Dangerous Obsession is the sequel to Natasha Peters’ first book, Savage Surrender, although the relation between the books is not revealed until midway through this 630 page epic. 5 stars
In Skye O’Malley by Bertrice Small a beautiful Irish woman in the Elizabethan Tudor era experiences adventures and love with many men.
Raven by Shana Carol (aka Christina Savage, aka Mr. Kerry Newcomb & Mr. Frank Schaeffer) is a riveting bodice-ripper. It’s a pirate adventure that features a kickass, resilient heroine whom I adore. It also stars a hero who isn’t worthy to lick the underside of her shoes. This is one of those books I both hate and love and wavered for a long time what rating to give it. 3.49 stars
Where to begin with this review? Sweet Savage Love by the great Rosemary Rogers is–along with The Flame and the Flower–the blockbuster historical that launched a new genre: the modern romance novel. Published in 1974, this doorstopper epic was a monumental game-changer in an era of social transformation. 4.24 stars
Angel In Scarlet isn’t a bodice ripper. It’s a Georgian-Era chick-lit. This is a hard one to categorize. It’s not just a romance, but more of a heroine’s journey through life and her relationships with several men she meets along the way. 4 stars
Pinnacle Books’ Passion’s Wicked Torment is a balls-to-wall 20th-century bodice ripper set in the gangster era during American Prohibition. From New York to Chicago, from Alaska to Europe, this book hops around the globe and features lots of mutually lusty sex scenes, rapes, and gangbangs. It stars a heroine so stupid and dumb, she could only have been written by Mr. Melissa Hepburne himself, the author of the blockbuster bestseller (I’m not kidding, it sold over a million copies!) Passion’s Proud Captive. 3 stars
Drusilla Campbell’s The Frost and the Flame is one of those naughty bodice rippers where the heroine is separated for a long period of time from her true love, the dull, hero, and instead spends more time with the lusty, evil villain. This is the kind of bodice ripper I like: one that does not take itself seriously and knows how to throw crazy tropes at you, so you’ll keep the pages turning, even if the story is not really romantic. 4 1/2 stars
Emmie’s Love is Purity’s Passion, redux. Just as in Purity’s Passion and Purity’s Ecstasy, the heroine is separated from her true love and must “find” her way back to him.
3 1/2 stars
In Surrender to Love by Rosemary Rogers an independent woman from Ceylon travels the world looking for love. 2 1/2 stars
Lovely red-gold-haired, violet-eyed Lenore is the female protagonist of Valerie Sherwood’s This Towering Passion and the primary heroine of its sequel, Her Shining Splendor, which tells the tale of both Lenore and her daughter, Lorena, from the English Civil War to the Restoration eras. 4 stars
Coach to Hell by Rachel Cosgrove Payes is a Gothic bodice ripper romance. Georgina falls for a coachman who drives her across England to her new home, a manor filled with secrets. 2 1/2 stars
Despite some crazy scenes, the Bertrice Small Medieval Romance, Enchantress Mine, suffers from a too-perfect heroine and a dull hero. 2 1 /2 stars
Wicked Loving Lies is “The Queen of Historical Romance” Rosemary Roger’s best book! It’s a bodice ripper classic, not for the faint of heart.
Rapture’s Rebel by Iris Bancroft is the first non-Viking historical romance set in Scandinavia that I’ve read. Sadly, it’s disappointing. 1 1/2 stars
Tara’s Song by Barbara Ferry Johnson is yet another middling Viking romance that disappoints. Written in the late ’70s at the height of the bodice ripper era, you’d expect this Viking romance to rapacious and fun, but I found it rather ho-hum. 2 stars
After being loved and abandoned by an English Redcoat soldier, Augusta disguises herself as a male & fights in the American Revolution. Along the way she will find passion and perhaps love. 2 1/2 stars
Passion’s Proud Captive by Melissa Hepburne is not a book for modern readers, but it’s tailor-made to suit my tastes. A hilarious bodice ripper! 4 stars
From the opening pages of Andrea Layton’s So Wild a Rapture, we are introduced to the 16-year-old heroine, the noble Juliette de Condillac, and her “one true love” Francois du Quesnay,
In Rosemary Rogers’ The Wildest Heart Lady Rowena Dangerfield is a beautiful woman who’s valued by many men for her beauty or her wealth, or both. 3 1/2 stars
The tale of Purity Jarsy, Purity’s Passion, (Part 1 of 3) begins with the horrors of the French Revolution and ends in France after Napoleon’s final defeat.
