Ok so we’ve all binged watched BRIDGERTON on Netflix, which was a wonderful adaption of Julia Quinn’s novel The Duke and I, and now everyone is clamouring for more duke yumminess in the form of other historical romance novels… so here is a list of my all-time top 5 ones!! Number 1: The Bride by Julie Garwood This one is seriously such a classic in historical romance and one of my absolute all-time favs! It is funny, choc full of romantic tension, a fabulous storyline and wonderful characters you’ll adore (heads up you will fall in love with the hero Alec – and though he’s not a duke, he is a Laird and super yummy)… Basically, the story starts with an edict from the king, that the mighty Scottish laird Alec Kincaid must take an English bride. Alec’s choice is the heroine Jamie, who is the youngest daughter of Baron Jamison… and she’s a feisty, violet-eyed beauty (the best sort of heroine), who vows never to surrender to the highland barbarian. With such strong willed characters comes a clash of wills, and a wonderful story mixed with romance and intrigue, that will stay with you long after you read the…

Today we are joined by Fresh Fiction Senior Reviewer Miranda Owen: I am a widowed lady, well past the age of innocence. Why should I not kiss a handsome man in a drawing room? A little carnality won’t hurt me.  – THE MADNESS OF LORD IAN MACKENZIE by Jennifer Ashley I find stories with a widowed heroine particularly compelling. For good or bad, marriage and living with somebody play a huge role in your life, and how you function every day. In a good marriage, your partner enhances your life – in small ways and big ways. If you have the misfortune to be in a bad marriage, it sours many aspects of your life. In different ways, stories about women who have loved and lost, as well as stories about women who have endured until being set free by a spouse’s death, are equally fascinating. In stories where there was some affection between the husband and wife, an author tries to convey the love that existed and how the wife is left to pick up the pieces. One of the first stories I read with a widowed heroine was THE MADNESS OF LORD IAN MACKENZIE by Jennifer Ashley. In Jennifer…

I really wanted to write about my mom and the fact that she came to see me, and we were able to discuss books and our joint love of them in person, but it is Father’s Day, so I thought I should try to see what books I might have read that have the word Father or Daddy in the title. I did a search of the word Father here at Fresh Fiction, and found ninety one (91) books in the data base with the word father in them. Unfortunately I don’t appear to have read any of them, but there were several by authors I have read and loved! So while the search didn’t help me to recommend a great book about fathers to you it did add to my own backlist search! A search of the word Daddy yielded forty nine (49) titles to investigate, and one I’ve actually read. I have read SUGAR DADDY by Lisa Kleypas. While many of my friends rave about this book I didn’t enjoy it as much as they did. It does have a sequel called BLUE EYED DEVIL, which I have to admit I was hesitant to read, but I had…