reading_historical_romance's reviews
449 reviews

 “Her breath snagged when their eyes met, as surely as though she’d been dropped a few inches from a height. The force of his personality was so undiluted in his gaze. Perhaps one would need to learn to build up a tolerance to it, as with ratafia, or anything else that inebriated a little.”

When Catherine Keating arrives at the Grand Palace on the Thames for her first London season, she is immediately and veritably accosted by her fellow boarding house guest, the politically powerful, devastatingly handsome, and wickedly intelligent rake, Lord Dominic Kirke. Her quiet, genteel life in rural Northumberland hasn’t prepared the innocent Catherine to navigate the ton, or to realize how dangerous even the slightest association with Dominic can be to a gently bred debutante’s reputation.

For the longest time, my review was one word: SCREAMING!!! Because for the love of Delacorte’s donkey races, how can I possibly articulate how much I loved this one?

I make no secret of the fact that I am a huge fan of Julie's writing, and she continues to get better and better. There are only a few authors who have honed their craft in the historical romance space to the level of Lisa Kleypas and Mary Balogh, and Julie is one of them.

My Season of Scandal made me an emotional wreck in all the best ways, especially because of how soft and vulnerable Dominic really is beneath his mask of impeccably correct high society manners. Dominic is a good man, and his earnest, tender gentleness with Catherine from the outset made me feel that I was in on a sweet, precious secret.

This is a 5-star read in all matters of execution, to include ideal pacing, meaningful plot and character development, sensual romance, and rich, metaphorical prose. Julie's dialogue shines brighter than ever here, as does her witty sense of humor. One aspect of her books that I personally find to be one of the most satisfying is the MCs’ declarations of love to each other. True to form, Dominic’s heartrending admissions of his feelings for Catherine hit me so hard right in the feels, I got teary-eyed.

Additional highlights for me are the evenings spent in the cozy sitting room as chess is played, stories are read, and pence are lost to the epithet jar; and the ongoing battle between Dot and the solid, no nonsense footman Ben Pike about whose job it is to open the front door.

Tropes: age gap, slow burn, friends to lovers, mutual pining, rake and wallflower

Thank you Netgalley and Avon for the opportunity to read and review this novel. All opinions are my own. 

 

The Dove sisters are illegitimate daughters of a New York high society business scion who are shipped off to London to secure aristocratic marriages. The oldest is highly independent Cora, a passionate proponent of women’s rights. When she is literally and figuratively bowled over by handsome, powerful Leo Brendon, Earl of Devonworth, she warily agrees to a marriage of convenience to further both of their political careers. Cora’s only non-negotiable term to the arrangement is that the marriage must remain “in name only” for a period of two years.

This novel was enjoyable and an easy, quick read. There is nothing wrong with it in terms of plot or execution, and there is nothing wonderful about it either. It is a solid, middle of the road historical romance. There is no question that the author fulfilled her end of the contract, leaving me as a reader and reviewer with not much to say other than this book is just fine. The cover art is fine. The characters are all fine. The meet-cute is fine. The dialogue is fine. The chemistry and romantic tension are all fine. The pacing is fine. The ending is fine.

If you are looking for a safe, predictable genre read, this will check all of the genre boxes, and that’s not a bad thing! 3-stars is fine! It’s just…perfectly, absolutely, fine. And I've forgotten all the details by the time I started writing this review.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the opportunity to read and review this novel. All opinions are my own. 

 “Ah, the deception of it all. That was life, though – the stories you tell yourself, and the stories you present to onlookers. Rarely did the two match. We’re all of us a combination of romance novels, humorous tales, and tragedies, depending on what angle we show the world.

Me, I preferred adventure stories. Tolerated a romance now and then.”

Inquiry agent Peter Driscoll has earned a reputation for his uncanny ability to find anyone and anything. When he’s hired to locate a long-lost sapphire with reputed mystical properties, he is only temporarily taken aback when he finds the jewel strung from a necklace worn by a mysterious film actress, Lily Temple. Peter decides that the most efficient way to learn how Lily came to be in possession of the gem is to request her assistance in a missing person case. Peter soon learns that Lily’s true identity is only a small piece of a much larger puzzle as he uncovers a series of criminal indictments against innocent people.

This genre-bending novel is set in 1903 in the English seaside resort town of Hove. Part historical mystery, gothic romance, and spy adventure, this beautifully crafted work of Christian literary fiction explores the relationship between our mortal human nature and our eternal spirit as we navigate through life’s journey.

The Elusive Truth of Lily Temple is a story about a story. The narrative is whimsical, and has an almost dreamlike quality. The tone and mood of the story is reinforced by the chapter headings which feature quotes from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and the fairy tales of Charles Perrault and Hans Christian Andersen. Lily Temple is a first person narrator, and she tells Peter Driscoll’s story in third person. However, the reader is frequently reminded that Lily is not to be trusted to disclose the entire truth.

This is not a fast-paced read. It requires the reader’s patience (perhaps the better word would be faith) that Lily’s and Peter’s individual stories will weave together in the way that all great fairy tales deserve. I found both Lily and Peter to be fabulous characters, and their intense chemistry makes for a truly satisfying slow burn. I also loved how the story gradually unfolded, so that I was often left with more questions than answers, and that Lily layered each element of the story over the other until the entire picture was revealed.

The author's prose has a delicate, earnest quality which was perfectly suited to the themes of the novel. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and the author’s writing style so much that I intend to read more of her work.

Thank you Austenprose, Netgalley, and Revell for the opportunity to read and review this novel. All opinions are my own. 

Lauren and her mom have relocated to Happy Valley, Pennsylvania (the home of Penn State) for a new beginning. Lauren is desperate to escape the stigma of a public scandal, and her mom is excited to finally live locally to a long-distance boyfriend. Lauren’s efforts to build her reputation as a great soccer player all seem for naught, however, when she learns that the boy she’s been having a casual affair with was the last person to see his former girlfriend alive. Then one year later, his brother finds his own girlfriend dead of an overdose. Are the wealthy Crestmont brothers hiding deadly secrets, or did they both really end up in the wrong places at the wrong times?

Even though I am giving this a 3-star review, for reasons I will explain later, I did enjoy this debut. It was so fast-paced and well-written that I finished it in a day. It’s giving I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes, but with higher stakes because the two female victims were in relationships with the suspects. Everyone in town knows that the intimate partner is usually the perpetrator when it comes to violent crimes against women, but they also know that the influential Crestmont family has the resources and the connections to keep Robbie and Trevor out of jail, and permanently erased from the suspect list. I thought the author did a great job developing the mystery and building suspense. She also made all of the main characters sympathetic so that the reader is invested in finding out how and if each character's innocence would be proven.

The reasons that this one doesn’t rise to a 5-star mystery for me are (1) the degree of suspension of disbelief required for the story to work; and (2) the motive for the first killing, and which ultimately set off an avalanche of future violence, just didn’t make sense to me. I still don't know why the suspect(s) did it.

Without spoiling the plot, there is a big reveal about 25% into the story that significantly impacts the main character Lauren’s perspective on the crimes and her suspicions. Even though Lauren is 17 and clearly quite bright and independent, she doesn’t call the police or trust any adult with her findings. She doesn’t even make any kind of permanent record of the findings for herself. We’re talking about an actual murder here, but the reader is asked to belief that Lauren isn’t sure what to do, or that she is too scared to make an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers? This is 2024! True crime podcasts are a thing! 🤪 It's just too big of a pill to swallow, especially considering that it is her decision not to involve law enforcement that must happen in order for the rest of the events in the novel to occur.

Finally, and maybe it’s just me, but I am concerned that this novel, like many other YA titles I’ve read over the last few years, does not depict a single adult who behaves like one. Literally, every adult in this novel who interacts with a main characters is an awful, selfish, narcissistic person. The parents who we don’t actually meet on the page are all enabling, if not encouraging, underage drinking, drug use, and sexual promiscuity in their homes. None of the teenagers in this book can point to even one adult who has proven themselves capable of exhibiting good judgment or making a sound decision to protect the minors they have a duty to protect. I don’t think this is representative of most teenager’s lives, and I don’t understand the point of creating a fictional world where the only people that a teenager can trust are other teenagers who are just as angry, depressed, confused, cynical, and disillusioned as themselves.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group/Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) for the opportunity to read and review this novel. All opinions are my own.