Tag: gothic romance

Gothic Romance Review: The Curse of Kenton by Janet Louise Roberts

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“The Kenton bad temper is not going to kill my husband! I have resolved on that!”

THE CURSE OF KENTON
4 1/2 stars

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

I’ve not read too many gothic romances, but The Curse of Kenton is definitely one of the better ones I’ve come upon. My Avon 1972 first-edition features the typical Gothic cover, with a heroine (wrong hair color alert: she’s brunette, not blonde) screaming in terror as she runs away from a dark castle.

In this case, it’s Castle Kenton, a place shrouded in a dreadful mystery, as is always the case in these Gothic Romances.

The Plot

Barbara Ashe is an orphan who works as a pharmacist for a country doctor. One day two dashing lords come racing through town, and the darkly handsome Duke of Kenton requires her services as he is gravely ill. Gilbert is a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and suffers from a secret, fatal malady which makes him bitter and dissolute.

The Curse of Kenton, Janet Luoise Roberts , Avon, 1972, cover artist TBD

Despite her better judgment, Barbara falls for the Duke, and they are quickly married, as Gilbert needs an heir before he passes on.... Read more “Gothic Romance Review: The Curse of Kenton by Janet Louise Roberts”

Historical Romance Review: The Coach to Hell by Rachel Cosgrove Payes

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Coach to Hell, Rachel Cosgrove Payes Playboy Press, 1979, cover artist unknown

SPOILER ALERT ⚠

2 1/2 Stars

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

The Coach to Hell was a bit of disappointment for me after reading Rachel Cosgrove Payes’ Moment of Desire. While that book had a heroine who was placed in awful situations yet tried to make the best of them while always knowing her mind, this book’s heroine is a wishy-washy sort that just goes with the flow because that’s what toilet paper does.

The Plot

The Coach to Hell is a paranormal/Gothic/bodice ripper romance that features a beautiful, orphaned woman named Georgina. To avoid the lusty clutches of a local pervert, she is forced out of her home. Georgina has the gift of the special sight of psychometry. Like some psychic blood-hound, she has the ability to touch an item and immediately glean information about its history or find a hidden object if she touches items associated with it. Georgie’s ESP is the Chekhov’s gun of this novel as it will be instrumental in the plot’s resolution, what little there is of it.

She heads to a far-away town to seek out a distant cousin in hopes that he will care for her, a relative in need.... Read more “Historical Romance Review: The Coach to Hell by Rachel Cosgrove Payes”

Historical Romance Review: The Jacaranda Tree by Rebecca Brandewyne

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Step-back cover exterior & interior The Jacaranda Tree, Rebecca Brandewyne, Warner Books, 1995, Elaine Duillo cover artist

From the back of the book:

A sense of foreboding had gripped Arabella Darracott when she left England to join her guardian in Australia. Years before, a gypsy fortune-teller had told her of a purple blossomed tree, a far-off shore, and a devil of a man who awaited her there. Now, as she neared her destination, shipwreck and fate threw her into the arms of a rescuer, “Demon” Lucien Sinclair, the notorious ex-convict who had become rich in the gold fields of New South Wales. Lucien – wild and wickedly handsome – was the fallen archangel of her dreams. But the crime in his past was linked to a dangerous secret. And the passion awakened under the Jacaranda tree could cost Arabella her future, even her life…or give her Lucien forever to cherish, forever to love.

3 stars

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The Jacaranda Tree was the last historical romance Rebecca Brandewyne published with Warner Books. After that, she wrote a few contemporaries, some paranormals, and a few gothic mysteries for Harlequin, before disappearing from the writing field entirely.... Read more “Historical Romance Review: The Jacaranda Tree by Rebecca Brandewyne”

Historical Romance Review: Across a Starlit Sea by Rebecca Brandewyne

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Across a Starlit Sea, Rebecca Brandewyne, Warner Books, 1989, cover artist Melissa Duillo-Gallo

For the heart is not a candle that, once lit, can be extinguished at will, but a fragile, foolish thing, all too easily wounded, all too slow to heal.

ACROSS A STARLIT SEA
4 stars

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Across a Starlit Sea was a tempestuous romance written by Rebecca Brandewyne. This was a sequel to one of my all-time beloved love stories, Upon a Moon-Dark Moor, and this was one of the rare Brandewyne novels with Warner Books that was not illustrated by Elaine Duillo. Instead, her daughter Melissa Duillo-Gallo painted the cover.

The Plot

The Cornish coast setting made for a dark, gothic feel to this historical romance. I enjoyed the first-person narrative in both books as the heroines told their life stories from youth to their first love to true love to married life with children and into old age. Expect to see here Brandewyne’s standard purple-prose writing and in-depth descriptions of history.

Laura was betrothed at birth to Jarrett, the eldest son of Maggie & Draco, the protagonist couple from Upon a Moon-Dark Moor, although she’s been in love with his younger brother, Nicholas, all her life.... Read more “Historical Romance Review: Across a Starlit Sea by Rebecca Brandewyne”