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Possession: A Romance, by A.S. Byatt
Possession is the story of two romances, a twentieth century one, and a nineteenth century one. It is one of my favourite books. Ronald is a young research associate working on the life and writing of...
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Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver
In my page about the history of romance fiction, with its formula of ‘boy meets girl, their relationship encounters problems but everything ends up happily’, I noted that after a period where it...
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Georgette Heyer and the Regency Romance
I stand by my comment in a recent post that most formulaic romance fiction deserves its bad name. Novels by writers like Nora Roberts might be a step up from Mills and Boon, but you’d only read them if...
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The French Lieutenant’s Woman, by John Fowles
While I’m on my current kick about romance fiction, I thought I’d write about book that isn’t a traditional romance, but plays with the romance formula. In it, boy meets girl, their romance meets...
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Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis
There’s just one more novel I’d like to comment on in my current fixation with romance fiction. Kingsley Amis (1922 -95) would probably have been surprised to think that he had written a romance....
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A Most Immoral Woman, by Linda Jaivin
This book, published in 2009, is a fictional account of a real affair between the Australian journalist, medical practitioner and adventurer, George Ernest Morrison and Mae Perkins, a young American,...
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Coffee at Little Angels, by Nadine Rose Larter
New writers these days seem to have to do a lot of their own publicity. So it isn’t surprising that along with everyone else who writes a book blog, I get requests to write reviews of books that might...
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The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova
Vigilant readers may remember that some time ago I reviewed Kostova’s first book, The Historian (2005), and found it quite enjoyable but lacking whatever it is that turns a good book into an excellent...
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Sense and Sensibility, by Joanna Trollope
Yes, you’re seeing straight. This is Sense and Sensibility – 2013 style. It is the first instalment of the Austen Project, a series that rewrites Jane Austen’s six novels for the modern age. I don’t...
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The Glassblower of Murano, by Marina Fiorato
I’ve noted before that the choice of books made by my book club, admittedly often on very limited information about what to read next, is idiosyncratic, sometimes good, sometimes less so. This one is...
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