Winds of the Storm by Beverly Jenkins
This was a recommendation from this group. Yay!
I had wanted to read a historical romance with characters of color where everybody wasn't mysteriously a bastard child of a dead lord with no heir or something. I enjoyed this book, set in the aftermath of the Civil War, about a successful New Orleans businessman and his love the spy. I thought the setting of her cover as a brothel madam was really fun. But, I was annoyed by the setup that nobody liked Zarah and judged her harshly until they found out she wasn't REALLY a madam and then they thought she was great. That was a little frustrating to me.
I did enjoy the book and the level of historical detail was clearly researched quite carefully.
As another note the trend of romance novels by authors of color containing only consensual encounters between the hero and heroine still seems to hold true. More of these are in my post-project future! The "pushy" hero has always been my least favorite thing about romance novels.
I had wanted to read a historical romance with characters of color where everybody wasn't mysteriously a bastard child of a dead lord with no heir or something. I enjoyed this book, set in the aftermath of the Civil War, about a successful New Orleans businessman and his love the spy. I thought the setting of her cover as a brothel madam was really fun. But, I was annoyed by the setup that nobody liked Zarah and judged her harshly until they found out she wasn't REALLY a madam and then they thought she was great. That was a little frustrating to me.
I did enjoy the book and the level of historical detail was clearly researched quite carefully.
As another note the trend of romance novels by authors of color containing only consensual encounters between the hero and heroine still seems to hold true. More of these are in my post-project future! The "pushy" hero has always been my least favorite thing about romance novels.