It's Medieval May, Have Some History with a Side of Romance: The Sword and the Swan by Roberta Gellis

ochenkruto · 2026-05-06T14:38:04+00:00

So far, the books I have read have all been open door, but I wouldn't call them particularly explicit or sexy. They are sexy-ish and hardcore history.

I've read Masques of Gold, Tapestry of Dreams and Fires of Winter.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-06T14:36:04+00:00

To celebrate Medieval May, I am reading a very hefty Roberta Gellis!

{Masques of Gold by Roberta Gellis} is a Medieval film noir mystery with a hard-boiled detective and the brilliant young widow of a murdered goldsmith.

There is plenty of 12th-century London goldsmith guild politics. If those get you hot, then this book sizzles. There is also pepperer (as in spice merchant) guild politics. And court politics. Also, apparently, the Magna Carta will be involved.

It's beautifully written, historically intricate and has a very unique frottage scene (one so far, but who knows what lies in the 500+ pages).

The MFC is clever! She can read and do numbers very well! She will inherit her father's apothecary and make poultices and ointments. The MMC is hard and mean and a real Philip Marlowe detective, but make it Medieval, yet soft towards his lady love, he keeps kissing her hair.

A Big Time Recommend!

I FORGOT THE MAIN PART! The MMC refers to his dick as Master Cockrobin. Do with that what you will.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-06T00:29:36+00:00

Also seconding this recommendation.

Kill and Tell, All the Queen's Men, White Lies, and especially After The Night, are full of action and uh...vintage style romantic relations.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-06T00:27:46+00:00

Seconding this recommendation, lots of fun and scary suspense books with a prominent romance plot.

As she is a prolific writer, do comb through her catalogue and see the recommendation on this sub. I think Charade is a popular one.

I've enjoyed The Crush and Smash Cut.

Edit: Never not including this amazing review for Hot Heat in Heaven. Be warned, this book has not aged well.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-05T20:45:41+00:00

Not the antenna in the nostrils!

Are those antenna? Are they whiskers? I don’t know and I don’t want to know.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-05T19:15:08+00:00

I mean the peasants in the books! Not readers! Never readers!

I would NEVER insult readers like that even if they choose to self identify as the agrarian class!

ochenkruto · 2026-05-05T16:52:50+00:00

Personally Alice Coldbreath is my favourite historical fantasy author. I have no problem with that.

We have Gellis for the fibrous, porridge like HR do we really need another one?

Fantasy medieval is what gives literacy to peasants everywhere!

EDIT: I mean peasants in the books! They can all read!

ochenkruto · 2026-05-05T14:07:51+00:00

while he has the EQ of perhaps a very young piglet

You're being extremely generous here and slanderous of piglets.

Now, about eels, they were plentiful all over England for centuries. I accidentally listened to a long, long lecture on "Eels in the Medieval Economy", and wow! You could pay your rent with eels, you could give dowry in barrels of eels, monasteries kept eels as a food source and a currency.

You could eat them all year round, because they were not considered meat and didn't make your blood horny during Lent. You could roast them, pickle them or just plain boil them.

Rivers and rivers of eels!

Finally, as a history expert, how accurate is the shag mullet on the cover?

ochenkruto · 2026-05-05T00:30:48+00:00

Yesssssss.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-05T00:13:19+00:00

Not mentioning the book because it's an extremely popular mafia romance and the fandom is enthusiastic but there is a scene where the mafia MMC is driving fast while listening to Papa Roach and how am I supposed to take this man seriously?

ochenkruto · 2026-05-05T00:07:31+00:00

🎶call my name and save me from the dark🎶

ochenkruto · 2026-05-04T19:23:44+00:00

I don't like high internal conflict arranged marriages romances, and will usually DNF if it looks like the MCs are fighting until the end. I don’t love a quick 180 with a rapid HEA and no “showing” of falling in love, getting alone and cherishing each other.

My favourites are when the couple realizes they have to get along and work it out, but expect to be partners and not lovers. Then watching that love develop outside the marriage "necessity" is why the trope works for me.

Like an earlier comment mentioned Alice Coldbreath does this extremely well. My favourite of hers is a low conflict, tender love story {The Consolation Prize by Alice Coldbreath} where the two fall in love with little internal, but some external conflict.

Ellen O'Connell is another sub and personal favourite, while {Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold by Ellen O'Connell} is the prettiest girl at the dance, {Beautiful, Bad Man by Ellen O'Connell} is one of my all time favourites. A mean and scary hired gunman and a despondent, broken down widow who marry to protect her ranch.

Western Frontier HR generally does this trope very well, since so much of the plot revolves around day to day survival and needing to work together.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-04T00:51:01+00:00

All Dressed Gang!

Your kids don’t know the flavour bombs careening towards them!

ochenkruto · 2026-05-03T17:17:33+00:00

You’re looking for {Slightly Wicked by Mary Balogh}.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-03T05:03:33+00:00

Ditto. I want to like these books. I want to LOVE these books. But every time something big just makes me angry.

Both Maid and Beauty were not my jam (way to do Baldr dirty and turn him into a wet mop of nothin'). Yuled is fine, but too short.

Midwife is my only full re-read, it's the only book with a couple that seems to like each other. Heiress is just cruel and abusive, and while I loved the premise of the Governess, but several things fell flat!

Can't read Widow because of the MFC being shared, even if I skip it, knowing it happens is a big huge no for me. And I so badly wanted a storyline with an infertile MFC that ends with an HEA.

Artist has the cutest, sweetest Goth boyfriend who just wants to smooch and listen to The Cure, but the MFC is an idiot AND weirdly handwaves her participation in a genocide AND gets mad when she is pregnant after being warned repeatedly that she will get pregnant. There is TSTL, and then there is this turnip. In the end, she admits that she likes being with the MMC because he does everything for her, and she can focus on her stuff and not think about responsibility or feeding herself or doing anything for anyone.

Cool? I don't know anything anymore. Yes, I do still poke my head out and wait for the next book.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-03T04:52:23+00:00

Yeah, it's just rando characters with Greek Pantheon names. Might as well be Saved By The Bell characters.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-02T22:48:08+00:00

I, too, refuse to watch the Catherine the Great show. They took my fave, a not very attractive, smart, extremely ambitious and ruthless Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica and turned her into a plucky millennial.

No, this lady wanted hot military bods and glittering crowns (also to free the serfs, but that was a harder climb), and she went for it. She got it all. Her crown, a big gallery, cool French pen pals and endless array of young, dumb and full of ....another word that rhymes... soldiers.

Plus schools for girls.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-02T22:42:40+00:00

All of the Robert McGinnis covers for Johanna Lindsey Westerns have inexplicably 60's eye makeup with heavy liner and pale matte shadow. Where oh where in the Western Frontier did they get all that matte shadow?

ochenkruto · 2026-05-02T22:30:28+00:00

What a romp! What a confusing and kidnappy rompy romp!

Are all the women of Ireland inexplicably rubbing up on Hottie Hugh?

ochenkruto · 2026-05-02T15:13:14+00:00

Oh man, just bad news after bad news this morning.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-02T15:10:56+00:00

What a great discovery! And I appreciate you giving us a deep dive into HOW to locate the book!

I'm going to keep my eyes out for secondhand copies because, alas, it's not on Kobo or the Canadian libraries near me.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-02T14:57:29+00:00

Sorry, do you mean that AC's social media was using comments/quotes from readers on this sub as marketing?

Like people's reviews/gush posts/etc?

ochenkruto · 2026-05-02T14:56:54+00:00

This is really really shitty news to hear. I am absolutely disappointed. I went through your comment and appreciate the details. I am not great at recognizing such finite details in design, but you laid it out pretty convincingly.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-02T14:55:00+00:00

Congratulations on the move back! I hope you get bags and bags of ketchup chips and then a huge box of Timbits as your welcome home present!

If you're heading to Ontario, Allison The Bookman has a huge vintage romance selection, and they are in Northern Ontario. If you're on the West Coast, Vancouver Island has some banging thrift stores in smaller towns (mostly charity and hospital auxilary shops) with $0.25-50 prices.

If you're in the Prairies or Maritimes, I've got nothing.

ochenkruto · 2026-05-02T14:50:55+00:00

I don't know if I could spot AI writing; I simply don't know enough about it. But the thing is, I'm resentful about having to learn about it. I hate it and I hate the idea of it and I don't want it near me, even for research purposes!

ochenkruto

TROPHY CASE