This was not for me. I think the editing was weak, the stories felt rushed, and a few of the authors don't have a good grasp on navigating poor views on women versus portraying a character or time period that has poor views. A lot of the stories lacked a well-built plot or nuanced charactere.

This was an extremely fun read I haven't read alot of this genre im still somewhat new to it but this is my favorite so far.

I like a good anthology and enjoy finding new writers. However, this anthology was largely a miss for me. I did not finish the first story. I am not interested in a romance story that starts with both the hero and the heroine married to others, especially with the hero's main complaint about his current wife being her supposed lack of beauty. The second and third stories are both Robin Hood retellings, neither of which are particularly good and which suffer all the more by being placed together in the anthology. I don't really remember the third story, but that alone means it was not impressive. The final two stories in this book are the best of the lot. They are admittedly set in time periods I prefer, but I also think the writing is just better. I would entertain other works by these two authors, and it is only that which leads me to giving this anthology even 2 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this anthology. The opinions herein are entirely my own.

I received a copy of this anthology through NetGalley and this is my freely given opinion.

This is an anthology of short stories of romances inspired by legends/fairy tales through various time periods and it is an appealing concept, with several new to me authors.

I would have liked there to be a bit of a blurb of each story beforehand. I found that I did not read all the stories as some of them just did not appeal to me, as I am rather off Arthurian-style tales. I seem to be more interested 18th century to early 20th century periods right now. As such, I enjoyed The Captain's Last Quest by Donna Maloy, The Art of Love by Stephanie Patterson, and A Poetic Season by Peri Maxwell more.

Oddly enough, I actually enjoyed the blurb by Donna Maloy of the real-life story of Princess Charlotte and her romance with Leopold the most.

3 stars out of 5 - mainly because half of the stories just were not to my taste and I ended up skipping them after a couple of pages, but may go back to them later.

An anthology of quick reads written by a variety of authors that I found to be quite entertaining and enjoyable. There is a little something for everyone in this collection. All the authors were new-to-me, so I was happy to find a new group of authors to follow. The stories each center around a specific well-known love story, with a creatively different spin on it. I was instantly drawn into the stories right from the start and was engaged till the end. Although shorter stories, I liked how the characters were well-developed and I became invested in their story from the beginning. The storylines were all interesting and had a nice flow and the plot twists kept me turning the pages. The stories had a nice combination of romance, drama, and intrigue and I'm interested is seeing what stories the authors come up with next!
Thank you Dragonblade Publishing and Netgalley for providing a complimentary copy. This is my voluntary and honest review.

Historical Romance Anthology

There is a variety of entertaining stories in this anthology. If you like historical romance, you are sure to find a story to enjoy. There is Arthurian legend, medieval romance, Regency, and Victorian love stories. There are two stories about Robin Hood, and they are very different and quite delightful.

In the Regency romance, a dashing captain endeavors to rescue a damsel in distress, being forced to marry a scoundrel by her father. The Victorian romance is about an artist and her critic. Could they have a meeting of the minds? There is a cruel father to quell and siblings to protect. The last story is about an anonymous poet, and a wager to discover who it could be. In the process, two people find love.

Overall this was a fun batch of short stories. I’ll admit I wasn’t a big fan of the first story and it lowered my expectations for the book quite a bit. But I found a number of the other stories quite fun and enjoyable and really liked some of the writing styles here.

I think it was a terrible idea to place the two Robin Hood retellings together. We also have an Arthurian legend, a Rapunzel retelling (based on a true story) and a few I couldn’t place if they were classic fairy tales or not.

Not a super steamy batch – some novellas have only kisses and some have 1 scene.

All the stories felt complete for the most part for me, some more so than others. I feel like our Arthurian legend and the Robin Hood retellings we were more thrown into the middle of the story, hoping the reader would already have the story background to understand what was happening for the most part. The other stories I think did a great job of setting up a novella that felt like a full story.

So Arthur Was Born by Fil Reid

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Steam Scale (Number of Scenes): 🔥
Humor: Not much
Perspective: Third person present (which felt really weird at first for me!) from Eigr and Uthyr

Basic plot:
The tale of King Arthur’s birth parents getting it on.

My thoughts:
This one was all right. I’m not too familiar with the legend of King Arthur and as this was a small snap shot of the story of his birth I felt kind of thrown into it and didn’t know what was going on at first.

To Kiss and Outlaw by Cara Hogarth

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Steam Scale (Number of Scenes): only kisses
Humor: A touch
Perspective: Third person from heroine

Basic plot:
Robin Hood and Marian find their HEA after he was gone for 7 years

My thoughts:
I really appreciated the author’s historical note in this one! It was interesting.

This story I really liked. I enjoyed Cara Hogath’s writing a lot. There were plenty of kisses which I appreciated. The dialogue was great, the danger, everything I enjoyed. I am just SO SAD there was no on page sex. Her kisses were fabulous so I was eager for it.

The Heart of Sherwood by Gemma Sydney

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Steam Scale (Number of Scenes): 🔥
Humor: A bit
Perspective: Third person from both hero and heroine

Basic plot:
Robin Hood and Marian reuniting after 3 years apart.

My thoughts:
This one was really cute too! Can you tell I just REALLY LOVE Robin Hood?? Haha. My complaint is there are two Robin Hood retellings right next to each other and they definitely should have been spread out.

The Captain’s Last Quest by Donna Maloy

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Steam Scale (Number of Scenes: only kisses
Humor: Yes
Perspective: Third person from both hero and heroine

Basic plot:
Our heroine Letty is channeling Rapunzel – her father has her secluded in a tower with numerous brute guards to keep her from her freedom. This story also channels real life courtship between Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

My thoughts:
I really, really enjoyed this Rapunzel retelling. The characters were all bright and engaging. I loved the writing. I have really been into rescue plots lately so this one hit that desire for me, majorly. Overall a very enjoyable story! No steam though, only kisses.

The Art of Love by Stephanie Patterson

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Steam Scale (Number of Scenes: only 1 implied scene
Humor: Just a touch
Perspective: Third person from both hero and heroine

Basic plot:
Our hero and heroine are pulled together by a nude portrait.

My thoughts:
This one has an enemies to lovers feel with plenty of push and pull between the characters. I loved that it featured art and our characters were artists but the romance ended up not grabbing me much in this one.

A Poetic Season by Peri Maxwell

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Steam Scale (Number of Scenes: 🔥
Humor: Yes, a bit
Perspective: Third person from both hero and heroine

Basic plot:
Anonymous poetry brings these two together

My thoughts:
I thought this story ended up being really cute too. I had a little bit of a harder time getting into it as much as some of the others here, but I found the writing pleasant and the characters enjoyable.

Tales of Timeless Romance is an anthology of the finalist stories from Dragonblade Publishing’s “The Write Stuff” Contest from 2020. The authors featured are Fil Reid, Cara Hogarth, Gemma Sydney, Donna Maloy, Stephanie Patterson, and Peri Maxwell. Each story takes a well-known love story and puts a different spin on them.

These are really quick reads and there’s a little bit of everything for all types of historical romance lovers.

I love when Dragonblade Publishing puts out an Anthology. In this case the authors are new authors to me. Who doesn't enjoy finding new authors to read?
My personal favorites were the two stories about Robin Hood, To Kiss an Outlaw and The Heart of Sherwood!
You don't want to miss this Anthology!

A great collection by new authors published through Dragonblade Publishing.

Each story is unique and tied to legends so all very interesting!

So Arthur Was Born by Fil Reid- a tale of King author told in present time but with supernatural tones. This author has been writing books of time travel with the Authurian legends.
To Kiss an Outlaw by Cara Hogarth - A telling of Robinhood
The Heart of Sherwood by Gemma Sydney- another telling of Robinhood from a different angle
The Captain's Last Quest by Donna Maloy
The Art of Love by Stephanie Patterson
A Poetic Season by Peri Maxwell

Six new authors to me & I thoroughly enjoyed these six novellas all were well written & based on the re telling of mythical and legendary love stories. Each author was a finalist in the publisher’s annual contest, which is a very good endorsement
So Arthur Was Born by Fil Reid
right up your street if you love Arthurian stories
To Kiss an Outlaw by Cara Hogarth
Re telling of Robin Hood’s story
The Heart of Sherwood by Gemma Sydney
Robin Hood again
The Captain's Last Quest by Donna Maloy
Regency tale based around Princess Charlotte & a feel of a damsel in distress
The Art of Love by Stephanie Patterson
My favourite trope of enemies to lovers
A Poetic Season by Peri Maxwell
A wager to discover a poet’s identity leads to contention
I read the stories out of sequence as I didn’t want to read 2 Robin Hood stories one after the other even though they were very different
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

All new author to me with lots of potential, However not all were to my taste (the Arthur Story was the worst in my opinion) I also think the two Robin Hood story's could have been split so they were not near each other as I didn't want to read one after another. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

This anthology of romance by new authors has something for everyone. The first three books are based on myths, where the main characters may or may not have actually lived. It is interesting nevertheless that they are so ingrained in our literature that they are indeed quite believable.

So Arthur Was Born - is somewhat gothic with some supernatural intervention and an outcome that left devastation in its wake. Told in the present tense made the story more difficult to read.

To Kiss an Outlaw - is a bitter/sweet retelling of Robin Hood's story in which betrayal and harsh parental control result in the loss of a loved one and star-crossed lovers.

The Heart of Sherwood is another Robin Hood retelling with interesting results.

The Captain's Last Quest relies on the historical events surrounding Princess Charlotte and her father's attempts to orchestrate a marriage that would strengthen his own ties with Europe. With marriage looming on the horizon over which she has no control, it is fortunate that the heroine, Letty Dunlavy, has friends who support her and enable her to escape.

The Art of Love has strong echoes of the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street by Rudolf Besier, with an autocratic and mean-spirited father pulling all the strings. When Harding Northrup gives Leandra's art an extremely harsh critique and further goes on to insult her when she meets him face to face, the gloves come off. Having had to fight for the right to work as an artist, Leandra does not take his opinion at face value but challenges him in a way that wins his respect.

A Poetic Season starts as a wager to discover the identity of an overly romantic poet and ends up as a quest to win her heart. Evelyn Beckett has earned an undeserved reputation, put about by disgruntled suitors who did not take kindly to being rejected, but beneath her crusty exterior, she is a woman with a big heart. Lord Althorne accompanies his friend in pursuit of a wife and finds himself thrown more into the company of Evie, but in doing so, he finds a woman who will stand the test of time.

I received a copy of this charming anthology as a gift through Dragonblade Publishing and NetGalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.

I don't know where Dragonblade finds all of these fantastic authors! Over the past year I have read a lot from this publisher and have discovered so many new authors. This collection is filled with wonderful historical romance stories. It is pretty much impossible to choose a favorite from this collection as all of the stories were so so good.

So Arthur Was Born - This was probably my least favorite of all the stories. The writing is good and the story well crafted, but I've never been all that interested in the Arthur legends. And it was a little tough to be on the side of a man who kept saying he wanted to end his marriage because his wife was ugly.

To Kiss An Outlaw & The Heart of Sherwood - These two Robin Hood stories were really interesting because of how different they were. With the authors choosing to have them take place in different centuries it was possible to see how legends are created. They are pretty much the perfect examples of the famous quote, "when truth becomes legend, print the legend". And of course, it was nice to see that Marian had more backbone than in many versions of the story.

The Captain's Last Quest - This was definitely a new kind of "saving the damsel trapped in the tower" type of story. My favorite part was when Nick realized maybe he shouldn't discount one of Letty's ideas just because it came from her. Her ideas did need a lot of work, but the reasoning for those plans wasn't so off. The supporting characters of Raul and Mercy added a little bit of comic relief, but they also provided the much needed support Nick and Letty needed. My vindictive side wished there had been a final confrontation between Nick and Letty's father with Nick rescinding his previous offer of a townhouse in London (seeing as how Letty's father had tried to marry her off to someone else).

The Art of Love - I really enjoyed the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers aspect of this story. It was nice to see Lee stand up for herself and her art when North criticized it. It was also so nice watching them each put down their walls enough to let the other one in. One of the best scenes is the one in which Lee stands up to North's father. North could never stand up to him like that so it was nice that someone was able to. One of my other favorite scenes was the one in which North ended up joining Lee on their painting picnic - that one moment put everything else into motion.

A Poetic Season - It was clear pretty much from the beginning that Evie and Rory were perfect for one another. It shouldn't have, but the reveal about how the poet was caught me by surprise. I thought maybe this story would be about Evie and Rory working together to find out who it was, but once the reveal was made it was clear that was going to end up being a point of contention between the two characters. I liked that, in the end, they both had to put themselves out there and make things right in their relationship rather than one of them having to make the grand gesture.

Overall, this is a great collection of stories. I'm looking forward to see what these authors put out in the future!

This is an ok anthology of retellings.

There is potential here but they need a lot of polishing. There two Robin Hood retellings in a row and the Rapunzel could be skimmed without missing much. Mostly I was disappointed that these were love stories but I did not feel love or chemistry, all telling and now showing.

This is indeed anthology of the very best regency romances that will occupy you, draw you in and hold you attention till you finish the complete book. Each and every story is engaging, romantic and with great characters that you can relate to. Simply wonderful.

This book is a delightful mix of authors that are new to me. Each story was special in its own way. Two of them are about Robin Hood and though the stories were very different, it was refreshing to see different views on the same hero. One story was about the making of King Arthur, that though wasn’t my favorite, I was riveted by the author’s interpretation of the myth. I adored the Poet’s book and the Captain’s quest, a take on Rapunzel was very entertaining. I think you will enjoy this anthology, it truly is a pearl!

I received this book as an ARC copy and my views are my own