Kathleen Buckley's Blog, page 2
June 26, 2023
A chance to get free books for review
And who doesn't like free books? Here's the link to the reader sign-up:
The event begins July 4, 2023 and ends 8/4/23, and my book, A Peculiar Enchantment (no, not paranormal or fantasy, despite the cover), is one of them.
June 6, 2023
Another Excellent Regency Romance
An Unsuitable Heiress, a recent release by Jane Dunn,is very much in the Georgette Heyer tradition, with above-average writing, richdetail, vivid characters, and more depth than the standard cookie-cutter Regencyromance. There's also a lot more going on than in the usual historical romance.
I’m not going to describe the plot because you can get anidea of that from reading the blurb or a summary of the story in any other bookreview. I think anyone who loves Georgette Heyer’s historical rom...
April 23, 2023
An Excellent Traditional Romance in the Style of Georgette Heyer
The Country Gentleman by Dinah Dean received a rave review on a social media site which intrigued me enough that I bought it.
I’m a cranky critic and I’d give it six stars if book ratingswent that high. It’s that good.
What did I love about it?
This is a traditional Regency romance set in a village among gentry and common folk. No titles, no fabulous balls, and no sex. A Georgette Heyer or Jane Austen sort of novel, with some wit, deft characterization, and a smooth, clear style.
Excell...
February 11, 2023
Review: The Nightingale Girls: 5 stars
I bought the e-book of The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas because it was on sale for $0.99. A novel about nursing students in 1930s England sounded potentially interesting and sometimes I discover my new favorite author when I read a bargain book. This was one of those times. I finished that one and bought the next several. I’ve now read nine of the eleven in the series and the only reason I’m taking a breather is that I have stuff to do—like working on my own tenth novel.
The books in Ms. D...
February 4, 2023
Sex and the Single Georgian
2/4/2023
A Trusty Maid by George Hay, 1877Today I'm a guest on Rachel Brimble's blog, https://rachelbrimble.blogspot.com/2023/02/its-guest-author-saturday-please.html, discussing a subject near and dear to my heart: sex and the single Georgian. The painting above, although painted in the late 19th century, is a fair depiction of that staple of fiction, the maid who connives to help her mistress meet her beau.
And no, there's nothing in Sex and the Single Georgian to offend even your starchy grea...
January 18, 2023
A fun, heartwarming read
The first thing that caught my eye about The Real Me Because of You by M.J. Apple was the title. Very few novels have memorable names so I immediately gave Ms. Apple a point for creativity. Then I started to read and discovered a sympathetic first-person heroine and her believably unhelpful family. Toxic families in books are fun. Readers who never experienced toxic relatives can enjoy the horror and those who have suffered can enjoy the eventual triumph of the downtrodden. Then there’s the thi...
January 15, 2023
Introducing Victoria and Violet by Rachel Brimble
Today I'm hosting Rachel Brimble, author of twenty-nine novels, most recently, Victoria and Violet.
My latest book, Victoria & Violet, is the first novel in my brand-new Royal Maids series and I am super proud of it because it is the first book in which I have included real people and real events alongside the fictional. To do this has been an ambition of mine ever since my first book was published in 2007 so having achieved it feels like a very big deal.
Best of al...
December 14, 2022
Georgian Gingerbread
Winter is a good time to make gingerbread. The eighteenth century had two kinds: hard or “card” gingerbread, what we call a cookie (or biscuit in the U.K.), and a cake. I recently made the latter for our local Jane Austen group tea in celebration of Jane’s 247th birthday, using the recipe below. It makes our gingerbread look and taste anemic.
Mrs. MacIver’s recipe from Cookery and Pastry, published 1783 and 1789, is strongly flavored, moist and dense. I made half a batch because two and a half...
December 6, 2022
Georgian Cats
As some of my readers may have guessed from the cover of A Peculiar Enchantment, I am extremely fond of cats. When I began writing Adelaide’s story, making a cat her only friend and confidante was irresistible, and my favorite cat, Meret, served as the inspiration for Tabby. Meret, like Adelaide’s Tabby, sucks on my chin.
Most historical fiction set in the Georgian period concentrates on dogs and horses as the characters’ animal companions, giving the impression that cats were held in low est...
October 7, 2022
B��ESO DAH YIN��LJAA
Because I live in New Mexico and sometimes write about it,an article in the Albuquerque Journal in mid-August caught my eye.
B��ESO DAH YIN��LJAA
My accent marks are not quite right because I don���t have aNavajo keyboard and they���re not standard on the Alt code charts.
Here���s the translation: ���A Fistful of Dollars���, which hasbeen dubbed in Navajo through the efforts of the director of the Navajo NationMuseum, Manny Wheeler. This is one of the steps he���s taken to keep the lang...
