I'm Loving Reading…

…Harlequin's collection of Royal Wedding themed historical short stories! With one week to go to the Royal Wedding I am most definitely in the mood for romance and these stories are just fabulous. I love the idea of Royal Weddings down the ages and am really enjoying what these authors have done with the idea.

First up, chronologically speaking, is What the Duchess Wants by Terri Brisbin, telling the story of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Ever since I watched the BBC Series The Devil's Crown as a child (showing my age here!) I loved those passionate Plantagenets! Eleanor is a powerful woman and Henry a very virile man and one glance at Terri's story and you know they are going to burn up the sheets! Fabulous! Okay, so in real life their white hot love burned itself out and things turned rather nasty but the wonderful thing about fiction is that you don't have to think about the end of the affair when you are reading this, its breathtaking beginning.

Next we have Lionheart's Bride by Michelle Willingham. I loved this story! It reminded me of how as a teenager I had fallen in love with Richard the Lionheart when I read The Passionate Brood by Margaret Campbell Barnes. That book is still on my keeper shelf (and how happy was I that Richard's sister Joanna also grabbed herself a gorgeous knight!).  In Michelle's story, Richard is everything a knight and a warrior should be, strong, powerful and sexy as hell. When I was older I studied the Plantagenets and was devastated to read the rumours that Richard was gay, that he bled his country dry to fund his crusades and that he never really liked England much anyway. Happily Michelle's story took me away from all that with the Richard that I associate with romance and the Robin Hood legends. A true hero. Plus there is the addition of another romance for Princess Berengaria's spirited lady-in-waiting Adriana with a gorgeous Irishman. What more could you ask?

Skipping a few centuries, we come to Prince Charming in Disguise by Bronwyn Scott, featuring the future George II and Caroline of Anspach. I thought this was an interesting choice of couple – I"m getting into the Hanoverians these days and think they've been unfairly eclipsed by their dashing Stuart predecessors! I adored the set up for the story and the fact that George wanted to woo his future bride in person and so disguised himself as a lowly nobleman to do so. Caroline was a lovely character (that's her picture on the left) and I was intrigued by the way that their courtship developed with Caroline falling for wickedly Gorgeous George!

I have to confess that when confronted by A Princely Dilemma, Elizabeth Rolls' story set around the marriage of the future Prince Regent and Caroline of Brunswick in 1795, I wondered how on earth she was going to make this work given the fact that the couple couldn't stand each other from the first and later came to enact a tragic farce that had more than few echoes in a more recent royal marriage! However, I shouldn't have worried – the story instead focussed on an arranged marriage between Christopher, Duke of Severn and his wife Linnet. Both Kester and Linnet were adorable characters who had me rooting for their happiness, the story was wonderful and the love scenes were hot! This was one fantastic read!

Princess Charlotte's Choice by Ann Lethbridge was another great story built around the marriage of George IV's daughter (yes, George and Caroline did actually manage to produce a child despite their mutual aversion!) to Prince Leopold in 1816. I've always thought it a terrible tragedy that Charlotte died so young as she and Leopold seemed genuinely fond of one another. In Ann's story the Royal couple are cute and engaging but the really intense romance is between one of Charlotte's ladies and one of Leopold's gentlemen. With a hero who was tall, dark, handsome, and dangerous to know this was another winner for me.

So now I have two books left on my e-pile, firstly The Problem with Josephine, by Lucy Ashford, set in 1810 around the marriage of  Napoleon to Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria. This is another fascinating choice of background and the story sounds very intriguing. Then, when I have treated myself to that, I will finish on With Victoria's Blessing by Mary Nichols, set at the time of the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1840.

The Royal Wedding collection is available in e-book from both Harlequin and Mills & Boon and I feel so inspired by the stories that I'm imagining all kinds of Royal Wedding themed stories down the centuries! In fact I wish I had written one myself – the secret marriage of Elizabeth of Bohemia to William Craven, perhaps?

What I have done this week is finish the manuscript of my book Desired, which now needs a lot of polishing before I send it in. But it's done and it's there to work on and I love it (especially my hero – Owen Purchase is a real sweetheart under his piratical exterior!)  But for now I'm taking a day off and it's back to my treat reading! What are you reading at the moment ?

©2011 Nicola Cornick. All Rights Reserved.

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