Carla Kelly is one of my favorite authors and I have read nearly all of her books. “Borrowed Light” is a historical fiction novel that takes place about 1910, centering in Salt Lake City and the wilds of Wyoming. The main character, Boston Fanny Farmer Cooking School grad Julia Darling, decides ...
I have only just finished this book, and already want to read it again. If that isn't an indication of a five-star book, I don't know what is.Oh, it has it's issues. The cover, for one - Sally is a brunette, Charles is grey-haired, and has a HOOK for a hand (one edition shows a black-haired, tw...
A modern story wearing a regency costume. The characters spoke and thought in modern phrases. Kelly spent some time unsuccessfully trying to communicate Sally's modesty and abhorrence to lewd paintings and statutes, but all I'm convinced of is the author's preoccupation with sex and pornography. ...
A chapter or two into this book and I want to meet the two lead characters. Carla Kelly has become one of my favorite historical authors because she tells a good story, charming characters you’d love to meet, situations that go beyond the foibles of the ton, and a writing style that’s both fluid...
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. From a writing perspective there were some points that could have been smoother, but I was easily able to overlook these as I read late into the night. I do give Carla Kelly props for writing a truly entertaining love story that was clean and engaging. Beyond the l...
It’s not the kind of book I would say “you have to read.” But it’s nice.It’s what I expect from Harlequin. Nothing really special or unusual, but ok. I was pleased there were no contrived conflicts or stupidity.A captain falls in love with a woman while he waits for his ship to be repaired. S...
As historical romances go, this one had a fairly detailed and intriguing plotline. However, I struggled with the romance between the heroine (age 16) and the hero (age 28). He was certainly written as a 28 yr. old but her words/actions jumped up and down in age, at one moment completely 16 and ac...
I thought this book had a writing style of keeping you guessing what had happened in the past, until I realized it was a sequel and I hadn't read the first book. Whoops. Interesting story of Mormons in Wyoming dealing with prejudice. The main reason I only gave this book 2 stars was because it...
Carla Kelly's "Summer Campaign" Wonderful book. The story is about a girl who is a foundling and taken in (with her twin brother) by the vicar of the church where the babies were deposited. The vicar marries soon after taking in the 2 babies, but then he dies and his widow remarries, so the two ...
Ok I have a few books by Carla Kelly, 8 to be exact. This book however was just ok. I am an adult and when I read a romance I want an author to write for an adult. It seems to me that Ms. Kelly wrote Her Hesitant Heart for a 15 year old and not a woman with over 30 years of romance readings.I fou...
Captain Jesse Randall's marriage to the beautiful Nell is purely for her safety. Or, so the captain wants his bride to think, even though both man and wife have deep affection for each other. But what does one do when he's already married?
The Rake's Progress Emma Costello owed a debt of honor to one of the most dishonorable lords in the realm. The infamous Lord Ragsdale was as rich as sin, as sinful as he was rich, and as heartless as he was handsome. But he had saved Emma from a fate worse than death when he stopped a lecherous ...
Major Disaster... It was clear to Lydia Perkins from the first that she was courting scandal when she became involved with Major Samuel Reed. This outrageously impudent officer kept deplorable company in dismal surroundings beyond the boundaries of polite society. Even worse, he was shamelessl...
Miss Susan Hampton was a lady born and bred. She never imagined she would have to make her own way in the world. But that was before her feckless father gamed away the family estate. That was before her odious aunt turned her into an unpaid servant. Now Susan had fled that tyranny- only to wonder...
Playing with Fire — Young widow Roxanna Drew was fair game in the sport of cads. Her suddenly impoverished state made her as vulnerable as her beauty made her tempting to men with more money than morals. Lord Marshall Whitcomb, who held her purse strings in his pawing hands, was intent on luring ...
Beautiful Miss Libby Ames knew little about the man who landed unexpectedly at her country manor. Only that he called himself Mr. Nesbitt Duke, a London merchant. And after one look at Libby, he claimed he’d fallen in love. But it was soon clear that this handsome stranger was not being entirely ...
School For Scandal Beautiful and brilliant Miss Ellen Grimsley considered it a scandal and a shame that she as a female could not attend Oxford, while a dashing dunderhead like her older brother Gordon could. On the other hand, society would reel in a scandalized shock at the idea of Ellen donni...
When lovely young Omega Chartley was left at the altar by the man she loved, her life turned from a dream into a nightmare. Penniless, she had to find employment far below her station. Heartbroken, she could not think of ever trusting love again.When she again met Matthew Bering, the man who had ...
Lowe, who, when he arrived, took one look at Cecil, by now in bed and truly pale, and ordered total bed rest and complete quiet. “I suggest a change of scenery for Andrew during the holidays, Lady Carruthers,” he told her in all seriousness. “Cecil must have total silence,...
They decided that his firm knee in her back would anchor her to the pot, and she had no objection when he lathered her hair, and rinsed it using a small pitcher.The entire operation involved another pot and pitcher, which led him to comment that between pots and pitchers, women were a great lot o...
Lily said as she sat on the doorstep after school with the Indian, who had returned from adding more nails to roofs, his orders from Jack Sinclair before he rode off the place. “Month by month instead of year by year is perfect.” “Chantal is only six,” Pierre said. “Think how small would be her w...
Clutching the sheet around her, she raised up on one elbow, looking for the pitiful thing, before deciding it must have crawled away in shame. I am in a harem, she thought, and couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled inside her, despite the gravity of the situation that had caused it. She folded ...
“I would be charmed, Mrs. McVinnie,” he said as he led her onto the floor. He clasped her firmly in his arms and whirled her into the dance pattern. White and stricken to silence, Jeannie could only be grateful that her partner was such an excellent leader and that he was taking her farther and f...
After a restless night, she woke to the clang of the jetty bell. Instantly alert, she hurried into her clothes, calling to Pierre to prepare more porridge than usual.She ran to the jetty, almost dreading the sight of so many jolly boats. So many mother’s sons, she thought, as she plunged into the...
Aintree’s arm in a sling, Douglas carried the little lady across the street as a host of villagers watched and offered advice, something he was beginning to recognize as the Scottish way. The kitchen was full of food, reminding him how hungry he was. Brighid Dougall presided over the already weig...
This was going to be one of them. Carrying his bowl of flan, he ushered Lorenzo and Claudio into his office. He had moved from his office by the horse barn when it became obvious that Toshua needed a place for Eckapeta to stay when she visited, and Paloma needed his help, with her infant cousin a...
She moved her foot and he removed his hand, murmuring ‘Sorry.’ ‘Poor man,’ she told him gently, even as her heart hammered against her ribcage. ‘You’re missing your late wife. Do I remind you of her?’ ‘Not at all and that’s the funny part,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Elaine was calm and peaceful...
Mary McIntyre smiled, and added another entry to her growing list of what was going to make the single life so comfortable. “I told you less than fifteen minutes ago that the snow is slowing our progress.” Mary glanced at Agatha Shepard, her seat co...
Nathan’s words seem to pummel him from a great distance. He touched his eyes with tentative fingers, certain they were bulging from their sockets. He resolved right then to never touch spirits again, especially since he thought his son had shouted that Mary had given them the slip. &n...
I know some people do, for aesthetic reasons, though I don’t really see the point. Either way these mushrooms are tender, sour, and sweet with a hint of barbecue smokiness. The sauce is almost over-poweringly flavorful, so be careful when serving. It does make a great dipping sauce, so the best t...
They rode through stout gates just as the light faded entirely. So long facing into the wind, Anthony’s horse—Paloma’s, actually—perked up, and with dainty, mincing steps took him directly into a horse barn. The earthy odors and sudden protection from the wind relieved his heart, or at least what...
Lucinda Danforth announced as she flopped into the chair in her father’s bookroom, a place Papa avoided at all costs. She knew better than to flutter about with die-away airs for her cousin from the quieter Bledsoe side of the family tree. “Not at all well.” “Nonsense, Lucy,” Miles Bledsoe said, ...