My Top 10!

by Anna Campbell

If any of you read my review of BLACK SHEEP and ARABELLA by Georgette Heyer last month, you'll know that I'm hanging up my ballet slippers here on Christmas Eve and going off to seek new pastures!

Before I go, I want to do a round-up of some favorites that I've reviewed over the last five years - although basically anything I've talked about here, I've loved. That was part of the column's raison d'etre.

So these are the really special books that stuck in my memory. By the way, the order doesn't indicate anything except that there are 10 books on this list! They're all winners in my opinion!

I thought I'd start with some mystery/romance combos. This genre has become my reading of choice over the last few years, partly because of recommendations from readers here. Thank you!

The first is the Amelia Peabody series from the late, great Elizabeth Peters. I've been eking out this wonderful series for the last few years - I've got three to go.

These books are funny and quirky and full of information about Ancient Egypt. They also feature a string of fabulous romances, starting with the opinionated Amelia and her beloved Emerson, "the greatest Egyptologist of this or any age." There's a long and very passionate relationship spread across several books, featuring Amelia's dashing and enigmatic son, Ramses, who makes a wonderful romantic hero.

Next I'd like to mention the charming Daisy Dalrymple  mysteries by Carola Dunn. These are set in the 1920s and they're absolutely delightful. You'll so enjoy the impetuous Daisy's adventures and especially her romance with police Inspector Alec Fletcher.

Whatever you do, try this next recommendation if you haven't already. I discovered Julia Spencer-Fleming's fabulous Claire Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne mysteries through this site, so thank you, thank you, thank you. I think they're just extraordinary. Romantic and suspenseful and atmospheric and beautifully written, I can't recommend these books featuring a vicar and the local police chief of a small town in upstate New York highly enough. Start with IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER, and I bet you're ordering the rest straightaway! I've recommended these to friends high and low and everybody turns into a convert!

If you're regulars, you'll know that I've been on a bit of a Nora Roberts kick lately. I particularly like her stand-alone romantic suspense books and of those, my favorite is THE WITNESS. This features a geeky and very appealing heroine who witnesses a Russian mafia murder as a teenager and spends the rest of her life trying to stay alive. What happens when she falls in love, much against her better instincts, with the local police chief of the town she's chosen as her latest bolthole? If she stays, she risks discovery. If she leaves, she'll break her heart. Wonderful characters and writing and a nail-biting situation. NORTHERN LIGHTS was another favorite!

One of the things I wanted to do when I started here was talk about category romance. Some of the best stories out there are series books and I was keen to share some of my favorite writers with you. I've read some wonderful category romances in the last five years, but I thought I'd pick out three particularly memorable stories from authors who never fail me.

The first is A WEDDING AT LEOPARD TREE LODGE by Liz Fielding. Liz Fielding is an absolutely exquisite writer whose books always make me laugh and cry and then sigh with joy at the end. A WEDDING AT LEOPARD TREE LODGE is about finding love where you least expect it and gathering the courage to risk everything to gain happiness. Highly recommended.

The next book on my top 10 is Aussie author Sarah Mayberry's HOT ISLAND NIGHTS. Another one to make you laugh and cry - and man, is it sexy! There's a fantastic sequel called HER BEST WORST MISTAKE that I think might be even hotter. Well worth checking out. Sarah has such a wonderful understanding of the human heart, and her characters are so real, you expect them to pop around for a cup of tea after you've finished reading the book!

My final category recommendation is Sarah Morgan's RITA-Award winning DOUKAKIS'S APPRENTICE. This one's such fun. It takes the tried and true Harlequin premise of the heroine falling in love with the guy who makes a hostile takeover of her father's ailing business, and then turns it on its head. Full of surprises and laughs and lovely emotion. All of Sarah's books are good, but this one really lingers in my memory as a classic.

My list wouldn't be complete without a couple of historical romances - you knew they were coming up, didn't you?

The first one is among my all time faves ever - Loretta Chase's MR. IMPOSSIBLE. People regularly pick her wonderful LORD OF SCOUNDRELS (also reviewed on this site) as one of the best romances ever written, but for me, there's just a tad extra goodness in MR. IMPOSSIBLE. It's funny, it's sweet, it's steamy, it's clever, and I lay good money that you'll fall in love with Rupert Carsington, the hero.

The next writer on my list is Liz Carlyle who I think would currently be my favorite historical writer. Picking a book of hers to recommend was really difficult, so I thought I'd go with the first one of hers I read, the one that started the addiction. THE DEVIL TO PAY is another book full of unexpected takes on a tried and true formula, a feisty heroine making a rake account for his myriad sins. One of the many things I love about Liz's books is that they create such a rich world. It's wonderful revisitng characters from earlier stories and seeing how the various strands of the series plots intersect and enrich the current book.And don't you love that cover?

My last choice is one of the all-time great romances, historical or otherwise. Laura Kinsale's immortal FLOWERS FROM THE STORM. This is unlike any other book I've ever read and its intensity is amazing. Absolutely unforgettable! If anyone ever tries to tell you that romance is trivial and brainless, steer them in the direction of this book. Actually, don't - it's too good for the naysayers! It's a story of redemption and risk and forbidden love triumphing against impossible odds. A masterpiece.

So that's my top 10 of the books I've reviewed here on The Romance Dish. All are VERY highly recommended.

So what would your top 10 romance novels be? I'd love to see your lists!

Guest Review - - The Bride Wore Pearls

The Bride Wore Pearls

By Liz Carlyle

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: July 31, 2012

Lady Anisha Stafford, the widow of a British army officer, leaves her life in India, at the urging of her older brother (Adrian Forsythe, Lord Ruthveyn, hero of One Touch of Scandal), to see that her two young sons are brought up understanding the English culture that is their heritage from their father. She also hopes England and the influence of his older brother will be beneficial for her younger brother, Lucan, the child of her father’s second marriage, a spoiled charmer with no sense of responsibility. The offspring of a marriage between a Scottish lord and an Indian mystic, Anisha finds it difficult to adjust to life in England where she is always self-consciously aware of the mixed blood that makes her a misfit in both cultures. The few friends she makes are part of Ruthveyn’s circle in the St. James Society.

Rance Welham, Earl of Lazonby, is attracted to Anisha from their first meeting when he meets her ship as she arrives in England, but his dark history ensures that he restrict his attentions to a light flirtation and friendship. These limits become even more imperative when Ruthveyn and his bride leave London and Lazonby is charged by his friend with the care of Anisha and her sons.  Lazonby knows that the last thing Anisha needs is an association with him, a man infamous for his licentiousness and suspected of murder, to weaken her already tenuous claim on acceptance by the ton. She is also a distraction he can ill afford since he is obsessed with untangling his past.

Lazonby’s darkness is not merely a convenient pose. Sentenced twice to die by hanging, he escaped with his life only because of his connections to the mysterious St. James Society. Although innocent of the charges, he knows that his behavior in trying to escape his mystical gift placed him in the circumstances that led to his trials. He blames himself for his mother’s suicide and his father’s premature death, and he is determined to clear his name and his family’s reputation. In the meantime, he resorts to the alcoholic haze of absinthe to escape the memories that plague him. He thinks he has solved the problem of his feelings for Anisha by pairing her with Geoff, Lord Bessett, but when Bessett returns from his assignment having fallen in love with Anais de Rohan (The Bride Wore Scarlet), Lazonby is both relieved and troubled because Anisha is proving irresistible. 

In the third book in her Fraternitas Aureae Crucis (Brotherhood of the Golden Cross) series, Carlyle gives her readers another look at the mysterious brotherhood with their equally mysterious gifts. As in the earlier books, the primary characters are complex and flawed. Lazonby’s disastrous choices were fueled by his determination to deny that he had inherited his mother’s gift. His denial led to decadence, danger, and near death. It has brought him to the present moment in his life where he is imprisoned by his hatred and need for revenge and unable to build a meaningful life, regardless of the temptation. He is still reluctant to admit that he is, as his friend Sutherland insists “more than a Guardian”; he is the possessor of the gift albeit in a form different from his mother or his friends.

Did he have it?
He had something. Though he possessed nothing in the way of prescience, he could read some people, some of the time. A rare few spewed emotion like blood from a gaping wound. Others merely seeped or gave up nothing at all.
As a young man, he’d believed that everyone knew this. But they did not. And this difference had made him a damned fine card player—the finest, perhaps, that the hells of London had ever seen. And he was an even better soldier, especially in close combat.


It is only when he comes to understand who he is that Lazonby can accept that he and Anisha are meant to be, that he can be the man she and her sons need.

Identity is also a key theme in the characterization of Anisha. Carlyle uses clothing and jewelry to keep readers aware of Anisha’s mixed blood and the ways it shapes her sense of hybridity as well as the obstacle it presents to her ever being fully accepted into English society. Even her personal wealth and her brother’s title are not enough to overcome the stigma completely.  That Anisha herself sees her clothes and jewels as metaphors for her identity makes the images more powerful. Just before the ship docks in England, she removes her nose ring, an act that is both deliberate and symbolic.

She had learned long ago that removing her phul would not remove the Rajputra in her, nor did she wish too.
But she did wish, for the boys ‘sake, to fit in. And she wished, honestly, to ease her own transition into this frigid, water-bound empire. Yet at the same time, Anisha had grown a little weary over the years of having one foot planted here and another there; caught forever in that shifting dance between who she was and who someone else thought she ought to be.


Later, Anisha pairs Indian dress with an English shawl for daily wear, and she wears a sari like a Scottish sash with a ball gown. She may struggle with how to meld the two cultures that identify her, but she accepts the two parts of her being. And the struggle makes her strong. She refuses to be controlled by Ruthveyn’s protectiveness or manipulated by Lucan’s selfishness, and she defies Lazonby when he tries to shut her out and keep her safe and passive.

“I’m not some prize pig at the village fair. You cannot win my desire or deserve it. It either is, or it isn’t. And you must allow me my right to choose which things I do and don’t worry about.”


As much as I appreciate the complexity of Carlyle’s characters, the skill with which she creates sexual tension between Anisha and Lazonby makes this book a standout for me. From the moment they meet, Lazonby and Anisha are physically aware of one another, and every contact heightens that awareness. The building intensity serves to make the love scenes practically singe the pages. Beyond the sizzle, there is also a gradually increasing intimacy between the two, an intimacy that includes sex but is more than two bodies joined in sexual intercourse. These two know each other. They are friends before they are lovers, and the friendship continues to be a vital part of their relationship.

The Bride Wore Pearls is not a perfect book. The suspense element lacks the power of the romance, and repeated references to what seems to be homoeroticism—but isn’t--serve no purpose that I could see. But these are minor irritants when measured against a romance between two characters who both fascinate and appeal and a deftly drawn Victorian world that includes connections in which a faithful Carlyle reader will delight. If you like your romances with sizzle and substance, I recommend The Bride Wore Pearls. Readers who have not read the first two books in the series may miss some nuances, but Anisha and Lazonby’s story can be read as a standalone. I hope Carlyle is not finished with these characters. I want to know if Lucan grows up to be as interesting as his brother and sister.

~Janga
http://justjanga.blogspot.com

Review -- The Bride Wore Scarlet

The Bride Wore Scarlet
Fraternitas, Book #2
By Liz Carlyle
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: July 26, 2011








Passion and secrets simmer behind the elegant facade of Victorian London in another deliciously intriguing novel featuring the mysterious men of the St. James Society.

Anais de Rohan has faced danger in her past, but never anything so great as posing as the new bride to one of the St. James Society's most magnetic---and ruthless-leaders. But Lord Bessett's bold challenge to prove herself worthy of joining his secret all-male society is impossible to resist. So she daringly agrees to travel with the enigmatic nobleman on a dangerous mission to save one of their own---a little girl with a frightening gift. Soon intrigue swirls about them, drawing them ever closer. And Anais quickly realizes that the intimacy of sharing Lord Bessett's bedroom is proving a temptation impossible to resist. As for Bessett himself---well, he might be a soldier sworn to the Society, but he certainly isn't anyone's saint...


Anais was told by her grandmother all her life about her destiny according to i tarocchi (the Tarot), which her grandmother had a gift for. Anais was trained to be a Guardian, part of the Fraternitas Aureae Crucis. There's one small problem: the Fraternitas is a Brotherhood, and since Anais is not a man, the rest of the members will not accept her as an equal. But that doesn't mean she can't be of some assistance. There is a young girl who is in need of rescue from someone who wants to use her gift for nefarious purposes. The Brotherhood must send someone to Brussels to get the girl and bring her back to England where she can be cared for and raised to understand her gift (predicting the future). Anais agrees to go to Brussels, posing as the wife of one of the members of the FAC: Geoffrey Archard, the Earl of Bessett.

Geoff reluctantly agrees to accept the mission to Brussels. Posing as the husband of Anais is, in his opinion, nothing but trouble. He is instantly attracted to her, and Geoff feels that being in such close and constant proximity to Anais will prove a far greater temptation than he can withstand. With the life of an innocent child at stake---a child with a gift Geoff understands all too well---Geoff and Anais will put their personal feelings aside in order to do their duty. Honor and duty may be of the utmost importance, but emotions and the wants and needs of the heart will not be denied.

Liz Carlyle is a master of lush prose that draws the reader in slowly, yet inexorably. She creates fascinating, multi-dimensional characters that make you care about them as you follow them on their journey toward happily-ever-after. Their frustration, sadness, anger, passion and love is like your own. Anais is still searching for the future her grandmother saw for her, even if it isn't the right one for her. Geoff has spent his entire life keeping himself at a distance from others, never letting himself give his heart, thereby never getting hurt. Little by little, moment by moment, these two realize that they are meant for one another, no matter how hard they try to deny it.


Those eyes. Those amazing, ageless eyes; so hot and so cold. She was going to drown in them this time. The warm blue of his ocean was drawing her relentlessly back into the waves like a riptide. Anais felt herself torn from whatever earthly mooring had held her fast. After that there was nothing but the brilliant light, a perfect crest, and the whisper of her name on his lips.

They came together as one; and it was as if her soul flew to his. The rich, churning depths washed over her, and Anais knew that this time she was lost.


When you read The Bride Wore Scarlet, you will lose yourself as fully as Anais and Geoff lose their hearts to each other. I highly recommend it!

~ Gannon


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Review -- One Touch of Scandal

One Touch of Scandal
by Liz Carlyle
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: September 28, 2010









Grace Gauthier yearns for the comfort and security of marriage and a family of her own. Taking a position as a governess, she becomes "informally" engaged to her employer Ethan Holding, and all is well until the night Grace finds Ethan murdered. Shocked and confused, Grace doesn't realize that Scotland Yard now considers her a suspect. With no family to turn to, she goes to find her old friend Rance Welham, who unfortunately for her has left town. But her salvation comes from an unexpected source: Adrian Forsythe, Lord Ruthveyn---the tall, dark and enigmatic stranger who is Rance's friend.


The man---Ruthveyn---seemed disinclined to say more, and Grace resisted the impulse to ask anything. Save for his thick raven hair, sun-bronzed skin, and a nose that was perhaps a tad too strong, he could perhaps have been an Englishman---or Satan in a pair of Bond Street boots.

But wherever his fine clothing had come from, he was no ordinary Englishman; she sensed it. There was an air of otherworldliness about him that defied description, and an almost chilling sense of dispassion, as if he observed but gave up nothing of himself. He did not radiate evil, precisely, but something far more complex.


Adrian Forsythe, Lord Ruthveyn prefers to keep people at a distance; given his past, and the pain he has endured, he feels like he's protecting himself and those he cares about. But when a beautiful stranger shows up at his club and faints right in his arms, he's unable to maintain any sort of distance, physical or emotional. One look at Grace's beauty and vulnerability, and Adrian is lost. He is determined to protect her from a possible arrest and help her unmask the true murderer. Each moment they spend together brings Grace and Adrian closer, their passion impossible to deny. But can Adrian trust Grace with his secrets and accept a love unlike any he has ever known or is the risk too great?

Grace and Adrian are both damaged souls longing for love and redemption, but fearing a repeat of the pain they have suffered in their pasts. Grace finds herself alone in the world---her mother and father are both gone and her mother's aristocratic family is not very welcoming---but she is no weak, missish heroine. She is strong, independent, compassionate, and giving. Adrian fears rejection due to his "gift"---the ability to "see" someone's future/death when he touches them. To him it is a curse, and he can't bear the thought of Grace seeing him as a freak. But there is more to Grace than Adrian knows, and her open mind and loving heart will help him to embrace his gift and his future happiness with Grace.


And those last words!---That husky, come-take-me voice and the way her gaze caught on his mouth---it sent shivers of unslaked desire down his spine. The truth was, he was in love with Grace Gauthier---completely, hopelessly in love---and had been almost from the day they'd met. But worse than the love was the aching need. Not the physical lust, or even the head-over-heels yearning of a new romance, but the deep and abiding cry of one soul for another, as if their roots had already entwined inexorably, like a couple wed twenty years rather than lovers for less than a fortnight. And still he did not understand how he had fallen so fast and so hard.


Brimming with emotion, One Touch of Scandal is the first in a new Victorian era trilogy centering on the gentleman of the secret society Fraternitas Aureae Crucis---the Brotherhood of the Golden Cross. Passion, suspense, and a dash of the paranormal: key elements that make this book a page turner from start to finish. I am anxiously awaiting One Wicked Glance, which will be release May 2011. Whether you are a long time fan of Liz Carlyle or she is a new-to-you author, you are in for a treat with this latest gem from the New York Times bestselling author.


~ Gannon

Wickedly Wonderful!

by Anna Campbell

I discovered Liz Carlyle fairly late in the piece, thanks to my wonderful writer friend Christine Wells who is a long-time fan. It's wonderful when you discover a great author who's got a BACKLIST!!!! Yum!

So I'm gradually catching up on the older Liz Carlyles and gaining a lot of reading pleasure as a result. Still got a couple to go. And in the meantime, I'm reading the newer stuff. Given that all her books are linked, I'm beginning to feel a bit like a time traveller, but that's OK. A bit of dizziness is welcome when the stories are as delicious as these.

WICKED ALL DAY is the second in the current series. The first was the luscious TEMPTED ALL NIGHT. The books will stand alone and my experience indicates you don't have to read them in order. But having said that, it's nice to see how the different threads of the stories weave together.

Zoe Armstrong is the Marquess of Rannoch's troublesome daughter who has inherited far too much of her father's stubbornness, temper, spirit and determination to settle into life as a decorous Regency miss. Zoe is wild and inclined to kick over the traces at the slightest - or sometimes even no! - provocation. She's spectacularly beautiful and in possession of a huge dowry, thanks to her father who loves her dearly even though he struggles to control her unruly ways.

Zoe has received a number of offers of marriage and has refused them all. Her father is at his wit's end as to how he can settle this passionate, difficult child who is so close to his heart. Because Zoe has one insurmountable mark against her in the Regency marriage market - she's illegitimate. And while she's tolerated in society because of her connections and her dowry and her beauty, her outlandish behavior through several Seasons threatens to make her persona non grata outside her family.

Then disaster strikes. Zoe and her distant cousin Robin Rowland are caught in each other's arms in a private room at a ball. She's forced to accept Robin as her betrothed to avoid a major scandal.

Robin and Zoe have always been best friends, a pair of mischief makers in league against the world, so this arrangement should suit everyone. Unfortunately, Robin is in love with another woman and while he lines up to do the honorable thing, his wretched unhappiness casts a blight on the whole family and particularly on Zoe. Zoe too comes to loathe her engagement, not just because it has changed Robin, but because she gradually realizes that while she loves Robin like a brother, the man she loves like a soul mate is his older brother, Stuart, the Marquess of Mercer.

Stuart is of a type that is among my favorite romance heroes. The pattern of perfection, the high stickler, the immovable object. He's long been aware of Zoe's manifold attractions, but her wildness convinces him they would be utterly miserable together. He's held himself at a distance from her since a passionate kiss many years ago because he knows if he comes within range of the woman who fascinates him so powerfully, he'll forget good sense and fall under her spell. Zoe, who as a girl hero worshipped Stuart, has been hurt by his coldness in recent years, so the estrangement has only worsened.

Now Stuart is trapped in a nightmare where Zoe is to marry his brother. He has no hope of ever escaping her - and worse, he'll have to treat her as his beloved brother's wife, a member of his family. Understandably, he's in complete emotional turmoil for much of the story!

So we have a number of classic plot devices set up. The stick-in-the-mud hero and the headstrong heroine struggling against blazing attraction. Forbidden love that won't be gainsaid. Childhood affinity developing into a mature passion.

A family party in the country provides ample opportunity for confusion and mayhem. While Zoe and Stuart's romance is tempestuous and occasionally heart-wrenching, the secondary characters add enormous richness to the story. Robin in particular will touch you, as he struggles to change from a good-time Charlie to a man worthy of the woman he loves and of Zoe, who he loves like a sister. One of the many things I admire about Liz Carlyle's books is that while she often includes a cast of thousands, none of these people are cyphers. All are individuals with important roles in the story. Carlyle puts her characters into motion and the reader lies back with a big smile on her face and watches the increasingly complicated events unfold until the blissfully happy ending.

Oh, and did I mention the love scenes? Liz Carlyle does some of the best in the business. It's been a hot summer here in Australia but believe me, reading this book made it a HOT summer! And she writes like an angel with a wit and a wisdom that make her books keepers for me.

Be warned - when you pick up WICKED ALL DAY, it will make you READ all day!