Lindsay Buroker, The Emperor's Edge - someone on my flist recced this and I cannot remember who, but thank you! This was a delight from beginning to end. A steampunk fantasy adventure, this is a mix of LM Bujold's Miles series, Full Metal Panic, and Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn. Our protagonist is Amaranthe, a by-the-book enforcer (policewoman), one of the very few female enforcers around. Amaranthe is dedicated to law and order even while being passed for promotions in favor of her less competent colleagues simply due to her gender. This all changes when a regent orders her to hunt down and assassinate Sicarius, the most infamous assassin the empire has ever known. Pretty quickly, Amaranthe figures out this is just a set-up to get rid of her for a yet-unknown-to-her reason and instead joins with Sicarius (who is every bit as deadly as promised but does possess a reluctant sense of humor and an oddly strong devotion to the emperor) and a small group of oddball malcontents with various talents in order to thrwart a conspiracy, protect the boy emperor, and maybe defeat a sorceror or two. This is just a lot of fun, with solid world-building and a good plot, plus characters I like. There is no romance - though I think Amaranthe/Sicarius would make a pretty good (and utterly terrifying) couple - but even with that, the book is totally and utterly worth reading.
Jilly Cooper, Pandora - ahh, good old Jilly Cooper and her delightful thick volumes of misbehaving upper class Brits. This was the last of her Chronicles series that I haven't read yet, and what a delight it was. Pandora revolves around the artistic and dysfunctional Belvedon family. There is the father - the charming, generous, and oddly put-upon Raymond, the paterfamilias, who runs a famous art gallery. There are the mothers - the first wife Galina, as unsuitable a wife and mother as she was a genius painter, and the second wife Althea - much younger and obsessed with status. And then there is the Belvedon brood - the small children - Dicky and Dora - twins and the youngest; and the adults - all from Raymond's first wife - Jupiter, the oldest, who is ambitious and cold (though he has a small chink in his armor for his ilustrator wife Hanna), Alizarin (who I totally loved), who is a genius painter even if unmarketable and seriously is a total woobie and Alizarin/Sophie = awww and etc etc, Jonathan - the infant terrible of the art world, who likes to make out with his sister Serena in public for shocking people kicks, but who actually might be an amazing artist and a good person if he ever bothers to grow up. There is the messed up Serena, talented and screwed up. Oh, and there is also Emerald - a talented sculptor who was adopted out but discovers as an adult that Althea is her mother and Raymond is her father. Did I mention that Jonathan/Emerald are an OTP? They fall for each other when they don't believe they are related only - ooops. I view it as karmic punishment for Jonathan for playacting at falling for a sister to then genuinely fall in love with one and know he can't have her. (pssst - not a spoiler, it turns out they are not really related and happy endings abound). And there is the painting of Raphael's Pandora presiding over this mess of a family - a painting that may or may not be stolen. This is no great work of literary art but it's ridiculous fun, and Jonathan/Emerald satisfied all my cravings for angst and shipping anf fakecest. (Plus, they actually grew up, yay!)
And now we get to the romance novel portion of this post:
Jo Beverley, Lady Beware - another fun Beverley which combines a pragmatic heroine and a 'has a screwed-up past' but very functional and rather decent hero. The heroine of this, Thea, is Dare's sister (from To Rescue a Rogue). Thea likes propriety, convention, and doing exactly the right thing. Hero of this is Horatio Cave, known to everyone as "Canem" (ahhh, Latin puns), a war hero who has recently left the army to try to restore the infamous family name - his oldest brother was a murderous maniac who killed an upperclass woman in a shocking case, his father and grandfather not much better, so despite their title, Caves are shunned. Canem doesn't care personally (or at least tries not to), but he wants to fix it up for his younger brother. A pity his orderly plans keep getting screwed up every time he comes across Thea - he is ridiculously attracted to her and hence suggests things like fake engagements, etc etc. It's kinda adorable. I just loved how functional Thea and Canem were together. I mean, this is a hero who could probably hang out in a Kenyon book, as far as the horribleness of his childhood goes, but Beverley (or the hero himself) doesn't dwell on it and just tries to cope with life as it comes. And once Thea decides she wants him back, she doesn't let him go all noble idiot on her, but she doesn't rush either but they do the whole 'let's see if we still feel the same in a few months' separation thing. Basically, the book is awesome, the h/h are awesome, etc.
Courtney Milan, Proof by Seduction - I've liked every Milan book I've come across and this is no exception. Our heroine is a fortune teller, our hero is a sceptical and emotionally frozen nobleman. I really don't have much meta, but it's a gorgeous, poignant book about two people who badly need rescuing and rescue each other.
Julie Anne Long, I Kissed an Earl - the only Pennyroyal series book I had left :( This one involves the tempestuous Violet Redmond, who stows away on Asher Flint's ship because Flint is hunting a supposed pirate who may be the missing Redmond brother, Lyon. Long always writes well, and I enjoyed this, but I confess I liked it less than any other book in the series except for After the Surrender. I think because we never got much into Flint's head - I like hero POVs. Or maybe sea adventures are just not for me. This said, Lyon!!!!! Eeeeee! We finally meet the mysterious and infamous Lyon Redmond and my crush = knows no bounds. He sounds totally screwed up and intense and just - guuuuh. If Long ever gets to writing Lyon/Olivia (pls pls pls!!!!), I get the feeling he might replace Colin Eversea as my favorite Pennyroyal hero. And we get to find out why he left and what went on - he was going to throw his family away for Olivia but she said he had nothing without them and knew nothing about himself, so he went off to prove himself and ended up hunting down slave traders only Olivia's father might be one of them (and Olivia is an abolitionist) and he might never get back, nor does he really like what he's turned into, and Olivia has been mourning him all this time but now might finally be snapping out of it and he sent her minaiture back and and and and all this word vomit means I need a Lyon/Olivia book NOW!!!
Anna Campbell, Midnight's Wild Passion - AC wrote two of my all-time favorite romances, Untouched and Captive of Sin, plus the very entertaining Seven Nights in a Rogue's Bed. She has also written the appalling Claiming the Courtesan and a couple of other books I can use for naps. So you never know what you get with her. Luckily, this is on the plus side of the ledger. Our hero wants to seduce and ruin a young woman because her father did the same to his sister years ago. If only he didn't keep getting sidetracked by his target's chaperone, Antonia. And oh, if only Antonia didn't have a weakness for rakes. Despite the set-up, I genuinely liked the hero who actually never did anything horrid during the novel, and Antonia was awesome. There is a dash of angst (nowhere near as much as in Untouched, CoS or even Rogue's Bed, but we can't have everything) and the whole thing is lovely.
Liz Carlyle, The Bride Wore Pearls - hero is a duty-bound policeman who spent a long time hunting someone, heroine a woman who used to be bound to revenge on that same someone only to find out that he was innocent. And hence my problem. I enjoyed the book but I spent the bulk of it annoyed at hero and heroine for hounding the unfortunate protagonist of previous book and they never did properly apologize. Ugh. You almost had him hanged twice and wrecked his life for years, show some remorse.
Liz Carlyle, Wicked All Day - I loved this one to bits, even if it took me some time to warm up to the heroine. Zoe, our heroine, is wild because she's been spoiled by her father to compensate for her illegitimacy. However, she goes a step too far when she gets caught in a compromising posion with her childhood friend Robin Rowland, and they are forced to be engaged and set out on a visit to his family home. One problem - Robin is in love with someone else. Wait, that's a minor problem - the real problem is that Zoe can't help but want Robin's older brother Stuart (whom she's also known from childhood), and the reserved, proper Stuart can't help but madly want her back. Ooops. A delicious, angsty, shippy, supremely romantic ooops. I have to confess since we've seen all our leads as kids in some earlier books, it's a little weird to read about steamy makeouts, but Zoe/Stuart are ridiculously and awesomely angsty-hot together.
Jilly Cooper, Pandora - ahh, good old Jilly Cooper and her delightful thick volumes of misbehaving upper class Brits. This was the last of her Chronicles series that I haven't read yet, and what a delight it was. Pandora revolves around the artistic and dysfunctional Belvedon family. There is the father - the charming, generous, and oddly put-upon Raymond, the paterfamilias, who runs a famous art gallery. There are the mothers - the first wife Galina, as unsuitable a wife and mother as she was a genius painter, and the second wife Althea - much younger and obsessed with status. And then there is the Belvedon brood - the small children - Dicky and Dora - twins and the youngest; and the adults - all from Raymond's first wife - Jupiter, the oldest, who is ambitious and cold (though he has a small chink in his armor for his ilustrator wife Hanna), Alizarin (who I totally loved), who is a genius painter even if unmarketable and seriously is a total woobie and Alizarin/Sophie = awww and etc etc, Jonathan - the infant terrible of the art world, who likes to make out with his sister Serena in public for shocking people kicks, but who actually might be an amazing artist and a good person if he ever bothers to grow up. There is the messed up Serena, talented and screwed up. Oh, and there is also Emerald - a talented sculptor who was adopted out but discovers as an adult that Althea is her mother and Raymond is her father. Did I mention that Jonathan/Emerald are an OTP? They fall for each other when they don't believe they are related only - ooops. I view it as karmic punishment for Jonathan for playacting at falling for a sister to then genuinely fall in love with one and know he can't have her. (pssst - not a spoiler, it turns out they are not really related and happy endings abound). And there is the painting of Raphael's Pandora presiding over this mess of a family - a painting that may or may not be stolen. This is no great work of literary art but it's ridiculous fun, and Jonathan/Emerald satisfied all my cravings for angst and shipping anf fakecest. (Plus, they actually grew up, yay!)
And now we get to the romance novel portion of this post:
Jo Beverley, Lady Beware - another fun Beverley which combines a pragmatic heroine and a 'has a screwed-up past' but very functional and rather decent hero. The heroine of this, Thea, is Dare's sister (from To Rescue a Rogue). Thea likes propriety, convention, and doing exactly the right thing. Hero of this is Horatio Cave, known to everyone as "Canem" (ahhh, Latin puns), a war hero who has recently left the army to try to restore the infamous family name - his oldest brother was a murderous maniac who killed an upperclass woman in a shocking case, his father and grandfather not much better, so despite their title, Caves are shunned. Canem doesn't care personally (or at least tries not to), but he wants to fix it up for his younger brother. A pity his orderly plans keep getting screwed up every time he comes across Thea - he is ridiculously attracted to her and hence suggests things like fake engagements, etc etc. It's kinda adorable. I just loved how functional Thea and Canem were together. I mean, this is a hero who could probably hang out in a Kenyon book, as far as the horribleness of his childhood goes, but Beverley (or the hero himself) doesn't dwell on it and just tries to cope with life as it comes. And once Thea decides she wants him back, she doesn't let him go all noble idiot on her, but she doesn't rush either but they do the whole 'let's see if we still feel the same in a few months' separation thing. Basically, the book is awesome, the h/h are awesome, etc.
Courtney Milan, Proof by Seduction - I've liked every Milan book I've come across and this is no exception. Our heroine is a fortune teller, our hero is a sceptical and emotionally frozen nobleman. I really don't have much meta, but it's a gorgeous, poignant book about two people who badly need rescuing and rescue each other.
Julie Anne Long, I Kissed an Earl - the only Pennyroyal series book I had left :( This one involves the tempestuous Violet Redmond, who stows away on Asher Flint's ship because Flint is hunting a supposed pirate who may be the missing Redmond brother, Lyon. Long always writes well, and I enjoyed this, but I confess I liked it less than any other book in the series except for After the Surrender. I think because we never got much into Flint's head - I like hero POVs. Or maybe sea adventures are just not for me. This said, Lyon!!!!! Eeeeee! We finally meet the mysterious and infamous Lyon Redmond and my crush = knows no bounds. He sounds totally screwed up and intense and just - guuuuh. If Long ever gets to writing Lyon/Olivia (pls pls pls!!!!), I get the feeling he might replace Colin Eversea as my favorite Pennyroyal hero. And we get to find out why he left and what went on - he was going to throw his family away for Olivia but she said he had nothing without them and knew nothing about himself, so he went off to prove himself and ended up hunting down slave traders only Olivia's father might be one of them (and Olivia is an abolitionist) and he might never get back, nor does he really like what he's turned into, and Olivia has been mourning him all this time but now might finally be snapping out of it and he sent her minaiture back and and and and all this word vomit means I need a Lyon/Olivia book NOW!!!
Anna Campbell, Midnight's Wild Passion - AC wrote two of my all-time favorite romances, Untouched and Captive of Sin, plus the very entertaining Seven Nights in a Rogue's Bed. She has also written the appalling Claiming the Courtesan and a couple of other books I can use for naps. So you never know what you get with her. Luckily, this is on the plus side of the ledger. Our hero wants to seduce and ruin a young woman because her father did the same to his sister years ago. If only he didn't keep getting sidetracked by his target's chaperone, Antonia. And oh, if only Antonia didn't have a weakness for rakes. Despite the set-up, I genuinely liked the hero who actually never did anything horrid during the novel, and Antonia was awesome. There is a dash of angst (nowhere near as much as in Untouched, CoS or even Rogue's Bed, but we can't have everything) and the whole thing is lovely.
Liz Carlyle, The Bride Wore Pearls - hero is a duty-bound policeman who spent a long time hunting someone, heroine a woman who used to be bound to revenge on that same someone only to find out that he was innocent. And hence my problem. I enjoyed the book but I spent the bulk of it annoyed at hero and heroine for hounding the unfortunate protagonist of previous book and they never did properly apologize. Ugh. You almost had him hanged twice and wrecked his life for years, show some remorse.
Liz Carlyle, Wicked All Day - I loved this one to bits, even if it took me some time to warm up to the heroine. Zoe, our heroine, is wild because she's been spoiled by her father to compensate for her illegitimacy. However, she goes a step too far when she gets caught in a compromising posion with her childhood friend Robin Rowland, and they are forced to be engaged and set out on a visit to his family home. One problem - Robin is in love with someone else. Wait, that's a minor problem - the real problem is that Zoe can't help but want Robin's older brother Stuart (whom she's also known from childhood), and the reserved, proper Stuart can't help but madly want her back. Ooops. A delicious, angsty, shippy, supremely romantic ooops. I have to confess since we've seen all our leads as kids in some earlier books, it's a little weird to read about steamy makeouts, but Zoe/Stuart are ridiculously and awesomely angsty-hot together.