Paradise Calling, a new forbidden romance, is currently being serialised exclusively on Radish Fiction
Read MoreAuthor: noelcades
Across the North Sea by Sofia Hahn
Across the North Sea is the first Viking romance I’ve read, and it was very intriguing. It’s actually a tale of two romances, featuring sisters who each fall in love with quite different men. Captured from their Frankish village, they are taken over the seas where they have to fend off unwelcome suitors and learn […]
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Should you include the hero’s POV?
Many readers today demand “dual POV” (point of view) – but how much should you get into the hero’s head? What are the pitfalls?
Read MoreWithout Any Amazement by Margaret Malcolm
Written in 1948, this is an arranged marriage between 17-year-old schoolgirl Jacynth and considerably older Jonathan Branksome. Jacynth isn’t reluctant at all, for what it’s worth, she seems to regard marriage as an exciting adventure. Which it possibly was for a schoolgirl in her era. “There’s the vicar,” she said breathlessly. “Grandmother told me that […]
Read MoreStorm Over Mandargi by Margaret Way
Australian-set romance between 22-year-old Toni and (older, but not specified) Damon Nyland, who owns the ranch Toni’s brother manages, among other assets. He lives elsewhere in some horrendous-sounding country McMansion. Toni is rude, immature, angry, stroppy – for no apparent reason at all. I could barely get past her first interaction with Damon who has […]
Read MoreMiss Columbine and Harley Quinn by Margery Hilton
It’s the seventies and all the clothes are nylon, tricel and “wincey” in various shades of orange and tangerine, and everything is just sooper! Everything except the bizarre romance between a hopelessly immature teenager, Shelley, who’s 17-going-on-12, and an oddly withdrawn and bloodless hero, Harley Quinn, 35. Shelley is so immature that that she doesn’t […]
Read MoreThe Passionate Winter by Carole Mortimer
A superb, Seventies spectacular of an insanely implausible but enjoyable plot, The Passionate Winter is a must-read for any vintage Romance fan. We’ve got a (barely) 18-year-old heroine, a 37-year-old playboy hero (who’s also her boyfriend’s dad) and a plot that is racy, ridiculous and a romp to end all romps. Leigh falls in insta-lust […]
Read MoreAccidental Bride by Susan Barrie
I very much enjoyed this book despite the exceedingly silly and implausible plot. Samantha goes to stay with an old schoolfriend in the family’s Austrian schloss, and ends up in a bizarre fake engagement with her brother Stephan. The reason? There are two. The first is that because Samantha has overheard Stephan slagging her off, […]
Read MoreStorm in Paradise by Judith Worthy
Who the hell wears tights on the Great Barrier Reef? The temperature never falls below 23c/74F even in midwinter. We have here an Australian Mills & Boon “Medical Romance” where the heroine, Nicole Gardiner, in her silky “bare leg” tights, is a nurse on a resort island and the hero, Dr Sloan Reilly, is a […]
Read MoreDangerous Enchantment by Anne Mather
Possibly the most outrageously hideous outfit ever is to be found in Dangerous Enchantment (1969): She had dressed with care in a new Crimplene two-piece of a delicious shade of salmon pink. The flared skirt was calf-length while the short jacket was double-breasted and scalloped on the neckline. With it she wore her double string […]
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