#TBRChallenge 2023: Historical Romance Novella Round-Up

I got a spring head cold a few weeks back that turned out to be a bit of a vampire. It was my first cold since before COVID (I know!) and it wiped me out. Lucky me, I got better just in time for My Man to come down with it! So, yeah. My reading mojo got derailed for a bit and this month's TBR Challenge snuck up on me.  My answer to this? Find some novellas, and quick! Which worked out well for this month's Freebie theme. I like to read short, I like novellas, so when authors offer them up as promotional free downloads, I tend to snap up them up.  I ended up devouring three of them late one night and like all things novellas - it was a decidedly mixed bag.

First up was A Sweet Surrender by Lena Hart, which I downloaded back in 2017 and was originally published in the For Love & Liberty anthology that also featured Be Not Afraid by Alyssa Cole.  Set during the American Revolution, this one features a half-Native, half-Black heroine and a British officer dude she nurses back to health after he's wounded in an ambush.  

Here's the problem, it features all the problematic "stuff" readers have come to expect in romances featuring indigenous people and colonizers - and a novella is just too little room to adequately explore that. On top of that there's a heaping dose of dubious consent (she says "no," he convinces her otherwise...) and these two decide they're madly in love with each other at a lightning pace.  It's wildly uneven. In order for a story like this to have a chance of working, it needs to be a doorstopper saga. Multigenerational wouldn't hurt either.  As a novella?  Nope.  Also, the story itself is around 80 pages, but the Kindle edition clocks in at 152, which means you get a rather large excerpt for the second story in the series after this one ends. Not a big deal for me since I downloaded this for free, but I know that kind of thing really irritates some readers.  

Final Grade = D

I don't have a record of downloading The French Maid by Sabrina Jeffries from Big Brother Amazon, which means I'm pretty sure I got this as a free download at (most likely) an RWA conference.  This is a short story that clocks in around 30 pages. The writing is smooth, and I liked the story - but it's also the kind of story that if you look at it for too long it starts to irritate you.  

Our heroine is no raving beauty, but she's smart and well-connected, making her the perfect wife for our hero with ambitions to one day be Prime Minister.  They've been married a year and she's feeling neglected. He's the type of guy who schedules intimacy with his wife (Wednesday nights) and the rest of the time he pays about as much attention to her as a potted plant.  When her lady's maid leaves their employment to marry, he does have the presence of mind to hire his wife a new one (a French one!) but of course doesn't consult her on this matter in the least. 

The moral of this story is that marriage takes work and if you neglect it, it will die on the vine. I liked that Babette basically tells the heroine, "Yeah, he's neglecting you but what exactly have you done about it? (The answer is nothing, the heroine is suffering in silence) You're both being lazy." Of course how do these two start to come together? A makeover of course. It takes the hero seeing the heroine all prettied up to start the process of getting his head out of his ass, and if I think about that too long I'm just annoyed.  Look pretty girls or be doomed to a life of neglect from your husband.

Final Grade = C

Harlequin has about as much luck with novella lines (see: Harlequin Historical Undone, Spice Briefs and Carina Press's Dirty Bits) as they do romantic comedy category romance lines, but I liked Undone. They were quick, short, and typically ran sexier than regular Harlequin Historicals. I thought I had read all the ones I owned, but then I found An Imprudent Lady by Elaine Golden buried on my Kindle, having downloaded it as a freebie back in 2011!

The heroine (a Lady) is in her 30s and officially a dried up old spinster. When she was younger she fell passionately in love with a doctor's son - a mere mister. This was a scandal of epic proportions for her parents, so they pull all the strings and bingo-bango, the hero's exiled to India.  Well, guess what? He's back. Her father may be dead, but her mother has a dang fit of apoplexy.  With the youngest daughter having her first Season and Evil Mama determined to make an excellent match, the scandal reigniting is the last thing they need!  Of course the heroine and hero are still hung up on each other, and as the story moves forward we learn the lengths the heroine's family went to to keep the two star-crossed lovers apart.

If you're a fan of the star-crossed trope, this one really worked for me. There's secrets, there's lies, and it's all in a short enough package (80 pages) that it never wears out it's welcome.  There's also passion and sizzle between the couple, with some well done sexy-times to spice up the proceedings.  It's the first book in a trilogy of novellas, with the youngest daughter and the heroine's older brother getting their own stories.  I can't believe I missed this one the first go around (I read SO many of these Undones back in the day!) but I was glad to find it now.

Final Grade = B

Redemption Road: Unusual Historical Picks for September 2021

I'm currently mired in a slump, which always makes browsing for unusual historicals a bit fraught. A reminder that as I cull my way through the dumpster fire that is Amazon's algorithm (I also check individual publisher web sites) I'm looking for the unusual that catches my (personal) eye. Not all titles make the cut for that reason, and when I'm in a slump? I have to go through the "is it me or is it the blurb?" song and dance.  Still, September does offer plenty to intrigue, even a grumpy gus like myself.  
 

A Blues Singer to Redeem Him by Elle Jackson 

Nights at the speakeasy… 

Spark a dangerous romance 

Evelyn Laroque’s performances at Lorenzo De Luca’s Kansas City blues club draw even bigger crowds than his bootleg whiskey. And every time he hears her voice, Lorenzo falls a little harder for the achingly beautiful blues singer. When Evelyn becomes a target for the KKK, Lorenzo faces an impossible choice. Will this son of a gangster turn to the mob if it’s the only way to protect the woman he loves?

So I've been looking forward to this one since I first heard about it some months back, and I really need to read my ARC soon - which has gotten pushed due to other commitments.  Now I want to make sure I'm in the right mindset for it (see current slump).  It opens with the heroine living through the Tulsa Race Massacre and then moves to 1926 Kansas City.  I mean, if you're going for villains in a historical romance, it doesn't get much more villainous than the KKK and hopefully the mobster hero will work OK for yours truly (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't).  Sigh. Also, love this cover. Think that dress is appropriate librarian office attire? Asking for a friend.

A Yuletide Kiss by Madeline Hunter, Sabrina Jeffries and Mary Jo Putney

The reigning queens of Regency Romance return with another delightful Christmas collection of three sparkling holiday romances, as stranded travelers find merriment, mistletoe, and holiday romance awaiting at a quaint country inn . . . 

THE UNEXPECTED GIFT by Madeline Hunter 

Jenna Waverly has closed her inn, anticipating a blissfully quiet Christmas, until a snowstorm brings the first of several strangers to her property. Lucas Avonwood, as charming as he is secretive, is on a mission to track down a scoundrel, but the inn’s lovely owner is giving him a more compelling reason to stay . . . 

WHEN WE FINALLY KISS GOOD NIGHT by Sabrina Jeffries 

When Flora Younger first met Konrad Juncker, she thought she’d found her match, only to have her hopes dashed. Konrad is now a famous playwright whose plays Flora has secretly panned in reviews. But a chance meeting in a secluded inn may help them rewrite this star-crossed romance . . . 

WHEN STRANGERS MEET by Mary Jo Putney 

Kate Mcleod is shocked to find that her fellow guest in the snowbound inn is the dashing soldier who may or may not be her husband. Daniel Faringdon barely remembers that long-ago night when he rescued her from disaster, but the desire they discover now will be impossible to forget, or to ignore . . .

I love to read short, so I'm a sucker for anthologies, even though they're traditionally uneven affairs.  But we've got three well-known historical romance pros here and the stories all center around a country inn at Christmastime.  If there is a boardinghouse, inn or country house party within 50 yards of a historical romance I am HERE for it. Plus there's a bunch of unusual here: an innkeeper heroine, a famous playwright and critic, and a "dashing soldier."

Her Honorable Mercenary by Nicole Locke

An innocent maiden 

And a legendary warrior 

When captured and held prisoner in an enemy castle, Margery of Lyon is guarded by brooding mercenary Evrart, who’s been commanded to watch her—day and night. Margery’s determination to escape brings her closer to Evrart and the kind heart hidden beneath his granite-hard body. Now Margery is torn… 

Fleeing under the portcullis will mean leaving behind the man she’s falling for…

A kidnapped heroine falls for the mercenary hired to guard her.  That distinction is significant for me, as I find it a bit more palatable than the ol' captive/captor combo.  But hey, it wouldn't be a medieval romance without some moral ambiguity and tested loyalties.

Infamous by Minerva Spencer

A mean girl reformed . . . 

Once the reigning beauty of her social set, Celia—whom the newspapers dubbed Lady Infamous—has fallen on hard times and is practically destitute, her reputation in shreds. When Celia is forced to attend a society wedding as a companion to an elderly guest, she must confront the clique she once commanded; the gentleman she'd once hoped to marry—who is now wed to a girl Celia relentlessly taunted; and the powerful man who ruined her life a decade before—and is threatening to do so again. . . . 

 A hero transformed . . . 

Then there is Richard, the studious boy Celia used to ridicule, who is now gorgeous, wealthy, and more-than-a-little famous. As a youth, Richard was infatuated with Celia. He still seems intrigued, but Celia has acquired a shocking secret along with her hard-won humility. Will it put an end to the love blossoming between them? Does she have the courage to find out?

This is book 3 in a series (when I haven't read the first two) and ask me if I care? I do not. I am HERE for bad girls in historical romance and a former mean girl who has fallen (yikes pretty far), is all sorts of Wendy Catnip.  Digging deeper into reviews, turns out our "studious boy" the heroine used to ridicule is now an entomologist and the twin of "the gentleman she'd once hoped to marry."  I need this in my eyeballs right now.

Restless Heart by Beth Williamson 

Angels don’t always have halos...

Angeline Hunter ran from a horrific marriage, to start her life again in a small town in Wyoming, away from the Mormon life she had escaped in Utah. She didn’t want to fall in love, or even fall in like, with a man like Samuel Carver. He was too nice, too normal, and far out of the reach for a woman who lived each day in a lie.

Sam Carver had hair the color of midnight and eyes darker than pitch—the eyes of a man who’d seen too much. But he couldn’t get enough of the mysterious, ethereal beauty who had turned up in his little Wyoming town, working at the Blue Plate, keeping to herself. He knew Angeline Hunter was running scared, pursued by a fanatic who threatened her life. But no matter what it took, Sam would convince his angel to put her trust in him, to put the painful past behind her and learn just how pleasurable the present could be.

Originally published by Kensington Brava in 2011 (so there will be sexy times!) under the Emma Lang name, this is a self-published reprint and book 2 in a series.  The heroine is the third wife of a Mormon Elder who runs away and straight into the arms of our half-Native hero and a welcoming small town. This has rescue fantasy and angst written all over it.

What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to?