Set in Oxford’s magical community a year or so after the end of World War II, this gentle, slowly-unfolding romance features intelligent, good-hearted, skilled and competent people treating others with kindness and respect—a hallmark of Celia Lake’s Albion novels, and the reason I (and her other fans) love them so much.
A collection of short and often funny essays on the life of an antiquarian bookseller.
Slow, plodding, and flat
What on earth has happened to Stephanie Laurens? She seems to have largely abandoned writing romances and turned to mystery. The problem is, she’s not always good at it, especially when she omits the passion, emotion, and spirited characters that epitomized her best romances. The Curse of Ill-Gotten Gains is a case in point.
I loved this latest Albion novel from Celia Lake, which features music, magic, history, and romance in 1920s London.
Weaving Hope is a very gentle, very slow-burn closed-door romance set in magical 1920s Britain.
The Most Wonderful Crime Of the Year by Ally Carter Published by Avon Genres: Holiday, Cozy Mystery, Contemporary Romance Pages: 303 Format: Kindle or ebook Source: purchased Purchase: Amazon | Bookshop | Kobo | Audible Add to Goodreads Also by this author: The Blonde Identity Knives Out gets a holiday… Read more »
I love history, especially British and European history, but the Vikings and their era have never been one of my main areas of interest. I knew comparatively little of the history of Viking Norway, Denmark, Greenland, and (most importantly for this book) Iceland. But Nancy Marie Brown’s Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them held my interest from start to finish.
In Dusk, Night, Dawn, Lamott writes of giving and finding love, hope, courage, and forgiveness, even when we ourselves, like those we want to love and forgive, are messy, imperfect human beings. Written in 2020, during the pandemic, and published in 2021, the book touches on Lamott’s response to the many terrible things occurring in the world: climate change, wildfires, the pandemic, and the rising tide of authoritarianism
Amanda Quick’s books are always fun, and I plowed through Wait Until Midnight in two sittings. I particularly enjoyed Caroline’s career as writer of serialized “sensation novels,” which were extremely popular in the Victorian era. Adam has an interesting backstory as well, though to my regret, it wasn’t really developed as well as it could have been.
When a company of soldiers are quartered at a war widow’s farm, they bring with them a prisoner… and a threat to her safety. The prisoner is one of her land’s most fearsome enemies, so why does Roe find herself sympathizing with him? When a Dragon Comes Courting is a slow-burn, poignant dragon-shifter romance.
