2019 Ruritanian fantasy-romance, fourth of its series. Rozild is dismissed from her post as a laundry maid for "unnatural behaviour", but finds a new if parlous position as apprentice to a dressmaker.
2006 romance/SF/mystery; third of its series but effectively stand-alone. Elly St Clair was engaged to the local Guild boss, Cooper Boone, but things went wrong and she left the small town for the big city. Now he has to go to the city, and getting her back is only part of his mission.
2024 romantic fantasy novelette, first of a new series. Margaret Dunhaven has married in haste to prevent her family's ruin, and is now Lady Riven, wife of the infamous vampire lord. Well, at least he has a library.
2017 romance novella with fantasy elements. In the modern day, an old woman has one last thing to do before she can die, selling the last painting by the little-known pulp cover artist Haskel. In 1940, we see how that situation arose.
2021 fantasy short story, side story in the Harwood Spellbook series. After the events of the novels, Honoria Cosgrave has retired in disgrace, abandoned by her husband as well as all her former friends. But the faerie realm has not forgotten her.
2016 Ruritanian fantasy-romance, third of its series. Luzie Valorin, sill mourning her late husband, ekes out a living by teaching music and letting out rooms in the family house; Serafina Talarico came to Roteken to study magic, but can't break through to the talent for it. And something has gone awry up in the mountains, and the annual flood is not coming…
2021 romantic fantasy. Clara's on her own in tribal lands, trying to rescue her sisters from the pillaged convent; Istvhan was the paladin of a god now dead. They have goals in common, but neither of them is telling the other everything.
1946 Regency romance. Elinor Rochdale is travelling to take up a post as a governess, only to find herself made a strange offer: if she will marry someone's reprobate cousin, she need never see him again, but she will not lose by it. She declines, of course, but soon finds that she has no choice.
2024 epistolary fantastic romance, third of its series. Isabelle de Tourzin is not going to make the mistake of falling in love with a mortal again. Forestier is just a useful ally.
2025 romance/SF/mystery; 60th novel of Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). A man is gassed to death in a limousine, for no obvious reason. But the killer leaves a note that gets Eve Dallas involved…
2021 paranormal romance short novel. Laney finds a wolf caught in an illegal snare, but while she's freeing it it briefly becomes a naked woman…
2023 romance, third and last of its trilogy. Iris has had a few long-term relationships, but they ended badly; recently she's been happy with one-night stands. Stevie has an anxiety disorder and is still recovering from a bad breakup. After a disastrous attempt at a hookup, they'd never see each other again, except…
2021 fantasy romance, third and last of its series. Abigail Wilder, adopted daughter of the Lord Sorcier, is determined to get to the bottom of the deaths of eligible young ladies in London.
2020 fantasy novella, side story in the Harwood Spellbook series. Juliana Banks is one of the first female students of magic; Caroline Fennell was a rising politician, but has become tainted by the fall of her patroness. They had a secret understanding, but…
2014 Ruritanian fantasy-romance, second of its series. Antuniet Chazillen left the country after her brother was executed for treason, but someone's after her and she's run out of places to flee. Jeanne de Cherdillac is a scandalous widow and social butterfly.
2018 fantasy novella, side story in the Harwood Spellbook series. Before the events of the novels, Amy Standish is a rising young pollitician who must marry a magician to gain rank in the Boudiccate. But Jonathan Harwood, resolutely non-magical, remains her temptation…
2021 paranormal romance novella. Maggie grew up in Moose Point, never one of the Popular Girls, and has ended up working at the local (and only) Bar. Fiona was the chief Mean Girl and vanished away as soon as she could, but now she's back for her cousin's wedding…
2022 romance, second of its trilogy. After her disastrous engagement fell apart (last book), Astrid has thrown herself into her interior design business, but it hasn't been going well. The renovation of the old hotel is her last chance, and it's going to be televised…
2024 romance. Celeste St. Pierre is an art thief; so is Magnus Larsson. They used to run with a crew, until five years ago things went bad, Magnus bailed, and the crew fell apart. Now their mentor has died, and had one last wish…
2023 fantasy-romance, first of a series. The world is much like our own, only it has witches in it. Kay had a teenage crush on Harry Ashworth, but he dropped her with an unfriendly note. Now they're thrown together on a journey across Europe.
2022 romantic fantasy novella. In 1882, Arthur has been posted as an aide to the British Viceroy in Calcutta; Melusina is a warding specialist whose services have been called on.
2095 romance/SF/mystery novella; in the Ghost Hunters series. Virginia Burch rented the office upstairs from Sam Gage, and now they're merging their businesses in order to hold on to the house in an area ripe for redevelopment. But that's not all…
2020 fantasy romance, second of its series. Effie is a housemaid who's fallen for the youngest son of the Family. She knows perfectly well it's impossible. Until she meets a fae who is determined to help her.
2024 fantasy-romance, second of what may be an ongoing series. The world is much like our own, only it has witches in it. Becca is one of the ancient Ashworth family, and the ghost she summoned for advice on a complicated magical problem has got loose; Connor is a strong-arm man for the Witches' Council, who don't get on with the Ashworths… and they will end up working together.
2022 romance, first of a trilogy. Delilah got out of the tiny Oregon town of Bright Falls the instant she could, building an art-photography career in New York and leaving her perfect stepsister Astrid with the rest of the Mean Girls. But now Astrid is getting married and wants to employ her as photographer, and Delilah could really use the money…
2014 Ruritanian fantasy short story. Before the events of Daughter of Mystery, Barbara attends the opera while her master the Baron is away.
2013 Regency romance novella. Hecuba Jones is stealing back paintings that were to be her inheritance, sold by her uncle. But the younger brother of the Earl catches her… vt Color Me Bad.
2023 epistolary fantastic romance. Victor Beauchêne is disinherited and cast out; Julien Moreau has come to Paris to paint. They will meet, but everything will get terribly complicated…
1944 Regency romance. Needing to marry to gain his inheritance, and refused by the Incomparable Isabella, the young buck Viscount Sheringham plans to marry the first woman he sees. Fortunately this is his childhood friend Hero Wantage, who's always worshipped him from afar.
2024 fantasy romance, second of its series. The Villain was captured by the king at the end of the previous book, so the first thing for his assistant Evie to do is to rescue him.
2024 Victorian romance, fourth and last in the loose Belles of London series. Stella Hobhouse knows that marriage, any marriage, is her only escape from life as a drudge to her hateful brother. But she did not entirely think through her scandalous plan to colour her prematurely silver hair…
2024 romantic SF, fourth of what was originally a planned trilogy but will now get at least one more book. Vesper Quill and Kyrion Caldaren, with an unbreakable psychic bond that's led the psi-hungry emperor to put a bounty on their heads, flee to a planet that should offer sanctuary…
2024 romance/SF/mystery; 59th novel of Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). At a hen party, one of the prospective brides slips away… and is murdered.
2023 Regency romance, third and last of its series. Josephine Brown is a knife-thrower and freelance covert agent, and Elliot Wingate is an agent for the crown. There will be many stumbles on their road to true love…
2023 fantasy romance, first of a series. Evie is wondering how to cope without a job when she runs into a wounded man in the woods. She helps him, only to discover that he is the Villain who's terrorising the kingdom. But it turns out that he needs a PA…
2023 epistolary fantastic romance. In 1822, Delphine's lover disappears, and she is forced to marry. Several years later her vile husband dies and leaves her wealthy, but that is by no means the end of her troubles.
2021 romantic fantasy. In 1922, Rathna is sent to look into a transportation portal that's shut down; she's very specialised in her understanding of portals, so an expert in other magics is sent to help her out.
2023 Regency romance, second of its series. Cecile Tremblay is a French emigré turned circus sharpshooter, and had an agreeable interlude with Gaius Darlington on their trip to ransom a missing brother. But then he wrecked it all…
2024 Victorian romance. Anne Deveril has been letting herself fade into obscurity looking after her widowed mother. Mr Felix Hartford is apparently a feckless man-about-town. They were almost married six years ago, and they've spend the intervening time despising each other…
2020 fantasy short story, epilogue to Thornbound.. Two years later, Cassandra is determined to celebrate her anniversary.
2020 fantasy romance, first of a series. Theodora Ettings meets a fairy lord in the woods, and half her soul is stolen before her cousin Vanessa can rescue her. With her emotions largely missing, can she avoid scandal long enough to see Vanessa though her Season in London?
2024 romance/SF/mystery; 58th novel of Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). Someone's poisoning girls in public places; Dallas investigates.
2004 romance/SF/mystery; second of its series. Lydia Smith and Emmett London are carrying on their relationship, but they both bave prickles that the other can brush against. Oh, and someone has just tried to kill Emmett's old friend…
2023 romance/SF/mystery; 57th novel of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). A retired Internal Affairs officer is found shot in his home, but Dallas sees right through the apparent suicide…
2019 fantasy. Cassandra Harwood has got her magical school for young ladies, but many people would like it to fail.
2024 short romantic SF novel, side story in Galactic Bonds. Zane Zimmer tries to juggle his position as chief hatchet-man to a psychotic emperor with the demands of his highly-placed family…
2014 Ruritanian fantasy. Barbara is the elderly Baron's bodyguard-duellist, and after his death is passed on with most of his property to his distant niece Margerit—who mostly wants to study miracles at the university…
2020 romantic fantasy. Stephen was a paladin, but his god has died: he still has the potential for berserk rage, but not the assurance that he's being used for the right. Grace is a perfumer with a supernal sense of smell and a habit of stumbling into trouble…
2024 pair of romance/fantasy stories. Feora steals the king's gold and uses it to buy books; Zenira tries to survive on piecework while hiding her magic. Spoilers.
2024 romantic comic fantasy. Caroline is trying to write an enemies-to-lovers fantasy story, but her heroine Lady Rosamund keeps objecting.
2021 alternate-history novel, fanfic of the Brontës' Gondal, among others. Every puissant prince must be in want of a wife.
2021 Regency romance, third and last in a loose series. Sophie Roseingrave's family lost their money, and she lost her musical confidence, to a swindler; now she wants to make sure that doesn't happen to anyone else. Maddie Crewe didn't set out to be a thief, but her fellow weavers are depending on her…
2023 romance/SF/mystery; 56th novel of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). The famous actress throws a party to celebrate a new project; then her husband drops dead of a champagne cocktail meant for her.
2000 romance/SF/mystery; first of a series. After an unfortunate incident in an alien tomb, Lydia Smith is finding it hard to get work. So she can't afford to turn down the one client who's willing to employ her, even if he clearly isn't telling her everything…
2020 Regency romance, second in a loose series. Agatha Griffin has made a success of the printing-house that she ran with her late husband, but she's not ready to deal with bees in the archive. Penelope Flood lives uncomfortably on the edge between gentry and trades, but mostly wants to get on with beekeeping…
2017 fantasy romance. In Angland in the 19th century, gentlemen are magicians, while ladies wield political power. Cassandra Harwood was never one for following the rules.
2022 romance/SF/mystery; 55th novel of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). Two girls escape from a "school" for sex slaves…
2023 fantasy romance. Rose Tregarth is a born organiser, and being lodged with her cousins after her parents' ruin and death hasn't been too bad for her. But now valuable dragons are appearing at random in the neighbourhood, and the Mysterious Sinister Neighbour is getting involved…
2019 Regency romance. Lucy Muchelney has lost her lover to a socially advantageous wedding, and her brother has no time for her interest in astronomy (fired by her late father). One of father's correspondents is looking for someone to translate a French astronomical treatise…
2021 fantasy romance. In Regency society, the essential accessory for every young lady is a dragon to sit on her shoulder. But Elinor Tregarth is still a poor relation…
2019 SF/romance, last in the Class 5 series. Ellie Masters wakes up in an abandoned installation. But someone out there is talking to her…
2019 SF/romance novella in the Class 5 series. Having been aboard ships for far too long, Rose McKenzie goes along with a planetary survey party. Then the rest of the party vanishes.
2020 SF/romance novella, last of its trilogy. Queen Samara and Emperor Valentin go to a neutral space station for a meeting with the military commander who's been trying to kill them both. Everyone knows it's a trap…
2019 SF/romance, fourth of of its series. Lucy Harris has also been kidnapped from Earth into an alien civilisation…
2019 SF/romance novella, second of a trilogy. Queen Samara is visiting Emperor Valentin to try to help him find the traitor among his advisors.
2016 SF/romance, third of of its series. Imogen Peters has also been kidnapped from Earth into an alien civilisation…
2017 SF/romance novella, first of a trilogy. Two space empires are at war: the Rogue Coalition is caught in the middle.
2014 romance and light mystery. Jenny Dove has a severe stutter and chronic lack of self-confidence; she's on the verge of suicide when something appears to her and tells her not to. Eventually, she will have to make something of herself.
2022 fantasy-romance, fixup of four shorter works. After the townsfolk burned down her workshop, Mia Brandt tries to keep her powers quiet in her new home. But the necromancer next door isn't going to let it be.
2023 romance. She's a curse-breaker. He's a disgraced archaeologist with a famous father. They're both wotking on the same Scottish castle before it gets redeveloped…
2017 fantasy, fifth and last volume of its series. Things are finally getting moving.
2016 SF/romance, second of of its series. Fiona Russell has also been kidnapped from Earth into an alien civilisation…
2016 fantasy, fourth volume of its series. Cathy seeks allies in her reform of Neither society; Max finds himself showing disconcerting initiative given what's happened to his soul; Sam finds out what the Elemental Court is really up to.
2023 SF/romance, third of a trilogy. Lexi Bowen, professional thief, fell for human-adjacent hottie Nilo Shoren, but he dumped her and stole her job. But why does he have to be so nice?
2015 SF/romance, first of a series. Rose McKenzie was kidnapped from Earth and was kept as a prisoner and experimental subject aboard a space battleship, until she managed to escape. Dav Jallan doesn't know why this battleship has turnd up in his region of space, or why its crew is dead, but…
2022 Regency romance. Marianne Simpson boxes at Farnham's Fantastical Female Fayre, run by her uncle. She has good reason to be suspicious of aristocratic men. But the Duke of Staunton has need of her…
2013 fantasy, third volume of its series. Cathy tries to kick off her project to reform society in the Nether; Max still works for the increasingly erratic sorcerer Ekstrand; Sam is dragged into the Elemental Court.
2022 SF/romance, second of a trilogy. Kee Ildez knows that human-adjacent hottie Varro Runkow isn't interested in her, and anyway she's got lots of hacking to do to track down the various conspirators left in the wind…
2013 fantasy, second volume of a series. Cat's forced into marriage; Max and the gargoyle investigate a sudden power vacuum; Sam worries about his wife.
2022 SF/romance, first of a trilogy. Octavia Zarola can't afford to turn down a retrieval mission. Even if it's from the people who were at war with humanity.
2010 romance, last of its loose tetralogy. Parker Brown and three of her childhood friends run a wedding business, everything from engagement photos to the Big Day; she does the overall organisation and client-wrangling. She isn't looking for romance…
2022 SF/romance novelette, prequel to a trilogy. Captain Octavia Zarola is a bounty hunter with a heart of gold.
2013 fantasy, first of a series. There are magical worlds beyond our own… and most of the people who live there are horrible.
2020 romantic fantasy, first of a new loose series. In the spring of 1915, Major Roland Gospatrick is recovering in hospital, though nobody will tell him what's wrong with him. Elen Morris is assigned as his latest nurse, though he doesn't expect her to last any longer than the others.
2023 romantic SF, second of a planned trilogy. Vesper Quill is trying to pretend she doesn't have an unbreakable psychic bond with Kyrion Caldaren, so that the Emperor doesn't eat their souls (he has form). But to get through all the things being thrown at them they'll need to use not only their own powers but each other's.
1941 Regency-adjacent romance. Deb Grantham, though of good birth, has ended up as a faro-dealer in her aunt's gaming house. She's taking what amusement she can from stringing along several beaux, while refusing any serious entanglements. But one of them is the wealthy young Lord Mablethorpe, and his mother, terrified by the idea of his making an unsuitable marriage, sends her nephew, man-of-the-world Mr Ravenscar, to buy her off…
2022 Victorian romance. Julia Wychwood suffers from professionally invalid parents and crippling shyness, and her only escape has been to rely on her friends and to pretend illness herself. But her friends are away for a crucial few days, and her parents are forcing her to socialise. Meanwhile Captain Jasper Blunt, notoriously cruel hero of the siege of Sebastopol, rumoured to have a string of bastards and a haunted estate in Yorkshire, is looking for a rich wife…
2020 romantic fantasy, seventh and last of its loose series. Vivian Porter's inquiry agency is humming along, so she does a favour for a friend by looking into strange goings-on at a boarding house outside Oxford.
2020 Victorian romance. Neville Cross has always got on with animals better than with people, particularly since the injury that made it hard for him to speak. Clara Hartwright is a lady's companion with unconventional plans for the future. Will they turn a brief acquaintance during a Christmas visit into something more?
2019 Victorian romance. Laura Hayes' father died of the same fever that left her brother an invalid, and what was left of the family business and land is tied up by a grasping lawyer. Alex Archer, professional card sharp, is trading in the thousands of pounds owed to him by his latest victim for an introduction to an heiress, who happens to be Laura's neighbour…
2020 romantic fantasy, sixth of its loose series. Castalia Jones has built up her dressmaking business to the point where she can make choices about what to make, and for whom. Benton is Lord Carillon's valet, factotum, and household manager. They don't particularly like each other…
2019 Victorian romance. Jenny the vicar's daughter left home to be a lady's companion. Now the lady's married, but has settled a moderate amount of money on her. So she decides to go to India and track down the truth of what happened to the lady's brother.
2018 Victorian romance. Helena is desperate to escape from her family; Justin is a scarred ex-soldier living in isolation in Devon and has advertised for a wife…
2019 romantic fantasy, fifth of its loose series. Lorelei "Laura" Penhallow has been healed of her consumption enough to live a normal life, and that includes being invited for a weekend house party by a family with an eligible son. But we all know what happens at weekend house parties.
2022 American Regency-ish romance, part of a loosely linked series. Juno Bell and the future Duke of Dammerton knew each other as children, but he had his duty, and then she had her life as a scandalous artist. But fate keeps throwing them together.
2022 Victorian romance. Evelyn Maltravers has a Grand Plan: she'll wow fashionable London with her riding, then find a wealthy husband to pay for bringing out her sisters. But to do that she will need the right riding habit, and Ahmad Malik the tailor is her man for that…
2019 romance, third in the Reluctant Royals series. Nya Jerami, daughter of the man who tried to overthrow the Thesolan government, finds herself thrown together with Prince Johan Maximillian von Braustein, bad boy darling of the tabloids…
2019 romantic fantasy, fourth of its loose series. Kate Davies is a Guard, one of the magical police force of England. There was more interesting work when the men were off at the Great War, but what's left is better than nothing. Her new assignment is to help out Giles Lefton, mathematics professor and puzzle-solver, as he tries to solve the riddle of a country house that has suddenly appeared, surounded by a mass of roses.
2019 romance novella, in the Reluctant Royals series. Regina Hobbs was always the "good" daughter in her parents' eyes, and having to use a wheelchair hasn't changed that, but she has built things on her own too…
2010 urban fantasy, first of a 19-book series. In a magical world, Gin Blanco is an assassin for hire, until the job goes bad.
2010 SF romance, dir. Mark Romanek, Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley: IMDb / allmovie. The generic love triangle plays out over a dark background. Spoilers.
2019 romance. Meg Mackworth hand-letters journals and planners, and spots patterns in things; last year when Reid Sutherland and his fiancée came in for their wedding stationery, she got a Feeling, and couldn't resist working a hidden message of M-I-S-T-A-K-E into the invitation. Now he's back…
2019 romantic fantasy, third of its loose series. Proserpina Gates, widowed bookseller, is helping a client find a rumoured Roman treasure on her land. Ibis Ward is the scholar she engages to assist with the research…
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 short SF novel 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.