Tag: historical romance
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Spells, Murders and Poe in Hester Fox’s The Widow of Pale Harbour
The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox has been interesting with its inclusion of some iconic Edgar Allen Poe stories and references, but it falls short in delivering an atmospheric and thrilling gothic read. I wish it wasn’t so, but things didn’t pan out quite how I expected them to, and the story feels…
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Historical Romance and Ghostly Haunts in Hester Fox’s The Witch of Willow Hall
The Witch of Willow Hall is the second of Hester Fox’s novels I have read, the first being The Last Heir to Blackwood Library back in October of 2023. I can safely say that Hester’s debut is lush with detail and rife with tension, and a novel you need to read this very minute! If…
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Supernatural Romance and Historical Fiction in Deborah Harkness’s Shadow of Night
Why didn’t I read Shadow of Night before? I don’t know why I stopped at A Discovery of Witches the first time I read it because Deborah Harkness’s Shadow of Night is incredible. Not only do we get a continuation of a truly astounding series, but the historical setting gives everything and more. I couldn’t…
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My Issues With Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton Novel The Duke and I
I haven’t watched the Netflix adaptations of the Bridgerton novels yet. I want to read the series first (books do tend to be better than their screen adaptations). I gave Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I a quick squizz before adding it to the family library returns pile – in other words, the stack of…
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My Thoughts on Anna Lee Huber’s Lady Darby Mysteries (so far)
Anna Lee Huber’s Kiera Darby mystery series is a fun, immersive, and delightfully deadly Regency-era murder mystery series that spans the United Kingdom, starting in the Scottish Highlands and moving down into London and Southern England, making a stopover in Dublin during the fifth book (excluding the novella from the official book count). Having read…
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My Thoughts on Andrea Penrose’s Wrexford and Sloane Mystery Series (so far)
If you’ve been a peruser of my blog for a while, you’ll know I love the Wrexford and Sloane Mystery series by Andrea Penrose. With the eighth book coming out in September, I thought it would be a great time to collect my thoughts and note my favourite aspects of the series. For context, the…
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Supernatural Adventure and Intrigue Continue in William Ritter’s Ghostly Echoes
Of all the Jackaby books, Ghostly Echoes is my favourite. While it’s been a fun ride so far, this is where things start to get tense and serious for the crew and the narrative is shaped really well, balancing internal and external conflicts as well as relationship developments and tension between characters. It starts to…
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Let Death’s Assassins Thrive in Robin LaFevers’s Grave Mercy
I read this many moons ago but there is something that’s calling me to reread the His Fair Assassin trilogy. Robin LaFevers’s Grave Mercy is a historical fiction young adult fantasy novel rife with political tensions. In a time when women had no autonomy, Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into…