Lace and Blade 2

Just in time for Valentine's Day... a charming second anthology brimming with romantic fantasy tales of swashbuckling ladies and daring gentlemen.... Readers will be left starry-eyed and hoping for the series to continue.

-- Publishers Weekly

Lace and Blade offers a banquet of adventure, intrigue and romance. There's something here to delight the palate of every reader's inner swashbuckler

-- Jacqueline Carey

LACE AND BLADE, an original anthology of elegant romantic fantasy, edited by Deborah J. Ross, appears every Valentine's Day...

In the spirit of classic period swashbucklers, Zorro, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and D'Artagnan, brimming with romantic courtly intrigue and dangerous liaisons, with cloak and dagger and perfumed handkerchiefs, the language of the fan and stolen glances, with the manners of Jane Austen and the sparkling rapier wit of Oscar Wilde, here are fantastic stories of adventure, derring-do, love, and glamorous yet subtle magic.

Don't hesitate another moment... step into a sophisticated other world where passion is a courtly mistress, mystery is moonlight on steel, and magic is the god of love.

En garde, mon amour

LACE AND BLADE 2

Contributors in this volume:

Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Mary Rosenblum, Diana L. Paxson, Francesca Forrest, Robin Wayne Bailey, Daniel Fox, Sherwood Smith, Traci N. Castleberry, Pauline Zed, Elisabeth Waters, Tanith Lee, and Madeleine E. Robins.

"Just in time for Valentine's Day, Ross delivers a charming second anthology brimming with romantic fantasy tales of swashbuckling ladies and daring gentleman. Among the best are two sequels to stories from 2008's Lace and Blade: in Diana L. Paxson's 'The Crow,' an old flame of Claude le Baron's has become entangled with a blood sacrifice cult, while in Robin Wayne Bailey's 'Trial by Midnight,' Lady Elena Sanchez y Vega and her beloved highwayman, Ramon Estrada, enjoy an adventure with startling repercussions on their future together. Also outstanding are Sherwood Smith's amusing tale 'Miss Austen's Castle Tour,' which suggests a 'mysterious gap in Austen's letters' might have occurred when Jane visited Count Dracula, and Tanith Lee's eloquent 'Comfort and Despair.' Readers will be left starry-eyed and hoping for the series to continue." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

In the spirit of classic period swashbucklers, here are fantastic stories of adventure, derring-do, love, and glamorous yet subtle magic. Contributors in this volume include Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Mary Rosenblum, Diana L. Paxson, Francesca Forrest, Robin Wayne Bailey, Daniel Fox, Sherwood Smith, Traci N. Castleberry, Pauline Zed, Elisabeth Waters, Tanith Lee, and Madeleine E. Robins.