I want to remind all of you about the book givewaways I mentioned last time out. Over in the forum, I'm doing more book giveaways. The current giveaway is Richard Paul Evans's A Perfect Day, and I have several more to go, one a week until they're gone, including a copy of Bertrice Small's new book (being reviewed right here today).
Also, while you're over in the forum, please take a moment to check out our latest reader survey on your used book-buying habits. I hope to have enough responses to use the results in an article later in October.
Now, on to the our books.... First up is Bertrice Small's 
Until You (NAL), the second installment in her "Rosamund" series. This time out, she's had enough of men and wants to avoid Logan Hepburn's rough wooing, so she heads off to Scotland to visit with her friend the queen. It's there she meets and falls in love with the older Patrick Leslie, earl of Glenkirk. Spying isn't exactly something Rosamund is familiar with, but it's exactly what she finds herself doing with Patrick in Venice. While this portion of the tale is a bit more like Ms. Small's past romances, it still isn't as steamy as many, which left me a bit disappointed. And while I can appreciate a well-researched historical, I wished for a little less history and a little more romance and heat. All in all, though, I liked it much better than the first book in the series, so I'm borrowing three and a half of Cupid's five arrows for this one.
Next up is Lauren Royal's 
Rose (Signet). Lily's older sister Rose gets her turn now, and she's none too pleased that her younger sister has married before her. It makes her look like a spinster. But she has a plan, which includes marrying a man with a title. No other will do. And to find such a man, she and her mother travel to Court, where a Duke shows some interest in Rose. Too bad that Lily's new husband has an untitled friend Kit Martyn who's also interested in Rose. I wasn't wild about Rose in Lily's book, and I didn't like her much better in her own unfortunately. She is so attracted to Kit that she encourages his embrace, yet flatly refuses his proposal of marriage. She didn't seem to have matured much since her sister's tale, and I was really hoping she had. Ah well. I'm giving this one only two arrows.
Finally this week, we have Katie MacAlister's 
Men in Kilts (Onyx). The premise here is that an American mystery writer has gone off to a conference in England and meets her very own hunk of a Scotsman, and they go hieing off to his home in the Highlands. So far, so good--I'm a sucker for a Scottish setting, and writer heroines are always good. Then we start reading and the story is told in first person. Honestly, had it not been, I would have liked it far better. There's plenty of humor in the telling, and lots of minor characters who add little twists to the plot. But I just couldn't get past the first-person thing, which makes this one not a keeper for me. I'm giving it only three arrows.
On the other hand, I just got a nice batch of books yesterday for review, and I'm really looking forward to digging into several of them.
Until next time, happy reading!
