Time Period
Heat Factor: Above-average historical romance heat
Character Chemistry: Always solid—even if I hated the characters, they always seemed to like each other.
Plot: Something bonkers is definitely going down.
Overall: I binge-read this whole series over the course of about a month in the fall of 2021, and I have no regrets. These books are the perfect mix of romantic and bonkers.
Continue reading “Series Review: Maiden Lane by Elizabeth Hoyt (2010-2017)”Maiden Lane, Book #1
Heat Factor: There’s a scene where they’re looking through a peephole at a brothel and it only gets hotter from there.
Character Chemistry: Lazarus feels nothing, Temperance feels too much. They are perfect for each other.
Plot: Running around the slums on the hunt for a murderer.
Overall: Wow.
Maiden Lane, #10
Heat Factor: Val shows off his splendid physique
Character Chemistry: Even though there is a *serious* power imbalance between these two, it doesn’t *feel* like there is.
Plot: Val is the literal worst. Bridget is his housekeeper.
Overall: I finally understand the appeal of morality chain romances, because I loved every single minute of this book.
Ash and Juliana, Book #1
Heat Factor: One kiss
Character Chemistry: Solid
Plot: Juliana wakes up after her (traumatizing) wedding night in a pool of her husband’s blood. Naturally, she is the prime suspect. She enlists the help of lawyer/investigator Ash to save herself from the gallows.
*Content Warning for violent sexual assault before the book opens. It’s never described, but it is frequently referred to, and enough details are included throughout the text for the reader to get a pretty good idea of how bad it was.
Overall: Disappointing
The Wildes of Lindow Castle, Book #5
Review of the Wildes of Lindow Castle, Book #4
Heat Factor: They get married at about 70% and have a ton of really polite sex
Character Chemistry: I like the sparring partners thing they have going on. I am not excited about polite sex.
Plot: Shy young lady decides to woo proper vicar away from his terrible fiancée and intrigues the disdainful duke, who is clearly perfect for her, in the process
Overall: I put this book in timeout for a week because I was really worried about the black moment, but I needn’t have been
The Smut Report 