Nic Dempsey

Roman Holiday – Ruthie Knox (Kindle TBR List)

Apparently, Ruthie Knox can’t write a book (or two books) I don’t enjoy. I liked that both people had stuff to work through. That the hero was black and while it wasn’t an issue for the romance, the issues he had with it and how he was treated were. I just really enjoyed it!

All Work and No Play – Julie Cohen (Kindle TBR List)

This has been sitting on the TBR list for an age. I read it in a day and it was ok. The hero felt too perfect to be true and after all the set up of the heroine not being good at friendship or romantic relationships, it was all tied up too quickly, given how much stuff had been chucked in at the beginning. However, it fulfilled it’s brief which was to give me something I didn’t have to concentrate on too much on a day when I was tired and not feeling my shiny best!

The Boleyn King – Laura Andersen (Library)

The book is based on the premise, what would have happened if Anne Boleyn’s second pregnancy continued and she’d had a boy but Elizabeth still became queen anyway? It’s an interesting idea and I reading enjoyed the book while I was reading it. I did keep getting hung up on the sailing from Le Havre, to Hastings. I can see going to Hastings if you were going to Hever but if you were going to Framlington wouldn’t you stay on the boat and go to Lowestoft? The two invented characters were a bit to good to be true and it’s a trilogy so there are two more books until Elizabeth gets to the throne, I have an idea that the King Henry IX (known as William) will have to turn into a tyrant and get killed but we’ll see. I’ve reserved the next one at the library.

Letters from the Light Brigade – Anthony Dawson (Library)

I know next to nothing about the Crimean War. I know roughly where it was, that Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, went out to nurse the troops, that Lord Raglan commanded and died there (Raglan was on Wellington’s staff at Waterloo and had his right arm amputated and then demanded his arm back so he could retrieve the ring that his wife had given him, which is neither here nor there but interesting!) and of course that Tennyson’s poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade‘ is about the Battle of Balaclava (which is where the name of the headgear comes from!). The sum total of my knowledge is not very much! Now I know a bit more!

Talk Sweetly to Me – Courtney Milan (Kindle TBR List)

Courtney Milan is a bit like Ruthie Knox for me, I haven’t come across a book or novella of hers that I haven’t really liked. This is linked to the Brothers Sinister series (remember how I raved over The Suffragette Scandal?). This has lots of interesting things, a black heroine, an Irish hero, maths, and the struggle to be taken seriously when you’re a minority. It’s a novella, so I read it in one sitting, it was lovely and fun.

Lionheart – Sharon Penman (Kindle TBR List)

I’ve had this to read for ages and I think I’ve been resisting it because Richard I, is not one of my favourite kings. Anyhow, as always with Sharon Penman’s books, I got carried away with the story and grabbed the next (A King’s Ransom) from the library and I want to know more about the subject but I really have to get my TBR list down before I look for more books on the time period!

Say Yes to the Marquess – Tessa Dare (Library e-book)

This was a recovery book over the weekend. I was so sick that I didn’t even want to read (I can’t remember a time when that’s happened!) This was complete froth and a fun read to get me back into the idea of reading. Tessa Dare’s books are always funny and entertaining and this was no different.