BOOK REVIEWS: Bodice Rippers

I take it for granted that you are interested in this week’s Bodice Rippers.  I am still cleaning off book shelves and there is no way any book can leave this house unless I have read it. After all, that is why they were on the shelves in the first place.

A LADY NEVER TELLS by Candace Camp brings the Bascombe sisters to London from America to meet their estranged grandfather, the Earl of Stewkesbury. Their beloved mother has died and their evil stepfather has attempted to marry them off to the highest bidder. Arriving in London, the girls discover that their grandfather has died and his very, very proper grandson is now the earl. Mix four American girls who know their way around guns, but not how to get along in proper English society with several handsome cousins and the threat of somebody wanting to kidnap the second oldest sister and you get a charming, light read.

TESTING MISS TOOGOOD by Stella Cameron finds opinionated Fleur, the daughter of an impoverished minister, in London to find a wealthy husband to save her family financially and make it possible for her five younger sisters to marry well. Fleur agrees to go about society under the watchful eye of Lord Dominic Elliot. She does not need his help because she has developed a list of questions for any prospective husband... some very interesting questions. The trouble is that Lord Dominic is no real help with her husband hunting, but he does answer the questions very well.

Cindy Holbrook, author of LORD SAYER'S GHOST, has given us the delightful story of Prudence and her Aunt Saraphina who have to spend a year in the haunted home of the late Lord Sayer. Lord Sayer’s will has decreed that the family member who can last there for a year inherits his large estate and the wealth that goes with it. The rest of the family has been scared off by  ghostly sounds, bloody visions, and nasty pranks. (It is impossible to keep attractive housemaids. They keep getting pinched). Aunt Saraphina’s ability to converse with the dead and a seance or two help to discover who wanted Lord Sayer’s death. This was a particularly fun read.

In THE LADY CHOSEN, Stephanie Laurens introduces us to the members of the Bastion Club, a club formed to give seven bachelors, retired from His Majesty’s Secret Service, a private place to hide from the aggressive matchmaking mothers of society. In THE LADY CHOSEN we meet the first of the club,Tristan Wemyss who has unexpectedly become Earl of Trentham and must marry within the year to retain the wealth to maintain the estates and the elderly female relatives who come with it. He meets our heroine Lenora, who lives next door to the club, after several mysterious break ins.  THE LADY CHOSEN is the first in a series that feature the members of the Bastion Club. Laurens is one of my favorite Regency authors. Her heroines are spirited, able to rescue themselves, and capable of some steamy love scenes.

Maybe these books will give you a better understanding why I call Regencies my drug of choice. Consider them Jane Austen with hotter sex.