Hello, and welcome back! The house is quieter today than yesterday, thank goodness--having the bathroom redone is noisy work and not conducive to reading. All that remains now, though, is to paint, and that is a weekend job, so I can get back to my reading. I've only a few March releases left, but the April stack is towering now, and there are a couple really good April romances I can hardly wait to share with you.

In the meantime, I have two more March historicals for you, though this one isn't out quite yet: Susan Carroll's
Dark Queen (Ballantine). This is the first in a new series for her, with Ariane Cheney, Lady of the Faire Isle, set against Catherine de Medici. Ariane and her sisters are not ordinary women, nor are many of the women on the Faire Isle, but wise women, or witches, a dangerous thing to be in such times. This one is equal parts historical novel and paranormal romance. If you're looking for a nice, fat historical novel with some romance in it, it may be just what you're looking for. The release date is March 29, 2005. It's not a keeper for me--much of the conflict is between Ariane and Catherine, rather than Ariane and Justice--but I know a lot of people have been waiting impatiently to get their hands on a new Susan Carroll book for a long, long time.

The other historical I have this time out is an anthology of two reissues by Kay Hooper,
Lady Thief (Berkley). 'Lady Thief' was her very first book, and now it's back in print for those of you who may not have seen it twenty-five years ago. Jennifer Courtenay is The Cat, a thief in Regency London. Dominic Ware, Duke of Spencer, learns her secret, and wants to discover her reasons. Of course love follows. You can also find one of Ms. Hooper's older novellas here as well, 'Masquerade', with Cassandra Eden and Stone Westcott, the Earl of Sheffield, doing their own dance of love amid a winter storm.

Until next time, happy reading!