Anna Campbell
Author of Untouched
About the Author
Anna Campbell is the author of Her Christmas Earl, which tied for the Ella Award for best published novella in 2015 with Anna Hackett's Beneath a Trojan Moon. She also made the Australian Romance Readers Awards 2015 finalist. (Bowker Author Biography)
Image credit: Romance Bandits
Series
Works by Anna Campbell
Associated Works
The Mammoth Book of Regency Romance [Anthology 23-in-1] (2010) — Contributor — 110 copies, 7 reviews
The Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance (18 Tales of Supernatural Love) (2012) — Contributor — 64 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Campbell, Anna
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Queensland
- Awards and honors
- AAR Annual Reader Poll (Best New Author, 2008)
- Agent
- Julie Culver
- Short biography
- Anna Campbell was born in Brisbane, Australia, and grew up on an avocado farm with views of Moreton Bay and Stradbroke Island. After various jobs and as much travel as she could afford, including a stay of several years in the United Kingdom, she has now settled near the sea on the east coast of Australia.
Anna decided to become a writer shortly after she learned to walk. Then she discovered romance novels and realized she just had to be a romance writer and tell stories about love and hope and triumph through adversity, not forgetting gorgeous, passionate men. She got an idea for her first novel: a dark, sexy Regency historical about a duke who wants to marry his mistress, London's most notorious courtesan. And No Ordinary Duchess, which Avon released in April 2007 as Claiming the Courtesan, was born. Since then, she continues publishing. Her stories has been released in Australia, USA, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Russia. - Nationality
- Australia
- Birthplace
- Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Places of residence
- UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- Queensland, Australia
Members
Reviews
What a delightful holiday treat! It’s got all the necessary elements: the big sister who has forsworn her own happiness to care for her sisters, the lord of the manor who seems oblivious to everything except his own selfish satisfaction, the faithful housekeeper, the precocious children, the accident, the storm. Author Anna Campbell has blended everything together and come up with a story you absolutely will not be able to put down. You’ll forget whatever it was you intended to do before show more you started reading, because you won’t be able to focus on anything else until you finish this wonderful book.
Anthea is determined to give her sisters one last memorable Christmas before Wicked Cousin Christopher, the Earl of Denton, kicks them out of their home without a second thought. Would she still have rescued this handsome, intriguing stranger who fell from his horse in the snow and suffered a head injury if she had known this appealing man was actually their nemesis? Christopher, for his part, is smitten with Anthea the minute he lays eyes on her, but after he overhears the girls talking about this wicked cousin who is unfortunately him, he realizes a formal introduction is probably not his best course of action. So he pretends that bump on the head made him lose his memory. He only intends to have this memory loss for a little while, just until Anthea and the girls get to know and love him. But you know how lies are: one leads to another, then another, those fake details can be tricky to keep track of, and there comes a point where you’ve waited too long and there’s nothing you can say that won’t make things worse.
Author Campbell always manages to create the perfect mix of sweetness and sass and scoundrels and romance with just the right amount of heat, and Four Christmas Kisses is an excellent example of that. You can see right away that these people should be a family and you can’t wait to get to what you hope is an amazing happy-ever-after, but you’re having too much fun and laughing too hard watching Christopher and Anthea flirt and fumble and pine and nearly test those Regency rule boundaries to want it to end too soon. I enjoyed this book so much. I recommend it as totally, completely satisfying any time of the year! show less
Anthea is determined to give her sisters one last memorable Christmas before Wicked Cousin Christopher, the Earl of Denton, kicks them out of their home without a second thought. Would she still have rescued this handsome, intriguing stranger who fell from his horse in the snow and suffered a head injury if she had known this appealing man was actually their nemesis? Christopher, for his part, is smitten with Anthea the minute he lays eyes on her, but after he overhears the girls talking about this wicked cousin who is unfortunately him, he realizes a formal introduction is probably not his best course of action. So he pretends that bump on the head made him lose his memory. He only intends to have this memory loss for a little while, just until Anthea and the girls get to know and love him. But you know how lies are: one leads to another, then another, those fake details can be tricky to keep track of, and there comes a point where you’ve waited too long and there’s nothing you can say that won’t make things worse.
Author Campbell always manages to create the perfect mix of sweetness and sass and scoundrels and romance with just the right amount of heat, and Four Christmas Kisses is an excellent example of that. You can see right away that these people should be a family and you can’t wait to get to what you hope is an amazing happy-ever-after, but you’re having too much fun and laughing too hard watching Christopher and Anthea flirt and fumble and pine and nearly test those Regency rule boundaries to want it to end too soon. I enjoyed this book so much. I recommend it as totally, completely satisfying any time of the year! show less
I adore this story. Ms. Campbell creates a beautiful coming-of-age tale that explores the heartbreak of unrequited love and the journey of finding oneself after tragedy.
The story is told from Camden and Blessing's views and in the past and present which is a tough writing style to pull off, but the author does it well.
Camden Holbrook is a pivotal character with his tragic life growing up with a drug-addicted mother, searching for food, searching for normal, and searching for love. Despite show more these hardships, he is a good person and has a great sense of responsibility for Blessing's family. Her father, Pastor Savage, was the only father figure he ever had and his promise to keep Blessing safe is tearing him apart. In his experience, love and loss go hand-in-hand so he can't give in to his feelings for Blessing.
Blessing Savage is perfectly flawed. She feels and loves strongly. After that tragic call from Camden that shattered her world, she has been adrift without an anchor. The more she reaches for Camden's support, the more he backs away. So the preacher's daughter recklessly rebels by joining a sorority by drinking and partying to excess. Her anger at Camden's constant vigil of judging her and interfering with her life only confuses her until the unforgivable happens and she sends him away.
Observing the two characters meet as children in Blessing's father's church eating elephant animal crackers and then seeing them fall apart as young adults after a tragic loss is so heartrending. Their struggles are genuine and believable and their self-discovery is painful, but it is worth waiting to see Camden and Blessing grow and become the incredible adults they are meant to be.
A Blessing and a Curse is a must-read for anyone who has ever felt the pain of loss. The story is filled with raw emotion and authentic characters that leave a lasting impression on this reader.
Thank you to Ms. Campbell for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review. show less
The story is told from Camden and Blessing's views and in the past and present which is a tough writing style to pull off, but the author does it well.
Camden Holbrook is a pivotal character with his tragic life growing up with a drug-addicted mother, searching for food, searching for normal, and searching for love. Despite show more these hardships, he is a good person and has a great sense of responsibility for Blessing's family. Her father, Pastor Savage, was the only father figure he ever had and his promise to keep Blessing safe is tearing him apart. In his experience, love and loss go hand-in-hand so he can't give in to his feelings for Blessing.
Blessing Savage is perfectly flawed. She feels and loves strongly. After that tragic call from Camden that shattered her world, she has been adrift without an anchor. The more she reaches for Camden's support, the more he backs away. So the preacher's daughter recklessly rebels by joining a sorority by drinking and partying to excess. Her anger at Camden's constant vigil of judging her and interfering with her life only confuses her until the unforgivable happens and she sends him away.
Observing the two characters meet as children in Blessing's father's church eating elephant animal crackers and then seeing them fall apart as young adults after a tragic loss is so heartrending. Their struggles are genuine and believable and their self-discovery is painful, but it is worth waiting to see Camden and Blessing grow and become the incredible adults they are meant to be.
A Blessing and a Curse is a must-read for anyone who has ever felt the pain of loss. The story is filled with raw emotion and authentic characters that leave a lasting impression on this reader.
Thank you to Ms. Campbell for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review. show less
I went into this book with some expectations, having heard a bit about how controversial it was when it came out. Words like "offensive" and "forced seduction" were bandied about a lot, and so I thought Claiming the Courtesan would test the limits of the genre in a way that’s challenging and provocative, or, at the very least, interesting. How very wrong I was. Since pages of vitriol (which is all I feel like writing after reading Claiming the Courtesan) wouldn’t be very helpful as a show more review, I’ll try and restrain myself. I’m not making any promises though. I really really really didn’t like this book. I couldn't decide if it was simply dated or if the bodice ripper 80s feel was part of a more deliberate attempt to subvert and disturb. I’m guessing the latter was the intent, but the book failed so horribly at it that the former was the case. I thought the whole thing was just plain crazy, and not in a good way.
Synopsis: Verity Ashton, alias Soraya, is the coolest courtesan out there. All the randy dukes and viscounts and even plain misters are fighting and killing themselves over her. After six years of waiting, Justin, the Duke of Kylemore has her for his own. When the story starts, they’ve been together for a year, and Verity, per the agreements of her contract with him, is terminating their relationship. Since she’s worried he’ll put up a fuss, she sneaks off without telling him to start her new life as a fake widow living in the country, doing good works. Soraya is dead and gone to her. The Duke, so that we can have a story, goes crazy, chases after her, catches her, and carts her off to the highlands so that he can wreck his vengeance and have his wicked way with her a million bazillion times. And that’s exactly what he does – maybe my count is a bit off, but it certainly seemed like all they do is boink.
The book hints at the possibility of the duke’s madness, through the age old fear that since his father was crazy, maybe he could be too. This could have been interesting in a cool and edgy way, and I think the book aspires towards a gothic feel in this sense, but its reach far exceeds its grasp. Of course Justin’s not really crazy – he can’t be the dashing hero of the romance if he were. But to me the guy is nuts – as in his character is an incoherent babbling mess of extreme emotions that are never examined or explored. He’s obsessed! He’s angry! He’s sad! He’s ashamed! He’s angry! He’s still obsessed! His only consistency is that he’s horny. All the time. I couldn't care less for Justin’s supposed remorse and shame after each time he rapes Verity. Nor is his obsession with her remotely sexy. If this kind of schizophrenia isn’t bad enough, the book manages to be boring as well. Schizoid and dry as dust? Who knew such a combination was even possible. The prose is florid, over exaggerated, clunky, awkward, and repetitive.
The redundancy is thanks to Verity as well, who goes on and on about how she hates Justin. She tries to resist him, but he sure can give her the best sex of her life, or make her fly around in the stars or whatever this author calls it. The sex scenes were torture to read – not because half of them are rape, but because they’re so boring. So I couldn’t even muster up any outrage or sympathy on Verity’s behalf. The situation had a lot of potential, but rather than a complex exploration of Justin's actions and their repercussions, all I got was melodrama. Verity and Justin are a couple of cardboard cut outs indulging in erratic outbursts, all of which is supposed to pass for powerful emotion. The book is purportedly about obsession and redemption, but all I saw was a farce as the demented characters ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.
The first half is about the hero and heroine having sex then berating themselves and the other for it afterwards, then going at it again, then berating each other again… you get the drill. This is the “controversial” part I assume. As detailed above, that didn’t work for me, not because it was offensive, but because it was boring and didn’t make any sense. The book only goes downhill from there when the author tries to convince me that Verity and Justine are falling in love with each other. Cue every cliché you can imagine. The plot was tired and predictable. Verity and Justin each have their sob stories. By invoking the old formula, even if the author’s intent was to subvert it, she only manages to entrench her story all the more solidly in the tedium of two transparent characters who aren’t nearly as evil/tough as they’re advertised. In this respect, the book is one big lie. Justin isn’t ruthless and cold. He’s a tortured soul. He just needs some TLC. And the big “revelation” of his dark, sad, terrible childhood – it was nothing! I couldn’t believe that was what all the fuss was about, particularly since this “big secret” was practically spelled out for us early on. So Justin just seemed like a big baby to me. I couldn’t take him seriously at all.
Verity is even worse though. She’s a courtesan, right? But so that the author can pussyfoot around this scandalous detail, she gives Verity a split personality disorder. There’s Soraya the whore and Verity the Madonna. This supposed “conflict” is never more than superficially addressed, and the whole book is drawn according to a garish black and white divide. Verity is your typical harebrained martyr. She only started out on her path of sin in order to save her brother and sister. Campbell goes so far as to actually recover Verity’s long lost virginity. I kid you not. As Verity, she goes from acting the virgin to becoming a pseudo-virgin. Campbell actually did that. She actually went there and has the hero rejoicing in how sweet and wonderful and innocent Verity is when he finds out she’s only had three lovers, including him. As part of her goodness, she has to play the ministering angel to the duke’s tortured rake act – he’s a suffering fellow creature. She just can’t say no to him! He has nightmares, and she heals and comforts him after he rapes her. Because she loves him. Don’t ask me to try and understand the logic of that. The book never explores their relationship. It just goes on and on about a deep, awesome “connection” between the two of them, without ever venturing to demonstrate what this “connection” might be exactly – besides flying through the stars in climaxes from heaven, that is.
Soon after Verity thinks she loves Justin, she decides this means she has to run away. She’s not too bright, remember. She runs off into the wilderness (we’re supposed to believe that this is a sign of her courage.) Her flight causes Justin to have his random epiphany that maybe he shouldn’t have kidnapped and raped her, and he’s so, so sorry, he hates himself, he’s evil, what has he done! He has to save her from herself because she could die out in the wilds of Scotland. Because she is stupid, she almost does, and falls off a cliff. Yep. It’s awesome. Less awesome is the fact that he manages to save her and pull her to safety, not only because her demise would mean the end of the book, but also because the author manages to make this terrifying brush with death drag on at a torturously slow, stumbling pace.
The rest of the book involves endless vacillations on the parts of Verity and Justin. He bends over backwards in his remorse, agonizing over how she could never love him after what he did to her, (you think?) all while still wanting to shag her brains out. He will be good and let her go though (this is supposed to make me like him I guess.) As for Verity, she loves him, but knows that it would never work out because he’s a duke and she’s a whore and his loving her will destroy him (whatever that means.) So she has to give him up. She does this over and over again, saying she has to leave him (and of course she has to tell him this in the most dramatic way possible, hiding her broken heart so that he doesn’t know she loves him, so that he in turn can go off in transports of misery, dramatic moaning, and pain. Yay for misunderstandings that are not only big and stupid, but deliberately so,) then hunting him down again so that she can tell him again that she has to leave him, WHILE NEVER ACTUALLY LEAVING HIM.
Oh, and Verity gets kidnapped again – not by the duke this time, who’s busy trying to give Verity a run for her money as a martyr, but by our random, tardy villain of the story, his evil mother (even more of a cardboard cut out than Verity and Justin, if you can believe it,) who wants him to marry anyone but Verity. As with the cliff fiasco, the pace here drags interminably, with much waving of pistols and awkwardness. Turns out self defense is one of the skills of a courtesan, if you didn’t know. The action portions of the story are certainly not this author’s strong suit.
This book is neither daring nor different. It’s the same old story told badly. And I couldn’t even begin to formulate an opinion on the book’s “controversial” nature or lack thereof re: rape/forced seduction, because the plot is executed so shoddily that I have nothing to work with. If you want to read a true redemption/healing story, I’d recommend Beau Crusoe. The hero has nightmares in that book as well, and madness is an issue too, but Beau Crusoe depicts real emotions and believable characters, with beautiful writing thrown into the bargain – none of which can be found in Claiming the Courtesan. show less
Synopsis: Verity Ashton, alias Soraya, is the coolest courtesan out there. All the randy dukes and viscounts and even plain misters are fighting and killing themselves over her. After six years of waiting, Justin, the Duke of Kylemore has her for his own. When the story starts, they’ve been together for a year, and Verity, per the agreements of her contract with him, is terminating their relationship. Since she’s worried he’ll put up a fuss, she sneaks off without telling him to start her new life as a fake widow living in the country, doing good works. Soraya is dead and gone to her. The Duke, so that we can have a story, goes crazy, chases after her, catches her, and carts her off to the highlands so that he can wreck his vengeance and have his wicked way with her a million bazillion times. And that’s exactly what he does – maybe my count is a bit off, but it certainly seemed like all they do is boink.
The book hints at the possibility of the duke’s madness, through the age old fear that since his father was crazy, maybe he could be too. This could have been interesting in a cool and edgy way, and I think the book aspires towards a gothic feel in this sense, but its reach far exceeds its grasp. Of course Justin’s not really crazy – he can’t be the dashing hero of the romance if he were. But to me the guy is nuts – as in his character is an incoherent babbling mess of extreme emotions that are never examined or explored. He’s obsessed! He’s angry! He’s sad! He’s ashamed! He’s angry! He’s still obsessed! His only consistency is that he’s horny. All the time. I couldn't care less for Justin’s supposed remorse and shame after each time he rapes Verity. Nor is his obsession with her remotely sexy. If this kind of schizophrenia isn’t bad enough, the book manages to be boring as well. Schizoid and dry as dust? Who knew such a combination was even possible. The prose is florid, over exaggerated, clunky, awkward, and repetitive.
The redundancy is thanks to Verity as well, who goes on and on about how she hates Justin. She tries to resist him, but he sure can give her the best sex of her life, or make her fly around in the stars or whatever this author calls it. The sex scenes were torture to read – not because half of them are rape, but because they’re so boring. So I couldn’t even muster up any outrage or sympathy on Verity’s behalf. The situation had a lot of potential, but rather than a complex exploration of Justin's actions and their repercussions, all I got was melodrama. Verity and Justin are a couple of cardboard cut outs indulging in erratic outbursts, all of which is supposed to pass for powerful emotion. The book is purportedly about obsession and redemption, but all I saw was a farce as the demented characters ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.
The first half is about the hero and heroine having sex then berating themselves and the other for it afterwards, then going at it again, then berating each other again… you get the drill. This is the “controversial” part I assume. As detailed above, that didn’t work for me, not because it was offensive, but because it was boring and didn’t make any sense. The book only goes downhill from there when the author tries to convince me that Verity and Justine are falling in love with each other. Cue every cliché you can imagine. The plot was tired and predictable. Verity and Justin each have their sob stories. By invoking the old formula, even if the author’s intent was to subvert it, she only manages to entrench her story all the more solidly in the tedium of two transparent characters who aren’t nearly as evil/tough as they’re advertised. In this respect, the book is one big lie. Justin isn’t ruthless and cold. He’s a tortured soul. He just needs some TLC. And the big “revelation” of his dark, sad, terrible childhood – it was nothing! I couldn’t believe that was what all the fuss was about, particularly since this “big secret” was practically spelled out for us early on. So Justin just seemed like a big baby to me. I couldn’t take him seriously at all.
Verity is even worse though. She’s a courtesan, right? But so that the author can pussyfoot around this scandalous detail, she gives Verity a split personality disorder. There’s Soraya the whore and Verity the Madonna. This supposed “conflict” is never more than superficially addressed, and the whole book is drawn according to a garish black and white divide. Verity is your typical harebrained martyr. She only started out on her path of sin in order to save her brother and sister. Campbell goes so far as to actually recover Verity’s long lost virginity. I kid you not. As Verity, she goes from acting the virgin to becoming a pseudo-virgin. Campbell actually did that. She actually went there and has the hero rejoicing in how sweet and wonderful and innocent Verity is when he finds out she’s only had three lovers, including him. As part of her goodness, she has to play the ministering angel to the duke’s tortured rake act – he’s a suffering fellow creature. She just can’t say no to him! He has nightmares, and she heals and comforts him after he rapes her. Because she loves him. Don’t ask me to try and understand the logic of that. The book never explores their relationship. It just goes on and on about a deep, awesome “connection” between the two of them, without ever venturing to demonstrate what this “connection” might be exactly – besides flying through the stars in climaxes from heaven, that is.
Soon after Verity thinks she loves Justin, she decides this means she has to run away. She’s not too bright, remember. She runs off into the wilderness (we’re supposed to believe that this is a sign of her courage.) Her flight causes Justin to have his random epiphany that maybe he shouldn’t have kidnapped and raped her, and he’s so, so sorry, he hates himself, he’s evil, what has he done! He has to save her from herself because she could die out in the wilds of Scotland. Because she is stupid, she almost does, and falls off a cliff. Yep. It’s awesome. Less awesome is the fact that he manages to save her and pull her to safety, not only because her demise would mean the end of the book, but also because the author manages to make this terrifying brush with death drag on at a torturously slow, stumbling pace.
The rest of the book involves endless vacillations on the parts of Verity and Justin. He bends over backwards in his remorse, agonizing over how she could never love him after what he did to her, (you think?) all while still wanting to shag her brains out. He will be good and let her go though (this is supposed to make me like him I guess.) As for Verity, she loves him, but knows that it would never work out because he’s a duke and she’s a whore and his loving her will destroy him (whatever that means.) So she has to give him up. She does this over and over again, saying she has to leave him (and of course she has to tell him this in the most dramatic way possible, hiding her broken heart so that he doesn’t know she loves him, so that he in turn can go off in transports of misery, dramatic moaning, and pain. Yay for misunderstandings that are not only big and stupid, but deliberately so,) then hunting him down again so that she can tell him again that she has to leave him, WHILE NEVER ACTUALLY LEAVING HIM.
Oh, and Verity gets kidnapped again – not by the duke this time, who’s busy trying to give Verity a run for her money as a martyr, but by our random, tardy villain of the story, his evil mother (even more of a cardboard cut out than Verity and Justin, if you can believe it,) who wants him to marry anyone but Verity. As with the cliff fiasco, the pace here drags interminably, with much waving of pistols and awkwardness. Turns out self defense is one of the skills of a courtesan, if you didn’t know. The action portions of the story are certainly not this author’s strong suit.
This book is neither daring nor different. It’s the same old story told badly. And I couldn’t even begin to formulate an opinion on the book’s “controversial” nature or lack thereof re: rape/forced seduction, because the plot is executed so shoddily that I have nothing to work with. If you want to read a true redemption/healing story, I’d recommend Beau Crusoe. The hero has nightmares in that book as well, and madness is an issue too, but Beau Crusoe depicts real emotions and believable characters, with beautiful writing thrown into the bargain – none of which can be found in Claiming the Courtesan. show less
IÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_m a sucker for an over the top historical romance. The ones with florid faux ballgown covers. Anna Campbell is a mistress of the art with her novels frequently called Regency Noir because they are dark, often Gothic. This one is a fine example of the genre.
Innocent, but slightly over the hill Sidonie prepares to offer her maidenhead to Jones Merrick, the bastard son of a Viscount. She wants to get the gambling debts of her sister wiped out, so show more sheÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_s prepared to sacrifice her virtue. Merrick is a classic Beast with scared face and sheÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_s the Classic untouched Beauty whoÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_s determined never to marry because of how her dastardly brother-in-law (and MerrickÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_s enemy) treats her sister.
Of course, a bargain is struck and Sidonie agrees to spend seven nights in his bed. The inevitable happens and they fall in love with each other. But that is really where the story starts.
Campbell is a wonderfully lush writer and her eroticism is much more compelling than most erotic romance writers on the market today. IÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_ve been very jaded with most romance lately, so it was a relief to find myself engaged with good writing. Generally I donÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_t like romances where the hero and heroine are virtually the only characters (I tend to find that style boring) but this one worked. show less
Innocent, but slightly over the hill Sidonie prepares to offer her maidenhead to Jones Merrick, the bastard son of a Viscount. She wants to get the gambling debts of her sister wiped out, so show more sheÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_s prepared to sacrifice her virtue. Merrick is a classic Beast with scared face and sheÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_s the Classic untouched Beauty whoÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_s determined never to marry because of how her dastardly brother-in-law (and MerrickÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_s enemy) treats her sister.
Of course, a bargain is struck and Sidonie agrees to spend seven nights in his bed. The inevitable happens and they fall in love with each other. But that is really where the story starts.
Campbell is a wonderfully lush writer and her eroticism is much more compelling than most erotic romance writers on the market today. IÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_ve been very jaded with most romance lately, so it was a relief to find myself engaged with good writing. Generally I donÂÃ_ÂÃ_ÂÃ_t like romances where the hero and heroine are virtually the only characters (I tend to find that style boring) but this one worked. show less
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