Review of "Friday's Child" by Rosemary Morris

Since the day her oldest sister entered society, Lady Elizabeth, the Earl of Saunton’s sister, imagined the pleasures of her first London Season, during which she expected to meet her future husband. Unfortunately, when she is old enough to make her debut, no member of her immediate family is available to chaperone her in London, so she accepts her Great-Aunt Augusta’s offer to bring her out in Cheltenham. 

Elizabeth looks forward to living at Augusta’s grand house near the lively, popular town where people drink mineral water at pump houses and enjoy the social life. Determined to be the perfect debutante, she cannot imagine creating a scandal, so it is fortunate that she cannot foresee the future. Modest, loving and giving Elizabeth is blessed with beauty and a fortune, which attracts suitors. It would not be surprising if her ‘head is turned’ by admirers but she is not a flirt. 

From the moment she sees Mr Yates she sets her heart on him. At the same time, she is not attracted to her brother’s friend with an exotic background, and amber eyes like a tiger’s which unnerve her. Both gentlemen made their fortunes when they served in the East India Company, but will they lead her into trouble, be right for Elizabeth and will one of them be the perfect match for her?

Amazon UK   Amazon USA

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2854044208

5 stars

Engaging heroine, darkly passionate hero

Elizabeth, the heroine of this historical romance, matches the description of the novel's title. Loving and giving, she is excited to take part in her first season in Cheltenham. Determined and outspoken, aware of the world outside her own privileged background, she is also keen on social justice and the rights of others.

She is however only eighteen and still rather shielded from the word's vices. Innocent and passionate, she hope to be courted by the handsome, smoothly charming Geoffrey Yates, although her family appear to prefer Sir Victor, a former soldier, recently returned from India and of mixed Indian-Anglo heritage.

Sir Victor makes a compelling, darkly passionate and original protagonist, one with a delightful relationship with his interesting grandfather and a strongly protective nature, as shown in his dealings with the kidnapped child Mary-Jane and Elizabeth herself. In her way, Elizabeth is his foil, ardent and truly brave, kind and sensitive.

There are some well-loved tropes in this novel - the demanding, elderly chaperone, the insidious fortune hunters, the delights and perils of the social season. There is also a different, refreshing look at wider issues - anti-Catholic prejudice, gipsies, Indian nabobs, Hindu beliefs and a mixed-race hero.

A sweet romance with an exciting climax and a beautiful ending. 

Lindsay Townsend, historical romance:

at lindsaytownsend.co.uk or follow me on

Twitter @lindsayromantic

Review of "Concerto" by Hannah Fielding

When Catriona Drouot, a young music therapist, honours an opera diva’s dying request to help her son, Umberto Monteverdi, recover his musical gift, she knows it will be a difficult assignment. She had shared a night of passion with the once-celebrated composer ten years before, with unexpected consequences.
The extent of her challenge becomes apparent when she arrives at her client’s estate on the glittering shores of Lake Como. Robbed of his sight by a nearfatal car accident, the man is arrogant, embittered and resistant to her every effort to help him. Still, Catriona sings a siren’s call within him that he cannot ignore.
Caught up in the tempestuous intrigues at Umberto’s Palladian mansion, Catriona discovers that her attraction to the blind musician is as powerful as ever. How can she share what she has hidden from him for the past decade? Soon she realises that hers is not the only secret that is rippling uneasily below the surface. Dark forces haunt the sightless composer, threatening his life – for the second time.
Concerto is a sensual and romantic story of lost love and forgiveness, destiny and difficult choices, and of a heroine determined to put things right at last.

Amazon UK
Amazon USA

My review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Five Stars

Beguiling romantic read

Catriona Droucot, tall, elegant beautiful, had trained to be an opera singer. She now devotes her energies to helping others via psychology and music therapy. The latest case she is asked to take on, that of the famous composer Umberto Monteverdi who has recently become blind, stirs up old memories and emotions.

Through flashbacks chapters the reader sees Umberto and Catriona and their developing relationship, a romance of tenderness, power and passion. Hannah Fielding perfectly explores the magic of music, of beautiful settings and a hero who will remain in my mind for a long time.

And in all this lavishness, who is seducing whom? However, too soon the demands of Umberto's demanding career cause the young couple to part, after one night of love which leaves Catriona pregnant with her son Michael. She hopes Umberto will keep in touch but, in the whirlwind of concerts and compositions, Umberto seems to have forgotten her and Catriona does not want to be a burden. In the light of this she retrains as a music therapist and tried to forget Umberto, until fate throws them together once more.

With its gorgeous settings in the Riviera and Italy, this novel is a treat for all the senses, a kind of modern beauty and beast, with secrets, villains and dangers in the palace where the beast Umberto has retreated. Meanwhile music makes a beautiful redemptive healing thread throughout the novel, thoroughly apt and marvellous.

Totally recommended.

Lindsay Townsend

Reluctance by Jen Black

 From a review by Margaret Scott Chrisawn, Ph.D

"This is a historical romance in the best sense of the genre.  Jen Black has captured the setting of the North Country with such precision and spare, elegant descriptions that the reader could be nowhere else but Northumberland.  She has done the same with her characters who, from the two protagonists to minor figures who pass briefly through the novel, are rendered with precision and such beautiful detail that they become real, rather than one-dimensional actors from a stock play.  One of the most difficult aspects of a book any book, is dialogue, and if the characters speak to each other as if they’re reciting lines from a very bad play, this ruins the story, no matter how inventive the plot.  The dialogue throughout the story is crisp, funny, moving, emotional, and above all, believable for each character who speaks.  Not an easy thing to accomplish, but Ms. Black is a master at it."


Excerpt:

Frances did not dare move, hardly dared to breathe. The slightest movement would draw his attention to her. She held her breath and hoped he would drift off back to sleep.

He would be furious she had invaded his home, his privacy, his grief.

How had she ever thought coming here had been a sensible thing to do? Arriving alone at a gentleman’s house was the height of folly. As she stared at him, her reasons suddenly seemed specious indeed. His well-being was not her concern and never would be.

Her thigh muscles ached from holding her in such an awkward position against the door. Skin prickling with unease, heart thundering against her ribs, she waited. Oh, dear Lord, she was going to collapse to the floor if he did not shut his eyes soon. Her thighs burned and trembled. She had to breathe—

His hand flopped to the mattress, his head rolled on the pillow, and his wide, vacant gaze slowly focused on her. “Why, Lady Rathmere…”

Through the thunder of blood in her ears, his voice reached her as if from a great distance.

His brows drew together. “What the blazes are you doing here?”

Frances struggled upright and took a step away from the door. “To, er…see you got home safely. After last night. You know. You were drunk and probably don’t remember.” Frances shook out her skirts and tugged the jacket of her riding habit into place without looking in his direction. Her face burned and prickled as blood suffused her skin.

He groaned.

He sank back against the pillows, a fingertip pressed to each temple.

Clearly he had a monstrous headache. Her mouth twitched. There was a God after all. If she simply opened the door and retreated, he might not notice until too late.

Her hand closed on the door knob.

“Frances?”

She glanced over her shoulder and sucked in a shocked breath. His hollowed cheeks, tangled hair, and shadowed eyes spoke of sleepless nights, misery, and deprivation. With a huge effort, he pushed to his feet and stood there swaying as if a huge wind roared through the room.

Reluctance, by Jen Black, will be published in April by MuseItUp Publishing.