Hilary Mantel
Bring Up the Bodies
Henry Holt and Co. / May 8, 2012 / $15.oo print, $12.99 digital

Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice.

At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne’s head?

In Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel accomplished the extraordinary task of making Thomas Cromwell a sympathetic (if not exactly heroic) protagonist. Bring Up the Bodies is not a title you’d expect to find on the night table of a Romance writer and reader. But when I’m not immersed in Romance, historical fiction is one of the genres that draws me in.

[And what did you think of this historical?...]

Sherry Thomas
Beguiling the Beauty
Berkley Sensation / May 1, 2012 / $7.99

What a scoundrel wants, a scoundrel gets...

When the Duke of Lexington meets the mysterious Baroness von Seidlitz-Hardenberg on a transatlantic liner, he is fascinated. She’s exactly what he’s been searching for—a beautiful woman who interests and entices him. He falls hard and fast—and soon proposes marriage.

And then she disappears without a trace…

For in reality, the “baroness” is Venetia Easterbrook—a proper young widow who had her own vengeful reasons for instigating an affair with the duke. But the plan has backfired. Venetia has fallen in love with the man she despised—and there’s no telling what might happen when she is finally unmasked…

I love character-driven romance, and Sherry Thomas excels at it. Beguiling the Beauty builds a full-bodied romance on the foundation of a spare plot.

Essentially, the plot pivots on the fact that our hero Christian, the Duke of Lexington, falls in love at first sight with our heroine, Venetia Townsend, when they are both 19 and Venetia is already married. They do not meet, but Venetia’s extraordinary beauty haunts Christian for 10 years. When they finally meet, it is because Christian has told an unkind (and untrue) story about her marriages to illustrate a point at the end of a lecture, and Venetia is at the lecture. She determines to punish him by making him fall in love with her and then abandoning him. Yes. That old chestnut. But in the hands of a master of character-driven narrative, the chestnut falls by the wayside, and we are thoroughly engaged by the way the relationship builds between Christian and Venetia.

[Nothing spells romance like a transatlantic liner...]

A Rogue by Any Other Name
Sarah MacLean
Avon/February 28, 2012/$7.99

What a scoundrel wants, a scoundrel gets...

A decade ago, the Marquess of Bourne was cast from society with nothing but his title. Now a partner in London’s most exclusive gaming hell, the cold, ruthless Bourne will do whatever it takes to regain his inheritance—including marrying perfect, proper Lady Penelope Marbury.

A broken engagement and years of disappointing courtships have left Penelope with little interest in a quiet, comfortable marriage, and a longing for something more. How lucky that her new husband has access to an unexplored world of pleasures.

Bourne may be a prince of London’s illicit underworld, but he vows to keep Penelope untouched by its wickedness—a challenge indeed as the lady discovers her own desires, and her willingness to wager anything for them...even her heart.

Sarah MacLean takes a couple of well-worn romance tropes—the marriage for fortune and the thirst for revenge—peoples them with engaging characters, and wraps them in some sensuous writing. Oh, and she manages to throw in a little of her trademark humor.

[Funny! How’d she do that?...]

Rainshadow Road
Lisa Kleypas
St. Martin’s Griffin, February 28, 2012, $10.19

Lucy Marinn is a glass artist living in mystical, beautiful, Friday Harbor, Washington. She is stunned and blindsided by the most bitter kind of betrayal: her fiancé Kevin has left her. His new lover is Lucy’s own sister. Lucy’s bitterness over being dumped is multiplied by the fact that she has constantly made the wrong choices in her romantic life. Facing the severe disapproval of Lucy’s parents, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, a local vineyard owner on San Juan Island, to “romance” Lucy and hopefully loosen her up and get her over her anger. Complications ensue when Sam and Lucy begin to fall in love, Kevin has second thoughts, and Lucy discovers that the new relationship in her life began under false pretenses. Questions about love, loyalty, old patterns, mistakes, and new beginnings are explored as Lucy learns that some things in life—even after being broken—can be made into something new and beautiful.

Lisa Kleypas’s Rainshadow Road is the second of her Friday Harbor books, following the delightful Christmas at Friday Harbor. This is Sam’s book. The younger brother of Mark Nolan, the hero of Christmas at Friday Harbor, Sam owns a vineyard and shares a house with his brother and their orphaned niece.

[Family is everything...]

Regency Romance lore has it that reformed rakes make the best husbands. And no one writes rakes more in need of reform than Carolyn Jewel. Fortunately, no one does a better job of reforming them either.

Let’s start with the Historical Romance that put Carolyn Jewel on the romance map: Ruan Bettancourt, Duke of Cynssyr, or, as he is known among proper society, Lord Ruin. This, as it turns out is a well-earned name. He is a rake of the first order, with no regard for the women he ruins in his debauchery. The book opens with our “hero” climbing into bed with an unknown woman whom he assumes is a prostitute and having his way with her while she is in a drugged sleep. Even a dawning suspicion that she might not be a prostitute does not keep him from doing the deed.

The one moment, he was enjoying her pliant body beneath him, at last in the more usual manner, and showing her how to move with him, the next, he was submerged in pleasure so deep he thought he would actually die if he didn’t come in her. Now. This minute. He looked away for the briefest moment distracted by light reflecting off a pair of spectacles on the bed table.

Unfortunately for everyone, the light is caused by someone entering the room and discovering Lord Ruin in bed with the older sister of the woman he thought he would marry.

[The scandal! Where are those smelling salts when you need them?...]

A Secret in Her Kiss
Anna Randol
Avon (January 31, 2012), $7.99

A rare beauty, raised in the exotic heart of the mysterious East, Mari Sinclair knows it’s time to end her career as a British spy when she narrowly avoids a brush with death. Unfortunately, there are those who think otherwise—and they are not above using blackmail to keep Mari in the game.

Saddled with a handsome, duty-obsessed “minder” to ensure that she completes—and survives—one last mission, Mari is incensed . . . for her guardian, Major Bennett Prestwood, is simply too dedicated, too unbending, and too disarmingly attractive. But in the face of dark secrets and deadly treacheries, as the true peril to Mari is slowly revealed, loyal soldier Bennett realizes that to save and win this extraordinary woman, he will have to do the unthinkable and break the rules—rules that passion and desire have suddenly, irrevocably changed.

A Secret in Her Kiss, Anna Randol’s debut, daringly takes a Regency-era story and sets it in Constantinople and its environs. This could not have been an easy sell, but Randol steps up to the plate and gives the reader a story in which the setting not only plays a significant role, but is vibrantly depicted.

[Exotic lands! Romance! Smooching!...]

Lisa Kleypas has created two of the most arresting self-made men in Romance today. Interestingly, she has created them about 200 years apart.

Georgian London

In Dreaming of You, Derek Craven was born to a prostitute in a sewer pipe in Georgian London and raised in a house of ill-repute. He clawed his way out of the gutter and into society by a variety of questionable means, including work as a resurrection man, gigolo and gambler. Now, he is the owner of the exclusive Craven’s gambling house and one of the wealthiest men in London. In the process of becoming a wealthy man, he has struggled to learn to read and to lose his cockney accent. When we meet him, he is still striving to shake his feelings of being apart, of not fitting in anywhere. No amount of wealth can satisfy him.

Derek Craven is a cockney upstart trying to fit into the silk-clad, fox-hunting, brandy-drinking, inter-marrying privileged society of the ton. He mixes freely with high society because he provides them with something they desire, but he is never really accepted and he never really feels a part of the environment in which he moves.

[A few (hundred) years later...]

The Duke is Mine
Eloisa James
Avon, December 27, 2011, $7.99

For Olivia Lytton, betrothal to the Duke of Canterwick—hardly a Prince Charming—feels more like a curse than a happily-ever-after. At least his noble status will help her sister, Georgiana, secure an engagement with the brooding, handsome Tarquin, Duke of Sconce, a perfect match for her in every way . . . every way but one. Tarquin has fallen in love with Olivia.

Quin never puts passion before reason. And reason says that Georgiana is his ideal bride. But the sensual, fiery, strong-willed Olivia ignites an unknown longing in him— a desire they are both powerless to resist. When a scandalous affair begins, they risk losing everything—Olivia’s engagement, her sister’s friendship, and their own fragile love. Only one thing can save them—and it awaits in the bedroom, where a magnificent mattress holds life-changing answers to the greatest romantic riddle of all.

[We’re guessing this riddle doesn’t begin with a chicken crossing the road...]

I thought I’d take a break from my gushing about historical hunks to talk about a group of fascinating contemporary men. Let’s visit Lisa Kleypas’s Travises.

When Lisa Kleypas started writing contemporary romance, I moved right along with her and picked up her first contemporary novel, Sugar Daddy, about Liberty Jones, a poor Texas girl trying to get by and bring up her baby sister. Her career as a hairdresser (and some other mysterious events) bring her in contact with the fabulously wealthy Churchill Travis, a man old enough to be her father. Through a series of fortunate events, Liberty ends up living in Churchill’s palatial home and working as his assistant. Naturally, everyone thinks she’s his “Assistant”—wink, wink—including Churchill’s oldest son, Gage. So, yeah, you can see this coming. Gage falls in love with Liberty, but fights it every inch of the way. Liberty falls in love with Gage—and ditto.

[Who wouldn’t fall for a Travis?...]

A Place Called Home
Jo Goodman
Zebra, December 6, 2011, $6.99

When Thea Wyndham and Mitchell Baker learn they’ve been named joint guardians for their late friends’ three children, they’re little more than acquaintances. Barely polite acquaintances, at that. Something about Mitch’s forthright intensity has always left ad exec Thea feeling off-balance, while Mitch makes no secret of his disdain when Thea offers him financial assistance if he’ll take sole guardianship.

Thea is far from heartless. She’s just plain terrified of her new parenting responsibilities. Both she and Mitch are romantically involved with other people. Yet the more time they spend together, the less certain she is of her loyalties. There are complications and mis-steps, tears and laughter - lots of it. And somehow, through it all, the dawning realization that the last place she thought she’d find herself could be just where she belongs.

[So many complications!...]

There is no new thing under the sun. This is probably especially true of Historical Romance. It’s hard to find a Historical Romance that is not built around one trope or another. Just recently, Miranda Neville did a wonderful job of melding several historical romance tropes in The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton.

This is not to say that these tropes are a bad thing. Far from it. In fact, when handled deftly, they have provided some of the best of Historical Romance. Let’s look at a few.

Marriage of Convenience

I’m not sure anyone has done this better than Mary Jo Putney  in The Bargain, in which the heroine marries a major dying of wounds received at Waterloo in order to inherit according to the terms of her father’s will. She makes a deal with the major that she will care for his younger sister after he is gone if he will marry her. He does. As in all romances, the hero does not die. And the story proceeds from there, as the hero and heroine’s relationship develops from convenience through friendship into love.

Her mouth opened under his, and a current of energy scorched through her, searing her senses and scattering her wits. He’d kissed her once when out of his head, and she’d wondered what his kiss would be like if he was fully aware. Now she knew, and the knowledge was shattering.

Of course it was. And it should be. No good marriage of convenience story ends without the shattering evidence of love.

[Shattering declarations or bust, we say...]

Nora Ephron and Sony have signed up to bring us a feature film of Lost in Austen, according to Variety.  This will be based on the ITV mini-series of the same name and plot that aired in the UK in 2008.

This project is slightly different from the two books just announced: Joanna Trollope’s reimagining of Sense and Sensibility as a contemporary novel and P. D. James’s mystery with Darcy and Elizabeth investigating Mr. Wickham’s murder. 

And it’s different from the upcoming film, Austenland,  which takes place in a Jane Austenish retreat (sort of like a vacation at Regency House Party).

[What’s this one about?...]

Flawless
Carrie Lofty
Pocket Books, September 27, 2011, $7.99

Sir William Christie, ruthless tycoon and notorious ladies’ man, is dead. Now his four grown children have gathered for the reading of his will. What lies in store for stepsiblings Vivienne, Alexander, and twins Gareth and Gwyneth? Stunning challenges that will test their fortitude across a royal empire . . . and lead them to the marvelously passionate adventures of their lives.

Lady Vivienne Bancroft fled England for New York, hoping to shed the confines of her arranged marriage to unrepentant rogue Miles Durham, Viscount Bancroft—though she never forgot the fiery desire he unleashed with his slightest touch. And when the gambling man arrives on her doorstep for a little sensual revenge for her desertion, he is met with Vivienne’s dilemma: She must earn her father’s inheritance by profitably running a diamond business worth millions in colonial South Africa. Swept together in an exotic undertaking filled with heated passion and hungry temptation, will Vivienne and Miles discover that the marriage vows they once made are the greatest snare—or the most treasured reward?

[We’re betting on treasured reward...]

TheBookseller.com reports:

Faber is to publish a new detective novel from acclaimed mystery author P. D. James which combines a murder investigation with the world and characters of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, revisiting Darcy and Elizabeth six years into their marriage.

Death Comes to Pemberley will be published on November 3rd as an £18.99 hardback.

To which I can only say, “Oh, good grief!”

[Why do you say that?...]

“Oh, that’s Wallpaper History!” I’m sure you’ve heard this exzclamation—and I’m sure it wasn’t meant as compliment. Every Historical Romance novel has to have involved some degree of research. And the opinion of the degree necessary varies from reader to reader.

This reader appreciates a well-researched book. I love to read an author who has so thoroughly researched her era and her location that she imbues the story with the essence of her research and uses it to inform the story and move it forward. So yes, okay, I mean Loretta Chase. But I also mean Jo Beverley and Mary Balogh, among others.

[Don’t know much about history? These authors do...]

The Dragon and the Pearl
Jeannie Lin
Harlequin, September 20, 2011, $6.25

Former Emperor’s consort Ling Suyin is renowned for her beauty; the ultimate seductress. Now she lives quietly alone—until the most ruthless warlord in the region comes and steals her away....

Li Tao lives life by the sword, and is trapped in the treacherous, lethal world of politics. The alluring Ling Suyin is at the center of the web. He must uncover her mystery without falling under her spell—yet her innocence calls out to him. How cruel if she, of all women, can entrance the man behind the legend....

[“Entrancing men” sounds like a great job to have!...]

Yesterday, an article in the Guardian was headlined Joanna Trollope to rewrite Jane Austen.

The article announces that:

“The pairing is the first in a what the publisher has dubbed a ’major’ new series, in which it will team modern authors with Austen’s six novels, asking them to reimagine the books in a contemporary setting.”

My first impulse was to be outraged. How dare they think they need to update Jane Austen? Then, I stepped back for a moment and realized that my outrage was probably decades (maybe even a century) too late. Writers have been piggy-backing on Jane Austen for years and why shouldn’t Joanna Trollope, who is a really good writer, get on the bandwagon? Lord knows the publishing world has seen enough pretty awful interpretations of Jane Austen’s books and characters. Let’s see what Joanna Trollope can do.

[Keep calm and move along...]

In Linda Howard’s Shades of Twilight, Webb Tallant marries not one but two of his second cousins (not at the same time). This book, published in 1996, takes place in present-day (or 1996-day) Alabama and no one even blinks when Webb marries first Jessie and then Roanna. And you know what? I didn’t blink either.

Marriage between cousins has long been a topic of discussion in this country, and cousin Romance novels have been few and far between. But that’s just us. First cousin marriage is legal in only 20 U.S States (yes, Alabama is one of them), but second cousin marriage is legal everywhere. So what’s the big deal? Moreover, cousin marriage is perfectly legal in that other English-speaking country we love to read about: England.

[Keepin’ it in the family...]

As I may have noted earlier, I love large groups of handsome, sexy, Georgian or Regency men. Today, I’m going to add “Victorian” to my selection. Otherwise, how could I write about the Carsington brothers, who are more Victorian than Regency? And write about them I will.

What do the Carsingtons have in common with my other favorite groups of Romance heroes? Well, each one is a unique character. No two are alike and all are delightful in different ways. But enough redundancy,  let me tell you about my three favorites.

[Because you can’t choose just one...]