BODICE RIPPER NOVELISTS- Men Masquerading as Women

I know of a few 'female' historical romance authors who wrote in the 70s and 80s who are actually men. Below is information on them though some books listed may not be romance. If anyone has a photo of someone I've got listed but have no photo for, please contact me.

Jennifer Wilde, aka Tom Huff

Loves Tender Fury (1976)
Dare to Love (1978)
Love Me, Marietta (1981)
Once More, Miranda (1983)
When Love Commands (1984)
Angel in Scarlet (1986)
The Slipper (1987)
They Call Her Dana (1989)
Falconridge (1990)
Betrayal at Blackcrest (1991)
Come to Castlemoor (1991)
Whisper in the Darkness (1991)
Room Beneath the Stairs (1992)
The Lady of Lyon House (1992)
Midnight at Mallyncourt (1992)
Susannah, Beware (1992) aka Nine Buck's Row
Stranger by the Lake (1993)
Jamintha (1994)


Christina Savage aka Kerry Newcomb and Frank Schaefer

Love`s Wildest Fires (1977)
Dawn Wind (1980)
Tempest (1982)
Hearts of Fire (1984)


Shana Carrol aka Kerry Newcomb and Frank Schaefer

Raven   1978
Live For Love   1984
Paxon Pride  1984
Yellow Rose  1984
Rebels in Love  1984

Elizabeth Bright, aka Tim Myers

Reap the Wiild Harvest (1979)
Desire's Legacy (1981)
A Lasting Splendor (1981)
Passion's Heirs (1981)
Destiny's Thunder (1983)
A Heritage of Passion (1983)
The Virginians (1984)

Emma Blair, aka Iain Blair

Hester Dark GF 1989-09
The Blackbird's Tale GF 1991-08
A Most Determined Woman GF 1994-05
The Princess of Poor Street GF 1994-05
Street Song GF 1994-05May-1994
When Dreams Come True GF 1994-05
Nellie Wildchild GF 1996-07
Half Hidden GF 1997-04
This Side of Heaven GF 1997-04
Where No Man Cries GF 1997-08
Jessie Gray GF 1997-12
Flower of Scotland GF 1998-03
An Apple from Eden GF 1999-01
Maggie Jordan GF 1999-08
Goodnight, Sweet Prince GF 2000-01
Wild Strawberries GF 2000-11
Forget-Me-Not GF 2001-10
Moonlit Eyes GF 2002-01
Finding Happiness GF 2003-02
Twilight Time GF 2004-01Jan
Little White Lies GF 2005-03
Sweethearts GF 2007-11


Christina Nicholson, aka Christopher Nicole (born 1930)

Christopher Nicole Bio Link

Power and the Passion (1977)
The Savage Sands (1978)
Queen of Paris (1979)

Pamela South, aka Donald Bain
Daughter of the South

Lee Jackson, aka Donald Bain

The Eagel and the Serpant  (1982)

Stephanie Blake, aka Jack Pearl (cousin to author Donald Bain)

Callie Knight (1970)
Daughter of Destiny (1977)
Flowers of Fire (1977)
Blaze of Passion (1978)
So Wicked My Desire (1979)
Secret Sins (1980)
Wicked Is My Flesh (1980)
Scarlet Kisses (1981)
Unholy Desires (1981)
A Glorious Passion (1982)
Fires of the Heart (1982)
Bride of the Wind (1984)
Texas Lily (1987)
This World Is Mine (1988)
The Devil in My Heart (1990)

Petra Leigh, aka Peter Ling
Garnet   1978
Rosewood   1979
Coral   1979

Peter O'Donnell, aka Madeleine Brent (obituary)

Tregaron's Daughter (1971)

Moonraker's Bride (1973)
Stranger at Wildings (1975)
Merlin's Keep (1977)
The Capricorn Stone (1979)
The Long Masquerade (1981)
Heritage of Shadows (1983)
Stormswift (1984)
Golden Urchin (1987)

Robert Vaughan is Paula Fairman (and 41 others!)

ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL by Cathy Maxwell

PUBLISHER: Harper, 4/1994
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1811
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: Lady Julia Markham's mediterranean-blue eyes and daring spirit made her the toast of the season, until she attempted to elope with a man who then betrayed her. By the strict standards of London society, Julia was ruined.

Three years later, desperate and penniless, Julia agreed to marry Brader Wolf, a self-made merchant who was unwelcome in aristocratic drawing rooms. Yet Julia was determined to make her businesslike marriage bloom-and found herself inexplicably drawn to her magnetic and dangerous husband. Breathless passion awaited her with Brader, but Julia's heart could settle for nothing less than the love of a lifetime.

MY THOUGHTS: This was pretty dark in nature in several ways with a slight gothic feel. It spans not quite a year. This is the author's first novel, which came out in 1994, the year I began reading historical romance. I learned of this novel many years ago, probably on the defunct Amazon romance forum. Something in the heroine's past made me want to read this, so I finally did, as it's very atypical for a historical romance book character.

Julia is twenty-four. Her parents and three brothers are garbage and heartless. All but one brother who's an alcoholic seems to be addicted to gambling. Her much older brother, Geoffrey, I think he's thirty-five, is truly a bad seed and villain. A few years prior something awful happened in Julia's life (after the attempted elopement) and her brother was involved. He helped Julia do something and it just makes no sense for him to be involved in that. He had nothing at all to gain by it other than to get pleasure from watching someone suffer.

Brader's in his early thirties, comes from nothing and has become wealthy. His parents weren't married to each other and his father died when he was a baby (I think). He marries Julia for her property, Kimberwood, because his mother and her first husband lived on it over thirty years ago and her first husband is buried there. He's a decent guy who treats Julia well...most of the time.

I'm not sure how I feel about Julia. I guess I don't really have an opinion of her. She's judgmental toward Brader since he's from a different 'class' than her. She literally doesn't know how babies are made, which is very annoying to read. She's got a strong personality yet she's easily led by her brother Geoffrey and we aren't made to understand why and it's frustrating. He's after money and wants her to do away with Brader.

As with many novels, a lot of action takes place right at the end and that's what happened here. It was no surprise it all involved Geoffrey and was violent. It was a little over the top but I liked it anyway.

The eight page epilogue took place twenty-five years later and consisted of nothing but them hanging out with most of their six living children.

THE ELUSIVE FLAME by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

PUBLISHER: Avon, 10/1998
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England & USA, 1825
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Cerynise Kendall has been left destitute and in dire need following the death of her doting patron and protectress. A brilliant young artist tossed from her home with only the clothes on her back, Cerynise must now turn to a childhood companion for assistance - the dashing sea captain Beauregard Birmingham and beg him to provide her with passage to the Carolinas. She seeks a new home and a new life across the waters, but all depends upon the kindness of a charming adventurer who was once the object of her youthful infatuation. Beneath Birmingham′s rugged exterior beats a heart as large and wild as the Atlantic, and Beau readily agrees to aid Cerynise - even offering her his name in marriage, albeit temporarily, to protect his long time friend from scandal. But perilous secrets, determined enemies and tempests of the sea and soul threaten their future and safe passage even as bonds of camaraderie are miraculously reforged as bonds of desire ... and affection becomes passion and love.

MY THOUGHTS: Most of this was just awful. I liked the beginning and the last 50 pages or so. And it was 100 pages too long. This takes place in 1825 and spans about fourteen months. Cerynise is almost eighteen years old. She's American but has been living in England since both parents died five years earlier. Her guardian, Lydia, died and her nephew, Alistair, kicked Cerynise out of the house. He's a terrible person who's out to get money that doesn't belong to him and will travel to the ends of the earth to get it. He's a true villain and I like him.

Cerynise finds her way to where ships are docked and Beau takes her in. He's twenty-six and has known her all her life. This is where the story gets extremely boring. They travel back to South Carolina on his ship, 'Audacious.' They marry to keep Alistair from being her guardian, since she's underage, and for no reason really they don't get along during most of the three month voyage home. Nothing at all goes on except her sketching the crew members since she's a great artist. There's a bit of chemistry between Beau and Cerynise at this point and it does intensify as the story progresses. 

Once they're home, they go their separate ways for a short time then come together when Beau learns about something important involving Cerynise that happened on the ship while he was delirious from a fever. There's a section of about thirty-one pages where she meets Beau's entire family- mom, dad, brother, sisters, ect. and it just dragged on and on. The author clearly wanted to include characters from the two previous books in this series and I didn't appreciate it. It was pure filler material. During this time and toward the end of the story, bad things start happening to Cerynise and they have to find who's doing it. That part was very interesting but got to be too much at the very end, with too much happening all at once. There's a character named Germaine Hollingsworth, a woman who went to school with Cerynise who wants to marry Beau, and she's not happy to learn he married while in England. I like her character.

One thing that bothered me is that this book is too similar to the first in its series, The Flame and the Flower. Both heroines are the same age, down on their luck, end up at a dock, travel to America via ship, and once they're in America, someone's out to get the heroine, but this story was much more boring that the previous one.