RomanticLeads Recommendations and reviews of romantic fiction
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RomanticLeads Recommendations and reviews of romantic fiction
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THESE RECENTLY released novels are by three talented
romance writers but only two have succeeded in creating something delicious, the
last story came out of the oven a bit early. One Night for Love A touching story filled with interesting characters who grow and change, yet stay true to each other. The Earl of Kilbourne, Neville Wyatt, has rebuilt his life after his war experience fighting Napoleon. Neville is about to be wed when his past shows up. It is in the form of a ragged, illiterate daughter of his army sergeant, he thought was dead. She is very much alive and Neville announces to the cream of society that Lily Doyle is actually the woman he married in war-torn Portugal. Having grown up following the troops, Lily is unable to reconcile herself to her new elevated position in the town. She is embarrassed at every turn and wants nothing more than to be loved and lead a simple life. When the marriage turns out to be unregistered, she escapes to London with Neville’s aunt and is groomed for social success. Neville is devastated and must convince Lily that he loves her with or without her social polish. Balogh, a Canadian star of the genre, writes largely in the style of the traditional regency romance and perhaps accordingly her sometimes-clinical descriptions suggest she’s not comfortable stepping into bedroom scenes. Speed-read the half-hearted sex scenes and you’re left with a riveting story. Someday My Prince Dodd continues to produce once-upon-a-time fairy tales chock full of action adventure and sexy stuff. If you read Dodd’s last book, The Runaway Princess, you may remember Dominic _ the evil-bastard-mercenary-brother of King Danior of Sereminia. Well, he’s back. It’s been 12 years since Dominic’s attempt to overthrow his brother and he’s up to no good once again. He has just been hired to infiltrate a neighbouring country’s Royal Family to obtain a state secret. Of course, since he’s outrageously handsome he has decided to seduce the secret from the royal Princess Laurentia. The princess however is indifferent to the ridiculously beautiful suitor attending her ball. But her father the King decides he is impressed with Dominic. He invites the fox into the chicken coop by making Dominic the Princess’s bodyguard. And what a job he does. Dodd has used the annoying ploy of make the villain in one book, the hero of her next. This time it works where a less talented writer might not succeed. That takes skill and Dodd has buckets of it. Winter’s Bride This unmemorable medieval romance should have been fun. It got off to a good start with an attention-grabbing hook but lacked plot and a sympathetic heroine to back it up. Lady Lily Gray has no memory of her life prior to a carriage accident three years ago. She is on her way to her arranged marriage when a strange, angry man, Tristan of Brackenmoore, kidnaps her and insists that she is the mother of his three-year-old child. Lily refuses to believe that her parents would keep such outrageous lies. She decides to see this child and prove to herself that Tristan is the liar. Tristan, on the other hand, is determined to bring Lily’s memory back_ for himself and his daughter, but mostly for Lily. The woman he now knows is a pale shadow of the vivacious Lily he had loved. The fundamental problem, of Lily’s belief in her own motherhood, was essentially solved in the first three chapters. After that, the heroine is just annoying in her pig-headed rationalizations. With much repetitive irrational introspection Archer
certainly evoked a tone in this book, this story’s plain boring. Janine Taylor is a Halifax writer. She can be reached at romanticleads@hotmail.com -30- Copyright © 1999 Janine Taylor |
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