Hot Winter Nights


Tammy Andresen,‎ Amy Rose Bennett, ‎ Dawn Brower, Heather Boyd,

Amanda Mariel, Nina Mason, Christina McKnight, Lauren Smith

Genre: 
Historical

A collection of love stories set in the Regency Period, the stories in “Hot Winter Nights” share a theme of love and sensual awakening between lovers.  From the drawing rooms of manor houses to the bedroom of a bordello, the reader follows the journeys of eight women who, despite the odds against them, prove brave enough to follow their passion in the arms of men who are at times scoundrels, but who are in the end, always heroic.

“Hot Winter Nights” is a steamy read.  Readers who are looking to inject some heat into cold winter days and nights will not be disappointed.  Sensual and passionate, the love scenes between the various heroes and heroines are varied and creative.  However, with so much emphasis on the description of the love scenes, plot development is sacrificed.  The standard tropes of regency romance are over-used to the point of cliché, which means that there is very little new or surprising for the reader.  Although the writing itself is very well done, it cannot overcome the fact that the characters are so one-dimensional and underdeveloped that the reader has very little investment or even interest in what happens to them.

With less emphasis on steamy and more emphasis on character and plot development, each of the stories in the anthology has the potential to be a great book.  The main characters are themselves deserving of further development, beyond the constraints of space allowed for novellas in an anthology.   Full of potential, “Hot Winter Nights” would be a nice diversion for fans of Regency romance looking for light reading material.

Gwenellen Tarbet