Tag: Historical romance

Historical Romance Reading Challenge 2015

Posted February 1, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 2 Comments

historical challenge 2015I have loved Historical Romance novels for – well, as long as I’ve been a reading adult I suppose.  Lords and Ladies, Prince and Princess they have always been on my bookshelves.

That’s why I was delighted to find the Historical Romance Reading Challenge 2015 hosted by Herding Cats & Burning Soup. You could find the signup page, information and rules by clicking either on the graphic or the written link above.

I’m aiming for the Level 3 of 24 novels read this year.  I believe I can reach that goal, and perhaps a bit beyond – we shall see.  I am lucky in that I have a very good friend who also enjoys Historical Romance novels and will bring me half a dozen each week plus the ones I have in the TBR pile, the ones I know I’m going to buy this year and the always available Library copies.  🙂  Yes, I really do love Historicals of all eras.

I have created a sub-page under Challenges to track my progress throughout the year.  You could see how I’m doing HERE.  Simply have to remember to update it when I finish a novel.  That will be the most difficult of any Challenge I’ve joined… remember to track.  🙂

If you love Historicals and you know you’re going to be reading them anyway – why not click on the signup page link and join in the fun!

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Review: Nothing but Velvet by Kat Martin

Posted January 31, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Nothing But Velvet KMGet ready for another Historical Romance romp.

Title:  Nothing but Velvet
Series:
Author:  Kat Martin
Genre:  Historical Romance
Published:  Original July 1997  (reprint: October 28, 2014)
Source:  owned

From the glittering ballrooms to the scaffold’s dark shadow,
Lovely Velvet Moran has renounced all thoughts of love. To save her family from ruin, she will wed the hard-faced Duke of Carlyle. But instead of becoming a nobleman’s bride, Velvet finds herself a notorious highwayman’s prize—her resolve to escape his forest lair warring with the wicked heat sparked by his caresses.

the path of temptation keeps unfolding…
Falsely branded a murderer, Jason Sinclair has secretly returned to clear his name and stop the wedding that would deny him his stolen dukedom. In an outlaw masquerade, he’ll kidnap this sensuous minx and detain her as long as is necessary. But can he bridle the surge of passion that has captured his soul…and could imperil them both?

This is the Kat Martin that I love.  Historicals with want to root for them to fall and stay in love characters, a deep storyline, of course sexiness and a satisfying conclusion.

Original Cover from 1997

This is a re-issued novel.  So buy it for the new cover if you want – but know what you are buying.  Nothing but velvet small orig

 

Read on for my thoughts on Kat Martin’s Nothing but Velvet.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Review: Plaid to the Bone by Mia Marlowe

Posted January 31, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Plaid tothe BonePlaid to the Bone is the prequel novella in the Spirits of the Highlands series.

Title:  Plaid to the Bone
Series:  Spirits of the Highlands
Author:  Mia Marlowe
Genre:  Historical Romance
Published:  August 2013
Source:  owned

A Bride Comes to Bonniebroch

But Cait Grant is hardly dreaming of wedded bliss. As a duty to her father, she must marry Adam Cameron, laird of Bonniebroch. And then, because of a blood oath to her clan, she must murder him…

If only her new husband weren’t so devilishly handsome. If only she didn’t have to play the loving wife for one long, languorous month. If only she didn’t surrender to his softly sensual touch, she would be able to fulfill her oath. If only she didn’t fall in love…

Cait and Adam’s love story was a joy to read.

Marriages are not always welcomed as a love match in the 1500’s.  Often they are politically based on territory or simply keeping the enemy close through marriage.  Unfortunately for Cait and Adam this is how their marriage started out.

Although it was a marriage of convenience, Adam believed that in time and with mutual respect it could blossom into a deep affection, if not love for he and Cait.  To this end he gave his new bride time to get to know him, or as much as he could considering how much he wanted her.

Cait, on the other hand, doesn’t expect much from this marriage at all.  Except to become a widow rather quickly.  After one month of marriage, Cait has made a promise to kill Adam.  If she can now… dammit, why did she have to go and fall in love with him?

Who wins in the end?

It’s a short love story, so there is not a lot of time to develop Cait and Adam as fully as I would have liked.  But with it’s magical touches, tormented love and triumph at the end it was a very good read that sets up the following novels in the series. (Plaid Tidings and Once Upon a Plaid)

Why?  Because of the curse.

Plaid to the Bone is available at Amazon on the Kindle.

 

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Review: Plaid Tidings by Mia Marlowe

Posted January 31, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Plaid TidingsPlaid Tidings is the second installment of Mia Marlowe’s Spirit of the Highlands series.

Title:  Plaid Tidings

Author: Mia Marlowe

Genre: Historical Romance, Christmas Romance, Paranormal

Published: October 1, 2013

Source:  owned personal copy

Christmas in the Highlands…

Not any dashing English lord’s idea of a good time. But now that Lord Alexander Mallory has won a Scottish estate in a hand of cards, he is the unlikely laird of the wild, snowy Bonniebroch. Worse yet, the ancient pile of stones comes with a betrothal. To a fiery red-headed virgin. And a curse. Alex will have his hands full honoring the first, seducing the second and breaking the third … all by Twelfth Night.

What happens when you mix up a

  • a handsome former spy for the crown
  • a beautiful, if unknown to the former spy, betrothed
  • a betrothed who talks to her own personal ghost
  • his own, newly discovered personal ghost
  • an evil curse that has a time limit on being lifted
  •  a hot, sexy couple who can’t keep their hands off each other

You get Plaid Tidings, of course.  🙂

This is a delightful, funny and sexy romp of a story. And I’m not going to say a lot about the story, which is odd considering this blog.  I just think that to say too much would take away from the enjoyment of reading about Alexander and Lucinda’s romance, and the crazy, fun, and loving things that happen at Bonniebroch.

It helps a bit to have read Plaid to the Bone, which is a novella set much earlier than this current story.  You don’t have to in order to enjoy Plaid Tidings, I just think it would give you a bit of background to some of the events in this love story.  You will love Brodie.  Just saying – you will.  🙂

I have a container full of only Christmas books.  I usually pull this out around November to get myself in the mood for the holiday season.  This is in that container.  Because I enjoyed it enough to re-read it every Yuletide.

Plaid Tidings is available at Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.

 

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Review: Once Upon A Plaid by Mia Marlowe

Posted January 31, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Once Upon A PlaidA wife may be courted, too…

Many would count Katherine Douglas fortunate indeed. Laird William Douglas is broad-shouldered, gentle-handed, everything a lass could dream. But after four years of marriage, Katherine still knows little of what goes on in his heart. And she has yet to bear him an heir. The distance between them is too great—and so she flees over the snowy highlands to Glengarry Castle, home of her childhood, to set her husband free.

But William won’t let his wife slip away without a fight. Before long, he’s at her father’s threshold himself, witness to the rumbles of discontent in Glengarry, the bright joy of Yuletide at a family hearth, and the hidden needs of his own beloved…

Once Upon A Plaid is the third installment of The Spirit of the Highlands series by Mia Marlowe. (Plaid to the Bone, Plaid Tidings are the first two)

This historical romance deals with a subject not often covered in romance novels of any genre.  Infertility.   It is a heartbreaking subject for any couple who want to have children with all their heart.  Imagine how emotional the inability of a wife to bear children for her husband was in olden times – when the need for an heir often cause women to lose their husbands if not their heads.

Be prepared for an emotional story.

Read on for my thoughts on Once Upon A Plaid.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Review: Silver Deceptions by Sabrina Jeffries

Posted January 26, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

Silver DeceptionsSilver Deceptions was originally written by Deborah Martin (a pseudonym of Sabrina Jeffries)

  • Series: Restoration (Book 2)
  • Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Pocket Books; Reprint edition (December 30, 2014)
  • Genre:  Historical Romance
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1476761051
  • ISBN-13: 978-1476761053
  • Source: given to me by a friend

In New York Times bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries’s classic, revised novel, originally written as Deborah Martin, London Theater’s newest actress is determined to find out secrets about her past.

“Arriving in a cloak of mystery, London Theater’s newest actress, Annabelle Taylor, quickly became known as “The Silver Swan.” While she loved performing for her adoring audiences every night, Annabelle secretly longed to draw out the aristocratic father who abandoned her and her mother years ago.

Sent to unmask her identity, Colin Jeffreys, Marquis of Hampden, had only his dashing good looks and desirable kisses to use as bait. Sparring with wit and half-truths, Colin and Annabelle soon realized what they truly wanted was a night of passion. But when Annabelle’s vengeful quest traps her in a nest of deceit and treachery, she realizes she must place her faith in Colin—a man she doesn’t trust, but can’t resist.”

First of all this is a reprint edition of Silver Deceptions written by Deborah Martin… or Sabrina Jeffries as she is also known.  I found it highly amusing, but haven’t seen any review mention the odd, tongue-in-cheek fact that our hero’s last name is also Jeffreys (at the time of the first release only Deborah Martin’s name appeared with this novel.  🙂  Just a fun coincidence I guess. *wink*

I had read Deborah Martin’s novels before (long time Historical Romance reader here) but I do not remember this one.  I really enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves Historicals, Romance and Intrigue styled novels.

Please read on for my review of Silver Deceptions.  No true spoilers, promise.

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Review: The Accidental Countess by Valerie Bowman

Posted January 17, 2015 by Marsha in This one's a Keeper / 0 Comments

The Accidenta lCountess N BowmanI recently finished up the second novel in Valerie Bowman’s Playful Brides series:  The Accidental Countess.

Back cover blurb:

For seven long years, Lady Cassandra Monroe has waited for the man of her dreams to return from the war. Unfortunately, he happens to be engaged to her flighty cousin. What Cass wouldn’t give to take her cousin’s place! When he mistakes Cass for Patience Bunbury, a fictitious friend her cousin has invented to escape social obligations…even with her future husband, Cass thinks this is her chance.

LEAD TO TRUE AND LASTING LOVE?

After defeating Napoleon at Waterloo, Captain Julian Swift is not quite ready to settle down and enter into his unwanted arranged marriage—especially when the real object of his affection turns out to be a beguiling beauty he meets at a party. Patience Bunbury is witty, independent, passionate…and, unbeknownst to him, the cousin of his current fiancée. When the truth about Cass comes out—and Julian discovers that their courtship is anything but accidental—will he surrender his heart to a woman who really is too good to be true?

I totally enjoyed this next installment in the series (and hope it’s not over after the next ‘cos there are more ladies who need their stories told!)

Read on for my review.  No true spoilers, promise.  🙂

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