It’s that time again, beloved patrons, when your genre devotees here at the Library give you a taste of their favorite reads from the past month and encourage you to broaden your literary horizons, even if (especially if) it includes the scandals, secrets, and seductions of romance…because, as we say here at the Romance Garden, every mind needs a little dirt in which to grow.

Bridget:

All Chained Up by Sophie Jordan

There are trends in romance that seem to crop out weekly, and I personally find it fascinating to see what is currently “hot” for our heroes.   For a while, you couldn’t toss a cat without hitting a jaded millionaire/billionaire entrepreneur who was absurdly young and even more absurdly wealthy (not that you would want to throw a cat, obviously).  Lately, motorcycle “clubs” or “gangs”, depending on the author, have been garnering quite a bit of attention–and bending a number of laws about the definition of “heroic”.  Most recently, and this one I find particularly interesting, has been prison inmates.  What this says particularly about our culture is a matter for another post, but I figured I’d give this book a try, since Sophie Jordan is an author I’ve always enjoyed.

Nurse Briar Davis has agreed to volunteer at the infirmary at Devil’s Roack prison in the hopes of putting herself in line for a promotion, but the reality of the work is completely overwhelming, as is the stoic, stony-faced prisoner who becomes her first patient.  As someone who’s learned to fear violent men, Briar can’t rationalize the effect Knox Callaghan has on her, but she also can’t deny it.  Knox realized early on that in order to survive prison, he would have to become as hard and as tough as the walls around him.  But when Briar and Knox meet by chance after he’s been paroled….

I appreciated the way that Jordan confronted a lot of the traditional stereotypes around the judicial system and the people who “deserve” to be there, and, over and above everything, I really enjoyed the relationship between Briar and Knox, the mutual respect they eventually developed, and the ways in which they both grew over the course of the story.  This is probably the raciest book that Jordan’s published to date, but she does what she does very well, so it certainly worked.  Though I’m still not entirely sure I’m sold on their genre overall, I will definitely be keeping my eye out for the next Devil’s Rock novel when it’s released in June.

Kelley:

 Forever Your Earl by Eva Leigh

It’s rare that a romance novel gets a 5 star GoodReads rating from me, but the first book in Eva Leigh’s The Wicked Quills of London series is an exception to that rule. In Forever your Earl, when newspaper owner and scandal writer Eleanor Hawke has the opportunity to shadow her most popular subject, Daniel Balfour, the Earl of Ashford, she suspects there is an underlying reason for his invitation, but doesn’t hesitate to seize the opportunity. What follows is an impossible to put down series of adventures that take Daniel and Eleanor to places like gaming hells, phaeton races, and masquerades, just to name a few.

So what makes this romance so exceptional that it deserves a five-star rating? At the risk of sounding very Downton Abbey, it’s smart. When they are first introduced it’s clear that both Daniel and Eleanor are independent, strong-willed, and intelligent characters. Eleanor is drawn to Daniel’s kindness and intellectual curiosity, while he admires her dedication to and passion for her work, as well as her quick wit. In this romance, both the hero and heroine are equally experienced in relationships and life, and their banter, as well as their growing love for one another, is much the better for it.

If the next two books in this series are even half as good as the first, I will be one very happy romance reader. Well done, Eva Leigh. The Wicked Quills of London is definitely a series to watch.

 

Until next month, dear readers….here’s to a little romance!