Jo, my Bandita friend! Lovely to see you here. I love dialogue that has a whole world of feeling running underneath it too while still being ‘dialogue’, if you know what I mean. LC is a master at that and it adds such richness to the story.

Maria, I love an opposites attract story too. Although these two aren’t exactly opposites, they’re soul mates right from the start. You get that feeling that they both get a fantastic joke that the rest of the world has just missed out on. And that’s what makes you cheer for them when they get together. Life has dealt both of them really difficult hands and they’ve reacted with courage and style! Fantastic stuff.

Hey, Maria, you KNOW you’re automatically on the list when Sven’s shaking his tail feather mixing up his cocktails. And ain’t that the greatest sight south of Stockholm?

Andrea, I suspect you’ll really like Nora too – I particularly love the Chesapeake Quartet. See if you can get the first one of those about Cam. Sigh.

Gannon, I’d love to know what you think of YWS. I think it’s a really clever, witty book! Hey, I think we might need to book a bigger room for this cocktail party. It’s getting mighty crowded in here!

Ooh, MK, that puts me on the spot. This book does have a touch of Lord of Scoundrels about it, certainly. The hero’s half Italian and definitely has a little of Dain’s darkness. I’m not quite sure the emotional arcs of the two characters touched my heart in quite the way LOS does – but honestly, that’s like saying something isn’t quite as good as the best chocolate you ever ate. And how the emotional core of a story touches you really is a personal thing, I find. A book of Loretta’s this did remind me of, perhaps more than LOS, is Captives of the Night which starts in Venice although it quickly moves to London. Glad Michelle is another fan of Your Scandalous Ways!

Virgo! Rascally charm? What a fantastic description. Actually one of the things I love about Loretta’s books is that she doesn’t hit the reader over the head with ‘YOU WILL THINK THIS NOW!’ It’s part of that sly humor I was talking about. I too have met people who accept Rupert at face value as thick as two bricks. Uh-huh, I think, knowing they’ve missed the most delicious joke. By the way, Sven is mixing your cocktail as we speak!

Buffie, so glad you enjoyed the review! I agree about Loretta standing the test of time. I often re-read her earlier trad Regencies. Have you read Knaves’ Wager or The Sandalwood Princess – they haven’t dated at all, IMHO.

I love that subtext that goes on between the protagonists. The whole idea of attraction that they know is BAD and won’t work, but it’s still there and they have to deal with it. And because we’re romance readers, we KNOW their assumption that it won’t/can’t work is all wrong. They’ll end up together and give us our HEA.

Wonderful review, Anna! I’ll dash out ASAP and get LC’s newest.

Andrea —- don’t wait – go ahead and pick up a LC book, and while you’re at it, check out Nora… I think you’ll find you’ve added two new authors to your TBR pile.