I’m skipping to #8 because I can’t find #5-7 in the local store and it’s the holidays – forgot to add them to my Amazon order (eesh!).

What can we learn from Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me?  She is the queen of pitting historical h/h against each other in a way that has you rooting for both.  Layer that on top of her excellent characterizations (if you haven’t read the Bridgerton series, please do – siblings at their best and funniest) and you have reads you can’t put down.

His eyes darkened.  “You, Miss Sheffield, are a menace.”

“And you, Lord Bridgerton, need thicker boots.”

His grasp tightened on her arm.  “Before I return you to the sanctuary of the chaperones and spinsters, there is one thing we need to make clear.”

Kate held her breath.  She did not like the hard tone of his voice.

“I am going to court your sister.  And should I decide that she will make a suitable Lady Bridgerton, I will make her my wife.”

Game on!

Now, there is one thing Julia does that the relatively newbie should not emulate unless you do a kick-ass job of it: Long Prologues with lots of telling of backstory.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love her prologues.  But if I tried to do it, they’d recommend it be cut or it would become an obstacle to a sale.

The Viscount Who Loved Me is a great read.  I’m giving it 4 kitties.

Mel