Elizabeth Thornton has been a hit-and-miss author for me, with the misses probably exceeding the hits.  But this book is definitely a hit.

Mrs. Jo Chesney is a widow who has taken over her late husband's weekly newspaper and turned it into a going concern. A popular column in the weekly is "Lady Tellall's" society gossip column. When the book opens, Chloe, who is "Lady Tellall", appears to be in a very dangerous situation, apparently due to something she wrote in the column. She manages to write a cryptic note to Jo before she disappears and a few weeks later is feared to be murdered. The story is about Jo's search for Chloe. Jo is aided in the search, almost against her wishes, by a society gentleman, Mr. Waldo Bowman, whom she met when he invaded her office because he, too, was upset about something that was written about him in Lady Tellall's column. Waldo, of course, becomes smitten with Jo and can't keep away from her, while she takes a good while coming around to admitting her feelings for him after the initial bad impression she had of him. There is also a child in the story, an orphan of uncertain parentage who has to be rescued from a brutal school headmaster. Waldo's care of the boy goes a long way toward redeeming him in Jo's eyes.

The mystery is good, the characters are sympathetic and well-drawn, the story has a strong historical feel, and even though Jo is characterized as being hot-tempered, she is definitely not TSTL (which I've found too often with the heroines of Elizabeth Thornton's books). Waldo is an alpha hero, but a very nice one.  I can certainly recommend this one to lovers of Regency romance with a bit of mystery on the side.

Sister Martha is living in a convent where she is a postulant. Her Mother Superior thinks Sister Martha is one of the hardest working nuns she has ever met but there is a small complication of Sister Martha having no idea of who she is or where she came from. Then one night Sister Martha gets an image of someone planning a murder and this one event seems to set off a series of dominos. Soon after this vision Sister Martha finds out she is not so perfect, shortly after that a patient in the clinic recognizes Sister Martha as Jessica Hayward. Now Jessica is off to learn about her past, but what she learns is a man she used to love may or may not love her, the murder of her father no one wants to unearth and Jessica is not universally loved. In short life is tough for Jessica.

This book was odd. It kind of reminded me of an Alfred Hitchcock story with the suspense and the voices in her head. In this regard I loved the story. It was different than things I had read before and I like how events in the story kept me guessing. The romance however left a lot to be desired I could not quite feel them out. For two people to love each other so much it felt a little forced. For a Regency period book it seemed out of place – they talk about the battle of Waterloo so that is early 1800’s and honestly it had not been for that little tidbit I would have thought the book took place after WWI. Then there were a lot of little things that did not quite make sense. For example the convent was described as one working with children so why is there an adult patient? Then our hero loves this woman but yet he never believes what she says and when he does there is really no reason for the 180.

In the end I liked the book and I thought it was good – sad part is with a few additional details I think this book would have been fantastic.  

Newspapers were mircles of information, photograpy, writing and cheap paper. As the Web reforms that delivery system of these amazing publication, lets have some fun reliving when News Print of King though Historical Romance.

Please enjoy these wonderful Histoical Romance Novels with Newspapers, Broadsheets, Gazettes, Weeklies at the center of the love story. 

My lists are never in any particular order. 

1. Jewel by Beverly Jenkins

A proposal she had no choice but to accept . . . 

Though Eli Grayson is one of the most handsome, charming, and intelligent men in Grayson Grove, no one will take a chance on a confirmed bachelor. Unwilling to give up his dreams, Eli convinces his friend Jewel to pose as his wife. Their masquerade is to last just one night . . . but when word gets out, Eli and Jewel must tie the knot to save his career—and her reputation.

Became a love she never expected . . . 

Angry at being forced to turn her life upside down, Jewel never imagined that a white-hot passion would consume her once she and Eli became husband and wife. Sharing a bed has turned their prim friendship into a sensuous love affair . . . but when a woman from Eli's past returns to stir up trouble, he and Jewel will learn just how far they'll go to protect the precious gem of their newfound passion.

2. Wild Heather by Millie Criswell

Heather Martin moves to San Francisco to become a newspaper illustrator, but this is considered ""man's work"" in the 1830s so Heather finds work as a nanny for an arrogant newspaper owner she despises--until passion takes over.

3. Heart of Honor by Kat Martin

Krista Hart, publisher of the weekly London ladies' gazette Heart to Heart, is not afraid to speak her mind. Even on such unpopular issues as social reform—risking her reputation and her very safety—Krista will not be intimidated, although she knows full well she is the target of angry opposition for her outspoken views.

When she encounters a powerful Viking descendant imprisoned as a local sideshow attraction, Krista angrily demands his release. Although she tells herself that freeing Leif Draugr is simply the right thing to do, she can't deny being attracted to the fierce Nordic chieftain, especially after her father transforms him into a "proper" English gentleman.

But as anonymous threats against Krista become more and more aggressive, it is Leif who must face the unseen enemies desperate to silence her, even as they push her closer into the embrace of a warrior prepared to do whatever it takes to make her his.

4. The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan

An idealistic suffragette... 

Miss Frederica "Free" Marshall has put her heart and soul into her newspaper, known for its outspoken support of women's rights. Naturally, her enemies are intent on destroying her business and silencing her for good. Free refuses to be at the end of her rope...but she needs more rope, and she needs it now. 

...a jaded scoundrel... 

Edward Clark's aristocratic family abandoned him to die in a war-torn land, so he survived the only way he could: by becoming a rogue and a first-class forger. When the same family that left him for dead vows to ruin Miss Marshall, he offers his help. So what if he has to lie to her? She's only a pawn to use in his revenge. 

...and a scandal seven years in the making. 

But the irrepressible Miss Marshall soon enchants Edward. By the time he realizes that his cynical heart is hers, it's too late. The only way to thwart her enemies is to reveal his scandalous past...and once the woman he loves realizes how much he's lied to her, he'll lose her forever.

5. Lord Gray's List by Maggie Robinson

From duchesses to chamber maids, everybody's reading it. Each Tuesday, The London List appears, filled with gossip and scandal, offering job postings and matches for the lovelorn--and most enticing of all, telling the tales and selling the wares a more modest publication wouldn't touch. . .

The creation of Evangeline Ramsey, The London List saved her and her ailing father from destitution. But the paper has given Evie more than financial relief. As its publisher, she lives as a man, dressed in masculine garb, free to pursue and report whatever she likes--especially the latest disgraces besmirching Lord Benton Gray. It's only fair that she hang his dirty laundry, given that it was his youthful ardor that put her off marriage for good. . .

Lord Gray--Ben--isn't about to stand by while all of London laughs at his peccadilloes week after week. But once he discovers that the publisher is none other than pretty Evie Ramsey with her curls lopped short, his worries turn to desires--and not a one of them fit to print.

6. Words Spoken True by Ann H. Gabhart

Adriane Darcy was practically raised in her father's newspaper offices. With ink in her veins, she can't imagine life without the clatter of the press and the push to be first to write the news that matters. Their Tribune is the leading paper in Louisville in 1855. 

When Blake Garrett, a brash young editor from the North with a controversial new style of reporting, takes over a competing newspaper, the battle for readers gets fierce. After Adriane and Blake meet at a benefit, their surprising mutual attraction is hard to ignore. Still, Blake is the enemy, and Adriane is engaged to the son of a powerful businessman who holds the keys to the Tribune's future. Blake will stop at almost nothing to get the story--and the girl.

7. The Commander by Kate Bridges

Julia O'Shea is fast reaching the limit of her patience — she's exhausted by running the biggest newspaper in Calgary and caring for her young son alone. Her pragmatic solution? To advertize for a husband.

But her plans go out the window when Ryan Reid — the man who loved and left her ten years ago — comes back to town. Julia can't hide her attraction to the bad-boy-turned-surgeon, especially when he swears he's reformed. And Ryan is determined to be the answer to her prayers...

8. The Marrying Kind by Sharon Ihle

Liberty Ann Justice runs her family’s newspaper in Laramie, Wyoming Territory, with all the fire of a born and bred journalist. When a handsome, silver-tongued stranger named Donovan comes to town, Libby mistakes him for her employer’s son—the man trying to shut her down—and hates him on sight.

Not trusting Donovan any more than a low-down snake, Libby must fight the battle for the life of her paper, and heads to San Francisco.

Donovan insists on escorting her. But Libby has no use for the man, despite the way her heart pounds at his touch. 

9. Love Letter to the Editor by Robin Lee Hatcher

t's 1885 and five preachers sit around a campfire out West, trading stories of unlikely couples they've seen God bring together. This is one of those stories . . .

She's the best writer the paper has ever had. He's her new editor. And she doesn't like it one bit.

Molly Everton is the outspoken daughter of the town's newspaper publisher. She had the best education her father's money could buy and she's a better writer than he is. So when her father passes her over for the position of editor and gives the job to an outsider from back East, she's furious. But a smart girl like Molly knows she can drive the new guy out of town with little trouble if she plays her cards right . . .

Jack Ludlow came out West for adventure and wide open spaces, not romance. And he's not intimidated by the beautiful daughter of his new employer. At first he's just trying to prove to her he is the right man for the job—but before long he's set on stealing her heart.

10. Shady Lady by Elizabeth Thornton

As the Avon Journal’s no-nonsense publisher, Jolie Chesney always sticks to the facts. And the fact is that she finds the celebrated war hero who comes to her office angrily demanding a retraction unsettlingly charismatic. Waldo Bowman’s wild sexual exploits have found their way into the paper’s gossip column, and Jo has no intention of compromising her standards, journalistic or otherwise. But when her star reporter suspiciously vanishes, Jo seeks help from this dangerously sensual man, whose connection to the Special Branch may save her friend’s life, even if it means putting her own life—and heart—on the line.

Waldo Bowman senses danger in his instant attraction to Jo. Beautiful and independent, she is unlike any woman he knows—and he’s determined not to lose her, whatever the risk. For soon, these reluctant lovers will embark on a mystery that will either change their lives—or end them.

Did I miss your favorite Newspaper in Historical Romance? Let me know! 

Vote for the best of the best on my Goodreas list: Broadsheet: Newspapers in Historical Romance. 

For three years she’s been a mystery even to herself—a young woman who awoke in a London convent bereft of her memory. But now Jessica Hayword knows her name, her birthplace, and one other thing: By some terrifying twist of fate, she has the power to read another’s thoughts—the thoughts of a man who has killed and will kill again.

Convinced that she must unmask the murderer before it’s too late, Jessica goes home to Hawkshill Manor—and discovers that no one is happy about her return, especially the dangerously handsome earl Lucas Wilde. What kind of girl was she, Jessica wonders, to have earned such scorn? And whose murder is it that continues to haunt her? The deeper Jessica digs, the more scandalous details are revealed. Yet even as the clues point to Lucas as the killer, Jessica can’t keep herself away from his embrace. And now all she can do is pray that the man she’s falling in love with isn’t the man whose deadly voice she hears in her dreams.

It isn't often that I've pitched a book against a wall in frustration, disgust, and/or horror but Fallen Angel by Elizabeth Thornton holds that distinction.

First of all, Jason Verney, Viscount Deveryn, abhors"clever" women. He's already ditched one paramour, Mollie Drake, because she had the temerity to cap "one of the viscount's quotations from Shakespeare." Well, how dare she have a brain and use it!

There's his nickname: Fallen Angel. Apparently he has the appearance of one with his "flyaway hair the colour of new minted gold guineas, eyes like aquamarines, or was it sapphires?", his "gold-tipped lashes that fanned those wide-set enigmatic eyes with heart-stopping effect, and finely sculpted bones which gave him the look of an English thoroughbred." But it's his mouth that has all the ladies' hearts and parts fluttering with "full generous lips" and a slow smile guaranteed to "melt the ice in the coldest feminine heart." Puh-lease!

Jason had an affair with Cynthia Sinclair and now wants to end it. So he takes Dolly Ramides, an opera dancer, for a ride in Hyde Park as a message to all the gossips and to the lady herself that it's over. Cynthia, you see, wife of Donald Sinclair and stepmother of Madeleina "Maddie" Sinclair, is becoming a nuisance and though he's not particularly bothered by sleeping with a married woman, he's pissed off that she misled him into believing she and her husband went their separate ways. Splitting hairs much?

Deveryn claims to have fallen in love at first sight with Maddie. Without knowing her name. Without knowing why she calls him "Malcolm" as they engage in a lip lock. Without knowing one single solitary thing about her. Is she married? Engaged? Is she underage? Dying of some dread disease? None of this matters except this one thing: he must put his tongue in her mouth.

Maddie is supposedly a smart woman, a "bluestocking", working on a translation of Euripedes' Medea, and yet I didn't see one iota of that vaunted intelligence in her dealings with Deveryn. So she gives a talk in London on the powerlessness of women, gives a set down to complacent males whose worlds revolve around begetting of heirs, but not once did she exercise her brain to find out more about marriage by declaration or investigate her father's debts or death. She just lets herself be swept along by the whims of dear old dad, by Deveryn, and by her grandfather. Where's the intelligence in that?

Maddie and Deveryn's first encounter was laughable and, frankly, incredible. She goes out in a snow storm, searching for Malcolm, her friend and the minister's son, sees a "halo" of fair hair by the parish gates, leaps off Banshee (her horse), throws herself into "Malcolm's" arms and begs him to kiss her. Really!? She never once suspects she's locked in a passionate embrace with a stranger. Of course, it's NOT Malcolm, you idiot!

Or how about Maddie's incomprehensible, muddled feelings for Jason? She loves him. Wait, no! She hates him! Yes, that's it. Or maybe she loves him a little but she really doesn't like him. That's close to the truth. No, no, she hates him again. Let me settle it for you, Maddie. I hate him. I don't like him, I don't love him, I can't find one single solitary thing to redeem his asshole-ness.

Their first sexual encounter is nothing more than rape IMHO. Maddie has stupidly gone off alone, looking for her dog, tumbled off Banshee into a swollen freezing ford, found shelter in a deserted bothy, and promptly fallen asleep only to awaken to an irate Jason. Jason, enraged that she disobeyed him (yes, disobeyed!) and suspicious that Maddie had crept off to tryst with Malcolm, finds her, calls her a "slut", tells her she can forget his offer of marriage, and strips naked. Maddie plays sultry seductress to lure Jason closer while fielding an empty bottle to cosh him over the head and runs to mount Banshee. Jason whistles for his mount who blocks the path, circles Maddie and her mount like a sheep dog herding sheep, cutting off escape. Of course, Jason grabs her, carries her back to the bothy, dumps her on the floor, and calls forth that age old endearment so many cave men had muttered when meeting resistance from cave women - "bitch".

"There was never any doubt in her mind that his motive was punitive. There was nothing of the tender lover who had seduced her to willingness in the darkened nave of the church. His lips burned, his hands bruised, and he used his body like a weapon to subdue her. (...)

Her puny strength was no match against his. His weight was smothering,permitting her little movement. But what little was left to her, she used to convey her utter contempt for the hurt he was inflicting." (P. 125)

But wait, there's more. As some of his anger abates, she notes a softening of his lips, the relaxation of his muscles, the gentling of his hands. She commands him to let her go. He does not.

Now he's angry again that she is still resisting him when, as he believes, she didn't resist Malcolm. He magnanimously decides he'll "get over" that she's an experienced woman in time. (Isn't he a prince?) He's angry that she's "enslaved" him and vows:

"By God, when he had finished with her, he'd make her his slave!" (P. 125)

Isn't this romantic? It's no wonder he's got such a rep with the ladies.

"He threw himself on top of her before she had a chance to escape him. His mouth closed over hers with restrained savagery, persuasive, pleasuring, unyielding. When she tried to drag her head away to evade the scorching heat of that embrace, his hand grasped her chin, opening her mouth wider, and his tongue forced its way between her teeth to penetrate to the sweet moistness within. That one wanton act of possession had an electrifying effect on him. Deveryn lost control." (P. 126)

When she tries to stop him removing her chemise and cannot, Maddie acknowledges she was mistaken in crediting him with a few redeeming qualities, like any tender emotions for her. Deveryn strips her, and he continues even though he feels her trembling in fear, attempting to cover herself. Despite his doubts about her experience, he forges ahead. Maddie tells him no, flings his hand away. He grasps her wrists.

"'Love,' he said softly, 'forgive me. This will hurt. But only the first time. I'll never hurt you again. I swear it.'

The reassuring words were at first unintelligible to Maddie. A moment later, she grasped the full import of their significance. There had never been any doubt in his mind of her innocence. He had used her friendship with Malcolm as a convenient excuse to wreak his will on her." (P. 128)

When she tells him defiantly that he's not her first, Devryn rapes her. She scratches and claws him without effect. He then tries futilely to "coax her to passion again", but she is unresponsive. (Gee, I wonder why?) Afterward, he isn't remorseful: "How could you do this to me?" are the first words he utters. While Maddie did want him to hurt her as "an antidote to passion", she rightly calls him on what he's done. He's unapologetic, blames his jealousy, her alleged betrayal, blames her.

"I've never had a moment's peace since you forced yourself into my life. You've robbed me of my desire for other women; made me dissatisfied with my lot, (...)you've made me act contrary to my own principles. What more can you do to me?" (P. 130)

Later, many days later, Jason recalls the events in the bothy, and makes an astoundingly appalling assertion:

"The word rape flashed into his mind. He vigorously suppressed it, substituting the far more tolerable seduction. (...) Never, he promised himself, never would he ever again subject her to a side of his nature that made him a stranger to himself." (P. 165)

And there's the consummation scene between Maddie and Deveryn. Jason orders Maddie to "open her legs", but she tightens them against him. He tells her they must consummate their marriage, "male fashion", that she must "close [her] eyes and think of . . . Scotland." A few caresses and Jason is "done with gentling her."

The rest of Fallen Angel isn't any better. There are many more scenes of so-called "seduction" with Maddie offering token resistance and then giving in to "passion." There's a weird dialogue Maddie's and Jason's eyes hold while she gives her powerlessness of women speech. Somehow he has divined just by looking at her that she's pregnant:

"Then Devryn blazed with sudden, heart-stopping comprehension. Is it true? his eyes hotly demanded.

He saw her poise as if to take flight (...)

Her eyes blazed a reply. Yes, it's true." (P. 333)

Weird, don't you think?

At any rate, Fallen Angel was a complete, utter failure for me. There is usually something I can find to highlight as a redemptive quality in most books that don't quite work for me, but not this time.