Speaking of DANL, has anyone read
Lillian Marek's
Lady Elinor's Wicked Adventures, which was one of their selections last year and still free with credits, and could you please tell me what you thought of it if you did?
I still have 6 left and this is only the 2nd book in over a year which looked even vaguely interesting to me* (the one I used my 7th credit on was set in Denmark and I got it out of sheer morbid curiosity because I have this inordinate fondness for cultures that produce dragon boats) and it would be nice if I could cash in a bit more of my $9.99 membership renewal investment made back before DANL decided that credits were non-expiring.
Mainly, I'd like to know if it has a decent amount of the archaeological exploration promised in the blurb and/or if the writing/storyline is so terribad I shouldn't bother (or alternatively, so Ed Wood-ishly cracktastic I shouldn't miss it).
I'm a no-romo reader regularly, so I kind of really need a "catch" to get interested in trying a genre romance, and major drawn-out relationship drama is also a minus, but I'm willing to put up with stuff if there's good historical backgrounding where the author did their research (which the Amazon reviews do look promising on). (ETA: I also don't like surprise unplanned pregnancies presented as a Good Thing™ which is ultimately desirable to the unmarried historical heroine who is totally financially dependent on
the kindness of strangers the relatively-recently-met-and-intimate-relationship-upgraded-with hero, with no resources of her own to fall back upon. I just thought I'd mention this since it very annoyingly showed up in one particular morbid-curiosity-trying Kensington freebie I stopped halfway through and would have been tempted to throw at the wall if it had been a paper book. And it sent another Sourcebooks freebie which I did finish into WTFville around 95% through, when up to then I'd been liking it reasonably well and used a credit on another of the author's books. So I think that would be a deal-killer for anything I paid out actual money for, even in the form of a "free" credit that I'm not otherwise using.)
Something like an Amelia Peabody series lite (minus the "every year, another dead body" or better yet with it, since I prefer strong crossover elements when reading dedicated romances, which just don't do anything for me on their own), would be ideal, although as long as there's some solid sections of poking around in the ruins and maybe a few lecture-y bits, I think I'd be reasonably content.
P.S. For those interested in trying DANL's February selections, a tie-in novella for the Grace Burrowes contemporary and one of her historical novels are
still free in multiple stores.
* Okay, it turns out I might have a 3rd candidate, since the Scottish time travel thing with historical re-enactors thing in February's selections is starting to look cracktastic enough to potentially give a try and I have this inordinate fondness for the Society of Creative Anachronism and related groups as well.