November 6th, 2009
We romance lovers like our heroines brainy, don’t we?
There are many reasons to watch Fox’s new show Glee and high school heroine Rachel is just one of them. Rachel is the classic socially awkward over-achiever and – hello, romance stereotype it may be – a heroine who I’m rooting for. Big time. Rachel has a thing for popular guy Finn who also has a thing for Rachel, despite the fact that his pregnant cheerleader girlfriend has him believing that he’s the father of her baby. Which is a pretty strong indication that Finn’s bulb is a bit on the dim side since she also convinced him that her pregnancy resulted from a hot tub ejaculation incident. I really hate it when that happens.
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Tags: Glee, heroines, Romance
Posted in Heroines, Sandy AAR | 11 Comments »
November 5th, 2009
This confession will probably give some of you a heart attack, but I haven’t read any of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. I know, I know. It’s like I’ve been living under a rock buried 3 miles below the surface of the Earth. But lately I’ve been thinking about giving the first book a try. So I sent out a half-joking tweet on the subject. To my surprise, I received a personal response from my local library letting me know that Outlander is available for checkout, should I so desire. Now granted, I’m kind of a dork, but I thought this was really cool. So cool, in fact, that I decided to explore more of the digital/virtual features my local library offers, and get the perspective of the Sacramento Public Library’s Digital Services Librarian Megan Wong on the subject of libraries in the digital age.
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Tags: ebooks, libraries, online services, Outlander, Reading, Sacramento
Posted in Books, E-books, Katie AAR, Online, Reading, Techno News, Uncategorized | 14 Comments »
November 4th, 2009
Personally, if only given one choice I’d far prefer a bad beginning to a bad ending. The beginning sets the stage and opens the book, but who are we kidding? We’re romance readers. The ending’s the clincher. The ending’s our couple’s future. It’s the reader’s conviction that everything we just read is legit. If I don’t believe in the happy ending, then the story is sunk.
I’ve read hundreds of romance novels now, and I’ve got them pretty well sorted out. Many romance novels end in a big sexfest, but I’ve never liked these – the book feels like it’s celebrating hormones rather than hearts. Then there are Hallmark endings – you know which ones I’m talking about. They melt in each other’s arms. They declare undying love eternal. They become Lord Virile and Lady Fertile. They are, in fact, so busy being in love I’m more certain they aren’t. Saccharine endings do not appeal to me because they dwell in fairyland, and I like my stories dosed with reality.
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Tags: romance endings epilogues
Posted in Books, Jean AAR, Reading, Romance, Romance reading | 17 Comments »
November 3rd, 2009
Though we draw readers from around the world, this site is based in the United States and today is Election Day here in a number of states. So – we have a special little giveaway for you with not one, but two, prizes on the ballot.
First up, we have a copy of Keri Arthur’s latest release, Bound to Shadows, to give away. This is the eighth novel in the Riley Jenson series, which several of our reviewers have enjoyed in the past. If you haven’t read this series, you’re missing some good books!
And your other choice? We have 2 copies of The Untamed Bride by Stephanie Laurens for giveaway. Laurens has created her own world for her characters through the Cynster novels and the somewhat related Bastion Club. Now, with The Untamed Bride, she begins a new series called The Black Cobra Quartet. Though set in the same world as her previous books, these books can be read independently.
To enter, simply comment below and let us know which book you’re entering to win – or whether you’re entering for both. The Untamed Bride can be shipped to US, Canada and UK addresses only. However, Bound to Shadows can be shipped worldwide. This giveaway is open from now until 7:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, November 5, 2009, at which time I’ll turn things over to random.org to get our winners. Many thanks to Keri Arthur and Stephanie Laurens for donating these prizes!
-Lynn Spencer
Tags: Contests, Keri Arthur, Stephanie Laurens
Posted in Contests, Lynn AAR | 117 Comments »
November 2nd, 2009
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
October 30th, 2009
This spring I listened to the audiobook presentation of Impossible by Nancy Werlin, a young adult novel about a 17-year-old girl whose maternal line has been cursed by an evil elfin knight so that each generation becomes pregnant at seventeen and – unless she can solve the knight’s impossible riddle before she gives birth – forfeits her sanity to him. This sounds like kind of an odd set-up, but the story was quite good. Werlin states on her website that it was inspired by the ballad, “Scarborough Fair” (which the narrator sings this hauntingly throughout her performance of the novel).
Lucy Scarborough is one of a long line of Scarborough women who have gone insane and dropped out of their daughters’ lives. Lucy has two big advantages over her forebears, however: she has her mother Miranda’s diary, written while she was pregnant with Lucy, and she has support. Her foster parents are still in touch with Miranda, to the extent that they can be and they are willing to help Lucy when her time comes to need help. Lucy also has a childhood friend-cum-love interest named Zach who is willing to risk life and limb to make sure this time the curse does not triumph.
One thing that is interesting about this book is that, in a time of paranormal glut, the “hero” is a fairly ordinary human boy who is kind, loyal, and very smart, but not in any way supernaturally powerful. The elfin knight is the guy with all the powers, and he is very definitely the bad guy; Lucy is repulsed by him from the beginning.
Here is a video of Nancy Werlin explaining about her history of reading romance novels and why she made her hero a good guy and not a bad boy:
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Tags: bad boy heroes
Posted in AAR Rachel, Books, Reading | 11 Comments »
October 29th, 2009
Recently, I reread Thornton Wilder’s The Ides of March. It’s a book I’ve read with great pleasure before; this time I was particularly struck by the way the relationship between the poet Catullus and society lady Clodia is portrayed. He loves her with all his heart and writes great poems to her and about her; she sometimes admits him as her lover and spends time with him before jilting him again in favor of a rival. The novel leaves no doubt that Clodia is cruel and capricious; however, at this reading, I suddenly felt that I understood her right to jilt him, and her urge to do so. In spite of the undoubted depth of Catullus’ feelings, it is quite clear that Clodia does not feel as deeply for him. Yes, she might have treated him with far less cruelty, as Caesar points out to her, in ending the affair. But for the first time, my reaction as a reader was sympathy with her desire to regain her autonomy in the face of Catullus’s overwhelming love and of his general wonderfulness.
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Tags: Books, Carla Kelly, Charlotte Smith, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, lovers scorned, Thornton Wilder
Posted in Characters, Reading, Rike AAR, Uncategorized | 25 Comments »
October 28th, 2009
I’ve been in one for weeks now. Weeks and weeks.
I blame Diana Gabaldon. Echo in the Bone, a book I was very much looking forward to reading for review, became a chore. A drag. A book that I dreaded to pick up (and at 10,000 pages, picking it up is not all that easy either) so much that I seem to have lost my joy in reading. It got sucked right out of me. (Blythe took pity on me and reviewed the book. For which I will be eternally grateful.)
Soulless helped. I was hopeful there for a while. But a few C reads later and I am back to my bad habit of playing Solitaire and Bookworm on my iPhone and watching Real Housewives of Atlanta. I do not like playing Solitaire and Bookworm on my iPhone and watching Real Housewives of Atlanta. Night after night. After night after night. (Okay, so I really do like Real Housewives of Atlanta. Not giving that up.)
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Posted in Authors, Books, Reading, Romance reading, Sandy AAR | 56 Comments »
October 27th, 2009
Well, these things happen, don’t they?
Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Book Club Discussion of Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie has been moved from this weekend to Sunday, November 15th at 4 p.m., eastern time. We’re sorry for the delay, but, on the positive side, that gives you two more weeks to brush up on your Crusie or, for those lucky readers who haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting Phin and Sophie, to read it for the very first time.
We’ll see you here on the 15th. Whether you love the book – or not.
-Sandy AAR
Tags: Book Club, jennifer crusie, welcome to temptation
Posted in AAR book club, Sandy AAR | No Comments »
October 26th, 2009
I had planned to blog on something entirely different this week, but reading Katie’s blog last week made me think about one of my favorite times to read category books – the end of the year. As we roll into fall, I get so busy with work and then later with holidays that I don’t always have much time for outside reading beyond my review books. This is the time of year when my anthologies and category romances come out. Some are Christmas-themed, some not, but all are good for a short escape when things are very busy.
I have a big, hefty stack of paranormal series and 400+ page historicals waiting for the perfect winter afternoon, but for now I’m starting to hit the time of year when the perfect short story or category novel will definitely hit the spot. I’m planning to pick up some new anthologies and series books this fall, but I decided to pull out some of my favorites to reread, too.
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Tags: anthologies, novellas, Romance reading
Posted in Lynn AAR, Romance reading | 15 Comments »
