Determined to secure another London season without assistance from her new brother-in-law, Mary Alsworthy accepts a secret assignment from Lord Vaughn on behalf of the Pink Carnation. She must infiltrate the ranks of the dreaded French spy, the Black Tulip, before he and his master can stage their planned invasion of England. Every spy has a weakness and for the Black Tulip that weakness is beautiful black-haired women his petals of the Tulip. A natural at the art of seduction, Mary easily catches the attention of the French spy, but Lord Vaughn never anticipated that his own heart would be caught as well. Fighting their growing attraction, impediments from their past, and, of course, the French, Mary and Vaughn find themselves lost in a treacherous garden of lies.

And as our modern-day heroine, Eloise Kelly, digs deeper into England’s Napoleonic-era espionage, she becomes even more entwined with Colin Selwick, the descendant of her spy subjects.

 

 

 

Mary and Vaughn are my favorite couple (so far). I think it’s because they both don’t claim to be heros. They acknowledge that they are self-motivated and everyone believes that of them (including readers).

But as the story unravels, they are not as conceited as everyone thinks, even to themselves. Willig really put them through the ringer in this book (like no other couple before or after). To date, they are the only characters who have been shot at (well, Vaughn was…Mary had the un-Mary-like task of cleaning him up and saving his life) and blown up.

Nothing like an explosion to profess their undying love for each other. Yes, Mary all beautiful with blood down the side of her face from a piece of shrapnel and Vaughn with a reopened bullet wound through his side chest. Both their faces blackened with ashes. Yet, still sarcastic as ever.

That has go to be one of my favorite “love declaration” scenes in any the book.

In this companion novel to Until They Bring The Streetcars Back, Stanley West transports the reader to 1949 Minneapolis/St. Paul– those memorable days of corner grocery stores, big band music, and filling stations that check the oil and wash the windshield. Against this nostalgic backdrop, West has set his riveting and heartwarming novel, the devastating story of young Sandy Meyer. Bright and outgoing, having grown up through the Great Depression and the World War II years, she is suddenly given a perplexing clue to her past that sets her on an incredible and harrowing journey in search of her lost family– a pilgrimage that brings her face to face with nerve-shattering suspense, unbearable terror, and the magnificent capacity of the human heart.

Surrounded by juicy and wacky characters, and without the support of her adoptive parents, her devil-may-care friends, or the boy she desperately loves, she summons the courage to doggedly follow where the faint trail leads. When she stumbles upon the buried past and long-hidden treachery, she is confronted by an evil that knows her by name and is drawn into a darkness she never knew existed. Tenaciously refusing to quit, she discovers a heartbreaking heroism and an extraordinary triumph that changes her life forever.

As a Minnesota girl I was happy to get ahold of an author who wrote local. I loved the first novel I read by this author. However Finding Laura Buggs I found disappointing. I just could not warm to the book. I am not sure why the prose was good and the story idea itself was sound. However I struggled with the book. Perhaps because Laura put herself in so many dangerous situations and I just wanted to smack her and say STOP doing that! Or perhaps it was for another reason.

It is winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee Spain with her father. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee. Her gift of “Sight,” the ability to foresee the future, is priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court. Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edward’s protector, who brings her to court as a “holy fool” for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up in her own yearnings and desires.

Teeming with vibrant period detail and peopled by characters seamlessly woven into the sweeping tapestry of history, The Queen’s Fool is another rich and emotionally resonant gem from this wonderful storyteller

Gregory, the reigning Queen of historical fiction, weaves a tale that is as much an insight into the Tudor court as it is into religious history. The protagonist Hannah, is a secret Jew serving a Catholic Queen and befriending a Protestant Princess. What a catalyst for an electrifying plot!

Being that this story is based in history and immersed in fact, there are twists and turns that you will anticipate. However the addition of a completely fictional heroine adds a layer of intrigue and provides you with plot points you will not see coming. It is such a satisfying narrative arc that you won’t want it to finish and you certainly won’t want to leave Hannah behind.

Hannah is a character full of contradictions. Like many women of the time, Hannah’s age and her sexual innocence leave her at the mercy of men who would use her for social elevation. However her education and life experience make her cunning a formidable player in these war games. She gives her heart freely to Robert Dudley, Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth all at once and in doing so endears them all to the reader. Yet she finds it hardest of all to give herself over to a love far greater than any of these, one grounded in safety and protection. She is a tangible character and one I am sorry to say goodbye to.

This was one of the most enjoyable history lessons I’ve ever had and a formidable novel next to ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’. I am so grateful for the sympathy and understanding I now have for England’s first female ruler and one of history’s most notorious tyrants. I saw ‘Bloody Mary’ through Hannah’s eyes and now history is not just black and white, it is all shades of red.

REISSUE of STARLIT SURRENDER by Judy Cuevas

AT FIRST THEY KISSED

From the instant she set her thick-lashed gaze on handsome Adrien Hunt, Christina Bower knew he was like no other male. He was as graceful as a panther, as confident as a lion-and as lusty as a tomcat. But no matter how much the golden-haired innocent told herself he was a rich, abhorrent womanizer, she couldn’t resist his sensual, practiced advances. And even as her sweet lips protested each caress, her womanly curves eagerly welcomed his arousing embrace!

AT LAST THEY LOVED

With danger his constant companion, hot-blooded Adrien Hunt lived life to the hilt. His days were fraught with plots, pistols and swords, and his nights were filled with warm and willing wenches. But when he first saw the spirited nymph Christina Bower, even the experienced knave had to admit she was more enticing than any of his previous conquests. Ignoring her modest, prim “no,” Adrien began his gentle assault on her senses, liberating her passions, setting free her inhibitions… and guaranteeing that in a moment more they’d share the magic of her Starlit Surrender!

For those of us who view Judith Ivory as one of the finest writers working in the romance genre, the release of “Angel in a Red Dress” is a very welcome return of one of our favorites. The book is a re-release of the hard-to-find “Starlit Surrender”, Judith Ivory/Judy Cuevas’s first book which was published originally in 1988. Although Ivory’s style has gotten more polished over the years, SS/AIARD is one of my favorites of her books with its rich, uncompromising characterizations and adventure-filled plot full of Scarlet Pimpernel-sequel overtones.

Judith Ivory is one of the few romance writers who is able to create truly flawed characters and make them both engaging and wonderfully real. The hero and heroine of AIARD are far from perfect individuals, but they are some of the most memorable in the genre, IMO. The hero of the story is Adrien Hunt, the Earl of Kewischester, an arrogant half-French British peer with a well-deserved reputation as a libertine. Adrien is rich, intelligent, handsome and lethally charming. The heroine, Christina Pinn, is the lovely, somewhat spoiled daughter of a wealthy London barrister who comes to shelter at the earl’s estate while she is in the process of getting a divorce from her stodgy baronet husband. The attraction between Adrien and Christina is immediate and palpable, with some of the most sensual scenes in the genre as Adrien attempts to charm the reluctant Christina into an affair. (The seduction scene in greenhouse is one of my all-time favorites!) Adrien is certainly no “fake rake”–he has actual illegitimate children from some of his previous affairs and Christina finds this fact as disturbing as one might expect. Adrien is a consummate aristocrat–a man who is used to getting his own way in all things and he cannot understand why the proud Christina refuses to become his mistress. But unlike the usual romance heroine, common-born Christina is really tempted by the earl’s title, social position, wealth and power as well as by his physical beauty. Christina’s dilemma is that Adrien is everything that her bourgeois father has raised her to desire, but it is clear that the earl has no intention of marrying her.

Adrien is a complex, fascinating, very imperfect hero–selfish, high-handed, stunningly autocratic, but he is also intelligent, resourceful, non-judgmental, brave and protective of his friends. Christina is also refreshingly imperfect and three-dimensional as she struggles to maintain her dignity while carrying on an affair with a man that she is sure will eventually break her heart.

The story is set in England and France at the time of the French Revolution and the second half is jam-packed with action and adventure as Adrien (in Scarlet Pimpernel mode) tries to rescue imprisoned French aristocrats from the guillotine. But the main focus of the story is on Adrien and Christina and their complicated, passionate relationship as Adrien slowly comes to realize how much Christina means to him.

Judith Ivory’s prose is (as always) exceptional and her characters wonderfully memorable. This is not a “Disney-style” historical romance with a storybook perfect hero and heroine, but readers who prefer a more angst and an emotional story are in for a treat.