Reading Seduction by Amanda Quick and there's something powerful and refreshing about a historical romance heroine acknowledging that her late sister, who was pregnant out of wedlock and ultimately ended up overdosing on laudanum, could have sought out the local herbalist, a woman who could safely administer the herbs needed for an abortion— this is a book written in 1990 and is a) explicitly stating the word "abortion" and includes a conversation on it and b) advocating for it as a valid choice by way of the heroine who is also something of a herbalist, and c) telling in the way the hero on the other hand is a BITCH about it and threatens to boot the herbalist off his land if she is, in fact, helping women get abortions.
My point is, there are VERY FEW romances out there that spell out this option, both in historicals and contemporaries even though women generally have always... had their ways of going about contraception and getting abortions, and more tellingly, contemporary romances of late are extraordinarily mum on the issue.
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Two years ago this week, we spoke with Jayne Ann Krentz, who has done it all. We talked about her journey and the way she continually reinvented herself to keep writing, about the importance of writers’ core stories, about genre and myth making, and about the role of romance in the world.
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After the death of her uncle, widowed Beatrice Poole, and also secret authoress of several popular gothic novels, seeks answers. Not just because he might be murdered, but because the future of her young cousin rests in making a good match. A match which needs a dowry. A dowry which is now in jeopardy with her uncle's death. In order to save her family, Beatrice must seek out the reclusive Mad Monk of Monksworth, Leo Drake.
An expert on ancient antiquities, Leo has no intention on helping Beatrice. Not only has she barged into his home, terrorized his staff, and demanded to see him... but she also stirs something deep inside him. Something he's reluctant to name. After butting heads, he agrees to help.
But the more they grow closer to the truth, the more it threatens to kill them... and also consume their passions.
So... melodrama aside, I really loved this book. For a novel published in 1998, it's surprisingly modern and fresh and way more progressive than I expected. There were women supporting women. Oodles of sex-positivity. Women having agency over their lives. Sex workers treated with decency and dignity. There's even several Bechdel test passes and even a Mako Mori test pass. Seriously... it's better than many more recently written books... I am not going to name names... but my One-star reviews speak for themselves.
Beatrice was a fun character. Slightly naive but not totally. Nothing more than you would expect in an upper class woman of the day. I liked the little touches to her character.
Leo was also fun. Alpha but not to the point of being an a-hole. Strong, but kept getting into scrapes. Protective, but still slightly unsure with how to deal with his emotions.
I was pleasantly surprised reading this book, and I'm smiling while writing the review for it.
So if you like historical romantic suspense with sensuality and a good mystery. Definitely give this a go.
Five stars.
If this is your jam, you can get it here.
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*being books I read in 2020, for the first time, rather than only limited to books published in 2020, and in no specific order, except for probably by author because I tend to read an author’s whole backlog when I ~discover~ them
**These are also, exclusively, books I gave 5 stars to. Didn’t intend it, but here we are.
Did this for my own gratification to sift through all the books I read this year, but thought it could serve as a recommendation list too! I pretty much exclusively read Historical (Regency) Romances, so that’s what this is.
1. The Captive by Grace Burrowes- Absolutely moving book, my new standard for hurt comfort
2. The Traitor by Grace Burrowes- ~villain~ from book 1 on this list as the MC and also super moving and just generally Great
3. Andrew: Lord of Despair by Grace Burrowes- I read the summary. I was not interested. I decided to read the first 10 pages before bed. Read the first 190 pages.
The rest of the list is under the cut, 29th entry has a spoiler so just be pre-warned.
4. Darius by Grace Burrows- I hate the trope this book covers, and yet I loved this book
5. The Seduction of an English Scoundrel by Jillian Hunter- So funny, actually I loved this whole series and since it is 15 books long, I won’t list them all. Just know I loved them. Most of them.
6. Teresa Medeiros. Seriously almost all of her books. Specifically, though: The Vampire Who Loved Me, After Midnight, One Night Of Scandal, Charming the Prince, and Thief of Hearts
7. Yours Until Dawn by Teresa Medeiros- This one was so good, it needs its own spot even though I also loved the ones above. This book though.
8. The Wedding Night by Barbara Dawson Smith- love people already married who come back together and fall in love, and this one delivered
9. The Markham Hall Series by Sierra Simone- erotica, Good book, I reread favorite scenes all the time
10. Duke I'd Like to F... and Naughty Brits- Two anthology that had to be read for their titles alone, liked all the stories which is all that really matters to me with anthologies
11. Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian- so sweet, another hurt/comfort
12. The entire Sebastian St. Cyr Series by C.S. Harris- murder mysteries set after the Napoleonic Wars. LOVED. Also nice to see a love story play out over several books.
13. Someone to Romance by Mary Balogh- I’m going to be honest: I love everything Mary Balogh writes. Her books just work for me.
14. The Deadly Hours- another anthology, but I really only liked Susanna Kearsley and C.S. Harris’ stories. Still, worth it for me!
15. The Will Darling Adventures Series by KJ Charles- these boys. Charles makes me feel her books viscerally in a way I like.
16. Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean- Another villain (sort of) turned MC for this one. MacLean makes me like characters I don’t expect to like, and I would legitimately like anything she wrote so here we are.
17. A Dark and Stormy Knight by Kerrigan Bryne- I hated the MC of this book in the rest of this series and now I like him, so again, here we are
18. The Earl of Christmas Past by Kerrigan Bryne- healed my pain from the Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and that is all I will say on the matter
19. All Scot and Bothered by Kerrigan Bryne- I think its clear that I just like Bryne’s books.
20. Marry in Scarlet by Anne Gracie- I was so excited for this book and it managed to exceed by expectations.
21. Amanda Quick- Just, all of them yet again. I literally gave most of them 5 stars and cannot reduce them to my favorites. I liked all of them. You can message me for specifics cause they do cross genres ect., but just know that I loved them all.
22. The Lord I Left by Scarlett Peckham- as a person with a complicated relationship with religion, this book appealed to me, and you know ~I hope that didn’t awaken anything in me~
23. The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham- loved the thesis of the book (if you can call it that in a fiction book). Thought it was really well done.
24. Something Wicked by Jo Beverly- it has been months since I read this book and every time I think about it, I’m like, damn that was a good book. Enemy-ish characters and like....my stomach hurt when I was reading it? I was that emotionally distressed. This book made me feel some kind of way.
25. That Scandalous Evening by Christina Dodd- young woman sculpts crush, gets the proportions of his....manly bits wrong because she’s an innocent, he’s embarrassed, she’s ostracized for 10 years! and then they meet again and its great and hilarious
26. My Favorite Bride by Christina Dodd- I’m 1000% sure this is a The Sound of Music retelling and it’s Perfect
27. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas- I just think it was Neat. World building, characters, Maas, I liked it.
28. Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas- there was a scene cut from a previous book in this series about the characters in this book and it appears in this book, but someone posted it and every so often, I would read that scene over and over because it was so good and the full book did not disappoint me.
29. The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo- ok, this is a well written book but it has low ratings on goodreads for its ****SPOILERS**** psuedo-incest between two step-siblings. ***END SPOILERS*** I think its a little unfair, because it is a good book, and I love Choo’s writing, but I mean I understand that it can be a problematic read for some people.
and finally
30. Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase- I’ve been waiting 3! years! for this book and boy was it worth that wait. I’m not even done with it yet, but yeah, it’s working for me.
