Grade: B+

Man, I’ve been reading a bunch of Laura Kinsale historical romances lately that I’ve completely forgotten how fun a “fluffy” historical could be. I picked up this book ’cause I wanted to just lay down for a couple of hours and read something —-anything, really—- and found my self totally engrossed with this thing. In fact, I devoured it in three and a half hours. I know this because I picked it up at 8:30 and was finished with it by midnight. It’s hot, clever, smart, and the two romantic leads are just to-die-for! It reminded me of the early Julia Quinn books —-you know, before she got stuck in her Bridgerton funk—- and I just wanted to keep reading about these delightful people. The prose is clean, the characters are reasonable people who actually sit down and talk, the dialogue comes fast and clever, and the sex is delicious. Sure, there were a couple of things I had a problem with —-like what the hell does it have to do with the fairytale, The Raven Prince—- and other nitpicky things, but on the whole, this debut book was a blast and I can’t wait to read the sequels. Squeee!

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Grade: B+

I was not planning on reading Laura Kinsale again. While the one book of hers that I’ve read, Flowers from the Storm was well-written and poignant, it… slayed me. It was so emotionally exhausting that I wasn’t able to read anything with romance in it for weeks. I picked up this book because I was fascinated by the plot: two people fall in love through letters, but when they finally meet, he turns out to be a batshit crazy bastard (take note, online Lotharios!). Kinsale is one of those authors who can give you a truly unlikable hero with little or no redeeming qualities, such as Sheridan Drake from Seize the Fire, but is somehow able to make them sympathetic and sexy. But it was not the hero that had me turning the pages this time. It was the heroine. The hero, while totally hot, was kind of… meh. The heroine, on the other hand, is a hoot! She’s smart, practical, and in the end, ends up saving his butt from the sling. Her sarcastic and clever quips come a mile a minute and she doesn’t let the hero push her around. It’s really too bad that this book loses steam about halfway through. Not that it sucked or anything, but the first half of the book is so tightly plotted and poignant that when the external plots are introduced later on, the whole thing just kind of… meanders and staggers under its own weight. Kinsale introduces so many subplots (some of which were left unresolved) that they totally interrupted the development of the romance between the two leads! Ugh.
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Grade: A

Last week, I was reading a book with a vampire for a hero and a were-something for a heroine and thought to myself, “Okay, that’s it. I’ve had enough.” I’ve reached my paranormal threshold. No more vampires, were-things, witches, demons… but I’m not sick of faeries yet, so keep those coming, authors! Anyway, I resolved my ennui by indulging myself with some good hard Dick… Philip K, that is, and some Octavia Butler. When I started lookin’ for luuuurve in my reading material, I picked up the one author that gives good romance and has never led me wrong (except once or twice in the past). Lisa Kleypas writes yummy, imperfect males and strong, sympathetic heroines (most of the time). What I also like about Kleypas’ work is that she doesn’t write about conventional heroes and heroines. The hero in this book, for example, is not a Duke or an Earl, but a Bow Street Runner… a cop, who comes from very humble beginnings. The heroine, on the other hand, is a whoooore. She’s not a streetwalker, but she is a prostitute to the wealthy, powerful men of England’s upper-nobility. Edgy! What made this book really work for me was the hero. Oh, Grant Morgan… he’s a supercop and super-lover and super-detective-spy rolled into one. And… I just really, really loved the way he loved the heroine. He doesn’t wait till the last few pages to tell her, either. Nope, he tells her in the middle! Unheard of! That Lisa Kleypas… she’s a visionary.

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Grade: B-

Dear Bam,

So… I read My Footman, My Prince by Robin Danner. I think I deserve a gold star for even picking up another book of hers after reading Petting the Cat. I also think someone should check to see if Ms. Danner has a multiple personality disorder because I just can’t believe that the same person wrote both of these stories.

Nicolai Alexandrov, the prince of Villanova, is charged with saving his kingdom from a curse that begins when the family stops inbreeding with the right bloodlines… or something. I know Villanova as a lovely, leafy suburb of Philadelphia, but apparently it’s part of Europe, though we’re never told what part or where, and has excellent relations with England and all of their nobility. This is where I admit that I’m a geography idiot. So sue me - if this place exists! I need to be shown a map or at least given a good description of where it is, and I’m not interested in googling something while I’m reading romance. Nick’s council… or parliament… wants him to hurry up and take care of the curse or they’re going to overthrow him. To lift the curse, Nick has to choose between two women from specific families that will keep the inbreeding going; a lovely, pliant girl or an elusive recluse. Elusive recluse, here we come!
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[Repost]

Grade: B+

This here book is being touted as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Jane Austen”. I could definitely see the Buffy part because Ms. Gleason even does the “In every generation…” thing that’s in the intro of every Buffy episode. As for the Jane Austen… eh, not so much. It’s really more like Buffy meets A Well-Written Regency. That’s not a slag, by the way. It’s a compliment. I have never been able to finish anything written by Jane Austen, but I read Regencies by the truckloads. I was very excited to get my hands on this here book because the premise of it was so crazy that damn it, it was crazy enough to work. It doesn’t work all the way through, but it held pretty well for about 80% of the book. My main issue with it was the heroine’s whole-hearted acceptance of the fact that she is a vampire slayer without even blinking. What made the Buffy character special—and really, most of the folks from Whedonverse—is that she’s multi-faceted as well as completely aware of her thoughts and feelings. All Buffy wanted was a normal life, but deep down, she also knew that she is the only one standing between the world and utter destruction. We felt her pain. We knew that every single decision she made on an everyday basis could affect the rest of the world, or at least Sunnydale. Sure, our heroine makes noise about wanting to be a normal girl who can attend balls and marry her childhood sweetheart without worrying that a vampire will crash the party, but there’s something vaguely robotic about her. She kills vampires! She’s a super-duper easy learner who’ll probably surpass the broody Master Slayer soon! She has no qualms about sticking a stake into somebody! Apart from that, there is really a lot of good things in this book. The secondary characters, most especially the heroine’s mother and her cronies, are well-rounded and fun. Gleason is also particularly good at setting up the creepy atmosphere of the dirty London streets in the evening and the action scenes were really well-written as well. I also dug the developing mythology. It’s too bad that there isn’t more of an emotional resonance, but hey, what can I say… I love the feelings shit.
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