Goodreads Review: “Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid”

Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid by Maureen Driscoll

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In order for me to really enjoy a book, I need to feel like the characters are real. That’s especially true of romance novels, where plot and prose can sometimes be iffy things. While Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid features an interesting premise and sometimes-inspired prose, there were too many holes in the story and deviations from period language and mores to make the story really come alive.

If a book is going to rely on the met-cute-separated-reunited trope, then the initial meeting really has to stand out, and for the right reasons. The initial meeting between Ned and Iris/Jane that is the catalyst for the entire book was too rushed, and the characters themselves were not nearly fleshed out enough for me to understand their motivations. How and why Jane, an unmarried woman from a noble family, would even be in Spain(I may have the country wrong) during wartime, working as a “surgeon” to begin with, much less why she’d agree to have sex with a man with she knew not at all, is still a mystery to me. I don’t mind women in historical romances doing things that would seem verboten according to the mores of the day, so long as I understand why. I never did, with Jane. Nor did I understand why she made such an impression on Ned that he’d ostensibly spend 6-7 years looking for her. What that means, unfortunately, is that the rest of the book is a leap of faith.

It doesn’t get much more sensible from there. Characters use language that is jarringly out-of-period (I counted several “okays”). Ned’s 130 siblings are dumped on us for no better reason than to set them up for books of their own. The book also relies more on external conflict than the internal conflict that a premise like this is rich with; when you’ve established a female “surgeon” (no, she’s not a surgeon, and I’m unclear as to why she’s being called such) who has traveled to a foreign country during wartime, who then sleeps with and becomes pregnant by a man we’re led to believe is a spy (not that it’s ever really referred to again), you have enough plot for a wonderful book — there’s no need to gild the lily by throwing in everything but the kitchen sink.

That being said, the author’s voice is enjoyable. The pacing of the book is excellent, and secondary characters are well-developed. It’s a quick read.

View all my reviews

Hideous Romance Novel Covers — the Madeline Baker Edition

I came across a thread on an All About Romance board the other day about a Madeline Baker book. Having never heard of Madeline Baker, and being naturally nosy, I just had to check her out on good old Amazon.

And oh, what a happy day that was. Turns out Madeline Baker wrote during the golden age of the Hideous Romance Novel Cover (TM), the mid-1980s. Almost every one of her covers is a cheesetastic classic, and they were such a joy to behold that I had to share them with you, dumplins.

Here goes everything:

The last time we saw a heroine on the cover of a romance novel in a situation similar to this one, she was most definitely not enjoying herself. In the case of Reckless Desire’s Mary, though, who knows what she’s thinking. After all, according to Amazon’s synopsis,

Mary is bound to a white man who despises her for her Indian heritage. Cloud Walker knows it is wrong to love her, but entwined in Mary’s soft embrace, he would never be able to deny the flaming passion, the bittersweet ecstacy [sic] that he and Mary share.

Flaming passion! Bittersweet ecstacy [sic]! Enough neon colors to induce acid flashbacks!

There was some rule in the 1980s that demanded that 75% or more of historical romance novels feature a horse in some distress on the cover. Cheyenne Surrender toed the line there, as you can see. Some of you may think the horse is distressed because he’s standing in what looks like Niagara, with a hulking man attempting to put a woman who is clearly not a horsewoman on his back. I, on the other hand, think he’s a Puritan horse, and he’s simply put out by all the boobage going on here.

Not even deer are safe from the flaming passion of Madeline Baker’s heroes and heroines. And these deer obviously disapprove of bittersweet ecstacy [sick sick sick], by the way. However, though our heroine’s love may be reckless, she dares not leave her hairdo and makeup to chance — you know it took her three or four hours in hot rollers to achieve that look, and I bet she has a whole deerskin full of Mary Kay.  That I cannot find a better picture of this cover burns me up.  I may have to buy the book just to have the cover.

This is exactly why my mother always insisted I wear nice pajamas. Should you have to flee a midnight fire, it’s best not to risk singeing your boobs in the process. I mean, if you’re forced to actually hold your boobs in your dress or whatever that thing is, you may not even escape the midnight fire. But wait — is our well-endowed heroine holding the girls in check, or is someone else doing it for her?  That hardly-feminine hand seems strangely disembodied. Maybe it’s part of her Naughty Native Maiden costume, attached to the bodice of whatever that is she’s wearing as a detachable accessory. Also, is the obligatory half-naked hero helping her escape, or did he set the fire? Ten bucks says the horse is stolen.

Who agrees that Lacey’s way is probably the hard way? Is that supposed to be ecstacy [vom] on Lacey’s face, or has Lacey’s way resulted in poison ivy on her over-exposed lady parts? And who else suspects that her half-naked hero (who has oddly gnarly arms and an awesome mullet, by the way) is whispering “Lacey, for the love of Pete, get yer clothes on! Company’s coming!”?

I have absolutely nothing to add to this one.

Wish List Wednesday: The Heir of Starvelings by Evelyn Berckman

I was so inspired by the Teaser Tuesday idea that I decided to do Wish List Wednesdays! Yes, I know, someone is probably doing it, too, but if I stole the idea I repent forthwith.

At any rate, every reader has a mile-long wish list of books she can’t wait to get her grubby little hands on. So, on Wish List Wednesdays, we’ll share the following:

• The title of a random book from our wish list,
• How or where we found out about the book,
• How long the book has been on our wish list,
• And why we want it so badly!

Post your Wish List Wednesday book to your blog/Twitter feed and link to it in the comments. If you have neither, just share your info in the comments. I can’t wait to see what’s on your wish lists!

Happy Halloween (or Hallowe’en, if you’re particular), precious ones!

In honor of the holiday, today’s Wish List Wednesday title is a creepy Gothic from the way back machine. It’s Evelyn Berckman’s The Heir of Starvelings (isn’t that a deliciously Gothic title?), and here be the book’s synopsis, courtesy of Fiction DB:

Lovely Davina Milne refused to stay away from Starvelings because of its sinister reputation. Village talk about the evil Lord Stanyon and his reclusive wife could not keep her from the youthful heir of the manor who so clearly and painfully needed her. But when the lovely young girl entered the bleak mansion, she found herself moving ever deeper into a labyrinth of fearful secrets. And when suddenly she could no longer ignore the dark chasm opening before her unbelieving eyes, she realized escape had become impossible…

Now doesn’t that just give you the creeps in a very good way?

I can’t remember where I heard of The Heir of Starvelings, but I strongly suspect it was from browsing the huge archives of vintage paperback covers over at Book Scans Database. Please visit Book Scans, by the way — the good people there are not getting nearly enough credit for the wonderful work they do!

I put the book on my Wish List on April 26th of this year.

As to why I haven’t made the purchase yet, I’m embarrassed to say I stuck this on my Wish List and promptly started wishing for 1000000000 other things. For once, the problem is not lack of copies to choose from; unlike most Gothics, there are more than just a few raggedy paperback copies to choose from. The Heir of Starvelings, which was first published in 1967,  has gone through more than one printing, and was even published in hardback. That says more about the author, Evelyn Berckman, than about the Gothic genre, which was, unfortunately, infamous for churning out forgettable books by forgettable authors during the genre’s 1960s-1970s heyday.

In fact, it’s the story of the author as much as this book that intrigues me. While The Heir of Starvelings most certainly hews to almost all Gothic conventions, as do many of Berckman’s books, Berckman is rarely identified as a Gothic author, but instead as a mystery/thriller author. This, however, may be a case of a rose by any other name; according to her Goodreads bio, Berckman wrote “post-war detective fiction, horror and naval history, with a gift for engaging titles, featuring no one detective but a series of independent young women.” Hmm. That sounds strangely like the premise of many a Gothic to me.

The gift for engaging titles was strong with this one; in addition to the delightfully creepy The Heir of Starvelings, Berckman’s Gothic (or not) titles also include A Finger to Her Lips, No Known Grave, Wait, Just You Wait and the evocative The Victorian Album.

At any rate, Kirkus Reviews had no doubt that Berckman was writing Gothics, as summed up by this pithy 1967 review of The Heir of Starvelings:

True Gothicism. Complete with ragged innocent heir, a little boy entombed in the blackness of his home–nicknamed “”Starvelings”" by frightened villagers, a lovely governess who comes to take care of him having lost her true love, and the evil that his father and his father’s manservant represented. Miss Berckman can impart an air of doom to the sound of a broom. She’s almost too clever but it’s for the ladies who will thrill along.

I’ll just bet Ms. Berckman put a hex on that reviewer.

Teaser Tuesdays: Ritual Sins by Anne Stuart

If it’s Tuesday, then this is a teaser.

Today’s teaser is a tough one. How’s that for a tongue twister? If you’re ever tempted to take a teaser from an Anne Stuart book, be warned: it’s hard to find two sentences that don’t give the plot away or are not, ahem, too racy for excerpting. Ah, that Anne Stuart — my kind of lady.

So this teaser is from one of Anne Stuart’s most controversial books, one I’d some how avoided until recently, Ritual Sins:

“As long as you’re afraid of me, you’ll never destroy me. And that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

As teasers go, that one’s pretty succinct. But that sums up the beauty of Anne Stuart’s writing — she rarely wastes a word. Her Harlequin and Silhouette titles were just as developed and finished as her later single-title releases, like Ritual Sins.

Here’s the synopsis for Ritual Sins, courtesy of Amazon:

Rachel Connery is a woman with a mission—to destroy Luke Bardell, the charismatic man who seduced millions of dollars from her dying mother, thus robbing Rachel of her inheritance. Now Rachel wants revenge—and she’s willing to enter Luke’s lair and risk the lure of his magnetic personality to get it. Luke Bardell is a master manipulator. He always gets what he wants from people, and Rachel Connery looks like an especially easy mark, She is beautiful and angry and spoiled, and the challenge of melting her icy exterior inspires him. For Luke it is a standard ritual. But desire is a dangerous weapon that cuts two ways. Rachel could get trapped in a nightmare of forbidden feelings…or she could use her strength and intelligence and fierce will to find a way into Luke’s heart and force his utter surrender to her—body and soul.

Ritual Sins was first published in 1997. Contrary to what a recent All About Romance blog post says about pre-Millennium contemporaries now feeling dated or reading like historical fiction, Ritual Sins still feels fresh. Whether that’s Stuart’s timeless writing or the strange nature of the story I don’t know, but I was actually disappointed that I’d waited so long to read Ritual Sins. It’s now available in e-book — what are you waiting for!?!?

Introducing Teaser Tuesdays here at Ye Olde Sweet Rocket. Here’s how it works:

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read/nearest book
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

So if you have a blog, play along by posting your teaser/link to your blog in the comments. If you don’t have a blog, share anyway in the comments!

So what are you reading, babies?

Wish List Wednesday/ Hideous Romance Novel Covers: Red Adam’s Lady by Grace Ingram

I was so inspired by the Teaser Tuesday idea that I decided to do Wish List Wednesdays! Yes, I know, someone is probably doing it, too, but if I stole the idea I repent forthwith.

At any rate, every reader has a mile-long wish list of books she can’t wait to get her grubby little hands on. So, on Wish List Wednesdays, we’ll share the following:

• The title of a random book from our wish list,
• How or where we found out about the book,
• How long the book has been on our wish list,
• And why we want it so badly!

Post your Wish List Wednesday book to your blog/Twitter feed and link to it in the comments. If you have neither, just share your info in the comments. I can’t wait to see what’s on your wish lists!

Today and today only at Le Sweet Rocket, it’s two categories for the price of one — a Wish List Wednesday post that doubles as a little bitty Hideous Romance Novel Covers post, as well!

For your consideration is Grace Ingram’s Red Adam’s Lady, lauded as a classic by many romance readers:

Unfortunately, classic status does not guarantee a great cover. That one above is an abomination. What is going on there? Is Red Adam squeezing the life out of his lady? Or is that supposed to be an approximation of the throes of ecstasy? And is it just me, or does old Red Adam look like Gordon Lightfoot?

Gordon Lightfoot should have starred in the movie version of “Red Adam’s Lady,” right?

Here’s a slightly less crazy edition:

Nothing much to see there, so we’ll move on to another that’s quite frankly bizarre:

It would appear that Red Adam’s Lady is about to beat his brains out. And maybe choke him to boot. He looks worried, and I’m worried for him.

At some point, someone took mercy on this book and gave it a cover that’s actually quite nice:

So now that you’ve had a little tour through the many covers of Red Adam’s Lady, here’s a little about the book itself.

Red Adam’s Lady, a medieval,was first published in 1973. And is, naturally, now out-of-print. I went to Goodreads and found this synopsis:

The redhead hooted gleefully and grappled Julitta to him, spinning her round adroitly so that she could only kick back at his legs. He heaved her from her feet and slung her over his shoulder. He tried to kiss her, but she ducked her head into the cloak so that her crown caught his chin and made his teeth clack.

“Let me go!” she gasped. “Indeed I am no harlot! My uncle is lord of Chivingham-”

He did not heed her. The girl cried out to the waiting crowd.

“In God’s name -help me!”

Lady Julitta, mistaken for a strumpet by Red Adam, the impetuous, scandalous young lord of Brentborough, suddenly found herself married to the very man who tried to ravish her.

She promised herself she would always despise him -but Red Adam was determined to win her love.

That highly entertaining synopsis explains, I suppose, why Julitta looks like she’s in the process of clawing Red Adam’s eyeballs out in several of the book covers.

I discovered Red Adam’s Lady on AAR boards and on Goodreads back in July, and promptly added it to my huge wish list. On both AAR and Goodreads, readers just can’t stop gushing about how wonderful this book is.  Here are a few of the more memorable comments and raves from Goodreads:

…Red Adam, who is actually a nice man when he is not drunk and being a nuisance and a rake, decides to reform and make amends and that is how Julitta ends up married to her abuser. What follows is Julitta and Red Adam getting to know each other, dealing with some villains in the form of Julitta’s uncle and his friends and the wife of their steward while at the same time trying to discover what really happened to the wife of Red Adam’s uncle from whom he inherited his estate…. via Ana T.

What a wonderful, wonderful book. I laughed, I cried and I didn’t want to put it down. Someone should definitely reissue this book. I would love to own a copy but current prices are too prohibitive. Thank goodness to get the chance to read it through library ILL! via Terry

A fast paced bawdy romp through 12C England. Lady Julitta is mistaken for a peasant and is accosted by a drunken “Red” Adam de Lorismond, the new lord of Brentborough. Adam takes Julitta back to his keep bent on rape, but the ever resourceful Julitta knocks him out with a stool and when he’s sober Adam marries her to assuage her damaged honor. Julitta is none too thrilled with the match, but sparks soon fly between the two as Julitta’s uncle Lord William and his cronies conspire to support young Henry in his plan to oust his father Henry II and rule England instead. Julitta also soon finds her hands full with a castle and mutinous servants allowed to run to ruin by the previous lord of Brentborough (Adam’s uncle), a thieving seneschal, invading armies of Scots, a perilous climb down ocean cliffs, a mysterious death or two and more as “Red” Adam and his lady banter their way through it all to find true love in the end… via Misfit

I find it fascinating that a romance novel that ostensibly begins with an attempted rape could become as beloved as Red Adam’s Lady evidently is to readers. For that reason alone, I’d be intrigued by the book, but the fact that I’ve never seen a less than favorable, if not outright gushing, review of the book makes it even more interesting. On Amazon, 22 of the 23 reviews are five-star; the other is a four-star. Also, who wouldn’t love a book with a hero who is, to quote Ana T., actually a nice man when he is not drunk and being a nuisance and a rake?

Wish List Wednesday: Till the Stars Fall by Kathleen Gilles Seidel

I was so inspired by the Teaser Tuesday idea that I decided to do Wish List Wednesdays! Yes, I know, someone is probably doing it, too, but if I stole the idea I repent forthwith.

At any rate, every reader has a mile-long wish list of books she can’t wait to get her grubby little hands on. So, on Wish List Wednesdays, we’ll share the following:

• The title of a random book from our wish list,
• How or where we found out about the book,
• How long the book has been on our wish list,
• And why we want it so badly!

Post your Wish List Wednesday book to your blog/Twitter feed and link to it in the comments. If you have neither, just share your info in the comments. I can’t wait to see what’s on your wish lists!

Today’s Wish List Wednesday pick is a retro-contemporary that I’ve been waiting and waiting to see in an e-book format. If this doesn’t happen soon, I may just have to break over and buy it used, as it is most definitely out-of-print!

 

 

 

Till the Stars Fall by Kathleen Gilles Seidel is consistently included in Top 100 Romance lists all over these interwebs, yet the book is as hard to find as hen’s teeth. Even finding a synopsis is difficult; neither Amazon nor Goodreads could help me there, so here’s one condensed from All About Romance’s Rachel Potter’s DIK review for the book:

…Danny and Krissa French are siblings close in age but not in feeling. The children of a Minnesotan miner, they edge into the Ivy League through hard work and determination. Once there, Danny encounters Quinn Hunter, son of the Establishment. Seemingly the two have little in common, but soon Quinn and Danny find they have a mutual interest in music. They both want to sing. Dodd Hall, the folk rock sensation of the Seventies, is born and soon flourishes.

Krissa is essential to Dodd Hall’s success as well. Both Quinn and Danny rely heavily on her – first to help them break into the music business, and then, once they’ve arrived, to keep them sane and communicating. The problem is, somewhere in Dodd Hall’s meteoric rise to the top, Krissa begins to find her role stifling, and she opts out. Out of Dodd Hall, out of her relationship with Quinn, out of her established life. She returns to Minnesota and starts over.

Sixteen years later, as Krissa is waiting to hear the results of her brother’s political hunger strike, she gets a call from Quinn who is likewise concerned about Danny. Only now all of the things that interfered with their relationship in the Dodd Hall days no longer have any relevance. Both of them, still emotionally tied to each other, wonder, “Can we make it work this time?”…

I found out about Till the Stars Fall from All About Romance, naturally.

According to Amazon, this book has been on my Wish List since March 30, 2012, but I think that’s wrong; seems like I’ve been looking for it much longer than that. I think Amazon is messing with my head here. Or it could be that it’s on my Google Documents list of books, but was only added to my Wish List in March. Sounds like I need to make fewer lists!

As to why I want this book so badly? While the AAR review really intrigued me,  all of Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s books reviewed at AAR get glowing recommendations, but this is only one of two on my list. I think what sold me on Till the Stars Fall was the irresistible combination of unusual plot, rock stars, and writing that I’ve been assured is quality. And did I mention rock stars? Seventies rock stars, no less? You know I have that thing about rock stars…

So what about you, babies?

Wish List Wednesday: The Country Gentleman by Fiona Hill

I was so inspired by the Teaser Tuesday idea that I decided to do Wish List Wednesdays! Yes, I know, someone is probably doing it, too, but if I stole the idea I repent forthwith.

At any rate, every reader has a mile-long wish list of books she can’t wait to get her grubby little hands on. So, on Wish List Wednesdays, we’ll share the following:

• The title of a random book from our wish list,
• How or where we found out about the book,
• How long the book has been on our wish list,
• And why we want it so badly!

Post your Wish List Wednesday book to your blog/Twitter feed and link to it in the comments. If you have neither, just share your info in the comments. I can’t wait to see what’s on your wish lists!

The inaugural Wish List Wednesday post is an oldie, but it sounds like a goodie.

It’s The Country Gentleman by Fiona Hill. And I’m sad to say that’s one of three hideous covers I’ve seen for the book.

A little background on the book: The Country Gentleman is a Traditional Regency published first in 1987. Fiona Hill, the author, is a pseudonym for Ellen Pall, whose story, particularly about her time writing Regencies, is intriguing.

This quote on Regencies from her website is wonderful, I think:

“Regency romances are a sunny and compact genre in which a lady and a gentleman meet, form indifferent opinions of each other, banter for 200 pages or so, kiss and agree to marry. …As much comedy as romance, a Regency makes its tickling assault on the imagination, not the senses.”

Here’s a Publisher’s Weekly synopsis (edited) provided by Amazon:

In the battle of the sexes waged in this lively Regency romance, the contestants are overtaken by circumstances. Bluestocking Anne Guilfoyle, still single at 29, is a liberated woman happily ensconced in a 10-year platonic relationship with worldly Lord Ensley whose perilous fiscal condition prohibits a sanctioned union. Their idyll is shattered by Ensley’s arranged marriage to an heiress and by a sudden reversal of Anne’s fortunes, which causes her to leave the London salon circuit and retire to an inherited farm-estate. Anne adjusts uneasily to the slow pace, applying her rapier wit to lampoons of the natives, which appear in the London Times. As a result, her Oxford-educated, silently admiring bachelor neighbor, Mr. Highet, has little trouble identifying himself as the parodied “Mr. Mutton Slowtop, the idiot sheep farmer.”

I have no idea where I found out about The Country Gentleman, although I suspect it came from a post in an AAR forum, or as a recommendation on Amazon. I did not find out about it on Goodreads, because it doesn’t have an entry there!

I added the book to my Amazon Wish List in March of this year.

As to why I want this book so much, you have only to read that synopsis above. I love a good Regency that is, as Fiona Hill/Ellen Pall writes, as much comedy as romance, and this one sounds wonderful!

Teaser Tuesdays: Lovers & Strangers by Candace Schuler

If it’s Tuesday, then this is a teaser.

Introducing Teaser Tuesdays here at Ye Olde Sweet Rocket. Here’s how it works:

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read/nearest book
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

So if you have a blog, play along by posting your teaser/link to your blog in the comments. If you don’t have a blog, share anyway in the comments!

Here’s my teaser, from Candace Schuler’s Lovers & Strangers:

Jack snorted inelegantly. Safe, she said. When he was sitting there thinking about how much fun it would be if they were eating their dim sum back in his apartment. In his bed. Naked.

I know, I know, that’s more than two sentences, but in my defense, four of those sentences barely count, because they are little.

Intrigued? Here’s the synopsis for Lovers & Strangers, courtesy Amazon:

In the summer of 1970, four young men—Ethan Roberts, Zeke Blackstone, and brothers Eric and Jack Shannon—shared apartment 1G at the Wilshire Arms. One night during a wild party, Eric Shannon committed suicide.

Or so everyone thinks.

Although Jack Shannon was only 18 years old at the time, he has always felt responsible for his brother’s suicide. Unable to deal with his guilt, Jack spends the next 25 years as a rootless vagabond, reporting on war and disaster in all the hot spots of the world.

Now, world-weary and heart-sore, Jack makes a last-ditch effort to lay the ghost of his long-dead brother to rest by returning to the Wilshire Arms.

There, Jack meets Faith McCray. Newly arrived in L.A. from a small town in Georgia, Faith is everything Jack wants—and everything he thinks he doesn’t deserve.

But Faith isn’t quite as innocent and guileless as she seems. With ghosts of her own and a past she’d rather forget, nothing will dissuade her from tempting Jack to take what she offers.

Hmm. How about that?

Lovers & Strangers is a new e-book reissue of an 1996 Harlequin contemporary. I found out about it from Connie Brockway’s Facebook page (I feel so snooty saying that). So far, so good.

So what are you reading, babys?

I’m In Love With: Tin Soldier by the Small Faces

Is there a song that makes you feel all warm and squishy? Some gorgeous lyric wedded to music that just makes you shiver? It probably speaks volumes about my strange predilections, but The Small Faces’ “Tin Soldier” does just that for me.

Remember our anti-heroes? This is a song made just for those characters. From those slinky opening chords to the throaty, sexy way that Steve Marriott sings “all I need is your whispered hello” and everything that comes after it…”Tin Soldier” is, like the lyric says “deeper than time, a love that won’t rhyme without words.”

Now, listen to the song and look at this and see if you don’t feel the same:

Source: thesophisticatedmondaine.tumblr.com via Jeanna on Pinterest

Alain Delon, anyone?

Maybe this is more your thing:

Source: bbc.co.uk via Jeanna on Pinterest

Jason Isaacs, baby?

Like your anti-heroes a little crazier? Here’s one:

Source: google.com via Jeanna on Pinterest

What about Timothy Olyphant?

Or, if you want to get all literal about shit, try…

Source: sunsetgun.tumblr.com via Jeanna on Pinterest

….Montgomery Clift

I’m In Love With… Head-Breaking Lutes

Source: grandmasgraphics.com via Jeanna on Pinterest

Watch it with the presumptions, Jack. I’ve got a lute with your name on it.

This is a Margaret Tulloch illustration from an early 20th Century volume of Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales From Shakespeare, and it has made my day.