A charming and light-hearted Victorian romance, the story begins with Miss Amelia Fairclough finding herself in need of somewhere to shelter from a snowstorm. The only available place is a lodge on the road to a great house, fortunately occupied by a rather nice gentleman who takes her in. Of course, he’s not the estate manager he makes himself out to be, but the estate owner, the Marquess of Falconmore, no less, and when the entire village discovers the next morning that Ame

I’ve absolutely loved this series about the Bumgarten ‘dollar princesses’, four American sisters making their way and meeting their matches in Victorian high society. This one is the story of Sarah, the youngest sister, an animal-loving girl just as strong-willed as her older sisters, and Arthur, Duke of Meridian, the man her eldest sister Daisy was supposed to marry in the first book of the series but ended up with his brother Ash instead. Arthur left to go travel the world

Princes have pomp and glory—not murdered secretaries and crushes on commoners Nothing gets London's high society's tongues wagging like a good scandal. And when the personal secretary of the visiting Prince Sebastian of Alucia is found murdered, it's all anyone can talk about, including Eliza Tricklebank. Her unapologetic gossip gazette has benefitted from an anonymous tip about the crime, prompting Sebastian to take an interest in playing detective—and an even greater one in

While An American Duchess purports to be a standalone novel, or possibly the first in a new series, it’s actually the second book about the same couple, Emma and Beranger, who apparently met in a previous book by the author about five sisters from Colorado, before Beranger unexpectedly inherited a duchy and has to return to England to claim it. The frustrating thing about this book is that the author doesn’t seem to be able to decide what it’s about; is it the story of the or

When she fled Scotland for America a decade ago, Rose gave up any hope of seeing MacAllister Campbell, the man she’d loved, in favor of survival. Her life depended on the man hunting for her believing her dead. Now, she’s back in London, determined to find justice for her aunt, but she’s starting to suspect she’s been lured into a trap. When she runs into MacAllister by chance, she knows he might be the only man in England she can trust - if he’ll forgive her for letting him

Caroline Lawrence is a wealthy young woman with a strict father, who hungers to make a difference in the world. Secretly writing reformist articles under the pen name C.M. Smith, she sneaks off to attend a speech by a noted suffragist but is injured and ends up in the home of the Marquess of Huntingdon with a nasty concussion. James, the marquess, is notorious through no fault of his own. He’s blamed for the death of his first wife, though it’s strongly implied later in the b

There’s a few intriguingly different plotlines happening in this story which mesh together to create an overall very interesting story. A serial killer in Victorian London is killing young servant women and dumping headless, handless bodies into the Thames. In a seemingly unrelated matter, a solicitor inherits an earldom and is almost simultaneously approached by a lady looking for her missing niece. While Jacob has no intention of taking the case on, by chance he runs into C

Set in 1882, Nobody’s Duke follows the widowed Duchess of Burghly as she tries to rebuild her life after her husband was murdered by Fenian (Irish) rebels. Forerunners of the IRA, these 19th century terrorists set off bombs and murdered English aristocrats and politicians, and yes, they did go after women and children as well. Ara and her young son are assigned protection, but the man assigned to protect them is the last man Ara wants anywhere near them, because she’s hiding

I’ve never read a historical romance which dealt with addiction as it being anything other than a thing villains had a problem with, so Love With A Notorious Rake is absolutely unique. The hero, Aidan Wollestonecraft, will eventually inherit his grandfather’s title but in the meantime, he’s basically bored senseless. Starting off with women and wine, he eventually falls deep into the grip of opium addiction, and the book begins at the point where his family intervenes, sweepi

The Everton Domestic Society provides assistance to discerning employers seeking unusual solutions. The Everton Ladies are carefully selected for their abilities to solve the most tangled of problems. Finding a young, handsome, wealthy duke a wife? Honestly, it should be a simple assignment for skilled matchmaker Millicent Edgebrook. Having given up on ever finding a match for herself, Millie is sure she can help Preston, Duke of Middleton. Of course, things don’t go to plan.

Both the protagonists of this book are rather unique in their own different ways. Yes, Harriet is the well-dowered daughter of a duke… but she’s also very short and endowed with an over-abundance of curves, making her decidedly unfashionable among tall, willowy beauties. And Oliver is a tall, handsome, wealthy marquess… with a disability. A disastrous fall left him with a severe limp and unable to walk without a cane, or dance. His intended bride married another without a bac

Sara Fleming is a poor little rich girl. An ultra-wealthy American heiress, her parents have whisked her away from New York and off to London to prevent her engagement to a man they consider unsuitable. Sara, of course, thinks it's the end of the world. She even contemplates jumping off the ship to drown ‘because then they'd be sorry!’ in the ultimate bratty gesture. Despite Sara being spoilt, naive and more than a bit of a brat, I felt sorry for her. Nobody would dignify her

The second book about a pair of sisters in Jane Goodger’s Brides of St. Ives series, Diamond In The Rough is the love story of Clara Anderson, older sister of Harriet from The Earl Most Likely, which I also read and enjoyed. And while I enjoyed Harriet’s story, the ending didn’t quite work for me, so I was intrigued to see how Clara’s story played out. Incidentally, this book takes place at the same time as most of the events in The Earl Most Likely. You definitely don’t have

This Victorian romance highlights some of the appalling inequities women - even wealthy women - faced in the time period, where everything a woman owned became the property of her husband on her marriage, among other issues. Grace’s father left her hefty dowry with a stipulation. She has to marry a peer, or she’ll never see a penny. With the guardianship of her young brother left to Lord Rayner, it’s very obvious Grace’s father intended her to marry the lord as well. Knowing

I had a massive fit of the giggles during the opening scenes of this Victorian-era romance. The heroine Emma’s younger sister, Lily, is addicted to a series of penny dreadful novels and convinced she is constantly on the verge of stumbling upon a major crime. Invading the house across the street to investigate the ‘murder’ Lily thinks she witnessed, she manages to accidentally involve herself and our poor heroine in an actual crime when they end up knocking out a gentleman an

In the throes of the Industrial Revolution, Britain’s inventors competed ferociously with each other to push the technology of the time to its available limits and beyond. Even more ferocious than the inventors were the investors, however, with fortunes made and lost by investing in the inventions which would power the future. Lord Randolph Cavanaugh is such an investor, and William John Throgmorton’s horseless carriage is, he hopes, the greatest invention yet. The only probl

Set in the 1890s, this romance is set around the era’s fascination with all things Egyptian. The heroine, Alexandra, is a scholar of Egyptology, and the hero, Benedict, is a… tomb raider. The two have a Past, and are brought back together when Alexandra’s mentor sends Benedict back to England to protect her just before he is murdered. Sadly, that was the most exciting thing about the novel. Benedict doesn’t do any tomb raiding (apart from seducing Alexandra and abandoning her

I’m going to run out of superlatives to describe how good this book is. It is, quite simply, the best historical romance I’ve read in ages - and I’ve read quite a few good ones, as you’ll see from my review history. Lady Julia Bishop is the eldest daughter of a wealthy earl, and as such, she should have too many eligible suitors to count. However, Julia was born with an exposed spinal condition (revealed in the author’s notes to be spina bifida occluda) and is known to societ

The Victorian romance His Sinful Touch begins on a really intriguing note… a young woman, dressed in man’s clothes, stumbles into the office of a small London detective agency and tells them she wants to hire them to find someone. Herself. She has amnesia, and the only clue to her identity is a gold locket around her neck with the name Sabrina and a date twenty years earlier engraved on it. The hero of the book is Alexander, one of the sons of the Duke of Moreland, helping ou

What’s a rake to do when all his vices have lost their appeal? Tristan Sinclair is tired of living up to everyone else’s low expectations. His father’s dour predictions have become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy; after all, if nobody expects you to do anything good, you might as well just be bad. Stumbling across a young woman sobbing her heart out in the woods, though, Tristan has no audience to play to, and he’s touched by her plight. He can’t quite get her out of