On the bookshelf

It gladdens one's heart when a first-time writer produces a thoroughly engaging piece of work. I had a hard time putting down Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale, a mesmerizing story with all the gothic allure of a nineteenth-century novel, with none of the plodding and not a single unbelievable plot twist. Everything fit together in the end like an intricate puzzle. Rare is it these days for me to shelve a book with such a feeling of satisfied loss, for as much as I shall miss the characters I know that they are at peace and have no need to enter my life again, save during moments of introspection.

This is a perfect book for those who love books, ghost stories in particular —The Turn of the Screw leapt to mind numerous times — and a well-turned phrase.

P.S. The website for the book is the coolest. Be sure to check it out: http://www.thethirteenthtale.com.

A W O L...R

Away Without Leave...Reading

After discovering the pleasures of Holly Black's YA novels during our recent vacation to Los Angeles, I've been able to do little beyond read, sleep and, on occasion, attend to crucial domestic duties. Note that I'm referring to Black's "modern faerie tales" aimed at youth slightly older than readers of The Spiderwick Chronicles, of which Black is co-author with Tony DiTerlizzi.

If you happen to have any teenagers in the household—the back cover of Tithe categorizes the fiction as appealing to ages 14 and up—do give Holly Black's books a try. Faeries are dark in this modern tale, the worst of the lot motivated by greed, revenge, even downright sadism, and the majority are no fans of humans; however, that doesn't stop an angst-ridden teen (in Valiant) and a half-human/half-pixy (in Tithe and Ironside) from falling head over heels in love with (respectively) a fierce but gentle-hearted troll and a goth faery knight.

The trilogy is dark, frightening, and, best of all, wildly entertaining. Featuring heroines that are flawed, vulnerable, and yet, when push comes to shove, utterly courageous, these novels top my 2008 best-book list.

Rush to the shops

Hey, folks, India's novel has hit the newstands (in the UK). Head directly to your nearest bookshop before there are no more copies left.

To read a review of The Italian's Defiant Mistress, visit Romance Reader at Heart.

Book Review

What I'd really like to do is provide a review of my critique partner's latest offering (you'll all love it, believe me!); however, since her editor has not yet finished with the manuscript, I'd better keep mum and instead tell you about another romance I recently read.

Lord Greville's Captive

The book title is a misnomer. Or, at the very least, the contraction is misleading. For it is not the heroine of Nicola Cornick's latest contribution to the Harlequin Historicals line who is in thrall to her conqueror but the exact opposite: It is Lord Greville who is the captive.

Throughout Cornick's tale, set during the English Civil War, it is Lady Anne Grafton who commands attention. From the moment she strides into the enemies' camp to bargain for the safety of her people — in a masterful first chapter told from the hero's perspective — the reader is held spellbound by the lady's pluck and courage. I found myself falling in love with both characters: he for his strength, might and utter masculinity (to-die-for, girls!), and she for her strength of mind and purpose.

Grafton and Greville are on opposing sides of the war, Lady Anne holding fast to fealty to her king and to a promise, and Simon Greville to the right of the people to stand together against tyranny. Will their differences keep them apart? (Surely they will). Will love conquer all? (Of course it will.) You may know how the story ends but it's the struggle to get there that counts, and I promise you'll not be disappointed. This 17th-century tale, just what I ordered in fact, is replete with tension, adventure and, best of all, passion galore.

For those of you in the UK who have Cornick's highly acclaimed Regency romp Deceived on your wish list, word has it that the UK edition is out this month. Don't miss it or Lord Greville's Captive.

Hail the Roman hero

I just finished Michelle Styles's The Gladiator's Honor, published in North America by Harlequin Historical (thus the "or" as opposed to "our") and winner of the 2006 Cataromance Reviewers' Choice Award (for best Mills & Boon Historical Romance).

I can't recommend it highly enough. It is evocative, passionate, tells a heartwarming tale of forbidden love between a Thracian slave turned gladiator and a Roman noblewoman—both characters I loved from the get-go—and, best of all, it's not a Regency!

I know, I know, I myself have reviewed Regency romances here with equal enthusiasm, and I must admit I have a weakness for them. But I say it's high time Harlequin/Mills & Boon/Silhouette etc. started widening its scope. Personally I want to see on the shelves fewer Regencies and Medievals in favour of romances set during Roman times, the Restoration, the Renaissance – anything but the period dominated by Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen.

Readers and writers, let's unite and together bid farewell to Darcy, Knightley and the Duke of Wellington. Hail instead heroes such as Spartacus (picture Goran Visnjic rather than Kirk Douglas or Russell Crowe) or Johnny Depp in The Libertine, not to mention Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff. (As we know, I have a weakness for all things Victorian.)

Hey, wait a second, how did I make the jump from romance novels to leading male actors? Please forgive me, Michelle, I promise to write a proper review next time.

P.S. Thanks, Amanda, for the book recommendation. And, yes, it's been sitting in my Wish List that long!

Merrily Deceived: A Book Review

One of my all-time favourite romance novels, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss's Shanna, opens with a prison scene. There is something about a dark prison and a shadowy, taciturn male hero, not to mention a desperate female, to engage the interest.

Nicola Cornick's recently released Deceived (HQN Romance) starts out similarly. To escape two unpleasant fates, debtors' prison or exile to Europe, Isabella Standish marries a man she believes safely shut away in debtors' prison, a man she jilted at the altar years ago in favour of a European prince. Widowed and left with enormous debt by her wastrel husband, Isabella is unaware that Marcus Stockhaven is no pauper and has vengeance in mind for the lovely princess.

A battle of wits ensues when Stockhaven appears on the scene, disconcerting the remarkably composed heroine. Cornick, a master of the Regency drama, delights the reader with innuendo, double entendre and tonnish scenes aplenty, all rife with tension and suppressed passion. The intervening years have not diminished the chemistry between the characters; in fact, the sexual tension is palpable, as is the pain, distrust and fear of loving again. Isabella and Stockhaven are complex characters battling the events of the past; fortunately, they are totally likable and refreshingly authentic.

In the end not a single soul is deceived, least of all the reader.

Keep an eye out for the other romantic subplots, particularly that of Isabella's sister, known by the ton for her beauty, wit, and acerbic tongue. (A girl after my own heart.)

By the way, few of Woodiwiss's novels have remained on my keeper shelf over the years. My tastes have changed and I have little patience these days for flowery prose. Cornick's novels, on the other hand, are every one of them keepers.

Time traveller

Everytime I return to the farm I step back in time: to a calmer place, a slow-paced lifestyle, to moments wherein the eddying breeze, fragrant with lilly and rose, is the only distraction on a heat-shimmering summer's day. Rain has proven elusive. Thunderstorms swirl around, promising relief with a far-off crack of thunder and a single jagged pierce of white light.

My daughter behaves as if born yesterday, finally able and more than willing to do all the things I did easily and much earlier when a girl: climbing trees, reaching out a hand to a skittish barn cat, exploring woods and copses, watching mesmerized as hummingbirds frolick in phlox and, best of all, riding a bicycle up and down the laneway, finally in solitude mastering balance and coordination.

For quiet moments indoors she has her Tamagotchi and an online connection to her Webkinz cyberworld—after all, she is a city girl who has learned the wonders of the Internet. For me, I'm taking time off writing to learn a new program required for an upcoming writing contract, and when I curl up in my girlhood single bed at night I have in-hand novels reminiscent of the sort I read twenty-odd years ago beneath the covers by flash/torch light.

Below is my summer vacation reading list:

• The Bride and the Beast by Teresa Medeiros — a rare find thanks to my favourite second-hand bookstore in Montreal, a short, fairytale romance involving a dragon and a virgin sacrifice
• Highwayman Husband by Helen Dickson — abandoned half-finished as Regency-era intrigue overpowered pent-up passion
• The Wicked Lover by Julia Ross — currently winning my envy as two wartime spies circle and parry, both disguised, haunted by the past, yet drawn to each other
• One Night in Paradise by Juliet Landon, my first Elizabethan romance
• Deceived by Nicola Cornick, another Regency romance by one of my favourite authors.

My only worry is that I won't have enough to read for two whole weeks! Too bad I failed to get my hands on Delicious and The Gladiator's Honour. I suppose I can always resort to my daughter's cache, two books from The Royal Diaries series plus a treasure trove of facts about fairies. In fact, I am suddenly flooded with ideas for young adult books featuring romance, past and present. Gosh, perhaps even a tale involving a changeling or an outcast from the fairy realm.

There's nothing like a change of scenery to get the creative juices flowing again. Perhaps I'll end up writing in spare moments while on the farm, just as I did as a child.

Tell me what's on your summer reading list. Do you plan to step back in time or embark on a modern-day adventure?