger. And then she discovers he’s being dosed every night, on his aunt’s orders, with something that could prove fatal.Major Nathaniel Treloar, disfigured in battle and returning from Europe now Bonaparte is in captivity, travels down to Cornwall to recuperate at his grandfather’s estate while he decides what to do with his life. He’s touchy about his damaged looks and, although he seems friendly enough, and she’s strongly attracted to him, Caroline can’t get out of her head the fact that he would be the one to benefit if anything were to happen to Yves.
This, more than likely, isn't a Gothic, but c'mon. Cornwall, a father's suicide, a destitute heroine turned governess, her young charge whose life is in peril and a disfigured, battle-scarred hero. It might not be a duck, but it certainly seems to be quacking. This is the third book in the author's Cornish Ladies series.
"Holly and Ivy"- The Napoleonic Wars are over. Troops are returning home to a joyous Christmas, except for Surgeon Jake Frost, who must escort a hypochondriac captain, barely wounded at Waterloo. Jake prepares to hate every minute of the ordeal, until he meets the hypochondriac's fiancé."Yours Sincerely" - Madeline and her widowed mother live in genteel poverty, at the mercy of overbearing in-laws. Despite this, they have managed well. Years earlier, they befriended an older gentleman who has since passed away. To their surprise, an American sea captain arrives, summoned for a reading of the will of that quiet gentleman. Kindness triumphs in ways unimaginable, except, perhaps, during the season of glad tidings."Picture a Christmas" - To avoid the poorhouse, Mary Cooper finds employment in a notions shop belonging to a grouchy old dame. Coming into her life to upend this pleasant arrangement is Luke Wainwright, nephew of Mary's employer. He's a widower and shipbuilder with no time for anything except business. To Luke, Mary is an interloper in his aunt's affairs, until he sees someone else: a person as determined as he is to improve the hand dealt them. Together, perhaps?
Kelly's Christmas stories are fan favorites and this is copied and pasted directly from her website: So here you have Regency Glad Tidings, three Christmas stories that I wrote last year in summer’s heat, when most Christmas fiction is written. May your days be merry and bright! You know what this means? BRAND NEW CARLA KELLY CHRISTMAS STORIES, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED!!!!!!!
1882. An artist from the notorious Seven Dials will paint her way into London‘s heart…Violet Latimer longs to escape her scandalous origins in the rookery of Seven Dials and finally make a name for herself as a painter. But her past is never far behind her, and nor is the notorious criminal, Archie Neville. Fresh out of prison, he's determined to make her his wife – and catch whoever put him away in the first place.Calling on her high society friends for help, Violet finds herself in an unlikely alliance with the last man a girl from the rookeries should ever approach, undercover detective, John Barrow. A man from her side of the tracks – and dangerously handsome too – John offers Violet a bargain: he’ll help her escape from Archie if she’ll help him collect the information he needs to bring Archie down for good.But neither Violet nor John have counted on the attraction that ignites between them. As their dangerous arrangement progresses, Violet feels all her plans for the future unravelling in the heat from John’s eyes. Can she dare to trust this man, despite the secrets she senses he’s keeping? Will surrendering to her heart be Violet’s salvation, or her downfall?
OMG, I am trash for everything about this blurb. Artist heroine who quite literally pulls herself out of the muck, only to have a dangerous man from her past slither his way back into her life. It's time to call in some favors with her new high society friends, and that gets her the hero, an undercover detective. She's a woman who can't not afford to lose her heart and he's a man who is obviously hiding secrets.
Outlaw Elle Barstow spends her days robbing stagecoaches and her nights bedding women—all while keeping her heart safely locked away.But everything changes when Isabella “Izzy” Collins enters her life. Banished by her family, the fiery suffragette from Boston is reluctantly traveling west to marry a man much older than herself.When Elle rescues Izzy during a stagecoach robbery gone wrong, she plans to ransom Izzy for a hefty reward. But Elle soon finds herself drawn to the captivating woman who challenges her every instinct.As Izzy insists on learning how to survive in the wild, Elle’s plan begins to unravel, and she faces a new peril—the growing attraction that threatens to melt her hardened heart.
Lesbians in the Old West. Even better? One of them is an outlaw and the other is a Boston suffragette whose family has deep pockets. What should be a simple ransoming a hostage scheme gets complicated by attraction and ugh, "feelings." Isn't that alway the way?
Another bumper crop of unusual historical options to peruse and sample. What are you looking forward to reading?
3 comments:
...if the creek don't rise, I'll be reading again sometime in November ::sobs::
Carla Kelly also had a new longer book out a couple of months ago - A Naval Surgeon to Fight For. The Christmas stories are lovely as usual. Love, love Ms. Kelly’s writing.
AL: Girl, I hear ya. I was on a roll there for a little bit, but only because I was traveling. Some people watch movies on planes, I read books.
SandyH: There's more Kelly coming. Harlequin is repackaging and reprinting some of the Christmas novellas she published with them in multi-author anthologies next month. Yes, previously released, but now they'll all be together in two separate volumes.
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