My Dark Prince by Julia Ross

I've read several books by Julia Ross (aka Jean Ross Ewing) but none of them have been keepers.  Still, she had a unique voice - it doesn't seem like she's still writing, which is too bad.

My Dark Prince by Julia Ross
(2000, Regency Historical)  9/30/12
Grade: 4

When Nicholas, prince of Glarien, arrives in her small village, Penny Lindsey wants him to fulfill his duties to his local tenants - but Nicholas has bigger plans.  His royal fiancé has been kidnapped, and he needs Penny to fill in for her during the wedding celebrations in London.  His marriage is necessary to save his country, but he finds himself drawn to Penny despite his royal duties.

This was an intriguing book with compelling characters, but it didn’t quite live up to its early promise.  I was intrigued by Nicholas, the royal prince who was torn between love and duty, and Penny was a strong counterbalance for him through most of the book.  But I found myself getting impatient with the love scenes and wanting to get back to the royal intrigue and adventure.  The storyline of yearning for forbidden love didn’t quite work - it felt predictable and repetitive.  But the story of Glarien and the intrigues between Nicholas and his cousin Carl (and the other secondary characters) kept me turning the pages.  That’s one reason I found the ending unsatisfying - it was strange to have a story that focused so heavily on royal duty and the intrigues of a fictional kingdom end with something of an Anglo-centric romance cliché.  Julia Ross has a unique voice but I ended up being just a little bit disappointed. 

I love a royal romance, but it's surprising that so few authors follow through on their premise, especially in historicals.  It seems strange to me that you would spend all this time creating a fictional country with fictional royalty, and then end up with your hero and heroine living in England, but it's happened in almost every historical royal romance I've read.  Maybe I'm the only romance reader who also has a weakness for stories about princes and princesses (and doesn't want them to turn into English Earls in the end). 

Whispers of Heaven by Candice Proctor

Another book from my TBR - I enjoyed some of Candice Proctor's other books, but this one left me a bit cold.

Whispers of Heaven by Candice Proctor
(2000, Victorian Australia)  9/22/12
Grade: 3.5

After studying in England, Jesmond Corbett has returned to her family home in Tasmania.  She is supposed to marry her neighbor, Harrison, but she finds herself attracted to convict Lucas Gallagher, who works as her groom.  Lucas was transported to Australia after fighting for Irish independence, and his only hope is escape - but he develops an unexpected passion for Jessie, even though the both know their love is doomed.

This book had a lot of promise.  It’s unusual to read a historical set in Australia, and the author did a great job in evoking the time and place.  But I found myself somewhat bored by the romance.  It seemed passionate on the surface, but I kept putting down the book and having to force myself to continue.  Even the story of Lucas’s tragic past left me unmoved.  I can’t explain why this book didn’t work for me, but it was just a disappointment.

This book received glowing reviews, so I was surprised I found it so hard to read.  Maybe I was just in the wrong mood, or maybe it just didn't hold up 12 years later. 

The Bride Fair by Cheryl Reavis

There were quite a few romances set during and after the Civil War in the 1980's, but those books mostly disappeared in the 90's and 2000's.  It's difficult to write about the time without mentioning ugly realities - and those realities might not mesh with a love story.  I think it's still possible, but it's probably a lot more difficult than setting a book in the Regency (which has its own ugly realities that most romances ignore, but we aren't as familiar with them so they're easier to ignore.)  That was one of the problems with this book - it seems to be set in a fantasy version of post-war North Carolina.

The Bride Fair by Cheryl Reavis
(2002, post-Civil War North Carolina)  9/14/12
Grade: 3.5

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Maria Markham resents having to rent a room to Colonel Max Woodward, of the Occupying forces - but she has little choice.  Maria has a secret that may force her to marry him.  She finds that Max isn’t like the other soldiers - he wants to understand the South and is kind to her father and the two boys she is helping to raise - but can she let go of the past and learn to love him?

This book was much better than Reavis’s previous book, The Prisoner, but it still had some flaws.  The characters were interesting, but the pacing was off - the first half of the book seemed to drag, and then the author throws in a half dozen plot points in the last 50 pages.  But a more serious problem to me was that this didn’t quite feel like the post-Civil War South.  No one mentions slavery in the entire book.  Many Southerners didn’t own slaves, but it seemed strange that no one in town had owned slaves and there was evidently no one black in the entire area.  Even the “vigilantes” who were trying to overthrow the occupying troops didn’t mention it.  It felt like it was prettifying the history of the war.  This is why I gave it a slightly lower grade than I might have otherwise, because the characters were very well written.  

Reavis never wrote any more Civil War historicals, although she seemed to be setting up other characters for sequels.  I guess it wasn't a popular setting - which is too bad.  As a Southerner, part of me wants to see books set in the South, but another part of me wants to see a real portrayal of the time period.

To Have and To Hold by Patricia Gaffney

There are some unrealistic romance conventions that I enjoy (marriages of convenience, tortured heroes) but others are just too far outside reality for me.  The "forced seduction" is one of those - no matter how much the author tries to convince me it's true love, I keep thinking of Stockholm syndrome...

To Have and To Hold by Patricia Gaffney
(1995, Victorian)  9/2/12
Grade: 3

Jaded Sebastian Verlaine is the new lord at Wyckerley, but when he sees Rachel Ward about to be sent to prison for vagrancy, he impulsively hires her as his new housekeeper.  Rachel spent ten years in prison for murdering her husband, and she has no illusions about what Sebastian really wants, but she is willing to take her chances - and finds an unexpected love.

This is another difficult book to judge.  It had moments of beauty and emotion, but I couldn’t get past the initial setup and “forced seduction” of Rachel by Sebastian.  It was difficult to believe in any kind of real love between these two characters when the threat of coercion was always there, and where the relationship was always unequal.  Rachel may have grown to love Sebastian, but she was always aware that she was in his power and could have been sent back to prison at his whim.  As a reader we know that Sebastian is the “hero” and a happy ending is really happy, but as a realist I found the whole thing more troubling than romantic.  

I will at least try to read the third book in this trilogy, in part because the Wyckerley setting is so well depicted, but so far it's been a disappointment.

To Love and to Cherish by Patricia Gaffney

When you read romances that are 15 years old or more, you never know what you're going to get.  Sometimes they are great and completely stand the test of time.  (Some of the best books I've read recently have been from the 90's.)  But some of the books that seemed daring and new back then now just seem a little dull.  I'm wondering if that's the case with these Patricia Gaffney books - which were praised as one of the best series ever written back in the 90's when they came out.

To Love and To Cherish by Patricia Gaffney
(1995, Victorian)  9/1/12
Grade: 3.5

Christy is settling in to his life as the vicar in the village of Wyckerley, the small town where he grew up.  But his world is upended when his childhood friend Geoffrey Verlaine returns and takes over as the new lord, along with his wife Anne.  Christy and Anne are powerfully attracted to each other, but their lives and faiths seem to keep them apart, even after Geoffrey is gone.

I found it difficult to grade this book, because it was extremely well written and did a wonderful job depicting Victorian village life - but I found myself struggling to get through it, especially the first half.  The author said she based it partly on the books of Thomas Hardy, and perhaps it’s difficult for someone in the 21st century to understand the religious differences that keep Christy and Anne apart (she’s an atheist, supposedly, but it never seems that believable.  Her constant depiction of herself as a terrible person never seemed to fit with her actions.)  Christy’s struggles as a minister were more believable and interesting, but the book just seemed to drag for a large portion of the story.  This book was highly recommended so it was a bit of a disappointment.  These have been in my TBR pile for a long time so I plan to read all three, but I hope the next two are more enjoyable.  

Next up - To Have and To Hold.  So far it's at least completely different...

A Week To Be Wicked by Tessa Dare

I thought Tessa Dare's early books had a unique voice - they felt like something different from the usual Regency historicals.  Unfortunately, her Spindle Cove books are missing something - this one was OK but it felt very Avon-ized.  She'll probably sell more books but I'm not running out to buy the next one.

A Week To Be Wicked by Tessa Dare
(2012, Regency Historical)  8/30/12
Grade: 3.5

Everyone thinks of Minerva Highwood as the bluestocking sister who fits into Spindle Cove society but has no chance on the marriage mart.  But she is determined to present her geological work at a scientific conference.  She persuades Colin Sandhurst, Viscount Payne, the local rake, to take her to Scotland.  The journey shows Colin that Minerva can be a lot more fun than she lets on - and Minerva that Colin has more depth than she expected.  

This book had charm but somehow it was lacking something.  I usually love a charming rogue hero, but Colin just didn’t seem believable to me, especially in the first half.  (Maybe his backstory was more developed in the first book in the series, which I only skimmed, but he still felt like rake-by-the-numbers.)  The book got more interesting in the second half, but it just didn’t break out of its fairly stereotypical setup. 

I find myself getting bored by typical Regency historicals, especially when I compare them to the books from the 90's that I'm reading from the 90's - the unique voices just seem to be missing.