Just reread two great books by Putney and D'Alessandro

Like most college students - and I suppose students in general - I am in the midst of finals and great stress ... so of course my historical romance addiction has been kicking in with a vengeance in an attempt to distract me! (And it has done so far too successfully, I might add). Anyway, I just reread the following two historical romances and the last time I read them both was long enough ago that I did not remember much, so it was great rediscovering these wonderful reads.

Because I really should be writing papers, I don't have time to write any lengthy reviews, so I've just jotted some notes and provided a variety of links. Basically: if you're a historical romance fan, *read them*!!


Read May 5, 2009
Mary Jo Putney's The Wild Child (Brides Trilogy, Book 1) ****1/2
Amazon.com page
Most helpful positive reader reviews: Dr W. Richards "wmr-uk" and Catherine Asaro
Most helpful negative reader reviews (not many to choose from!): J. Mullally "CBDB"
Mary Jo Putney's website | book page | excerpt

The Wild Child has an extremely unusual premise for historical romances - the fact that the heroine doesn't speak until about halfway through the book is something I haven't read in any other book of the genre! The mystery subplot was unnecessary and was not really a subplot, since the reader doesn't know there is any questionable goings-on until the end when the villain is unveiled. The supporting characters was wonderful and three-dimensional, the hero and heroine were engaging and we see their relationship develop on all different levels - emotionally, intellectually, and physically - making their love story very believable and touching.

Meriel is different and other-worldly in many ways, but Putney writes from her point of view very well, so although she's a mystery to most other characters, the reader is well-introduced to her right from the beginning. Dominic is a *wonderful* hero and it's such a nice change to have the declaration-of-love and desire-to-marry situation reversed: Dom is the one who first admits his love (and Muriel is discomfited whenever he says it and is unsure of her own feelings - understandably, since everything is changing so rapidly) and he is the one who wants to get married - very amusing exchanges about how Meriel would prefer to be his mistress. Dominic is a sweet, friendly, and gentle, somewhat a mess and aimless and very sadly estranged from his family and his twin brother. The relationship with his twin, Kyle, was very interesting and I think Putney did a wonderful job of showing us both sides and how they each viewed the tension and troubles that fractured their relationship, as well as how it affected and hurt them.


Read May 6, 2009
Jacquie D'Alessandro's Red Roses Mean Love *****
Amazon.com page
Most helpful positive reader reviews: A Customer, J.Brennan and Riley Merrick "jperceval"
Most helpful negative reader reviews (not many to choose from!): Susan Smith
Jacquie D'Alessandro's website | book page | excerpt

[Really do need to get to paper-writing ...]