2.5 out of 5 stars Because You’re Mine is split into two parts. In the first half, we have wonderfully believable protagonists (an innocent, overly optimistic girl of eighteen and a famous, jaded theatre actor) who meet, are drawn to one another, and fall in love. The characters are well developed, the story is engaging, and there’s just the right amount of side plot and theatre details to fill out the landscape. Then comes the second half. After a two-month time lapse, o

5 out of 5 stars Cut to the Chase: While I don’t think that this book is for everyone (not even everyone who normally likes historical romances), it’s well-written, excellently executed, and sparkles with both wit and a certain melodramatic flair (costumes, scandals, and runaways -- oh my!). Chase has given us a strong, thoroughly independent female who’s ambitious and driven... about dressmaking, as well as a boring (initially classified as just plain stupid) male lead whose

0.5 out of 5 stars Cut to the Chase This is a bit of a fake-out. Calling a series of women fallen implies to me that they actually should be... fallen, and thus different and distinct from the youthful virgins and/or managing spinster virgins we so often get within the genre. Instead, this particular novel would probably be more enjoyable for a male, rather than a female, reader: Zoe, our heroine, is a girl who’s spent the last 12 years in a harem, being trained by experts in

2.5 out of 5 stars Cut to the Chase: There are some lovely details and characterization, not the least of which is a female protagonist who is ambitious, confident, determined, and very, very intelligent. The way she’s described she could almost be the male lead, which is kind of great! Also, there are some nice side plots and characters who are interesting and are allowed to act in sometimes surprising ways... but what ultimately weighs this novel down is a male protagonist

4.5 out of 5 stars Cut to the Chase: This is a book full of details: the art, the poetry by Byron (down to his inconsistent spelling style), the Italian, the politics around divorce, the fuller-than-full list of supporting characters. At its heart beats a well-drawn, but thoroughly unlikely pair of protagonists: a disgraced divorcee who now lives the life of a courtesan, and a spy-like man who wishes he could retire. Ultimately, they’re two people who are both prostitutes...

2 out of 5 stars Shorter Version: Though this has the trademark Heyer wit as well as the thoroughly well-crafted setting and side characters that you would expect, it’s just not very... romantic. Horry, the heroine, comes across as gullible and annoying, and though Rule is interesting in a typically controlling-stereotype way, it’s almost upsetting to see him fall for her. It’s unfortunate because it’s an interesting twist on the standard romance -- they marry for convenience

1 out of 5 stars Shorter Version (spoilers even here): Great set of characters, interesting situations, well-written action scenes that focus on showing and not telling... so why the low rating? Cringe-worthy set-up (ex-fiancee journeys from America to London and falls in love with her dead fiance’s younger brother), followed by eye-roll-inducing situations (wedding night in a brothel? check, hyperbolically maniacal villains that are set up to make fatal errors? check, check)

4 out of 5 stars Cut to the Chase: While this is far from my favorite Lisa Kleypas, it is a solid, very enjoyable read -- it’s got the self made man she’s so good at creating. The man who doesn’t belong amongst the aristocracy because he’s bought his way in, and will never feel completely comfortable, as well as the well bred English rose of a heroine he’s trying to woo. What keeps this from being a more highly-rated read is that the heroine just isn’t as likeable as usual...

5 out of 5 stars Cut to the Chase: This is a great example of animal-attraction/tyrant-male-is-tamed historical romance. I don’t always like the overly-dominant male hero (who, of course, has the tragic childhood backstory), but this was just one of those stories where you really get behind the characters. There’s a point at which a writer really has worked through and past the cliche to get to the heart of characters, and I think Chase really has achieved that here. You’ve g