Category: Romantic Fiction

  • REVIEW of Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale

    REVIEW of Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale

    Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale is a sequel of sorts to her bestseller Austenland which I read and reviewed last month. While the first book had overtones of Pride and Prejudice as Jane Hayes tried to figure out the haughty Mr. Nobley, this book plays up aspects of Mansfield Park with a doormat heroine and…

  • REVIEW of Nightingale Wood, by Stella Gibbons

    REVIEW of Nightingale Wood, by Stella Gibbons

    I adore Cold Comfort Farm, both the book written by Stella Gibbons and the movie starring Kate Beckinsale. So when I discovered Nightingale Wood, another novel written by Gibbons, I couldn’t pass it up. Viola Wither, a young shopgirl who married above herself, is forced to go live with her in-laws when her husband dies.…

  • REVIEW of Austenland, by Shannon Hale

    REVIEW of Austenland, by Shannon Hale

    Recently, one of the book blogs that I frequent recommended Austenland, by Shannon Hale. I’m trying to be more eclectic with my reading this year (i.e. emancipating myself from reading exclusively historical fiction) and so I decided to take the plunge and read *gasp* a contemporary novel, one that could even be classified as “chick…

  • REVIEW of The Course of Honor, by Lindsey Davis

    REVIEW of The Course of Honor, by Lindsey Davis

    After finishing all twenty of Lindsey Davis’ Falco novels, I’ve moved on to some of her other historical fiction. Yesterday’s rainy afternoon brought me to the end of The Course of Honor, an early novel by Davis. Vespasian, the miserly and curmudgeonly emperor who was in love with assigning Marcus Didius Falco thankless tasks, is…

  • REVIEW of Venetia, by Georgette Heyer

    Venetia Lanyon has never been out in London society, and at twenty-five years of age she is almost on the shelf. After the death of her mother, her reclusive father kept the family tethered to the country estate, and after the death of her father, the role of managing the estate fell upon Venetia–at least,…

  • REVIEW of The Virgin Widow, by Anne O’Brien

    “This was my favorite read of the entire year.” I saw one reader comment just that about The Virgin Widow, at that time the next title in my to-read pile. High praise indeed, thought I, with a little bit of cynicism–slogging through The Other Boleyn Girl tends to jade your perspective on life. My one hope…

  • REVIEW of The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory

    I read my first Philippa Gregory a little less than a year ago. The title I chose was The Red Queen, the story of Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. Those who read my post on this novel back in September will know that I found it underwhelming, to say the least. Checking in with…

  • REVIEW of The Convenient Marriage, by Georgette Heyer

    If you’re looking to read something unpredictable, Georgette Heyer books are not for you. Thirty-something-year-old former rake falls in love with young girl barely out of the schoolroom (or alternatively, with a spunky twenty-something-year-old “spinster”), and after many misunderstandings, much wearing of finery, probably some gambling over cards, perhaps a duel or two, and loads…

  • REVIEW of My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne Du Maurier

    “There are some women, Philip, good women, very possibly, who through no fault of their own impel disaster. Whatever they touch turns to tragedy.” My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne Du Maurier, is the story of one such woman and the disaster she wreaks in the lives of two men. Philip Ashley is orphaned at a…

  • REVIEW of Venus in Copper and The Iron Hand of Mars, by Lindsey Davis

    It is fascinating to me how Lindsey Davis has created the character of Marcus Didius Falco in such a way that she can use him as a window into whatever facet of Roman society she desires. Venus in Copper and The Iron Hand of Mars are books three and four in the Marcus Didius Falco…