Katie Macalister - The Corset Diaries

Pros: Witty main character, fun Regency/Reality TV theme, steamy love scenes

Cons: None

The Bottom Line: If you love reading Victorian romances, The Corset Diaries mixes that with a bit of reality on the side.

Review: We all work to pay the bills. But Tessa Riordan plans to fly to England, work for a month, cash in, and pay off all her debts. How? She's going to be the duchess on a new reality TV show called A Month in the Life of a Victorian Duke. Sounds ...

Pros: Funny, a bit silly, romance about modern people playing at being Victorians.

Cons: A subplot that really doesn't work very well, and a rather weird ending.

The Bottom Line: A novel that doesn't mind poking fun at itself, a heroine in her late thirties, and a very handsome man make for a lighthearted read.

Review: On the most part, I tend to avoid contemporary romances, for reasons that I am still trying to figure out. Perhaps it's the fact that it's such a familiar world, or that there's such little romance in our world besides the instant. But Katie MacAlister's ...