The paperback edition for Once Upon a Courtship is available at Barnes & Noble for a limited time! The paperback for our multi-author historical romance anthology is extra special with a design printed on the fore-edge pages, a design on the interior outer page edges, and a unique design for each novella’s chapter headers. (I did the interior formatting and design myself, so I’m rather proud of it.) Order your paperback here .

Today is release day for my Christian Historical Romance anthology, Once Upon a Courtship ! Get it today for only 99 cents! Price goes up next week! https://bit.ly/lissa-spy

I admit this isn’t a Regency romance, but if you like fantasy with your historical romance, you might like this series. It’s about a woman from modern day Japan who is reincarnated as a noblewoman in a fantasy world with magic and monsters. She’s sent into a “white marriage” that will be annulled in 2 years, but her intelligence and modern sensibilities cause her to make more of an impact on the king than he expected. Since he’s used to being on guard for poison, he has lost any pleasure in food, but her culinary delights bring him surprising enjoyment. Book 5 in the series came out a few weeks ago, but I decided to re-read the earlier books since it’s been a year since the last volume. It’s a sweet and fluffy read, and I thoroughly enjoy it. Since I Was Abandoned After Reincarnating, I Will Cook With My Fluffy Friends: The Figurehead Queen Is Strongest At Her Own Pace, Vol.1 Have you read anything good lately?

I just joined Sweet Romance Reads, a group of authors who all write sweet romances in a variety of sub-genres. I’m friends with several of the authors from my days writing for Harlequin/Love Inspired, so it’s nice to be able to join their group. If you’re on Facebook, this is their Facebook page , and this is their Facebook group . I posted my introductory post yesterday on the Sweet Romance Reads blog (Blogger), where I listed three strange things about me. Click here to read the post, and tell me three strange things about you!

I happened to read a review of Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 1: Archer , and the reader mentioned being confused because characters switched between using first names and last names. I didn’t comment on the review (it’s my policy never to do so), but I thought it might be useful for my readers for me to mention why I have some characters referring to certain others by their first names or last names or titles. When I was researching British titles, many published historical authors recommended this article , which is one of a series of very informative articles on how the British refer to those with titles. The article writer mentions that especially in the Georgian/Regency/Victorian time period in England, people did not refer to each other by their first names unless they were childhood friends or close family, and even close family would often refer to a peer by his title name (or a nickname of his title name) rather than his first name (i.e., “Hart” for Lord Hartley). It struc...

I had a lot of health issues for almost all of August and about half of September, and I’m still struggling with IBS. The only thing I could do to get my mind off the pain and nausea was to read, so I ended up reading a bunch of books on my TBR pile. I read a lot of really excellent books and thought I’d blog about them (since I wasn’t getting any work done while I was sick). Today I’m blogging about The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 1 (Light Novel) , the first book in a light novel series. I actually read the first book in this series a while ago, but the 3rd volume just came out and I pretty much devoured it. This has become one of my favorite series lately. It’s a novel series set in historical China, but since it’s a light novel series, it’s not the same tone as a typical English-language novel set in historical China. It’s actually rather light-hearted at times and with a kind of magical atmosphere to the story that sucks you in. Here’s the back cover description for book 1: ...

The Black Midnight (True Colors Book 7) Two Series of Murders Seem Mysteriously Connected Step into True Colors -- a series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime Could a series of murders in London in 1889 be related to unsolved murders in Austin, Texas, 1884? Queen Victoria wants to know and asks her granddaughter—who left the queen’s good graces by going off to America to become a Pinkerton agent—to quietly look for any connection. The catch is the queen doesn’t want her to do it alone. Alice Anne must find her former Pinkerton agent partner—now an attorney in Austin—and enlist him in the hunt. As the pair get closer to finding their suspect, their lives become endangered, but they refuse to be intimidated. Can this case be solved? Camy here: I have to admit upfront, I'm a huge fan of Kathleen Y'Barbo. There's something about her writing style that always completely engages me from the first page. This book was no different. She hooked me as soon...

A Portrait of Loyalty (The Codebreakers Book 3) Zivon Marin was one of Russia's top cryptographers, until the October Revolution tore apart his world. Forced to flee after speaking out against Lenin and separated from his brother along the way, he arrives in England driven by a growing anger and determined to offer his services to the Brits. Lily Blackwell sees the world best through the lens of a camera--and possesses unsurpassed skill when it comes to retouching and recreating photographs. With her father's connections in propaganda, she's recruited to the intelligence division, even though her mother would disapprove. After Captain Blackwell invites Zivon to dinner one evening, a friendship blooms between him and Lily. He sees patterns in what she deems chaos; she sees beauty in a world he thought destroyed. But both have secrets they're unwilling to share. When her photographs reveal that someone has been following Zivon, his loyalties are called into question...

The London Restoration In post-World War II London, determined to save their marriage and the city they love, two people divided by World War II's secrets rebuild their lives, their love, and their world. London, Fall 1945. Architectural historian Diana Somerville's experience as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park and her knowledge of London's churches intersect in MI6's pursuit of a Russian agent named Eternity. Diana wants nothing more than to begin again with her husband Brent after their separation during the war, but her signing of the Official Secrets Act keeps him at a distance. Brent Somerville, professor of theology at King's College, hopes aiding his wife with her church consultations will help him better understand why she disappeared when he needed her most. But he must find a way to reconcile his traumatic experiences as a stretcher bearer on the European front with her obvious lies about her wartime activities and whereabouts. Camy here: This wa...

Through Waters Deep (Waves of Freedom Book 1) This is surprisingly the first Sarah Sundin novel I’ve read, and I really enjoyed this! Why did I wait so long to read one of her books?! I didn’t realize before reading this that I really enjoy romance novels set in the 1930s and 1940s. It shouldn’t have surprised me since I love Grace Livingston Hill novels , and her books all took place during the time she wrote them, from around 1900 until the 1940s. This book was just like reading a Grace Livingston Hill novel! I especially liked the naval background of the hero and the parts at sea. I also liked the mystery aspect a lot—another aspect that was like a Grace Livingston Hill novel, since she wrote a few romantic suspenses. The romance developed very slowly and gently between the characters, and the romantic conflict was just so great! I was actually tense as I read to see how they would finally overcome and get together! The spiritual parts were done extremely well, making them...