Unusual Historicals Top Picks for June 2020

After a strange, upended spring, we now find ourselves in a strange, upended summer with most of us wondering what the heck autumn will bring. How much is my budget going to tank at the library? Will the kids be back in a traditional classroom setting come September? When might life feel normal enough to take a couple of vacation days again? Uncertain times call for snatching moments of joy when you can - and I think I speak for most of Romancelandia when I say books are a great way to find some joy. Here are some unusual historicals releasing in June that caught my eye:

A Duke, the Lady and a Baby by Vanessa Riley

Created by a shrewd countess, The Widow’s Grace is a secret society with a mission: to help ill-treated widows regain their status, their families, and even find true love again—or perhaps for the very first time . . .  

When headstrong West Indian heiress Patience Jordan questioned her English husband's mysterious suicide, she lost everything: her newborn son, Lionel, her fortune—and her freedom. Falsely imprisoned, she risks her life to be near her child—until The Widow's Grace gets her hired as her own son’s nanny. But working for his unsuspecting new guardian, Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington, has perils of its own. Especially when Patience discovers his military strictness belies an ex-rake of unswerving honor—and unexpected passion . . .  

A wounded military hero, Busick is determined to resolve his dead cousin’s dangerous financial dealings for Lionel’s sake. But his investigation is a minor skirmish compared to dealing with the forthright, courageous, and alluring Patience. Somehow, she's breaking his rules, and sweeping past his defenses. Soon, between formidable enemies and obstacles, they form a fragile trust—but will it be enough to save the future they long to dare together? 

 Riley’s latest kicks off a series about a secret society that comes to the aid of mistreated widows and features a done-wrong heroine who loses everything when she dares to question the circumstances of her husband’s death. A mystery, a headstrong heroine, and a wounded hero. Sign me up!

Her Lady’s Honor by Renee Dahlia

The war might be over, but the battle for love has just begun.  

When Lady Eleanor “Nell” St. George arrives in Wales after serving as a veterinarian in the Great War, she doesn’t come alone. With her is her former captain’s beloved warhorse, which she promised to return to him—and a series of recurring nightmares that torment both her heart and her soul. She wants only to complete her task, then find refuge with her family, but when Nell meets the captain’s eldest daughter, all that changes.  

Beatrice Hughes is resigned to life as the dutiful daughter. Her mother grieves for the sons she lost to war; the care of the household and remaining siblings falls to Beatrice, and she manages it with a practical efficiency. But when a beautiful stranger shows up with her father’s horse, practicality is the last thing on her mind. Despite the differences in their social standing, Beatrice and Nell give in to their unlikely attraction, finding love where they least expect it. But not everything in the captain’s house is as it seems.  

When Beatrice’s mother disappears under mysterious circumstances, Nell must overcome her preconceptions to help Beatrice, however she’s able. Together they must find out what really happened that stormy night in the village, before everything Beatrice loves is lost—including Nell. 

It’s addressed a bit with a throwaway line in the blurb, but having finished this book very recently what struck me most about it was how much the author addresses class issues as part of the romantic conflict. Nell is a Lady and Beatrice is a woman with no life of her own, trapped by the circumstances of her birth. If the thought of reading another Duke fall in love with a chambermaid without a wisp of consequences has given you a case of the permanent eye-rolls, consider this book your antidote.

Captured By Her Enemy Knight by Nicole Locke

Captured by her enemy…  

Falling for the man  

Cressida Howe, the Archer, is a well-tuned weapon. But she’s also a woman captivated by a man—Eldric of Hawskmoor, the warrior knight her father ordered her to kill. Instead, for years, Cressida has simply watched him… 

Now she’s been captured by her formidable enemy, and her well-ordered world comes crashing down, for Eldric is even more compelling up close. Cressida curses her traitorous heart—this assassin has fallen for her target! 

This book has rolled around in Wendy Catnip. Questions of loyalty, a warrior heroine, and a mysterious knight that her father wants dead for some reason. Get in my eyeballs now.

Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian

Will Sedgwick can’t believe that after months of searching for his oldest friend, Martin Easterbrook is found hiding in an attic like a gothic nightmare. Intent on nursing Martin back to health, Will kindly kidnaps him and takes him to the countryside to recover, well away from the world.  

Martin doesn’t much care where he is or even how he got there. He’s much more concerned that the man he’s loved his entire life is currently waiting on him hand and foot, feeding him soup and making him tea. Martin knows he’s a lost cause, one he doesn’t want Will to waste his life on.  

As a lifetime of love transforms into a tender passion both men always desired but neither expected, can they envision a life free from the restrictions of the past, a life with each other? 

The next book in Sebastian’s Sedgwick’s series gives readers a fairy tale spin - although it’s a prince locked away in a tower (or attic, whatever) opposed to a princess. Library Journal gave it a starred review and called it a “life-affirming final act to the trilogy”

An Outlaw’s Honor by Terri Brisbin

When the only man she can trust is known for his dishonorable past, what could go wrong?

A Dishonorable Man
Thomas Brisbois of Kelso has only one goal when he arrives at the tournament--to defeat the only knight who ever bested him in battle. If he succeeds, the Scottish king will return to him his lands, his honor and his life. He has little interest in other prizes, and even less when he learns that the lord for whom his rival fights has included a daughter among the spoils at stake in their contest-- a lovely daughter with no desire to play the pawn, or to see her father's champion win. She is a distraction, all the more after she explains her own ideas about which knight shall have her, and how and when.  

A Desperate Woman
Annora may be a pawn in her father’s plans but she has no intention of letting that happen without a fight of her own. When she sees the frank desire in Thomas’ gaze for her, she makes her own offer—she’ll help him win if he’ll let her go. . . after he beds her. Her plans go awry when she discovers the truth of the man beneath the armor. The man who had lost everything and struggles to regain his life.  

Brisbin is a seasoned pro in medieval historical romance, so I always know I’ll be in good hands when I pick up one of her stories. Part of a multi-author series centered around a tournament, I love historical heroines who find themselves as pawns of men’s machinations but scheme to throw a wrench in the works. Naturally, in romance, schemes never seem to go according to plan.

What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to reading?

Review: Her Lady's Honor

Her desires could be trampled by anyone else, simply because Beatrice was the spinster sibling with no rights of her own. She'd often wondered if being married would give her slightly more power, or if she'd end up as a shell of herself like Mother had.

Her Lady's Honor by Renee Dahlia has a back cover blurb that has been haunting my dreams since I first read it months ago.  So I was all set to love this story to the moon and back when I finally settled in to read it.  How did it turn out?  Well, it was kind of a mixed bag.

Lady Eleanor "Nell" St. George, daughter of a second son, niece to a Duke, used her wits and her family connections to join the war effort as a veterinary assistant.  Dreadfully close to the front, it was the job of Nell's unit to tend to the horses, keep them alive, patch them up and send them back into battle.  Now the war is over and Nell is delivering on a promise.  Her captain, gassed and hospitalized, asked Nell to ensure his horse is returned to him in Wales.

Beatrice Hughes is the captain's oldest, and spinster, daughter, seen as nothing more than a servant in her own home.  Her mother is a shell of her former self after her three oldest boys were killed in the war.  The captain is an abusive man who beats his wife and sees little to no value in his girl children.  Her sister Grace is selfish, still bemoaning the death of her fiance overseas, so it's up to Beatrice to keep the farm running, the smaller children cared for while her mother acts the ghost and her father drinks himself into oblivion.  Beatrice's life is not her own - and then in walks Nell, a beautiful, brave adventuress that her father treats respectfully because she's "a Lady."

Dahlia does some interesting things with this book in terms of conflict and the internal character struggles.  Class is a very big deal in this story.  Nell is a Lady.  Nell has privilege.  But her years in the war have made her less polished, a bit more crass, to the point where she's almost dreading going home to her family.  She misses them terribly, she longs for the comfort of home to process her war experiences, but she also recognizes that she's not "Lady Eleanor" anymore.  She's "Nell."  The war has changed her and there's no going back.  But at the end of the day, even with her baggage, Nell has choices.

In contrast, Beatrice has no choices.  She's a heroine trapped in a life that promises nothing but drudgery and uncertainty.  Stuck in place by family obligations, nothing to look forward to - not even dreams.  Because what good are dreams when your reality is so soul-sucking.  She could marry, but who's to say that she wouldn't end up saddled to a man just like her father, and Beatrice is well aware she's a lesbian. There's no questioning of her sexuality. So marriage, even as a possible escape, is out.

Nell has respect for the captain prior to showing up on his doorstep and once she meets his wife and children she has to reconcile the good solider she served under with the abusive man terrorizing his family.  Then Beatrice's mother goes missing and the captain's temperament takes an even more unsavory turn.

It's a weighty book with weighty themes and Dahlia does introduce moments of levity, but they don't always work.  The tone feels off when she does so. Also, while I sympathized with Beatrice a great deal it's still hard to not find her insufferable at times.  Girl, Nell is trying. Nell has issues, and says some callous things that hurt Beatrice.  But then Beatrice pouts and throws Nell's apologies back in her face even when, as the reader, you can tell Nell's apologies are heartfelt. That she's sorry, that she'll do better.  As for the romance, it's OK but not great.  It's very heavy insta-lust and while the chemistry is there, I never quite figured out how they fell in love.  Lust, sure. I got that.  Love?  Not so much.

However the setting is well drawn (the incessant rain, the farm, the small Welsh village...) and the cast of characters vast and interesting.  In a genre that tends to ignore class because it's inconvenient (and readers do seem to love Dukes living happily ever after with governesses...) the fact that Dahlia doesn't ignore it, addresses it even, adds compelling and realistic drama to the romance.  It wasn't everything I wanted it to be, but there was still plenty here for me to admire.

Final Grade = B-

#TBRChallenge 2020: Blissful Summer

The Book: Blissful Summer by Cheris Hodges and Lisa Marie Perry

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Kimani Romance, 2015, Out of Print, Not Available in Digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: My print copy looks brand new, but it's not autographed and I went almost exclusively digital with Harlequin well before 2015. Best guess is that I snagged it in a conference goody room.  I'm at conference + Harlequin not tied down = of course I grabbed it.

The Review: This month's optional theme is Getaway, and I decided to interpret that as "vacation destination."  Make You Mine Again by Cheris Hodges kicks off this anthology with a reunion romance set in Atlanta, New York, Paris and Jamaica.

Jansen Douglas is an in-demand supermodel who is preparing for the next phase of her career.  She's not getting any younger, and realizing the shelf-life for models, has visions of opening up her own agency.  But first she needs to attend her BFF's wedding in Paris.  The fly in the ointment?  Her BFF's brother, Bradley Stephens, is the one that got away.  Well, more like she showed him the door.  She supported Bradley's dreams and ambitions, but when she told him she wanted to kick-start a career in modelling - well, it didn't go well.  She left him, and neither one has gotten over it.

This story only clocks in at 100 pages, and the couple doesn't actually land on page together until the halfway point.  Which, I know this is a reunion romance, but it's still a problem.  So what's happening in the first 50 pages?  A lot of info-dumping, setting up a Big Misunderstanding and secondary character introductions that felt like series filler to me.  But then I can't find any mention online that this is actually a series?  So that means it felt like a series idea that the author cut back to fit a 100 page novella and it just didn't work for me.  There's too much here for a novella. Also, to be perfectly blunt, I completely understood why Jansen walked away from Bradley all those years ago and I'm wholly unconvinced he's "changed" and seen the light.  Jansen is a fierce heroine and gurl, you could do so much better.  

Grade = C

There's a bit of plot absurdity in Unraveled by Lisa Marie Perry but there are some nice moments in this novella.  Ona Tracy was a scholarship kid at her prestigious Philadelphia performing arts school with Most Likely to Succeed written all over her - but life has not spun out as planned.  She gave up Broadway dreams for a worthless man, then her career in advertising took a hit when she fell for a double-crossing colleague.  She's at a low ebb, but has managed to convince her former high school that she's the event planner who can tackle the Glee Club's 10-year reunion.  She's got big plans to seduce her high school crush who has turned out to be Mr. Successful Stability. She just needs it all to go off without a hitch and survive her Mean Girl Nemesis.  But trouble starts brewing right away when the ship she booked turns out to be an "erotic cruise" to the Bahamas.  But our gal is determined to make lemonade out of lemons, and no sooner does she start exploring the ship than she makes the steamy acquaintance of ex-Marine, Riker Ewan.  Sparks fly immediately with this working class bartender from Boston, but wouldn't you know?  There's more to Riker than meets the eye.

I'm a bit of a sucker for high school reunion stories, and Perry does some interesting things with her cast of secondary characters.  The high school crush who didn't notice Ona back in the day, the propositioning jerk that Ona has to smack down repeatedly, but it's the Mean Girl Nemesis that's really interesting.  She's uppity and prickly to Ona's pure sassy goodness.  The scenes between these two are great, especially at the end when insecurities come pouring out.  The chemistry with Riker is also good, and I'm a sucker for a blue-collar hero paired with a polished heroine like Ona.  Ona's life might not be great at the moment, but she's a never let 'em see you sweat sort - again, extremely attractive in a romance heroine.

The issue is conflict. Ona's conflict, the high school reunion cast, the botched cruise booking - more than enough to power a 100 page novella.  Riker really could have just been a guy going on a cruise after getting stood up by a woman.  But no.  Riker has a Big Secret and he's on the cruise for other half-baked reasons entirely - which of course means family baggage. It's too much. The Riker baggage feels completely unnecessary - Ona's is more than enough to carry the show.  Still, a fun read and frankly a bloody shame that Perry doesn't seem to be writing anymore.  If anyone can tell me otherwise, I'd love to hear it.

Grade = B-

While I wasn't madly in love with this short anthology, it did the trick of kick-starting my flagging reading mojo.  Presumably it's not available anymore because rights have reverted back to the authors.  I'd like to see what Hodges could do with her characters if she spun them out into an entire family series and the Perry story has some fun moments.  Hopefully digital reprints are on the horizon.

Overall Final Grade = C+

Mini-Review: The Au Pair

On the very day Seraphine Mayes and her twin brother Danny were born at home on their family's Norfolk estate their mother committed suicide by throwing herself off the cliffs, their older brother's au pair fled and the small village's love of superstitious nonsense kicked into overdrive with talk of witches and changelings and sprites.  Twenty-some-odd years later, Seraphine still lives on the family estate mourning the recent accidental death of her father.  It's while she's going through some things that she discovers an old photograph, presumably taken on the day of her and Danny's birth.  Their father, their mother, their older brother Edwin and....one newborn baby in their mother's arms.  Is that baby Seraphine or Danny and where's the other one?  Seraphine, who has spent her life being called a sprite, remarked upon that she looks nothing like her siblings or father, and saddled with grief, is determined to find answers.  And for that, she needs to track down Edwin's former au pair, Laura.

So begins Emma Rous's debut suspense novel, The Au Pair: family secrets, with a sprinkling of Gothic, told in time slip fashion - Seraphine in present day and Laura the au pair in the early 1990s.  The first half was a bit rocky for me mostly because Seraphine comes off as borderline hysterical (save me from hysterical female protagonists in suspense novels) but it smooths out a bit as the story lines converge and threats surface to warn Seraphine about snooping around in the family's dirty laundry.  There's even a very light romance thread to spice up the proceedings, making this one of the more nostalgic Gothic throwbacks I've read this year.

The ending is, well OK.  I'll be honest, it's really light in the pants on motive.  All the family secrets come tumbling out but why The Bad Guy did what they did doesn't hold up to much scrutiny.  But it's an ending, I guess?  And it helps distract from the other large issue in this story, which is that all the adults are really gross.  I mean, I think I'm supposed to not like Laura in the end and be a Judgey McJudge Pants about the choices she makes back in 1992 - but Laura was an 18-year-old girl with a mountain of baggage thanks to her Mum, Stepfather, and a relationship gone bad.  Did she make good choices?  Well, no.  But frankly she was 18 and the frickin' adults in this book were ADULTS and yes I'm going to hold them to a higher standard.  But then we wouldn't have had much of a story.

In the end this was better than OK for me but I wasn't in love with it.  That said, there's enough on the page of this debut novel that I would definitely be interested in reading Rous's next book.

Final Grade = B-

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is June 17!

A reminder that #TBRChallenge day is Wednesday, June 17.  This month's (always optional) theme is Getaway.

Yes, another one of the new, vague themes that Wendy is torturing y'all with. What does getaway mean to you? Tropical islands? Vacation? Runaway brides? Escaping the bad guys?  Any way you think to apply the optional theme - anything goes!

However, if you're not in the mood, can't be bothered, whatever your reasons may be....no problem!  Remember, the themes are always optional.

You can learn more about the Challenge and see the list of participating folks on the Information Page. 

Mini-Reviews: A DNF, A What-Might-Have-Been, and Comfort Reading

I was bound and determined to continue my Maisey Yates glom but terrible timing and realizing too late I was full-up on sexually inexperienced heroines led me to DNF'ing Seduce Me, Cowboy at the 30% mark.  The heroine is a good-girl preacher's daughter who has finally realized that being good has gotten her nowhere in life - so she moves out of her parents' house, quits her secretarial job at Daddy's church, and goes to work for our hero, who is a gruff wrong-side-of-the-tracks sort who has built a construction empire.  She's Never-Been-Kissed Rose-Colored-Glasses, and he's Mr. Grumpy Jaded Cynic.  I just couldn't with this child.  In the wake of everything currently going on in the US (posterity for my blog archives: COVID-19, George Floyd's murder, civil unrest) I just...couldn't with this child.  Plus this was the third sexually inexperienced Yates heroine in a row I'd read and y'all...I just couldn't with this child. Certainly I've read and enjoyed plenty of books featuring Sunshine-y Heroines and Grumpy Heroes, but now is not the time. Her Sunshine-y privilege just made me want to smack her into next Tuesday.

Final Grade = DNF

The Ghosts of Eden Park: the Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America by Karen Abbott was an audiobook listen I picked up at The Day Job because I like Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction nonfiction books and this is another one of those "Trials of the Century" that have largely faded from American consciousness.  George Remus was a morally bankrupt pharmacist-turned-lawyer in Cincinnati, Ohio who turned Prohibition bootlegger.  He dumped his first wife, married Imogene (who worked in his office - because of course) and ultimately caught the attention of Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who was appointed Assistant US Attorney General under the less than squeaky clean Harding administration. Willebrandt, charged with enforcing Prohibition, had a real problem finding field agents who weren't corrupt, and she thought she'd found her man in Franklin Dodge.  Turns out? Not so much.  Dodge and Imogene entered into an affair while Remus was in prison.  When Remus got out of prison? That's when all hell broke loose.

Abbott had access to extensive court documents - which, fine.  The problem is she focuses on the least interesting guy in the room.  Remus is just like every other megalomaniac sociopath criminal gangster that came before him, and since.  Imogene and Dodge are the story here.  How exactly did these two really hook up? Did Imogene set her sights on Remus from the word go in order to take everything out from under him - or was she pushed into it, either by Dodge or with her just being completely fed up with Remus's abuse?  We'll never know.  I get that Abbott is working with the historical record available to her, which means my final impression is that what I really wanted was a historical fiction account of these characters - not so much nonfiction.

Final Grade = C

Back in late summer 2017 I decided to revisit Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone series. I made great progress in 2018, kept going in 2019, but stalled out when it was time to read While Other People Sleep, the 18th book in the series. Frankly, I got distracted by other books, and I recalled being meh about this one when I first read it.  Turns out my memory isn't completely shot.

Sharon, now with her own agency, finds out through her grapevine that a woman was impersonating her at a cocktail party.  What Sharon hopes was a harmless prank turns out to be much more sinister - this woman is handing out her business cards, having one-night-stands, stealing from said one-night-stands, committing credit card fraud, calling her friends and family, and even is audacious enough to break into Sharon's house.  

This book feels like Muller just didn't have enough to oomph-up the main mystery.  There's other threads here - namely efficient office manager Ted is acting completely out of character, and some added bits about various other cases the firm is working (one is a guy hiding financial assets ahead of a divorce, the other a guy who thinks his girlfriend is cheating on him).  Then there's Sharon's relationship drama - Hy is off to South America, not in contact just as Sharon's life is unraveling, and he's likely in danger.  It gives the book a very scattershot feel for the first half.  It's not until the second half, when Sharon loops in all her colleagues about the woman who is ruining her life and the focus lands firmly there that things smooth out.  Then it turns out to be a decent cat-and-mouse style read.

Not a favorite in this series but I desperately needed Competent Female Porn - and smart, female private detectives are my jam. They're 100% comfort reads for me.  Smart woman solves the mystery, saves the day and justice is served - I mean, what's not to love about that?

Final Grade = C+

Review: Hold Me, Cowboy

Because he was the kind of man a woman could make a mistake with. And she had thought she was done making mistakes.

Hold Me, Cowboy by Maisey Yates gives readers the romance of Sam McCormack, the hermit-like, grumpy older brother of Chase, who got his romance in Take Me, Cowboy.  Chase is the business guy.  Sam is the artist. His iron sculptures of typical western motifs (horses, longhorns, you get the idea....) dot the town of Copper Ridge and are bringing in a nice income for the family business thanks to tourists happy to throw around some cash.  But Sam is in the midst of an artistic crisis - inspiration has fled the building.  I mean how many horses and cows can one guy sculpt?  So he heads to a mountain retreat only to find himself face to face with a woman who drives him to distraction.

Madison West, daughter of the town's most prominent family has an ice queen reputation. Sam still swings by her family's estate to make sure her horses stay in shoes and she's always staring down at him with a haughty attitude - like she's supervising "the help."  Truth is Madison has baggage - the kind of baggage that has kept her celibate for 10 years.  Ten. Years. Well, she's over it. She's rented a cabin up in the mountains for a weekend get-away with a guy named Christopher.  Except snow arrives, Christopher can't get up the mountain, and the electricity goes out in her cabin. So she heads next door for help and runs smack dab into Sam.  These two are like oil and water but they're snowed in, they're both horny - what happens up on the mountain stays up on the mountain AMIRITE?!?

But eventually they head back home and naturally they both still have an itch that needs scratching.  It's 12 days until Christmas - so they agree on a 12 day fling.  Have some fun, scratch the itch, they're totally wrong for each other so it's not like they're going to fall in love or anything.  Ha ha ha ha!  Silly romance couples.  Will they never learn?

I've been reading category romance a long time, and Desire is one of the shorter lines - typically clocking in a smidge over 200 pages.  I've been reading this line for close to 20 years, I know the rhythms.  What Yates does here is kind of fiddle with that rhythm - which didn't entirely work for me at first and it took a little time for me to find my footing.  Basically this book opens with chapter one then boom! Smoking hot sex scene.  Character development, what makes them tick, their baggage, the internal conflicts - Yates eventually gets the reader there but it all comes after the characters decide to hit the sheets.  And of course what happens is that these two people who think they're oil and water, actually have a lot in common - and that's when the story gets interesting.

Yates has a way of sucker-punching the reader with emotional heft in what you think is going to be a quick, sexy beach read.  The reason why Madison has been celibate for 10 years? She was a naive "in love" 17-year-old taken advantage of by a much older man, in a position of power. And when she went looking for a safe haven?  She didn't find one.  On the other foot, Sam has been celibate for 5 years after a tragedy nobody, not even his brother, is aware of.  When all this comes bubbling to the surface in the final half the book, Madison bravely stands in front of Sam and just lets it all out. The anger, the guilt, the blame, and ultimately the realization that she's fallen in love with him.  The question is - will our self-pitying hero pull his head out of his butt in time to realize it.

As great as the emotional stuff was, the pacing on this book didn't work quite as well.  I "get" why the early sex scene but it threw me off my stride for half a minute.  Also, I was confused where this book fit in the Copper Ridge series timeline for a while.  It seems like it's much later after Take Me, Cowboy but then it turns out it's only a few months?  And there's a lot of West family stuff here that I wasn't lost or confused about - but it's kind of dropped into the story, and I think it will work better for those readers who have read the single titles about Madison's various siblings first.  I'm admittedly reading out of chronological order.

But, typical Yates, this was a quick, steamy read that kept me engaged in flipping the pages.  Sexy with a heavy dollop of emotional angst.  The glom continues....

Final Grade = B-

Review: Take Me, Cowboy

I fell for Maisey Yates thanks to her work with Harlequin Presents.  Nobody writes an unapologetic fairy tale as good as Yates and she positively sings in the short contemporary format.  When I pick up one of her category romances, regardless if it entirely works for me or not, I know I'm in the hands of a pro.  My Kindle is positively stuffed with her books for this reason so I've decided a Yates mini-glom was in order.

Take Me, Cowboy is part of her Copper Ridge series and the first book in a spin-off trilogy she set in that world for Harlequin Desire.  There were a few bumpy patches but ultimately the second half of this book hit me right in the solar plexus.

Anna Brown is a tomboy.  She's got two older brothers who essentially raised her after Mom took off and in a bid to get her father to pay attention to her, hell to SEE her, she got very good working on engines.  She's now a heavy machinery mechanic with her own shop on Chase McCormack's land in Copper Ridge, Oregon.  The problem is she's been invited to a chichi party at the estate of the town's most prominent family and her brothers, ass-hats that they are, tease her that she couldn't possibly land a date.  Anna, never one to back down from a challenge and frankly, looking for a change, takes that bet.  She just didn't plan on her BFF, Chase, picking up the mantle.

Chase's parents died in an accident, leaving him and his hermit-like brother Sam running the family ranch, which includes their iron works business.  Chase, haunted by the last words he spoke to his father, is determined to turn the family ranch around and for that? He needs an invite to that fancy party.  Anna is his ticket in.  He just, you know, needs to be her Henry Higgins. Naturally, they both get more than they bargained for.

Friends-to-Lovers with Pygmalion tossed in for extra seasoning - this is basically Wendy Crack.  Anna's hormones have been tripping over Chase for a while now, but he's such a man-whore with "a type," plus Anna has no desire to potentially wreck the one true friendship she has to her name.  Chase is a love 'em and leave 'em type - having his pick of women, enjoying some fun times, but never-ever staying the night or frankly going out on second date.  So yeah, a real prince.  This was the first bumpy patch for me.  The references to Chase's "type" and how he treated those other women. I mean, I get it. Chances are very good those other women knew what they were signing up for, but my tolerance for this sort of hero behavior has ebbed considerably over the years.

The other bump was Anna's lack of experience.  She's slept with one guy, exactly one time.  She doesn't see what all the fuss is about when it comes to sex.  Look, I get it.  Anna's emotional baggage is such that I understood why she wasn't running through men like Kleenex but Chase, inevitably, goes all gooey thinking about her lack of experience once they start "doing it" and ugh - can we set this trope on fire already?  On the bright side, Anna isn't dead below the waist and has experienced plenty of orgasms on her own prior to Chase and his magic doodle arriving on the scene.

So what did I like?  Everything else.  Anna is a straight shooter with an underlying vulnerability that I find very appealing in a romance heroine.  The world isn't kind to plain-speaking women and underneath all that Anna has her insecurities like we all do.  I also loved how brave she was.  OMG, The Black Moment in this book is amaze-balls.  Anna, straight shooter that she is, just lays it all out there.  Opens herself up, pours out all her vulnerabilities, plainly tells Chase how and what she feels and naturally he's a thundering, scaredy-pants jackass about it.  Anna is an effin' rockstar.

That's what makes this book for me.  Yates can write a jackass hero with the best of 'em (hey, she writes Presents after all!) but it's her heroines that keep me coming back for more. Because her heroines give as good as they get and don't back down.  Anna, will you marry me?

Final Grade = B

Unusual Historical Top Picks for May 2020

Not even COVID-19 can stop the arrival of Spring. Romancelandia, my sincere wish for all of us during this time is that we snatch our moments of joy where we can find them. Mine has taste-testing new tea blends from a company I learned about on Facebook (hey, it’s not a complete dumpster fire over there…), getting back into a reading groove, and, of course, hunting up new unusual historicals. Here’s what is catching my eye for May.

Melissa and the Vicar by S.M. LaViolette (Kindle Unlimited)

Melissa Griffin is quite literally sick and tired. She’s the owner of one of London’s most exclusive brothels, but her failing health is telling her she can’t continue to keep working at her current pace. A relaxing stay in the country is exactly what she needs. Falling for the small town’s gorgeous young vicar—a virgin, no less—was never part of her plan. Their love is scandalous, forbidden…and everything Melissa never knew she wanted. Denying her feelings is unthinkable. Avoiding devastation when her past inevitably drives them apart? Impossible.  

Magnus Stanwyck never resented his vow of celibacy…until meeting Melissa. As beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside, the mysterious woman captures his heart in a way he never could’ve anticipated. No matter what stands between them, no matter the cost, he'll do whatever it takes to possess her—heart, body, and soul.  

By day, they’re opposites who were never supposed to be together. By night, their passion threatens to overtake them. When all is said and done, can Melissa and Magnus overcome the obstacles (and enemies) that stand between them? Or will fate deny them their happily ever after? 

I started reading romance during an era when virgin heroines were still ruling the roost so any time that trope gets subverted I will throw my money around like a drunken sailor on shore leave. A burnt-out madam heroine takes a country vacation and falls for a virginal vicar. This needs to get in my eyeballs like yesterday. LaViolette is a pen name for author Minerva Spencer.

Leather and Lace by Rebel Carter (Kindle Unlimited)

What do you do when you've been chasing the wrong dream your entire life?

Mary Sophia James came to Gold Sky, Montana to find a husband at the insistence of her overbearing mother. Striking out in spectacular fashion after setting her eye on Julian Baptiste, her options are dwindling, and time is running out. She needs to find a man to marry before her condition becomes...obvious. Her mother's prejudice and sharp tongue aren't helping matters and Mary, to her shame, hasn't behaved much better. But all her plans are upended when she spots the most beautiful person she's ever seen across the town square. Alex Pierce is strong, intriguing, looks stunning in a pair of trousers...and a woman.  

Gold Sky is accepting of all types of love, and that between women is no different. Still, Alex didn't expect to be so floored by the sight of the fiery haired, yet fragile looking young woman. Mary needs to be married and Alex has a solution. Because in Gold Sky, Montana there are many ways to be married...and not all of them include a man. 

This novella, part of Carter’s diverse Gold Sky series, finds a pregnant heroine traveling west to bag a husband (and quickly!) only to fall for a woman. The events of this story run parallel to the timeline of the second book, Hearth and Home.

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles

Will Darling came back from the Great War with a few scars, a lot of medals, and no idea what to do next. Inheriting his uncle’s chaotic second-hand bookshop is a blessing...until strange visitors start making threats. First a criminal gang, then the War Office, both telling Will to give them the information they want, or else.

Will has no idea what that information is, and nobody to turn to, until Kim Secretan—charming, cultured, oddly attractive—steps in to offer help. As Kim and Will try to find answers and outrun trouble, mutual desire grows along with the danger.  

And then Will discovers the truth about Kim. His identity, his past, his real intentions. Enraged and betrayed, Will never wants to see him again.  

But Will possesses knowledge that could cost thousands of lives. Enemies are closing in on him from all sides—and Kim is the only man who can help.  

A 1920s m/m romance trilogy in the spirit of Golden Age pulp fiction. 

A new K.J. Charles series already drawing raves, I mean what is not to love about this set-up? You’ve got a WWI hero who finds himself embroiled in some sort of nefarious plot and...he’s got no idea what’s going on. In steps our other hero who, naturally, is not all that he seems. One-clicking this so hard.

Stages of the Heart by Jo Goodman

Experience has taught Laurel to be suspicious of the men who pass through Morrison Station. She's been running the lucrative operation that connects Colorado's small frontier town of Falls Hollow with the stagecoach line since she inherited it from her father, and she's not about to let some wandering cowboy take over the reins. But newcomer McCall Landry isn't just any gunslinger. He seems to genuinely care for Laurel, and with his rugged good looks and mysterious past, he could be the one man to finally tempt her off track...

Call Landry doesn't expect much from Falls Hollow. He doesn't expect much from anything anymore. But Laurel Morrison took him by surprise when she put in a good word for him, a virtual stranger, after the stagecoach was robbed--and she keeps taking him by surprise. Charmed by her clever wit and fierce loyalty, Call finds himself falling hard. Now all he has to do is convince her he means to stay--in her bed, in her life, and in her heart. 

Really, all I need to say is that it’s Jo Goodman and a western - but some of y’all probably want a little more. Goodman writes books you can sink your teeth into and a big reason I’m drawn to historical westerns is that I’m, more often than not, going to get a heroine with some gumption and backbone. A heroine who runs a stagecoach station? I am here for this.

Falling for her Viking Captive by Harper St. George

Capturing the Viking warrior In her cellar… 

Lady Annis must stop Viking Rurik Sigurdsson from discovering the truth about his family’s death. Her only solution is to imprison him. But as the ruggedly handsome Viking starts to charm his way out of his cell and into her heart, can she be sure he’s not still intent on vengeance—or perhaps an unexpected alliance is the solution? 

The second book in the multi-author Sons of Sigurd series, who doesn’t love a heroine holding a hero captive? I’ve enjoyed previous Viking-set historicals by St. George so this is an easy one-click. 

Outlaw Bride by Jenna Kernan

She’ll do anything to save her family … even break an outlaw out of prison.  

When Bridget Callahan’s family is stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains by early snows, she seeks the help of the one man capable of taking on such a perilous rescue. Unfortunately, he is a condemned killer — sentenced to hang.  

Cole Ellis has vowed never to return to the mountains but, facing the hangman’s noose, he agrees to help Bridget rescue her family in return for his freedom. Now he wonders if he has traded a quick death for a slow one. 

But, as they set out with a posse in pursuit and the menacing mountains ahead, she wonders if trusting this dangerous, enigmatic man might be the biggest risk of all. 

Originally published in 2008 by Harlequin Historical, I am here to tell you that I loved this book 12 years ago. A hero on a suicide mission (he steals the mayor’s horse!), a heroine full of gumption and fire, all wrapped up in a frontier-style western where you wonder if the couple will make it out alive. This is one of Kernan’s gems, don’t miss it.

What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to?

#TBRChallenge 2020: The Lady's Companion

The Book: The Lady's Companion by Carla Kelly

The Particulars: Traditional Regency, Signet, 1996, Out of print, available in digital edition

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and ebooks weren't "a thing," books went out of print - sometimes quickly. If you didn't buy a category romance or Trad Regency the month it was released you were then at the mercy of scouring used bookstores. Given how many trad fans rave about Kelly, I made it a point to always buy her books when I stumbled across them in used bookstores. So they then, of course, could languish in my TBR.

The Review: I fell for romance just as the Trad Regency was gasping it's last few breaths and it's not a sub genre I gravitate towards naturally.  In those early days I was drawn to westerns, got burnt out on the Regency era just as Light Historicals were glutting the market, got my head turned by erotic romance and my love of short, tight reads fixated on short contemporary category romance.  But I got in the habit of buying up Carla Kelly and Mary Balogh books as I stumbled across them during used bookstore jaunts.  It's been an indecent age since I've read a Trad and boy howdy - this one was a gem!

Miss Susan Hampton is an old maid of twenty-five who has been patiently waiting for her come out that her father has been promising for years upon years.  The problem is that Daddy is a degenerate gambler.  They're still in their London house by the skin of their teeth, with barely any servants left, not enough coal to keep them warm, and furniture being sold off bit by bit until, you guessed, Daddy loses the house in a turn of the cards.  They have no choice but to move in with her father's sister, a woman who in no uncertain terms says she has the futures of her own daughters to secure.  Susan sees her life stretching out before her.  Her father determined to keep them on this long, slow road to ruin, their name whispered about among the ton, a poor relation who will be her Aunt's fetch-and-carry girl.  What man will want a woman with no dowry and a father-in-law who would surely bleed him dry?  Her father is horrified when Susan suggests he might, oh, get a job (good Lord, their kind do NOT work!) and fed up with her destiny being left to the whims of others - she decides she's going to get a job.

She lands as a lady's companion to the Dowager Lady Bushnell, a hard-as-tack widow who followed her husband, a colonel, across the continent on various campaigns and raised two children.  Her husband, son and daughter all gone, she's living in the country determined to keep her independence much to the chagrin of her daughter-in-law who wants to see her cossetted and well cared for in her old age.  But the dowager is made of sterner stuff and has chased off a few companions already.  What Susan needs is an ally - who appears in the form of the bailiff, David Wiggins.  A former sergeant under Lord Bushnell's command, he owes the Bushnells his life.  He takes one look at Susan and inevitably, sparks fly.

Original cover art

What we have here is a romance novel for grown-ups.  Characters who have real problems and don't act like flibbertigibbets.  Coy verbal flirting between the hero and heroine.  And honest-to-goodness obstacles true to the time period and not swept under the rug.  Susan's family name is most definitely tattered but her blood is still blue and David?  Welsh, raised in an orphanage, a former poacher and thief who found himself on the continent fighting Napoleon and being disciplined at the end of a whip when the Dowager intervened.  Even if you disregard Susan's useless relations, the classism alone is enough worthy romantic conflict to propel a whole shelf full of novels, let alone a tightly plotted, song-worthy 200 page Regency.

It sagged a tiny bit in the middle for me, but Kelly pulls out all the stops with an emotionally gut-churning finish.  There's a moment at the final chapters when Susan's aunt does something so heartbreaking I wanted to shove my hands through the pages and happily throttle the woman.  And the *chef's kiss* Black Moment between Susan and David - when words are spoken in anger and the reader KNOWS by this point how perfect they are together, how deeply in love, and it was like Kelly ripped my heart from my chest and happily danced a jig on it before resuscitating me back to life with a swoony happy ending.

I'm not doing this book justice, but take my word for it - it's so, so good.  It's a minor miracle that cooler heads prevailed and I didn't stay up half the night to finish it (but only because I literally could no longer keep my eyes open).  Mature, lovely, wonderfully romantic with a pitch-perfect hero and a heroine with gumption in an era when that would not have been easy.  When I finished I wanted to turn back to Chapter One and fall back into this world all over again.

Final Grade = A

Library Loot Mini-Reviews: Time to Take a Break from Gothics

I love Gothics, the word alone causing a Pavlovian-like response in me.  I loved them as a teen and the genre kicks off a wave of nostalgia in me.  When I want comfort reading? Nostalgia is usually the first place I turn.  Well, after this latest round of Gothic reading thanks to the Day Job, I'm regretting my life choices.  I'm also left with the feeling that I wish it were morally ethical to clone Simone St. James.

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey is set at the start of World War II and features a heroine desperate to hang on to her job with the Natural History Museum. She's a woman, has already made a fairly big blunder (albeit it was an accident) but the men are all getting shipped off to war and options are limited.  So her bosses let it be known she's on the short leash as she evacuates with the mammal collection to Lockwood Manor to keep the prized collection safe from German bombs.  The Lord of the Manor is a recent widower whose wife was "mad" (of course she was...) and whose daughter, the heroine's age, is "fragile."  Soon exhibits are going missing and the various disasters are mounting up.

The atmosphere is pitch-perfect but glaciers move faster than this story.  It takes forever to go anywhere - even at the 50% mark there wasn't a whole lot happening.  It's a lot of living inside the heroine's head as her paranoia increases and dark secrets come spilling out into the light.  When it finally starts going somewhere (anywhere!) the various secrets take a lurid turn.  On the plus side, it's queer - with the heroine and fragile daughter entering into a relationship.  I didn't know that going into the book and it was a pleasant surprise. But seriously, this was slow and very much meh.  YMMV but seriously....meh.

Final Grade = C

Enjoyment of The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James will hinge entirely on if the reader feels that Gothics are genre fiction.  I do. They're an amalgamation of genre (suspense, horror and romance) but Gothics are a genre.  And the whole point of genre fiction is to fulfill a promise to the reader.  The promise that Gothics make is that evil will be vanquished.  Doesn't matter if that evil is human or supernatural - Evil. Will. Be. Vanquished.

In 1947 our heroine with Big Secrets grabs the brass ring of a governess job at Winterbourne on the rocky shores of Cornwall.  Her employer is a scarred, haunted widower with two precocious (and creepy) twins (a boy and a girl).  Their mother died tragically, as did the last governess.  In present day New York, our other heroine, her adoptive parents gone, has just opened an art gallery and is in a superficial relationship with a billionaire playboy-type.  Then she gets a letter that she's inherited Winterbourne.  That biological family she's always yearned to know?  Yeah, they've found her - albeit she's the only one left.  And now she has a giant crumbling Gothic manor on the Cornish coast.

This is standard issue Gothic. The "hero" with dark secrets, a heroine whose mental state is unraveling, a creepy house, two creepy kids, and supernatural shenanigans.  The present day story line anchors it all, gives that heroine a local Cornish love interest, and eventually everything converges as 21st century heroine unravels the supernatural mystery.

So what's the problem?  Well, it all comes to a head, evil is vanquished, things don't end well in 1947 but 21st century heroine is on her way to a happy ending.  But then the author couldn't leave well enough alone.  She tacks on a couple more chapters and basically yells "Gothca!"  That "happy ending" that our 21st century heroine was getting?  Yeah, she's screwed.  In the final couple of chapters.  And not in a good way.  The whole affair ends on a dark, depressing downbeat and now I want to burn everything to the frickin' ground.  In short?  Evil is not vanquished.  Wendy Mad! Wendy Smash!

If you don't think Gothics are genre and you don't think they carry a promise to the reader - then you might like this one.  Me?  I wanted to storm the manor gates with an army carrying torches and pitchforks.

Final Grade = D-

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is May 20

A reminder that #TBRChallenge day is Wednesday, May 20.  This month's (always optional) theme is Old School.

Define Old School however you wish. A book that's been in your TBR a long time? A book that was published many moons ago?  A book featuring older characters?  Any way you think to apply the optional theme - anything goes!

However, if you're not in the mood, can't be bothered, whatever your reasons may be....no problem!  Remember, the themes are always optional.

You can learn more about the Challenge and see the list of participating folks on the Information Page.

Library Loot Mini-Reviews: Earnest Pretentiousness

Yes, librarians use the library.  At least this librarian does. I also, apparently, haven't figured out that I can suspend my holds because they all came in at once.  So it's time for more library reading mini-reviews!

I read about Pulp by Robin Talley over at Love in Panels and was intrigued by the set-up.  Present-day teenager, still pining for her ex-girlfriend, troubled by her parents' unraveling marriage and, normally an exceptional student, letting her studies slide at her chichi Washington D.C. magnate high school. She has a big project due in her creative writing class, the kind that's pretty much thesis-like, and in a mad scramble for an idea (an idea!) lands on writing about 1950s lesbian pulp novels.  That's how she learns about "Marian Love," who wrote a seminal lesbian pulp novel in the late '50s and dropped off the face of the Earth.

This is a time-slip novel that goes between our heroine in present day and "Marian Love" in the 1950s - an 18-year-old girl, in the closet, living at home with her McCarthy-disciple parents.  This one took a while to catch fire for me, mostly because I found the characters in the present day storyline earnest in the extreme.  They're activist kids (not a complaint) but also self-absorbed in that special way that teenagers have about them.  But look, I'm old. I'm not the target audience. And I was a teenager once upon a time. Pretty sure my parents' generation thought the same thing about me and my friends. YMMV.  Anyway, what kept me moving forward on this book was the 1950s storyline and the present day heroine's sleuthing to find the real "Marian Love."  Oh how I wanted to get to that moment when these two meet!  It's romantic elements but doesn't have a traditional happy ending - which honestly, is fine.  The final "lesson" is that teenage girls, well your life is just beginning.  Grab it by the giblets.  Final Grade = B-

I'm Your Huckleberry by Val Kilmer is a memoir that should be good. Instead it's scattershot and gets lost in the weeds.  He talks about his movies, but on a superficial level.  He talks about his past girlfriends, but doesn't really unpack that baggage.  Why did they break up? Why is he divorced?  Insert shrug emoji.  Reading in between the lines, and through this book, it's probably because Kilmer is borderline insufferable.  There's lots of spiritual talk in this book - Kilmer being a practicing Christian Scientist.  But he wanders off into these spiritual musings and...not why I'm reading your book dude.  I mean, I guess I should have clued in sooner when I realized he was a great friend and admirer of Marlon Brando.  Insert hand smacking forehead emoji.

If you're read any of the articles or reviews for this book, honestly you've already got all the juicy bits.  The only revelation missing so far is this one I'll share with you.  Contrary to press coverage from when she was dating John-John, Daryl Hannah and Jackie O were great friends.  Jackie LIKED Daryl.  They spent time together before Jackie died.  Although I'd argue that Jackie may have liked Daryl but possibly becoming the wife to the Crown Prince is another kettle of fish entirely.

I burned through this on audio in a matter of a couple of days, but mostly to be done with it.  This should have been good.  Narrator: It was not.  Final Grade = D

Library Loot Mini-Reviews: Sexy Times and Gothic Gone Wrong

I realize this is going to sound silly coming from someone who has a TBR pile that can be seen from space, but I miss being able to just casually wander into public spaces where books congregate.  Never mind that I don't read a ton in print these days - I miss the ability to walk into a bookstore or library just to browse.  COVID-19 has had a way of making me appreciate life's small joys.

I find myself spending a lot of time at The Day Job right now trolling through our digital collections and naturally, I find myself putting my own name on some holds lists.  Since all my holds seem to be coming in at once? I thought it would be fun to highlight some of my recent library borrowing with mini-reviews.

I'm always game when Harlequin launches a new line but to be honest none of the blurbs on the early Dare books sparked my imagination.  There's been a few recently however, and Hotter On Ice by Rebecca Hunter is the most recent.  How do I want to phrase this?  How about meh.  My issue so far with the Dare line (or at least the books in the Dare line I've read...) has been that while the sex is hot, the books lack what drives me to read romance in the first place - all the angsty emotional messiness that can lurk between the pages.  There's just not a ton of emotional oomph and I LOVE emotional oomph.  That being said, my sample size so far on the line is ridiculously small so it could just be I haven't found the right book yet.

This is book four in a series about a bunch of guys who work at a security agency.  Our hero in this book is former law enforcement who was injured in a drug raid gone wrong and he's now the computer surveillance guy for this agency.  Anyway, the heroine is a model who's ex-boyfriend turned out to be a stalker douchebag.  He hasn't been bothering her for a while, but she's also been keeping a lower profile.  She's landed a modeling gig in Sweden (at an ice hotel) and her former bodyguard just married her younger sister - so she needs a new bodyguard.  Enter our hero.  There's some slow burn angst in the backstory (he was monitoring her security cameras prior to them meeting in the flesh) and it's got a Beauty and the Beast vibe.  Liked that the douchebag ex stays firmly off-page and that the heroine stands up for herself in the end but the romance felt very "surface" to me - again, because the lack of emotional oomph.  But it's a quick read and this is very much a YMMV sort of critique.  My final grade is waffling between a B- and C+

I heard about The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni at the PLA (Public Library Association) conference and the magic word was used: "Gothic."  My Pavlovian response kicked in and the rest is a whole mountain of regrets.  Warning: THERE SHALL BE SPOILERS!

The heroine, an only child, whose marriage is on the skids and whose grandparents AND parents are all gone - finds out she's the heir to a frickin' castle in a remote mountainous area of Italy.  She goes to said crumbling castle which is home to a few creepy servants, a great-aunt by marriage and whoa-ho! Her creepy great-grandmother.  Her grandfather fled Italy right after the war - why?  Creepiness, of course!

The book starts out in classic Gothic horror fashion. The great-grandmother is painted as a monster, there are shenanigans afoot and then whamo! Turns out there's a secret tribe of lost people living in the mountains (painted as genetic ancestor-like throwbacks) that Dear Old Granny has been taking care of.  The heroine runs off to the mountains to live with them and it's part white savior narrative, part Dances With Wolves rip-off.  All that Gothic horror stuff in the first half?  Completely out the window.  Now it's all genetics and how the heroine's great-great whatever douchebag lived with the tribe and felt the only way for them to survive was for them to mate with regular ol' people like himself - but instead it all kind of goes sideways.

I just - what the heck even is this?!  And why did I keep listening to this audiobook?!  Especially when evil monster great-granny turns out to be some misunderstood white savior looking after these poor ol' tribal folk who can't take care of themselves?  Honestly, it's all kind of gross and SOOOOOO disappointing.  Stupid Pavlovian response. Regrets, I haz them.  Final Grade = D-

Unusual Historical Highlights for April 2020

Somehow we’ve ended up in April. I’m not sure how it happened but one moment I was looking forward to burying 2019 out in the desert like a Las Vegas mobster and then the next I’m trying to figure out how to do my job in a post-COVID-19 world. On the bright side, I’m past a string of books I was obligated to read for various reasons and I’m diving head first into comfort reading. For me that means category romance, mysteries and historical romance. Because nothing will take me away faster than a time period I’m not currently living in. Here are some of the unusual historicals landing in April that caught my browsing eye.

Forbidden Warrior by Kris Kennedy

An Irish warrior takes an arrogant heiress captive to ensure a debt is paid. What could possibly go wrong?  

Irish warrior Máel has come to a grand tournament to collect what's due him from a scheming noble lord. When the baron cannot--or will not--pay, Máel takes the one thing the man holds dear: his beautiful, arrogant daughter, Cassia.  

Lady Cassia d'Argent has no time for warriors.  

Heiress to a barony, she knows her value: a pawn. She intends to make the most of it. Her wily father plans to wed her off to the highest bidder at the tournament, and Cassia will finally achieve her dream: a chivalrous knight in glittering armor to honor and esteem her.  

Only Máel is nothing like her dreams. He is bold, outspoken, has furs on his bed, and awakens a desire inside her more dangerous than a thousand swords.  

What if this man becomes the dream she never dared to dream?  

What if her father never pays the debt?  

Worse...what if he does?  

Can she rely on an outlaw to be more chivalrous than a knight? 

Kennedy is a criminally underrated historical romance author with an RWA Golden Heart on her resume. She writes what I call Very Medieval Medievals - which is to say the only way she’d know wallpaper is if she moonlighted as an interior designer. This is the first book in a multi-author series, so more medieval tournament fun is on the horizon.

The Hidalgo’s Wife by Genevieve Turner

He wants a lady, not a temptation…  

When Alejandro Vasquez sends for a wife from Mexico City, the glittering capital of New Spain, he imagines a lady of refinement and breeding—not an enchantress who tests his iron will. With secrets to protect, he’s determined to resist her allure and keep his carefully constructed life from falling to pieces.  

The California frontier is nothing like home…  

Josefa expects to find adventure and a long-awaited family to call her own when she agrees to marry Alejandro. But Alta California is shockingly unrefined—no society, no watercolors, no books. At least her husband is the perfect gentleman… and utterly distant and unapproachable, in and out of the bedroom. Josefa refuses to settle for anything less than the passionate union of her dreams, and she’ll do whatever it takes to set her husband’s heart free.  

But secrets and danger lurk, threatening to tear their newly formed bonds apart. Will they cling to their safe illusions about what love should be or dare to seize a future beyond their wildest imaginings? 

A lady used to the refinement of Mexico City and eager for family finds herself in backwater California with a distant husband. No matter, we know that these are mere bumps in the road for an intrepid romance heroine! Turner writes in an era of California history that has largely been ignored in historical romance - western fans should take note. 

The Flapper’s Fake Fiance by Lauri Robinson

 An inconvenient attraction…  

To her convenient fiancé!  

Patsy Dryer may be a biddable heiress by day, but nothing will stop her from dancing all night in Hollywood’s speakeasies—or fulfilling her dream of becoming a reporter. She’s investigating the mystery of an escaped convict with brooding, handsome newspaper editor Lane Cox…until they must pretend to be engaged! With their scoop linked to Lane’s tragic past, dare Patsy hope for a happy ending for their own story, too? 

Good girl with a rebellious streak finds herself in a pretend engagement in order to ferret out a story. Heroine reporters can go wrong in a lot of ways, but I see promise in this back cover blurb (it sounds like the heroine knows how to play the game!) and a brooding, handsome newspaper editor with a mystery attached? I’m in.

The Thief by Bonnie Dee

Street hustler Jody plays any role that will win the confidence of a mark. His sights are set on Lord Cyril Belmont, a potential ticket to financial freedom that could change Jody’s life. With a fake investment scheme in mind and larceny in his heart, he sets a snare for the wealthy gentleman.  

Cyril Belmont may have a title but he’s as broke as a china plate and on the verge of selling his dilapidated country estate to start a new life in America. When his quiet, solitary life is invaded by a bright, passionate man who sets his head spinning, Cyril is ready to share whatever he has with the electrifying stranger—including the deepest recesses of his heart.  

As Jody begins to cultivate inexplicable feelings for the sweet, gentle man who raises rare orchids, he intends to end his seduction and slink back to the ghetto. But then his cover is blown and the budding romance is crushed.  

It takes an ocean voyage and several unexpected twists of fate to bring two strangers to a true understanding of each other and the very real bond they share. 

Set in the early 20th century, a conman hero falls for his not-so-wealthy mark. This one promises plenty of intrigue, secrets and there’s a ton of potential angst dripping between the lines of this back cover blurb. Plus there’s an ocean voyage! 

The Warrior Knight and the Widow by Ella Matthews

Protected by The Beast…  

Undone by the man  

Racing cross-country pursued by danger, widow Lady Ellena Swein isn’t pleased to be taken back to her father’s castle. But with his knight Sir Braedan Leofric, also known as The Beast, as her captor, she has little choice! Ellena is surprised by his honorable and protective nature, even if she shouldn’t trust him. And when all seems to conspire against them, Braedan’s secret could either extinguish the spark between them—or make it burn brighter...

Another medieval for April, this one from debut author Ella Matthews. This is book 1 in a two-book deal with Harlequin Historical and features an Beauty & the Beast trope with a dash of enemies-to-lovers and road romance for good measure. All of it Wendy Catnip.

What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to this month?

#TBRChallenge 2020: The Lady Flees Her Lord

The Book: The Lady Flees Her Lord by Ann Lethbridge

The Particulars: Historical romance, 2008, Sourcebooks, Out of Print, Rights Reverted / Available Self-published digital edition

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: According to my notes I picked up the Sourcebooks edition of this historical romance (published under the author's Michele Ann Young name) at RWA 2009 (Washington D.C.). So yes, this book has been in my TBR for over 10 years. Don't hate the player, hate the game.  Anyway, I know I picked this up because, if memory serves, Sourcebooks was fairly new to the whole romance thing at the time and I knew that Young was also Ann Lethbridge, who I was familiar with from her work with Harlequin Historical.  So taking a flier to pick up this book, for free, seemed like a safe bet.  Ahem, even if it did languish in my TBR for 10 years....

The Review: I haven't read many historical romances so far in 2020 and this one went down like comfort food.  Like if macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes had a baby.  It didn't hold a lot of surprises, and it gets a wee melodramatic at the end, but the pages easily turned and I liked the characters.  It didn't change my life, but believe me I've stumbled on way worse lurking in the depths of my TBR.

Lucinda, Lady Denbigh is married to a vile man. Oh she once thought she was so lucky - a plump, full-figured gal who bagged a handsome, very eligible man - only to discover he only wanted her for her father's money and to be a broodmare.  Years into the marriage, she's barren, he berates her as a cold fish, and heaps emotional abuse on her.  Worse still, his gambling is out of control and he's fallen in with a distasteful crowd.  She has no choice but to flee in the middle of the night.

Through a series of happenstance she picks up an orphaned infant girl along the way.  Yes, it's the height of melodrama but stick with me here.  Anyway, Lucinda tries to find the child's "mother" fast because she needs to get the heck out of London.  But that doesn't happen, there's no time, and the idea of placing the child in a foundling home turns her stomach.  She's ached to become a mother, so why not now?  Plus the kid provides a certain amount of camouflage. Lady Denbigh, after all, is barren.

Original Cover

She ends up in Kent, renting the dower house from Lord Hugo Wanstead, a fact he only learns after he nearly runs her daughter down with his horse.  Newly returned from the war, where he was injured, Hugo finds his country estate in disrepair thanks to Dear Old Dad.  His injury pains him, he's Brooding with a Capital B, and wants Lucinda gone - only to realize 1) she paid a year's worth rent in advance (which, that's explained) and 2) he's flat broke and his estate manager was desperate for the infusion of cash.

We all know where this is going.  Hugo and Lucinda are a perfect match but she is holding back the mother of all secrets and he's got emotional baggage up the wazoo thanks to his father and a dead wife.  He's in lust with Lucinda from the moment he lays eyes on her - he's a rather large man and she's all soft, lush curves in all the right places.  Soon she's bringing him out of his shell, he's playing Lord of the manor, and everybody in town is taken with her.  But wouldn't you know it? Her past comes back to haunt her. Because of course it does.

This was a quick one-day read for me (and it's single title length - so right book, right time - a true Calgon-take-me-away read) although anytime Lucinda's husband is on page it's a tough go.  I understand that infidelity is a non-starter for a lot of romance readers, but seriously this guy is such an a-hole that you want him to get absolutely everything that's coming to him.  His emotional abuse is hard to read, berating her for her weight, her frigidity, forcing her on a diet etc.  He's also prepared to essentially prostitute her out, which is ultimately what tips the scales to her fleeing in the dead of night. 

Extricating Lucinda from Denbigh was a definite factor in the speed in which I kept turning the pages. This was Regency England, so a woman divorcing a husband, albeit an abusive a-hole of a husband, would not have been easy (heck, it's not easy now) and Lethbridge puts a clever bow on that particular package.  Oh sure, it's the height of melodrama and a bit out of left field but it IS interesting and I'm down with interesting.

The sex scenes got a bit purple for my tastes, but I believe these two crazy kids are well-suited and well-matched, although Lucinda reverting back a bit at the end to damsel annoyed me a tinch.  I liked this world that Lethbridge created, and since republishing this book she's followed it up with a sequel about one of the heroine's brothers.  Good, not great, but time I don't regret spending.

Final Grade = B-