Upcoming Historical Romance and Historical Fiction!!

Authors with an asterisk*, I'm picking up! For more Upcoming Releases that aren't historical see HEY DELIA!! September 15, 2018 to October 14, 2018. By the way, it is not my fault if a publisher changes the release dates - just so you know, they do not consult me.

Historical Romance

	Amy Jarecki http://www.amyjarecki.com The Duke's Fallen Angel Prequel to Devilish Dukes October 9
	Annabelle Anders http://www.annabelleanders.com Hell's Belle Devilish Debutants series September 17
	Ava Stone http://www.avastoneauthor.com How to Tempt a Rogue Without Really Trying Regency Hearts series September 18
	Bianca Blythe http://biancablythe.com/ Dukes Prefer Bluestockings Wedding Trouble series September 25
	Bliss Bennet http://www.blissbennet.com/ A Sinner without a Saint Pennington series September 16
	Catherine Tinley http://www.catherinetinley.com The Makings of a Lady Chadcombe Marriages series paperback - September 18, ebook -  October 1
	Cynthia Wright http://cynthiawrightauthor.com/ Abducted at the Altar Brides of Skye series September 21
	Emma Locke http://www.emmalocke.com The Wooing of a Wayward Rogue September 18
	Erica Ridley http://www.ericaridley.com Once Upon a Duke 12 Dukes of Christmas series October 9
	Heather McCollum http://www.heathermccollum.com A Rose in the Highlands Highland Roses School series September 24
	Jenni Fletcher http://jennifletcher.com The Warrior's Bride Prize paperback - September 18, ebook -  October 1
	Jo Goodman http://www.jogoodman.com/ A Touch of Flame Cowboys of Colorado series September 19
	Joanna Shupe http://www.joannashupe.com/ A Notorious Vow Four Hundred series September 25
	Julia Justiss* http://www.juliajustiss.com/ A Most Unsuitable Match Sisters of Scandal series paperback - September 18, ebook -  October 1
	Kelly Bowen* http://www.kellybowen.net Last Night with the Earl The Devils of Dover series September 25
	Lenora Bell http://www.lenorabell.com/ For The Duke’s Eyes Only School for Dukes series September 18
	Lynne Connolly http://lynneconnolly.com/ Lisbon Richard and Rose series September 18
	Marguerite Kaye http://www.margueritekaye.com His Rags-To-Riches Contessa Matches Made in Scandal series paperback - September 18, ebook -  October 1
	Mary Jo Putney http://www.maryjoputney.com/ Once a Scoundrel Rogues Redeemed series September 26
	Megan Frampton http://www.meganframpton.com The Lady is Daring Duke's Daughter series September 15
	Shana Galen* http://www.shanagalen.com Theresa Romain http://theresaromain.com Mrs. Brodie's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies September 18
	Sophia James http://sophiajames.co A Proposition For The Comte Gentlemen of Honour series paperback - September 18, ebook -  October 1
	Vanessa Kelly http://www.vanessakellyauthor.com A Hero's Guide to Love September 25
	Victoria Alexander* http://www.victoriaalexander.com/ The Dance Before Christmas The Lady's Travelers Society October 1

Historical Fiction

	Alan Tichmarsh http://www.alantitchmarsh.com The Scarlet Nightingale September 20
	Bernard Cornwell http://www.bernardcornwell.net/ War of the Wolf Last Kingdom series October 2
	Hazel Gaynor http://hazelgaynor.com/ The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter October 9
	Juliet Blackwell http://www.julietblackwell.net/ The Lost Carousel of Provence September 18
	Kristina Olsson https://www.fantasticfiction.com/o/kristina-olsson/ Shell October 9
	Wilbur Smith http://www.wilbursmithbooks.com/ Courtney's War Courtney series September 18
	William Boyd http://www.williamboyd.co.uk/ Love is Blind September 20

The Singular Mr. Sinclair by Mia Marlowe

August 21, 2018
AKA Alert

http://www.miamarlowe.com/
It’s been a while since I’ve read a full book by Mia Marlowe and I’m glad to see this is a beginning of a series. I enjoyed reading the books she was writing jointly with Connie Mason. Then I remembered…she also wrote under the name of Emily Bryant. I remember being fond of those also. My fellow Petunia’s always check out that copyright information for the aka, you just never know who’s going to show up again.

Now on to the book and this will teach me to write my review as soon as I close the book. I do not remember too much about this story, which isn’t a good thing. I do remember that the hero, Mr. Sinclair is left-handed and as a child this caused a problem with his uncle. Somehow he joins the army and makes a great career out of it. Travels the world, mixes with people of the world, see sights and sounds which a lot of people in London society are isolated from. Of course, the army also means he sees things which are horrendous and do not make for a peaceful rest. He is back in London, has won accolades for his service to his country. He feels guilty for surviving. His best friend has brought him back to his house to stay. It is here that he meets our heroine, Caroline.

Caroline is a snob and so are her friends. They view Sinclair’s efforts to blend in with society as close to buffoonery. Her friends are vicious women and I hope that they are not going to be heroines in future books, because I could not like them. 

I’m not sure why Romanceland has a tendency to think of anyone who hasn’t grown up in the isolated atmosphere of London society as idiots, buffoons, uncouth people. There were other societies in the world which were just as sophisticated and culturally advanced as London. The three women in this book, looked down on Sinclair, they were snide, catty and spoiled. But their duty was to bring Sinclair into London’s glitter.

This was a slow book, the romance lacked chemistry, but because I am familiar with Mia Marlowe aka Emily Bryant’s writing, I will probably give her next book a try. I'm giving this a luke-warm recommendation - don't blame me if you don't like it.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm

What Ales the Earl by Sally MacKenzie

August 10, 2018

A Big Woe is Me
https://www.sallymackenzie.net/
I haven’t much to say, because quite frankly, I didn’t read the entire book. I could not finish this story. The humor was over-the-top and cruel, the hero was a creep and the heroine an idiot. I skipped to the end to see if I should finish it, but even that didn’t grab me or make me want to care about this story. I really wanted to have a good time with this story, but I couldn’t force myself to continue with it. Sad to say, this is another book I cannot recommend.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Haven't a Clue

Born to Be Wilde by Eloisa James

August 20, 2018
Woe is Me

https://www.eloisajames.com/
Well, I have to say Ms. James’ latest series is leaving me underwhelmed. I keep hoping that

each new book in the series will be the one which will make me say – wow, this is great! Alas, this one wasn’t it. I not sure what Ms. James was going for, unless it was to let us know how much she knows about historical clothing – through our heroine, of course.

If you remember Lavinia Gray from the previous book, you will remember her mother stole some jewels and was also addicted to laudanum. So, things have traveled downhill for Lavinia; she no longer has money and she must find a way to make money. She chooses to become a wedding planner. Yes, a wedding planner. You see, she can put her reds and oranges together and they will look boo-ti-ful. Right away I had a problem with this plot-device. I thought it was silly. This was 1780 for Pete’s sake! Women as wedding planners/fashion designers in the 1700s is a big stretch. Anyway, Lavinia talks fashion… a lot. She thinks about fashion… a lot. All those words about clothing peppered throughout the book were all quite - oh I don’t know - boring. I started to skip over them after a while. It’s not a good sign in a book when one starts skipping over words. Clothing descriptions in romance books can lend a great deal to adding atmosphere to a story. If written properly those descriptors give us a sense of time and space. This time there was just toooooo much clothing talk. I eventually lost interest in the character of Lavinia. I even groaned when she stopped to have a look at a piece of cloth or inseam or nap. Losing interest in the heroine isn’t a good thing considering she is one half of the romantic partnership in this book.

The other half of our love couple was Parth Sterling. He grew up with the Wildes, hence the reason for his inclusion in this series. He also knows Lavinia but has always considered her a frivolous, empty-headed, worthless bit of fluff. Lavinia has always considered him a stuffed-shirt. Now this could have led to some wonderful banter, some butting of heads – but, alas there was hardly any and what banter there was wasn’t humorous. I could find no chemistry between these two people, but that didn’t stop them from jumping in bed together. Yes, there were hippidy-hopping in the bedroom, but because there was no chemistry between the couple before they partook of the old skippidy-hippidy the “hot” scenes made me uncomfortable. I eventually skipped those. So, not only was I skipping the clothing talk, I was also skipping the bedroom scenes – that’s a lot of skipping. There was also an ick moment attached to a questionable historical moment. At one point in this book, Lavinia informs Parth she is having a female complaint moment. This was so bizarre I was thrown out of the book. I really cannot accept that a woman in the 1700s would mention to a man she wasn’t married to that it was that time of the month. I found it hard to believe that she would discuss her mommy parts with someone she wasn’t married to.

I was very disappointed in this book. It had lots of words, but there wasn’t any feeling beneath those words. I cannot recommend this story – and that makes me sad. It is not up to Ms. James’ earlier stories.

Time/Place: 1700s England
Sensuality: Odd

Tempting the Laird by Julia London

July 25, 2018
Did I imagine shades of Jane Eyre in this story?
 
http://www.julialondon.com/ 
This was an interesting story, I liked parts of it, but there were some holes which needed to be filled. Let's start with some of the issues. First off, the heroine – Catriona. I don’t remember her from the previous books, so I don’t have a memory of how she was represented in those stories. But in the opening chapters of this story, she is written as a person who has a drinking problem. Why she has a drinking issue is never fully explained. Oh sure, she’s not happy with her life. But why isn’t she? She has a cause, she’s helping downtrodden women, women who have been abandoned by men. But this cause doesn’t seem to give her any fulfillment. She’s not really represented as a 18th century woman, but she’s Scottish, maybe that’s supposed to explain the difference. While I think Scottish women were given a lot of latitude in this time period, I think her freedom in this story may be a stretch. Anyway, she has a drinking problem which alllll through the book comes and goes. It’s a plot-line that never goes anyway and doesn’t add anything to the story, so I wasn’t sure why it was in there.

Then there was the brooding hero, Hamlin Graham, Duke of Montrose. The gossips say he murdered his wife. He’s never says anything about it, he never talks about what happened, he just lets the gossip continue – he broods. This is actually puzzling because he has political ambitions, so if he wants to be in politics why hasn’t he explained everything. No, he’s going to depend on other people to pull him out of the darkness he’s covered himself in. Then there’s Eula.

When Eula is introduced into the story, I started to see similarities between this book and Jane Eyre. We have a mysterious, brooding hero, a young girl who is being raised by the brooding hero, but it's never really explained as to how that came to be. There is also the case of the missing wife, and no explanations as to what happened. There is a difference between the solution to the wife problem, but still this book reminded me a lot of Jane Eyre – only this one had sex.

Back to Eula. The last few books I’ve read have had some wonderful children in them and Eula is no exception. Eula is a charmer; she knows how to get what she wants and doesn’t have any qualms about using her charms. She’s smart and cunning and she steals the show. If she is allowed to grow-up and have her own book, it should be quite fun to read. Here’s keeping our fingers crossed. 

The rest of the book was jammed-packed with loads of characters, plots and distractions. There was a rush to get alllll the strings tied and in so doing the romance gets shorted. This story is also an example of the female lead coming awfully close to being not likeable. The hero, Hamlin’s dark secret doesn’t really make sense and the solution seems rushed. Also, while we are told that Hamlin is a brooding, cold man, he’s really not. He’s a Beta guy disguised as an Alpha.

I do recommend this book, sort of. I was disappointed in some of the solutions to the problems which arose. I didn’t care for the heroine’s drinking problem, which came and went. I guess the solution to drinking is to get married - and, we all know marriage solves everything. The issue of all the fallen women could have been the heart of the story, but it disappeared into the background once Catriona left to find her Uncle Knox. The solution to the fallen women problem was also rushed. For me, there seemed to be so many problems to be solved in the book, but there wasn’t enough space allotted to these problems. And, they deserved more. But if you have been reading this series, you probably need to read this book.

Time/Place: 1700s Scotland/England
Sensuality: Warm Hot
Series: Highland Grooms

His Convenient Marchioness by Elizabeth Rolls

July 24, 2018
"We must remember that art is art.
Well, on the other hand water is water isn't it?
And east is east and west is west.
And if you take cranberries and stew them like applesause
they taste much more like prunes than rubarb does.
Now uh...now you tell me what you know". - Groucho Marx

http://www.elizabethrolls.com/
Sometimes my quotes don't have anything to do with the story, I just like the quote.

I don’t know why Elizabeth Rolls isn't one of my auto-buys; what a fine writer. In His Convenient Marchioness, we have and older couple, with a slight age difference. Giles, the Marquess of Huntercombe has just turned 50 and Lady Emma Lacy is 32. Giles, or Hunt as he is called, has lost his wife and children. His younger step-brother has also just recently died and he is in need of an heir. He doesn’t really want to get married, but his sisters have persuaded him to start looking. His sisters, by the way, have actually, very strongly encouraged him to look for a mate. He has spent most of his life not rubbing his sisters the wrong way, they are rather strong-welled and very annoying. He is a nice guy and doesn’t want to cause too much trouble with anyone. Emma, our heroine, is a widow with two young children, one ten – Harry, one six – Georgina. Be warned these two children are adorable.

Hunt and Emma encounter each other in a book store and fall instantly in lust with each other. Hunt at first considers making Emma his mistress, but eventually decides she should be his wife. He’s very practical about the whole thing. He needs a wife and she fits the bill. His proposal is sort of like, Hey, why won’t you marry me and save me the trouble of looking for a wife. Pretty romantic. At first, she is surprised by the proposal, but after she is threatened by her father-in-law, she turns to Hunt for help. It is at this point that Hunt turns into a super hero. He solves allll of the problems. You got an evil father-in-law who is trying to take your children away from you – Hunt will solve the problem. You got someone who is trying to kill your eldest child – Hunt will solve the problem. You got a marriage that must happen fast – Hunt’s your man. You got a scandal that must be diverted – you guessed it – Hunt, Hunt, he’s our man! But if Miracle Man Hunt persona is a stretch and he seems to solve all the impossible situations, this was a wonderful book.

I loved Georgie and Henry. They were portrayed as real children. They fought, they scrabbled, they tricked each other, but they protected each other and comforted each other. The chemistry between Georgie, Henry and Hunt was well developed. The romance between Emma and Hunt had great pacing. Hunt’s proposal was in the beginning of the book, so we are treated to a marriage of convenience. And, this marriage of convenience was written really well.

Hunt does not want to love anyone again. He lost his wife and children all at the same time from smallpox. He just cannot be hurt like that again. But we know he is fighting a losing battle. It isn’t long before he’s falling for Henry and Georgie. And, then Emma. It was a pure pleasure to watch this marriage of convenience turn into a love match. There was even a great dog in this book, Fergus. Who doesn’t like a dog and kids?

There were also some great supporting characters who showed up. I’m assuming a number of them were from previous books, which I suppose I’m going to have to read now. I also suspect Emma’s brother-in-law will have his own book.  There were some creepy villains and Hunt’s awful sisters. This book had a bit of everything.

Overall, if you want to read a very good marriage-of-convenience story I recommend this one. Both Emma and Hunt are honorable, nice people and this book was a pleasure to read.

Time/Place: Regency England
Series: Lords at the Altar
Sensuality: Warm/Hot

Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah Maclean

July 23, 2018
Dysfunctional Family Alert

http://www.sarahmaclean.net/
Wicked and the Wallflower is the beginning of a brand-new series by Sara Maclean, the Bareknuckle Bastards. We are introduced to three the illegitimate sons of a creepy Duke. And, they all have nicknames. So, not only do I have to remember real names and titles, I have to remember nicknames. Spoiler: and when the book ends we are left with the impression that the one son is a villain. But, my mind thinks that we are being lead down a red-herring path with that suggestion. Anyway, the creepy Duke is desperate for an heir and gathers his three bastard sons and his legitimate daughter together. He makes it his priority to make their lives miserable and sows threads of distrust among them. He encourages them to compete with each other. I do not mean the good kind of competition. He is truly a horrible man. The siblings bond, but there is some kind of mysterious flare-up among them and two of the brothers and the sister turn against the future villain brother. But we never find out why. And, by the time the next book comes out, I will have forgotten just what’s going on. I’m not fond of loose threads or mysteries which aren’t wrapped up in one book. My brain can just not retain all that stuff. I wish the author had been more forthcoming with us, the readers. I know we will eventually find out what caused the riff, but it was all a big stinking secret. Regardless of that, I loved the romance between Devil aka Devon and Lady Felicity Faircloth, but I wished there had been more of the romance part.

If you read The Day of the Duchess, you will remember Felicity as one of the women who was vying to be the next Duchess of Haven. She did not succeed. Felicity was an interesting heroine, and I liked her a lot. She was strong female, but often times she was so very insecure. She wants to have friends but seems to have often made a lot of bad choices when it comes to picking those friends. She wants to return to her group of friends, the ones who hurt her. Eventually she sees them for what they are, a group of nasty bullies.  

There is a whole lot of machination in the beginning of the story when Devon and Felicity first meet and it’s all very intriguing. Felicity announces that she is engaged to Devon’s brother – she’s not. She leaves the party and when she returns home she finds Devon in her bedroom waiting for her. This was a very fun scene. Devon decides he’s going to use Felicity to get at his brother, of course it doesn’t take long for him to realize that he can never use Felicity as he originally planned.  I can’t really tell you too much of what went on in this story, because there was a whole lot going on. The romance in this book was wonderful and I loved it just bunches and bunches. Devon and Felicity were a great couple. Felicity was one smart cookie. If there was an issue I had with this story it was the mystery surrounding the secondary characters and the dark, deep mysteries plot which will be eventually brought to us in future books. Excuse me if I repeat myself.

Loved, loved, loved the romance, but didn’t love the incompleteness I was left feeling at the end. Sometimes an author can be tooooo mysterious. I do recommend this story, I suspect that there are some things coming which might surprise us with this storyline – I just want to know now.

Time Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm/Hot