I didn't finish...

His Every Kiss by Laura Lee Guhrke

Annoying precocious child + predictable romance + so-so writing + lots of whining about Suffering for Art = I have better things to do with my time. Grade: C

Your Wicked Waysby Eloisa James

This is in the same series as Duchess in Love, but unlike Duchess in Love, it is hideously boring. Helene was not a likeable heroine and even the characters from other books (Gina, Esme) became annoying/lame in this one. Grade: C+

Midnight Angel by Lisa Kleypas

This one had such a good premise -- runaway teenage Russian murderess posing as governess for the young daughter of a widower with a hook for a hand! I mean, how can you go wrong? Well, apparently Kleypas found a way, because there was no love story, the characters were cardboard, and this book was a snoozefest. Grade: D

And then my run of duds ended when I picked up the totally kick-ass Heart of Night by Taylor Chase, which I will blog about next.

Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series

The Duke and I
Simon is kind of boring, standard sorta-rake-with-daddy-issues, but Daphne is cute. The premise of "no one wants to propose to this gorgeous, rich, connected young woman because they all see her as a friend" makes no sense, but hey. Overall, it's a good run of the mill fluffy regency, but nothing too special. Grade: B-

The Viscount Who Loved Me
Julia Quinn can sure write, but it seems that she sometimes has problems coming up with any real plot or conflict. The problems between Anthony and Kate are pretty contrived and non-dramatic, but I liked it anyway. Grade: B

An Offer from a Gentleman
I like Sophie, and I liked the Cinderella plot, it gives the book some structure compared to the first two. It annoys me that Benedict does a few sketches in this book and then somehow a couple books later he's a brilliant artist in the National Gallery, but this is romance, I guess. Also, it's very implausible that even a very kind-hearted family like the Bridgertons would accept Sophie as a daughter-in-law so easily in that day and age. Grade: B

Romancing Mister Bridgerton
This book to me is the worst of the bunch. I am all for a plain spinster heroine, but I never once saw a REASON Colin was suddenly attracted to Penelope. The author wants you to believe that Penelope is smart and interesting, but she didn't show those qualities, though Colin was very likeable. The romance didn't ring true and it felt like Colin ended up marrying her just because he didn't want to bother anymore with the finding-a-wife business. Grade: C-

To Sir Phillip, With Love
on my TBR

When He was Wicked
on my TBR

It's In His Kiss
My favorite! Hyacinth is fun, Gareth is sexy, they have adventures, what more do you want. I loved that Gareth's reaction to being told he isn't good enough for Hyacinth isn't to go off and angst over how he must be alone!forever!, but instead to grab an unsuspecting Hyacinth and kiss the hell out of her. Hell yeah that's a hero! Grade: A

Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan

I was so disappointed by this book. It got all these awesome reviews, but my god, the writing was just so...BAD. Maybe it's just that I'm not enough of a fantasy reader to appreciate it, but to me it was boring, dry, boring, predictable, bad dialogue, dumb plot, and just all around BORING. I couldn't even slog through until the first sex scene. Maybe it got a lot better later? Something must justify all the hype. Grade: D

In The Prince's Bed by Sabrina Jeffries

I have to admit, I got this book in large part because of the cover. That casually half-naked girl on a bed is a whole lot sexier than any clinch I've seen.

And the best part of the book did turn out to be the heroine. Katherine Merivale is smart, level-headed young woman who's self-reliant without being idiotic about proving her 'independence.' She knows she has to marry or live in poverty, and accepts the challenges that come her way with good grace. But practical Katherine has a passionate side, too, and though she is a Regency virgin, she quickly becomes more than a match for Alec in the bedroom.

Alec Black, Earl of Iversley, is unfortunately not as good of a character. There's nothing wrong with him, exactly...he didn't piss me off, and he does treat Katherine respectfully, if not always honestly. It's just that I don't quite know what he's like. We hear a lot about how he's poor and illegitimate but there's barely anything to show what kind of man he is, aside from "awfully good kisser." If Alec had been better developed I think the romance would be ultimately more satisfying.

The conflict between Alec and Katherine revolves mostly around their respective finances, which seems true to the period, and more realistic than a moustache-twirling villain. Another cool thing about this book was a subplot dealing with homosexuality, which I thought was handled sympathetically, yet realistically for that era. I wish that couple got more page time!

Overall I enjoyed this book but I didn't love it. The setup for the next two books in the trilogy was heavy-handed and clumsy, IMHO, and the writing, while not bad, didn't sparkle either. Still, I would recommend it for Katherine and for some of the minor characters.

Grade: B+

here goes

What I read instead of sleeping: Historical romances, mostly, with some literary fiction, chick-lit, mysteries and various other books thrown in. I'm new to the romance genre (wouldn't touch 'em til last year - what can I say, I was raised to be a snob) and so I'm still catching up on my "classics."

My theory is, if the book's good, then at least it's time in bed well spent; if it's boring maybe it'll help me catch some Zs.

The plan is to start off with recent reads and then review as I go, with maybe some older ones thrown in there.