It’s the New Year, and time for me to catch up on that backlog of book reviews, over the next couple of weeks (I hope!).  One post that has been sitting in my draft folder for the longest time, is that follow-up to the Great Western Drive spearheaded by Kristie, Sybil and Wendy some months back.

Well, I had the chance to read through several Western romances from different eras in the last couple of months: Diablo (1990s), The Scotsman Wore Spurs (1997) by Patricia Potter, and Never Love A Lawman by Jo Goodman (2009). Without further ado, here’s how they stack up in my books …

I have Kristie to thank for pointing me in the direction of Diablo. I’ve read other books by Patricia Potter but never touched any of her Western romances until the Great Western Drive. And since the UBS I visited carried The Scotsman Wore Spurs, I took that out on rental too.

A brief summary on Diablo … Kane o’Brien, a.k.a Diablo, was sentenced to death when a US marshal who wanted information on a secretive, and notorious outlaw hideout called Sanctuary, approached him with a deal.  Find out where it is, and he and his friend would be pardoned. However, nothing prepared him for temptation in the form of Nicole Thompson when he rode in to Sanctuary.

One of the key elements I look for in a romance novel is humour, and IMO, Georgette Heyer and Julia Quinn have got this down pat, and none quite so evident as in these two books I read recently.

When I first blogged about the reissue of Georgette Heyer books, False Colours intrigued me with its story arc – that of a twin, Kit Fancot, impersonating his brother, Evelyn, who has gone mysteriously missing, and on the eve of the dinner meeting with the prospective in-laws. What was supposed to be a one-night only ‘performance’ soon evolved into playing host to his brother’s intended, Cressy, and her grandmother at the family’s country estate, and Kit soon found himself drawn to the heroine.

Since picking up Somewhere I’ll Find You by Lisa Kleypas some ten years ago, I’ve never looked back.

Ms Kleypas has created many unforgettable, and unconventional characters who engage my emotions, strong heroes and heroines from vastly different worlds, who bravely embrace each other’s differences and go on to forge new beginnings, who seared my memory with their fierce passion and willingness to fight for and hold on to their love.

This month, I spent the weekends reading and rereading some of my favourite books of hers, and some that are new to me. Amongst her new works, I particularly enjoyed Smooth Talking Stranger, the follow-up to Blue-Eyed Devil , both contemporary romances written in first person from the heroine’s perspective.

Blue-Eyed Devil continues where Sugar Daddy left off, beginning with Liberty and Gage’s wedding, where Haven Travis, who’s in a relationship with someone her dad deem unsuitable, shared a brief, passionate interlude with Hardy Cates that left both of them shaken. Unfortunately, Haven was talked into eloping with her gold-digging boyfriend, but their marriage soon devolved into an abusive relationship until Haven finally made her escape after being severely beaten up.

It took me quite a while but I finally finished reading Jane Austen’s Emmajust before I flew off for that family vacation.

Emma Woodhouse may be witty and imaginative, but she’s spoilt and snobbish to a certain extent, and so wasn’t easy to warm up to. There were quite a number of occasions when I felt like smacking her on the head for being so blind, self-centred and impetuous. I was quite disappointed with her for deliberately hurting the garrulous Miss Bates who, although she really annoys with her endless chatter and appears quite without any opinions of her own, is quite a harmless but kind-hearted spinster, with barbed comments about Bates’ talkativeness in a display of wits. Emma redeemed herself in my eyes when she expressed regrets over that uncalled-for attack and tried to make amends for it.

It wasn’t easy trying to guess Emma’s heart too. She’s so busy trying to match her new-found friend, Harriet Smith, with the available local gentry that she hardly knew what was in her heart. She never stopped to examine her feelings for her dear Mr Knightley until Harriet professed her love and admiration for him. Only then did she realise that she had been in love with him for quite a while and that he was the only man she’d marry.