A sweet, emotional Regency romance with enough simmering passion and lively, intelligent dialogue to please fans of the...
Third in a historical romance series (The Viscount’s Promise, 2018, etc.) about women who have been burned in love and the men who convince them to take a risk.
Ever since her family was ruined by a nobleman who seduced and abandoned her older sister, Miss Rosalind Merriweather “had been passed around as a [paid] companion...like a plate of particularly unappetizing food at a party.” Her latest charge is a painfully shy girl whose wealthy parents hope to marry into the nobility. Rosalind’s sister’s debauchery and subsequent death have made our heroine deeply skeptical of London society, especially of charming rogues like Sir Tristan Crosby. Rosalind’s attempts to thwart Sir Tristan’s attention to her charge bring them into contact, and he becomes intrigued by the tart-tongued woman from Staffordshire. Tristan’s upbringing at the hands of a cruel father who far favored his half brother has made him feel like the worthless libertine Rosalind believes him to be. But Tristan has found a secret wellspring of happiness in his ability to use his charms to arrange suitable matches for young ladies like Rosalind’s charge. Both Rosalind and Tristan have buried hurts which are slowly revealed as they begin to like and trust one another underneath their steady trading of barbs. At the same time, their growing attraction seems dangerous for them both. Britton’s plot is motivated by a close study of the rules of the matchmaking season in Regency-era London society, and she writes with respect for the refinement of the time period. While Rosalind’s stereotyping of all London’s rich families can be fatiguing, she eventually grows to acknowledge everyone's humanity: “We are all like paper dolls, flat, garbed carefully, only showing what we wish for others to see. But within we are books’ worth of stories and dramas, heartaches and joys.”
A sweet, emotional Regency romance with enough simmering passion and lively, intelligent dialogue to please fans of the genre.Pub Date: May 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63576-615-8
Page Count: 292
Publisher: EverAfter Romance
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Romance will never die as long as the megaselling Roberts keeps writing it.
Jack London, move over. The Queen of Romance has you in her sights.
Amazingly, Roberts (a.k.a. J.D. Robb, p. 601) doesn’t miss in this wild and woolly tale of love and murder in Alaska. Nate Burke, the new chief of police in the little town of Lunacy, had a few qualms about living in the moose-infested end of nowhere, but there’s something about the place—a man can breathe, if he doesn’t mind having icicles for a mustache. The locals? They call themselves the Lunatics, of course: back-to-nature survivalists, native Inuit, former hippies, and oddballs of every stripe. A newcomer like Nate gets a lot of attention, but does he ever wish that Charlene, hip-swinging, heavily made-up, middle-aged mantrap, would leave him alone. Peach, the motherly town gossip, warned him about the brassy boardinghouse owner in no uncertain terms. Nate’s got a lot on his mind: between the death of his partner at the Baltimore PD, who left a grieving widow and three kids, and a divorce Nate didn’t want, he’s emotionally numb. Just so happens that Charlene’s daughter is a knockout: beautiful, athletic, black-haired Meg has ice-blue eyes that can undress a man in a flash. She’s a bush pilot, lives alone and likes it, takes her pleasure where she finds it—and rolling around with Nate is a very pleasurable experience indeed. But she’s hiding her own heartbreak: her ne’er-do-well, adventurous father disappeared 16 years ago during a dangerous climb. And when Patrick Galloway’s frozen corpse is found in an ice cave with an ax through the chest—and it’s clear that the long-ago killer is still on the loose—all hell breaks loose in Lunacy. Original characterization, brisk pace, and a great feel for the grandeur of the setting—not to mention a fabulously tough young heroine who puts her vapid chick-lit sisters to shame—add up to a wonderful read.
Romance will never die as long as the megaselling Roberts keeps writing it.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2004
ISBN: 0-399-15205-9
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2004
Another heartwarming seasonal Macomber tale, which fans will find as bright and cozy as a blazing fire on Christmas Eve.
Friendly Julia Padden can’t stand her grumpy neighbor, Cain Maddox, but when her best friend goads her to kill him with kindness for the Christmas season, both their lives begin to change for the better—until he discovers she’s chronicling the experiment on a blog.
Julia’s life isn’t perfect, but she has a job at Macy’s that pays her bills while she’s looking for a marketing position. She also volunteers at her church and at the Boys and Girls Club, which helps her stay in the holiday mood even when she can’t get back to visit her family because of her hectic retail schedule. She tries hard to keep a positive attitude, so perhaps that’s why her neighbor across the hall in her apartment building is so vexing. He seems to go out of his way to be unpleasant. But when she’s complaining about the man, her best friend challenges her to be even kinder, in the true spirit of the season—and encourages her to use the experience as blog fodder, since Julia is in the running for a corporate social media position and her success depends on her ability to create a successful audience. So she begins, 12 days before Christmas, but as the days pass, she discovers that her kind acts have softened not only Cain’s demeanor, but her heart as well—and created a huge blog following. The two become friends, and Julia learns how painful Cain’s life has been and exactly why he keeps himself at arm’s length. Just when it looks like they’ll be hanging stockings together, Cain discovers Julia’s blog—which pushes every abandonment and trust button he has. Time is running out, but Julia knows that a job and a blog are nothing compared to the forever happiness just beyond their grasp, and making it right will be the best Christmas gift ever, if she can just figure out how.
Another heartwarming seasonal Macomber tale, which fans will find as bright and cozy as a blazing fire on Christmas Eve.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-39173-2
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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