Holy Chocolate Covered Cherries! Upcoming Historical Romances!! February 15-March 14, 2020!!

Authors with an asterisk*, I'm picking up! Release dates mostly between February 15, 2020 and March 14, 2020. For more Upcoming Releases that aren't historical see HEY DELIA!!

 Series indicates a series, spin-off, sequel, trilogy, brother/sister, secret society/spies, good friends who attended Oxford/Eton, vampire/werewolf - anything that has something continuing - even if written 20 years ago. Anthology/novella/short stories could be an anthology or a bunch of books in one print or novella - one tiny book or an anthology with a bunch of novellas - could be a short stories by one author, could be short stories by multiple authors - could be - I'm getting a headache. Ebook, only sold electronically for now. Debut - congratulations! 

By the way, it is not my fault if a publisher changes the release dates - just so you know, they do not consult me. Let me also add this warning - since I am now using different sources, I am finding that one person's genre isn't necessarily another persons - sorry if your book is in the wrong genre.  
**Book by an author who is either new to me or has fallen off of my list and I might read.

Normally, I don't mention the other side: Nonfiction books. However, one of my favorite nonfiction authors has a book coming out in February, and I'm very excited. Love his writing!

Nonfiction

Erik Larson http://www.eriklarsonbooks.com The Splendid and the Vile:  A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz February 25

Historical Romance

	Adrienne Basso** http://www.adriennebasso.net Every Bit a Rogue Ellinghams series February 25
	Anna Bradley http://www.annabradley.net For the Sake of the Scottish Rake Besotted Scots February 18
	Anna Harrington http://www.annaharringtonbooks.com/ An Inconvenient Duke Lords of the Armory February 25
	Bronwyn Scott http://bronwynswriting.blogspot.com/ The Passions of Lord Trevethow Cornish Dukes Series Paperback - February 18, Ebook - March 1
	Callie Hutton http://www.calliehutton.com Lady Pamela and the Gambler Merry Misfits series Feb 25, 2020 This cover looks Inspirational to me, but I could find no information. And, I got tired of looking.
	Cathy Maxwell* http://cathymaxwell.com/ His Secret Mistress A Logical Man's Guide to Dangerous Women Novel February 24
	Elizabeth Beacon Marrying for Love or Money? Yelverton Marriages series Paperback - February 18, Ebook - March 1
	Grace Burrowes http://www.graceburrowes.com/ A Woman of True Honor True Gentlemen February 18
	Greta Gilbert Saved by Her Warrior Enemy Paperback - February 18, Ebook - March 1
	Heather Grothaus http://www.heathergrothaus.com The Highlander's Promise Sons of Scotland March 3
	Janna MacGregor http://www.JannaMacGregor.com/ Wild, Wild Rake The Cavensham Heiresses February 25
	Jillian Eaton http://www.jillianeaton.com Courting the Countess of Cambridge Secret Wallflower Society February 25 What's with the Dolly Parton rear end? If this is supposed to be a bustle it's way off. Mermaid dresses were not around in the 1800s.
	Julia Justiss* https://www.juliajustiss.com/bio.php The Tempting of the Governess Cinderella Spinsters Paperback - February 18, Ebook - March 1
	Kathryn Le Veque http://www.kathrynleveque.com Dark Warrior de Russe Legacy March 4
	Laura Martin https://lauramartinromance.com/ The Brooding Earls Proposition Paperback - February 18, Ebook - March 1
	Lisa Berne http://www.LisaBerne.com Engaged to the Earl Penhallow Dynasty February 25
	Lisa Kleypas* http://www.lisakleypas.com/ Chasing Cassandra The Ravenels February 18  Another dress probably not historically accurate!
	Michelle Willingham http://www.michellewillingham.com Stolen by the Viking Sons of Sigurd Paperback - February 18, Ebook - March 1
	Minerva Spencer http://minervaspencer.com/ A Figure of Love The Academy of Love March 3
	Sabrina Jeffries http://www.sabrinajeffries.com The Bachelor Dukes Dynasty February 25
	Scarlett Scott http://www.scarlettscottauthor.com Wild in Winter Wicked Winters February 28
	Shana Galen http://www.shanagalen.com How the Lady Was Won Survivors series February 20
	Suzan Tisdale http://www.suzantisdale.com Black Richard's Heart Clan MacDougall February 25

Historical Fiction

	Alka Joshi https://www.thehennaartist.com/ The Henna Artist March 3
	Brenda Janowitz http://www.brendajanowitz.com The Grace Kelly Dress Feb 17
	Christine Dwyer Hickey http://www.christinedwyerhickey.com/ The Narrow Land March 3
	Genevieve Graham http://www.GenevieveGraham.com The Forgotten Home Child March 3
	Gretchen Berg http://www.gretchenbergbooks.com/ The Operator March 3
	Hilary Mantel http://hilary-mantel.com The Mirror and the Light Thomas Cromwell series March 10
	Kerri Maher https://www.kerrimaher.com/ The Girl in White Gloves February 25
	Kevin Doherty https://www.kevindoherty.com The Leonardo Gulag March 3
	Marion Kummerow http://kummerow.info On the Brink Berlin Fractured series February 25
	Maisy Card http://www.maisycard.com These Ghosts are Family March 3
	Paul Colt http://www.paulcoltbooks.com Destiny March 11
	Paul Wolfe https://www.harpercollins.com/author/cr-133781/paul-wolfe/ The Lost Diary of M February 25
	Sarah Jane Stratford http://www.sarahjanestratford.com/ Red Letter Days February 25
	Shaun Curry https://www.authorshauncurry.com/ The Swords of Silence The Swords of Fire series February 25
	Stacey Halls http://www.thefamiliarsbook.com  The Foundling February 18
	Thomas Crockett https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/tophat-books/authors/thomas-crockett The Great Matter Monologues March 1
	V S Alexander aka Michael Meeske http://www.michaelmeeske.com The Traitor February 25
	William Westbrook http://www.nicholasfallonbooks.com/ Barbarians on an Ancient Sea Nicholas Fallon series March 1

The Secret Mistress by Mary Balogh - Wayback Machine

January 29, 2020
"Get me a bromide, and put some gin in it."

https://marybalogh.com/
What’s with the quote, you may ask. Well, I’ll tell you my little Petunia’s. It’s a line from one of my favorite movies, The Women (1939). That quote is a line made by a character named Countess Flora DeLava (Mary Boland). This type of female character was popular in the movies of the 30s and 40s, and I loved them. This type of female characters were a little scattered, and a little flighty. They were usually comic relief. One might think these women were ignorant, but one would be wrong. Let me just drop the names of a few more characters from movies I love: Bridget Drake from When Ladies Meet (1941), played by Spring Byington - Millicent Jordan from Dinner at Eight (1933), played by Billie Burke - Angelica and Irene Bullock from My Man Godfrey (1936), played by Alice Brady and Carole Lombard - and Louise Patterson from The Big Clock (1948), played by Elsa Lancaster. Then there is Lady Angeline Dudley, from The Secret Mistress, part of the Mistress series by Mary Balogh. Angeline reminds me of these women. It is possible that some people may look at these women and think they are silly, even an insult to womankind. Maybe their mannerisms are frantic, fast, and make us tired. But there is hidden depth lurking underneath their flighty facade. Sometimes they may even be considered self-centered, but if one listens carefully, there is often some profound utterances coming from their mouths.

If you have read the other two books in this series, you may recognize Angeline as the featherbrained sister of the two Dudley brothers. She and her husband were secondary characters in both previous books. Angeline’s brothers barely tolerate her husband, Edward Ailsbury, Earl of Heyward. They consider him a boring stick. Angeline, on the other hand, talks, talks, talks, and her brothers try to ignore her. Once again, Ms. Balogh’s lightbulb lit, and she decided to go back in time and give us a prequel. She decided to give us Angeline and Edwards’s story. Out of the three books, this one turned out to be my favorite.

This is an example of Mary Balogh’s fun side. The Secret Mistress is not a hysterical, laugh-out loud, screwball story, but it is lighthearted. It is a treat. Angeline and Edward are both wonderful characters. She is a loving woman, and she loves her brothers, but when it comes to husband material, she does not want someone like her brothers. On the other hand, she does not want a bore. A bore is how society views Edward.

Then there is Edward. He does not want someone too exciting. He does not want someone who is frivolous. He wants someone who can help him in his career. He definitely does not want some empty-headed woman who is totally unaware of the rules of society. You know what I mean. The kind who comes down to a room in an inn, by themselves, and proceeds to stick their round bottom in the air while staring out of the window. The kind of round bottom one looks at, even when one doesn’t want to. The kind of round bottom which will attract rakes. The kind of woman who causes men to get in fights, and then is surprised that she is the cause of alllll the problems. It all can be overstimulating for a man who does not want excitement. At least that is what we are led to believe.

Angeline and Edward are perfect for each other. They are the kind of couple who bring out the best in each other. This book more than made up for the second book in the series. I cannot say enough about what a joy it was to read. It was humorous, the characters were delightful, and I smiled all the way through it. This book is why I love Mary Balogh. This is why I love Romanceland. I highly recommend this book.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm

No Man's Mistress by Mary Balogh - Wayback Machine

January 28, 2020

Sometimes ideas work and sometimes they don’t.
spoiler alert
https://marybalogh.com/
Often when I read a book, I envision the author going through their bright lightbulb idea process. I think a lot of times, “what-if” ideas pop into an author’s brain, they talk to their editor or sidekick, and then they run with it. Regardless of how far out in left-field those ideas sometime are, a good author can pull it off. However, sometimes even if the author happens to be the “queen of romance,” even then they can’t pull it off. For me, No Man’s Mistress is such a case. Mary Balogh is famous for tackling subjects which don’t always work in Romance novels. She’s tackled infidelity, rape, abuse, and in most cases, she has been able to give the story a HEA which is believable. This time, her “what-if” was a heroine who at one time was a high-priced courtesan, and now she is in hiding, trying to start a new life.

Viola Thornhill believes she is the owner of a country estate. She has been living there for a couple of years. She loves it there; she has formed friendships with the village people, and they have grown to love and respect her. Life is perfect for her, until Ferdinand Dudley shows up claiming the estate for his own. Unlike her, he has the legal right to it. He won it in a card game, and he’s got the documents to prove it. When he rides up on his horse, he is enchanted with the place, it is everything he has always wanted. But there is a woman who is claiming it as her own. So, we have a conundrum.

At first, I thought this story was going to be humorous. Maybe along the lines of The Money Pit or War of the Roses. You know the plots. The combatants wage war; they divide the house, and try to drive the other one out. And, in the beginning, Viola makes some attempts at sabotage, but they all fail. I thought Viola was a pretty nasty person at this point. She is obviously in the wrong, she natters on that she is the owner, even when she really has no papers proving it. Then she tries to drive him out. Then Ferdinand’s brother (Jocelyn from More than a Mistress) shows up and burst her bubble. He recognizes her as the high-priced courtesan, and tells Ferdinand. Ferdinand is a tad bit upset at the news. It seems he has feelings for Viola. His anger is understandable, but then the story goes downhill. Viola wagers with Ferdinand that she can seduce him, and if she does, she will get the estate. She becomes a cold, calculating woman, and I did not like her. Of course, she succeeds in her seduction. However, she discovers something: twenty-seven-year-old Ferdinand has never been with a woman, and that makes her feel dirty. She runs away. He finds her, solves her problems, marries her and they live happily ever after among the aristocratic society. Yeah, that’s going to happen…puleese. That was my one big issue with this book, other than her being a nasty heroine.

The heroine was a courtesan. The why-she-was-a-courtesan did not really matter to me. I knew she was threatened, and forced into it by an evil man. However, that was not enough for me to accept that Viola and Ferdinand would ever have their HEA. Yes, I know this is fiction, this is romance, anything can happen. I know, historically, there were some courtesans who married their aristocratic lovers. But those women were never welcomed into that society. Sophia Wilson was one of those women who captured one of the tons elites. However, she was seventeen when she married a forty-one-year-old man. That only makes me cringe. From what I can gather, her married life must have been depressing. Not having any real friends would make one’s life pretty miserable.  By the way, Sophia is the sister of Harriette Wilson, another courtesan. In fact, four of the Wilson sisters were high priced prostitutes. While they mingled with the ton, they were never really accepted, they were scorned most of their life. That is one of the problems with being a student of history while loving historical romance books. Sometimes the two do not mix very well. No matter how good Ms. Balogh is at writing poignant words, society would never accept Viola. And, not just the ton, but the good people of the village where she had found a home would probably turn their back on her. I do not care how many dukes frowned at the people who snubbed her. I do not believe any woman would ever have really been her friend, and would Ferdinand have been comfortable standing in a crowded room of men, never knowing which man his wife had been to bed with. Jealousy works in mysterious ways, or maybe not. Men have affairs, those women show up at parties, and the little woman is required to accept that. Not everyone can become friends with a husband’s ex-lover. But Viola wasn’t a lover of men, she was a prostitute. I just had a hard time buying into a happy ending for Viola and Ferdinand. I wish Ms. Balogh had a different lightbulb idea she used for Ferdinand's story, because he’s a really nice guy. And, there aren’t all that many nice guys in Romanceland.

Bottom line. I couldn’t get past the set-up for the romance in this story. Realism took over my thought process, and I wasn’t able to overlook Viola’s past. I was uncomfortable with the storyline. Since this is part of a series, and these characters are in the other books, you might want to read it. Maybe you can get past the story; maybe you think Ms. Balogh succeeded. And, that’s alright. That’s why there is more than one book in the world, because we all like different things.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality:Warm

More than a Mistress by Mary Balogh - Wayback Machine

January 27, 2020
What happened to the wish faerie?

https://marybalogh.com/
As you might guess by the fact that I’m still in the Wayback-Machine, I haven’t had tooooo much luck with new books. Oh sure, I’ve started some, but then put them aside.

So, I decided to revisit the Mistress series by Mary Balogh. As we allll know sometimes our mind plays tricks with us. We also allll know that if we want a book to cheer us up, Mary Balogh’s is not the first author who pops into our head. But, I thought I’d live dangerously and dig into More Than a Mistress - 2000, No Man’s Mistress - 2001, and The Secret Mistress - 2011. I’m pleased to announce that for the most part, they lived up to my memory of them. Did they make me happy? Well, they were not a laugh-riot but I did not feel the need to turn to Valium either. Let’s take a look at these three stories.

More Than a Mistress written in 2000, is the story of Jocelyn Dudley, Duke of Tresham and Jane Ingleby. These two characters are pure Balogh. Jocelyn is a very overbearing alpha-male who is hiding from his true self, and Jane is just hiding. There are trusts issues galore in this book. Some of those issues went on just a little bit toooo long. In the editions I purchased, Ms. Balogh has included deleted scenes from the original releases. I have to say, that these cuts are/were an example of editor/s advising the author incorrectly. In my opinion, these extra scenes enhance the stories, and explain things that puzzled me when I first read them.

Jane is down on her luck. First, she is hiding out from an evil uncle; second she is penniless, and she trying desperately to keep her low-paying job. She is one of those people who need to eat and pay rent.  Well luck is not Jane’s friend. What should she stubble across on her way to work one day? A duel. She does what most self-respecting women would do, she screams. When she does this, she startles the duelist, and one of the duelists ends up shot in the leg - our hero, Jocelyn Dudley. When Jane finally arrives at her job, her nasty employer informs her that she must have a hand-written excuse or she will forfeit her job. Jane, who is rather a pushy woman, storms the castle and demands a note from the guy with the bullet in the leg, Jocelyn. Well, Jocelyn does not really have too much of a sense of humor when it comes to the bullet in his leg. He refuses her request, and he comes up with a demand of his own. He insists she be his nurse.

Jane thinks about her options for a short time. She needs money; she needs a place to hide. Oh sure, he is a bit of an overbearing lout, but she is desperate. What could possibly happen? Well, my little Petunia’s, this is Romanceland, a lot can happen. More Than a Mistress is a prime example of Ms. Balogh at her best. Ms. Balogh is a master of the slow-build romance. She also knows how to explore the guts of emotion. The scenes when Jocelyn opens up, and tells Jane his secrets are something to behold. It would have been nice if Jane had been honest with him sooner.

I did have some minor quibbles with some of the things in the book. As I just mentioned, I believe Jane should have been more trustful of Jocelyn sooner than she was. By the time he opened up, she knew him well enough to trust him. I also thought his reaction to her past story was a tad bit overboard, but it was how I expected him to react. That does not mean I had to like it, though. I will also repeat, I am glad we were able to see what the editor chopped out of the original book; I have a better understanding of Jocelyn now. Authors: sometimes editors are not correct in what they say or ask.

Overall, while this book was not a laugh-riot, it was a charming story with a group of intense characters. Don’t be afraid of the words: intense and Balogh. It wasn’t one of her really, really, really intense-I-need-a-drink stories. More Than a Mistress is a book you should read.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm/Hot/typical Balogh

Anyone but a Duke by Betina Krahn

January 14, 2020

"If I conferred with our furry friends, man to animal
Think of the amazing repartee
If I could walk with the animals, talk with the animals
Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals
And they could talk to me" - Leslie Bricusse

https://betinakrahn.com/
Anyone but a Duke is the last book in Betina Krahn’s Sin and Sensibility series. While I am excited to see Betina Krahn wielding her pen again, her latest series was a little underwhelming. Ms. Krahn is one of those authors who I hold to higher expectations. She has been around for a while. She is what I would call a veteran, and is responsible for some of my favorite “old” romance books. Although, I will admit that when I recently reread her old classic Caught in the Act, it did not pass the test of time. It melted down in the Way-back machine. Back to Anyone but a Duke. Be warned, there is a large amount of plausibility stretching in this story.

Anyone but a Duke returns us to those wild and woolly cowpoke girls, the Baumgarten sisters. This story is about the youngest sister, Sarah. When the story begins, she is in the process of having her feelings hurt by one of her suitors. She believed he was the man for her, she thought he was in luvvvv with her. However, Sarah is not wise to the way of the aristocracy. Evidently, inheriting an Earldom turns her suitor into a worm, and he dumps the brash American for an Italian heiress. Sarah is embarrassed. She decides to leave London and hide out at her brother-in-law’s estate. She has had enough of the backbiting society world. She is off to the country! Did I mention she was nineteen, her brother-in-law and sister are not at the estate, and she is going without any chaperones? Not only that, but once she gets there she notices that the estate is in shambles. As any nineteen-year-old girl would do, she takes over the management of the estate, and in just a matter of months, she is getting everything in order. It would seem that servants and village people do not have any trouble following the orders of a teenager. A teenager, by the way, who is not the owner of the property, nor do they have the authority to manage said property. Not only that, she is an American teenager and she’s giving orders to British servants/villagers/farmers/cow-herders/etc. That whole scenario was one big hurdle to jump. Dare I say it was ludicrous?  I do not care if it was the 1890s. Let’s take that scenario out of the past and bring it into our age. Seriously, would any of us take orders from a nineteen year old who has no experience, and who does not have the authority to make changes to the land/property/whatever? “What’s that you say little lady? You want to build a new roof. Sure, sure! I’ll get right on it! You’re going to get the money from where? No proble-mo! By the way, just who are you?”  I can only arrive at the conclusion that Sarah was a Vulcan who could control people with a mind-meld. But it is not just people. She also has a way with animals. Not just a way, but a waaaay.

Sarah communes with the animals, she sings, she dances, she whispers, and they follow her around. All of them fighting just to get close to her. It’s probably the peanut butter she wears behind her pointy ears. There was one particular scene in this book, which reminded me of Disney’s Snow White cleaning the dwarf’s house. That was the scene where Snow White sang while allll the animals helped her. Not only is she super-duper with the animals, and bends servants to her will, she can heal human gunshot victims. Enter our hero, Arthur.

Now on to another convoluted plot: Arthur. The estate Sarah is saving, Betancourt, belongs to her brother-in-law – sort of. Her brother-in-law, Ashton, was the hero from A Good Day to Marry a Duke. Ashton married Sarah’s sister Daisy. Daisy had set her sights on Ashton’s brother Arthur, the Duke of Meridian. But, in the end she decided Ashton was her man. I guess Arthur had his heart broken, so he decided to leave, and journey the world. In his absence, he left Ashton with the responsibility of managing the estate.  He also said that if he didn’t return in six years Ashton would be the Duke, or something like that. I would think that Arthur would have to be declared legally dead for that to happen. However, I am not a solicitor, or a lawyer. Anyway, it seems that neither brother is alllll that responsible. Arthur is off seeing the world and Ashton is off touring America with his new wife. Both brothers are ignoring the poor starving people on their estate. Then Arthur disappears, his family thinks he is dead. Does anyone try to find him? Not that I know of. Nah, Ashton is too busy showing off in America to take the time to find his brother, or help the struggling people at Betancourt. In the meantime, Arthur’s tour of the world is not turning out to be what he wanted. He is kidnapped, imprisoned, works for a pirate, escapes, is captured, imprisoned, then escapes again. He does not let anyone know he is alive. True, there weren’t smartphones then, but this story takes place in the 1890s, and there were telegraphs strung across continents, there were telephone systems, there were postal deliveries, and don’t forget about those carrier pigeons. There had to have been a way for Arthur to communicate to someone that he was still alive. In the meantime, people are starving back at Betancourt, houses are falling down, and cows are drying up. However, then super-duper girl shows up to save the day. Then one day while she was walking along talking to the squirrels, she stumbles across an injured stranger. She takes him back to Betancourt, puts him in his old bed and treats him. Of course, she does not remember him; she was only thirteen the last time she saw him. However, he looks mighty familiar. Arthur, on the other hand remembers her. Does he tell her who he is? Oh, you silly-willies, of course not!

If it were just Arthur and Sarah, I might have bought into the story, but there were a whole lot of other things going on. There was an obvious villain. He looks, tastes, smells, and acts like a villain. However, Sarah and Arthur do not catch on. There are gangs of house and stable burning, scum-sucking, hoodlums, who are out to disrupt the peaceful village. I never quite understood a secondary-secondary bad-guy-good-guy. Even in the end, I was puzzled as to whether he was protecting Sarah, or trying to kill her. There were Ashton and Daisy returning from America, and trying to explain their neglect of Betancourt. There was Daisy’s mother, who was over-protective in all the other books, but did not seem to care that her nineteen-year-old daughter was managing an estate miles, and miles away. And, of course there was Uncle Red.

This story was an “if-only story”.  If only the heroine was older, and/or chaperoned. If only the heroine was not such a super-duper girl. If only the hero was honest about his identity. If only Ashton had lived up to his hero status from the previous books. If only the villains were not in the book. If only someone cared about the poor villagers, someone with the authority to do so. While Sarah and Arthur had possibilities, the rest of the story was a convoluted narrative, and it did not live up to my expectations. Sorry to say, the last book in this series was a disappointment for me. As much as it pains me to say, I cannot recommend it. 

Time/Place: 1890s England
Sensuality:Warm