2022 romantic SF, first of a planned trilogy. Vesper Quill is a designer working on various high-tech products for the penny-pinching Kent Corporation. Kyrion Caldaren is the Emperor's right hand, head of his elite forces. There's no reason they would ever even meet…
2019 romantic fantasy, second of its loose series. In a slightly sideways magical 1924, Elspeth Penhallow finds herself looking into the suppliers of an addictive magical drink. As does Lord Geoffrey Carillon…
2010 romance. Laurel McBane and three of her childhood friends run a wedding business, everything from engagement photos to the Big Day; she does the cakes. Delaney Brown is the brother of one of the other friends, who's known them all for years and treats them like little sisters…
2022 romance. Nora Stephens is the other woman, the city-living partner who gets dumped after the man in her life has a life-changing rural experience. Until her sister takes her on a rural experience of her own…
2015 paranormal romance. Courtney owns a failing antiquarian bookshop, and has a joyless relationship with Mia. Then the gorgeous vampire walks in looking for a rare book…
2018 romantic fantasy, first of its loose series. In a slightly sideways magical 1922, Rufus tries to find work and keep up his cottage in the New Forest, but everyone despises him as one of the few to have come back unharmed from the War. Feronia, of rather better family but having taken work as a governess to escape from an arranged marriage, is one of the people who might take him seriously…
2020 SF/romance, last of a trilogy. Catarina von Hasenberg, the youngest of the heirs to one of the three Great Houses, has a public persona as a partying idiot… and some of the time even she believes it. But she'll still go undercover at a rival House's summer retreat to try to get proof relating to the kidnapping of her brother.
1940 Regency romance. Sir Richard Wyndham, contemplating the loveless but respectable marriage everyone's been badgering him to make for years and with no particular reason or excuse to put it off any longer, celebrates his last night before engagement by getting monstrously drunk. As he stumbles homewards, he spots a lad climbing down from a window on knotted sheets… early US vt Beau Wyndham.
1997 crime drama and romantic comedy, dir. George Armitage, John Cusack, Minnie Driver; IMDb / allmovie. What could go wrong with combining an assassination job with your high school reunion?
2019 romantic mystery, sixth and last in the Mercy Kilpatrick series. Mercy's hastily dropped into an undercover job, while her police chief fiancé conducts a separate investigation.
1996 romantic horror, dir. Stephen Frears, Julia Roberts, John Malkovich: IMDb / allmovie. Mary is a maid of all work in the household of one Dr Jekyll…
1996 romantic drama, dir. Anthony Minghella, Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas: IMDb / allmovie. As the final victory over Axis forces in Italy approaches, a nurse looks after a badly-burned mystery man in an abandoned monastery.
2019 SF/romance. Bianca von Hasenberg, a rich widow (rumour has it, by her own hand), spends her resources trying to save other women from the grinder that is Consortium social life. But when she's attacked and the heir to von Hasenberg is kidnapped…
2019 romantic mystery, fifth in the Mercy Kilpatrick series. A body found in the woods could be connected with an armoured car robbery thirty years ago. FBI agent Kilpatrick and her police chief fiancé Truman Daly, among others, investigate.
2022 SF/mystery; 54th novel of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). The woman's body, throat slit, is dumped on a playground bench, neatly dressed and made up but decades out of style. And the note reads Bad Mommy.
2019 SF/romance. Ada von Hasenberg, younger daughter of one of the three Houses that together rule human space, has been on the run for two years from an arranged marriage. She's finally been caught… but then they made the mistake of putting her in a cell with the man-monster.
1936 romance. Sylvester Lavenham is dying, and is determined to protect his niece Eustacie (young and excitable) by betrothing her to his nephew Sir Tristram Shield (rather older, stolid, but willing to do his duty). Naturally, she must run away to London to become a governess. But she wasn't expecting smugglers…
2018 romantic mystery, fourth in the Mercy Kilpatrick series. Skeletal human remains turn up in a blocked culvert, with a pattern of injury consistent with a killer from twenty years ago. And in this small town, many of the people who were involved back then are still around now.
2020 American Regency-ish romance, part of a loosely linked series. Arabella Larke and the Marquess of Hardbury were promised to each other as children, but on coming back from years overseas the first thing he did was refuse to abide by the parental plan. That suits her. But it's not going to work out that way.
2015 fantasy, last of the Katya and Starbride tetralogy. Katya and Starbride are both fighting to depose the Fiend-possessed usurper Roland, but winning that battle won't be the hardest thing either of them has to do.
1934 romance. The Winwoods are a good family, but impoverished; the rich Earl of Rule needs a wife. He offers for the oldest sister, as is proper, but Elizabeth already has a beau (though a sadly poor one), so young Horatia suggests that she might do just as well. A marriage of convenience seems like a good idea to both of them, but…
2021 SF/mystery; 53rd novel of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). A woman is found dumped on a demolition site; while Eve Dallas is investigating that, another body turns up nearby, but it's been walled up for forty years.
2019 American Regency-ish romance, part of a loosely linked series. Thea Knight disguises herself as her sister Helen, so that Helen can elope with her beau. Lord Luxborough, set to watch Helen, realises what's going on, and works out that if he marries the woman under a false name he can get access to the family money he needs without the inconvenience of a wife he doesn't want…
2009 romance. Emmaline Grant and three of her childhood friends run a wedding business, everything from engagement photos to the Big Day; she does the flowers and decoration. Jack Cooke is a family friend, and the architect working on the business's various expansions and extensions. They've known each other for years, but then all of a sudden…
2014 fantasy, third of a tetralogy. Princess Katya is with the royal family, trying to drum up support for an army to retake the capital and depose the usurper. Her lover Starbride is hiding in the capital, gathering information and building a resistance.
2018 romantic mystery, third in the Mercy Kilpatrick series. One snowy night, Mercy nearly runs over a child seeking help for her dying grandmother. Who, it becomes clear, has been murdered.
1932 romance. The reprobate Marquis of Vidal, having casually fought a duel over dice, must flee to France. He plans to take his latest would-be conquest with him, but that lady's sister has other ideas.
2021 SF/mystery; sixty-third story or 52nd novel of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). A sculptor is killed in her studio; it looks as though her lover did it. But there's more to be found behind the obvious case.
2003 SF romance, first of an ongoing series. Captain Ryland Miller volunteered to become a psychically-enhanced soldier, but he's ended up in a cage. Lily Whitney, daughter of the scientist running the project, has abilities of her own, and when her father disappears she has to work out who might be trustworthy.
2020 SF/mystery; sixty-second story of 51st novel of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). The latest murder victim whom Lt Eve Dallas is investigating was killed by a professional assassin… who's a figure from her husband Roarke's criminal past, and who may be out to get him too.
2012 fantasy, second of a tetralogy. Princess Katya and her consort Starbride must deal with opposition on several fronts, even if it does lead back to the same source.
2018 American Regency-ish romance, part of a loosely linked series. Cassandra has been married for two years, and has only met her husband once; it was arranged by her father and neither partner wanted anything more than the legalities. But now she has her sisters to launch into society, and she'll have to use his London house to do it…
1928 Georgian romance. As the consequences of the rebellion of '45 are still being felt, two fugitives from the losing side set off for London – disguised as the opposite sexes.
2017 fantasy romance, first of its series. The Hokkaran Empire rules practically everyone, including the Qorin horse nomads whom it conquered half a generation ago. But plagues and demons are rising, and two young warriors will have to save the world.
2012 fantasy, first of a tetralogy. As far as the court is concerned, Princess Katya spends her time at (both sorts of) venery; in fact she leads a secret band that hunts magic-using enemies of the king. Starbride is a foreigner sent to court to snare a rich lover, but she'd much rather spend her time studying law…
2017 romantic mystery, second in the Mercy Kilpatrick series. Someone's been starting fires in the small Oregon town where Mercy grew up and is now trying to rebuild bridges with her family; when the police who turn up in response to the fires start getting shot, the FBI gets involved and puts her on the case.
1926 romance. The evil Duke of Avon, walking through Paris, finds an urchin fleeing from a beating and buys him as a page. But, being who he is, he has plans within plans.
1997 romantic mystery. Kate Herrick was married, then very soon widowed, during the War; a few years later, she travels to her childhood home, to sort out the furniture that'll be sent to her grandmother in Scotland. And to get some papers left in a safe. But they're missing…
2019 romance novella in the Reluctant Royals series. Likotse, assistant to Prince Thabiso, met someone amazing while she was briefly in New York last year - but then Fabiola cut things off without explanation, and Likotse's been trying to forget her ever since. Now, by chance, they meet again…
1921 romance, first of Heyer's novels. Six years ago Jack Carstares left England in disgrace, having admitted to cheating at cards. Now in 1751 he's back, and living as a highwayman, leaving the family home to his brother even though his father has died and he's now the rightful Earl; but meanwhile Tracy Belmanoir, the sinister Duke of Andover, has his eyes on beautiful Diana Beauleigh…
2018 romance, second in the Reluctant Royals series. Portia Hobbs, former self-indulgent hot mess, has gone to Scotland to apprentice in sword-making.
2014 steampunk fantasy romance, third in the Clockwork Heart trilogy. Taya and Cristof are on a diplomatic mission to Alzana, trying to prevent a war, when the Alzanan coup is launched, and of course as dubious foreigners they get blamed for the assassination of the royal family…
2019 SF/mystery; sixty-first (roughly, or 50th novel, hence presumably the title) of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). Someone beloved by everyone who knew him is killed by a cunning gas bomb.
2016 science fiction novel, fanfic in the Vorkosigan universe (set around and among the events of Captain Vorpatril's Alliance). The narrative follows Byerly Vorrutyer, agent of Imperial Security, as he negotiates politics, bomb threats, and his personal life.
2019 SF/mystery; sixtieth (roughly, or 49th novel) of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). Someone's torturing and killing abusive men.
1991 romantic suspense. Rose Fenemore is an English tutor at Cambridge, as well as a poet and author. She takes a cottage on the western Scottish island of Moila to have a writing retreat free of distraction. But why do two young men end up in her living-room one stormy night?
2014 steampunk fantasy romance, second in the Clockwork Heart trilogy. Taya, an "icarus" flying courier, is now the wife of the Ondinan ambassador to Mareaux. But between the assassination attempts and the more conventional betrayals, her life is rarely boring. vt Iron Wind.
2018 romance. Naledi Smith is studying epidemiology in New York while waitressing to pay the bills, and really doesn't have time for those emails claiming to be from an African prince to whom she was betrothed as a child. But Prince Thabiso is real…
2009 romance. Mackenzie Elliott and three of her childhood friends run a wedding business, everything from engagement photos to the Big Day. But, inspired by the example of her mother, Mac thinks true love can't be for her…
2019 SF novella in the Innkeeper series. Dina's sister Maud turned down a marriage proposal from the vampire Lord Arland, but she's travelling to his homeworld anyway…
2019 science fiction romance novella. Red and Blue are soldiers on opposite sides in a war that ranges across worlds and up and down the timelines. But then Red finds a letter in the ashes of a battlefield, that reads: Burn Before Reading.
2017 romantic mystery, first in the Mercy Kilpatrick series. Mercy is an FBI agent, but she grew up as a prepper, stocked up on goods and skills for the end of civilisation. Now she's sent back to the small town in Oregon that she left fifteen years ago, where preppers also seem to be the target of the latest murderer.
2015 Regency romance. Elinor Bascombe, a widow who's been bringing her late wastrel husband's estate back to something like prosperity, meets the wicked Lord Ryde, exiled from the country for decades, and here to raise money from his own neighbouring estate before leaving for good.
1988 romantic suspense. After a lonely childhood, Geillis Ramsay finds herself orphaned and the heir to her mother's cousin's house in rural Wiltshire. And perhaps to her magic too.
2016-2017 romance, seinen manga adaptation in 12 episodes: AniDB, vt "Scum's Wish". High-schoolers Hanabi and Mugi both have hopeless crushes on other people; they become a couple to tide them over until they get what they really want.
2018 romantic comedy, dir. Victor Levin, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder: IMDb / allmovie. Frank and Lindsay have each been invited to San Luis Obispo for the flashy wedding of someone they don't much like. She's the groom's ex; he's his half-brother; they're both bitter people. Naturally, they meet.
2016 comedy with romantic elements, dir. Jake Szymanski, Zac Efron, Adam DeVine, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza: IMDb / allmovie. Manchild brothers Mike and Dave are told that they can't come to their sister's wedding unless they bring dates (to calm them down and stop them hitting on other women). Not knowing any women, they advertise. Alice and Tatiana, who are just as messed up but in different ways, decide that a free trip to Hawaii is worth a few days of good behaviour…
2019 SF/mystery; fifty-ninth (roughly, or 48th novel) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. Lyle had cleaned up and got out of the gang life, and things were starting to look up for him. So when he's found dead of an overdose, Lieutenant Eve Dallas is already suspicious.
2016 American Regency romance, third and last of a linked series. Dr Gray conducts an academic correspondence with Miss Babcock, whom he met in passing during the events of the previous book. But when she comes to London to show off her hybrid rose, will they recognise their feelings for each other, or will societal pressures get in the way?
2016 American Regency romance novella, side story in a linked series. In her youth, Cecilia Goodhue ran off with a wild young man in the direction of Gretna Green; but they were caught, and she learned he was a fortune-hunter; to escape some of the scandal, she lived by the grace of her married sister and became a teacher in a village school. Now, ten years later, her own younger sister has run off with a soldier, and in an attempt to find her she'll meet that man again.
2015 American Regency romance, second of a linked series. During the deception of the first book, John Turner took on the persona of the Earl of Ashby, and was pursued by Leticia Herzog, fortune-hunting widow of an Austrian Count. When the game was discovered, she fled in public shame. But they each felt a spark for the other, and now they're going to meet again.
2014 American Regency romance, first of a linked series. "Lucky Ned", the Earl of Ashby, refuses to believe his friend and secretary John Turner when Turner tells him that people love his position and wealth more than his person. So Ned proposes that they swap roles while on a business trip, and bets Turner that he can make a woman fall for him even without the trappings of his status. Meanwhile, the governess Phoebe Baker has a particular reason to hate the Earl, whom she has never met…
2018 SF/mystery; fifty-eighth (roughly, or 47th novel) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. Someone wears an explosive vest into a meeting to finalise a corporate merger; Lieutenant Eve Dallas has to find out why he did it, and whether someone else is pulling the strings.
2018 SF/mystery; fifty-seventh (roughly, or 46th novel) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. A woman is stabbed while watching Psycho in a cinema; there's no obvious motive for killing her. Homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas soon discovers roughly what's going on, but it'll still be a long twisty road to catching the killer.
2017 SF/mystery; fifty-sixth (roughly, or 45th novel) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. Homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas is out with a colleague when another patron of the bar is cut and bleeds to death in front of her. She may not have much time for gossip journalists, but solving murders is still her job.
2013 romance novella. Nikki is an unsuccessful artist in the process of giving up on her dreams by taking a marketing job; Mark is the private detective whose office she walks into by accident. But it seems he needs some help catching an art thief…
2017 SF/mystery; fifty-fifth (roughly) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. (Or 44th novel, I think. At some point I may renumber these reviews.) On the road on a snowy night, Homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke find a naked, blood-stained and delirious woman who claims to have been attacked by the Devil.
2016 SF/mystery; fifty-fourth (roughly) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. A sniper is shooting people in New York – at random, or with specific targets in mind? Lieutenant Eve Dallas investigates.
2014 modern fantasy/romance. Jade Crow runs a comics-and-games shop in Wylde, Idaho, where lots of magical creatures congregate. She's hiding from someone. But she isn't going to be able to stay hidden.
2016 fantasy romance, shoujo manga continuation in 12 episodes as well as an OVA that bridges the two series: AniDB, vt "Snow White with the Red Hair". Shirayuki the herbalist continues to develop her low-key romance with Prince Zen.
2016 SF/mystery; fifty-third (roughly) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. Dennis Mira went to confront his cousin Edward over plans to sell the family house, but found him tied up in a chair; then someone knocked Dennis on the head. Now Edward's missing. Fortunately Dennis is married to Charlotte Mira, police profiler and friend of Lieutenant Eve Dallas.
2013 science fiction/romance. Finn is a robot who looks and acts human; he arrives in young Cat Novak's life as her tutor, and stays as the years pass.
2015 SF/mystery novella; fifty-second (roughly) of J. D. Robb's In Death series, published as part of Down the Rabbit Hole, a multi-author anthology of stories loosely inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Apparently Darlene Fitzwilliams fatally stabbed her brother, then jumped off his fifty-second floor balcony. But there's no sign that she was the sort of person who'd do that.
2015 SF/mystery; fifty-first (roughly) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. Two serial killers have crossed the USA and landed in New York; Lieutenant Eve Dallas tracks them down.
2015 romantic comedy, shoujo manga adaptation in 24 episodes: AniDB, vt "My Love Story". Gōda Takeo is a huge guy, clueless but with a good heart; when he saves Yamato Rinko from a groper on the train, they fall in love.
2015 fantasy romance, shoujo manga adaptation in 12 episodes: AniDB, vt "Snow White with the Red Hair". Shirayuki the herbalist flees the unwelcome attentions of the prince of her country, only to meet Zen, the junior prince of the next realm over.
2015 contemporary romance, light novel adaptation, 12 episodes: AniDB. Sequel to 2013's Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru - My Teenage RomCom SNAFU. Cynical loner high school kid and the rest of the Volunteer Club continue to try to help other people and work out their own problems.
2014 SF/mystery; forty-ninth (roughly) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. Just before Christmas, a personal trainer is found in his home, with a nasty head wound and a knife in his chest. He seems to have been a thoroughly nasty person, but for Eve Dallas the homicide cop's job is still the job.
2008 steampunk fantasy romance. Taya is an icarus, one of the couriers who strap on wings and buoyant metal to carry messages and small packages across the mountainside city of Ondinium. But a mid-air rescue brings her to the attention of the city's leaders.
2014, dir. Lynn Shelton, Keira Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz; IMDb / allmovie
Megan is approaching thirty, but her career and personality more or less went on hold when she left high school ten years ago. One night, as she's fleeing from an unwanted marriage proposal and other complications, some high-school kids ask her to buy them beer, and she gets on with Annika better than with her own peers. Things move on from there. vt Say When in the UK and Ireland.
2015 SF/mystery; fiftieth (roughly) of J. D. Robb's In Death series. At the end of 2060, Homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas comes up against a new threat: a murderer who's such a fan that he's killing people who've offended Dallas. And there are a lot of them.
2008 SF/romance, second in the Grimspace series. In the previous book, Sirantha Jax was instrumental in bringing down the evil corporation that ran everything. But nature abhors a power vacuum.
2008 SF/romance. Sirantha Jax is a jumper, one of the rare humans who can navigate FTL ships through grimspace. But her ship crashed, her pilot/lover died (along with everyone else on board), and she may be going mad.
2014 SF; sequel to Honour's Knight. With most of the powers in the known universe arrayed against her, Devi is still infected with the virus that could solve everything (or bring it all crashing down).
2014 SF; sequel to Fortune's Pawn. Devi is now security chief on the tramp space-freighter she signed on with, but clearly something very strange is going on.
1998, dir. Peter Howitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah: IMDb / allmovie
A woman just fired from her job does, or does not, catch a particular Underground train, and does, or does not, catch her boyfriend in bed with another woman; her life diverges from that point, and we see both halves.
2012, dir. Lorene Scafaria, Steve Carell, Keira Knightley: IMDb / allmovie
The world will be hit by an asteroid in three weeks, and there's nothing more that can be done about it. Dodge and his neighbour Penny set out to get him to his high school sweetheart, and her to her family in England.
Self-published industrial fantasy romance. The relict of a bishop inherits her mother's great airship, and tries to avoid becoming the mistress of the Emperor.
2014, 12 episodes: AniDB; also known as The Kawai Complex Guide to Manners and Hostel Behavior.
Romantic comedy; high school boy lives in boarding-house with a variety of Characters, one of whom is a cute female bookworm.
2013, "Dabba", dir. Ritesh Batra, Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur: IMDb / allmovie
An old-fashioned epistolary romance, conducted via notes passed in a lunchbox. Plot discussion, which may be considered to include spoilers, follows.
In the late 1850s, Ellen Paget is employed as a governess in Paris.
2010, dir. Stephen Frears, Gemma Arterton, Luke Evans: IMDb / allmovie
Tamara Drewe, formerly the ugly duckling and now a glamorous journalist, returns to the village where she grew up… and everything is upended.
2012, dir. Colin Trevorrow, Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass: IMDb / allmovie
A journalist and two interns, trying for a human-interest story, interview a man who's placed an advertisement for a companion in time travel.
Concealed in Death is the forty-eighth story of J. D. Robb's In Death series, and a huge improvement on its immediate predecessor Thankless in Death. It drops many of the science-fictional trappings of the setting to deliver a powerful and well-told story.
First of a projected trilogy. I learned about it from a half-chapter free sample in the back of Ancillary Justice.
I picked up this collection of novellas for the Robb story, as I was clearly intended to. All the stories here are loosely based on, or more properly inspired by, fairy stories (something of a coincidence given the Elemental Masters series I've also been reading).
Thankless in Death is the forty-sixth of J. D. Robb's In Death series. It's also, for me, the first disappointment.