Last week I bought the Hero, Come Back anthology and devoured it almost in one gulp. All three stories – one each by Stephanie Laurens, Christina Dodd & someone new to me Elizabeth Doyle – were really good. The Doyle story was especially a pleasant surprise and I may talk about it in another blog one day.
Today, though, I want to comment specifically on my reactions to the Lauren’s short story – Lost and Found, the story of how Reggie Carmarthen who appeared in On A Wild Night links up with Anne Ashford from On A Wicked Dawn – because it made me realize just how much I look forward to Laurens appearances in anthologies. I’ve absolutely adored every one of her short stories I’ve run across.
One of them, Rose In Bloom in the Scottish Brides anthology, is on my list of all time favorite romances. Period. It is just such a perfect best friends/childhood nemesis romance in such a short package.
I was also quite impressed with Scandalous Lord Dere in the Secrets of a Perfect Night anthology. It was actually long enough to be a Regency Romance and I have to wonder if it started out that way.
Another one of hers that is simply pure fun is Melting Ice from the My Scandalous Bride anthology. Whew, it’s amazing how much heat she was able to generate in such a small number of pages.
As you can see, I spent some time after reading Hero, Come Back reading through the other Lauren’s short stories in my collection and something else occurred to me. I think a big reason why they all hit me so well is that the couples in all four of them start out already knowing each other, either closely or generally. I am truly a sucker for a really good best friends romance and they are so rare in historicals.
Sigh.
But, you know, one has to wonder why that is, too?