Posts Tagged ‘Anne Stuart’
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013
Hi, I’m Cindy, I have been doing AAR Reader polls with LinnieGayl and Lee for the last 7 years, and now I help with the updating of the Special Title Listings with Rike and LinnieGayl. It would be fair to say I love reading lists, my favorite lists being AAR Readers’ lists of favorite books. Now, ask me to rank my favorite romances and I freeze up. But I’ve learned from the best how every list created by a reader may have some caveats attached. I loved reading Jenna and Maggie’s lists because each came at it in different ways. Jenna took Pride and Prejudice off the table – it is just her very favorite book, it’s a classic and almost always ends up on a reader’s top romance ballot, so she posted it as a given. Maggie spoke of the books that created a journey to her reading preferences today and she mentioned the very first series book she read that would be considered an emotional favorite but left it off her final list.
In listing my favorites I originally made the rule that no author could be on the list more than one time. It forced me to think in a different way. Ask me to list my top 10 favorite Anne Stuart books and it would be agonizing, but to only allow one book made me look for the very best of each author’s work. I then promptly broke my rule because one author surprised me and showed me she could make any situation work. And finally, knowing this list wasn’t etched in stone helped me to move forward because I know tomorrow I can change my mind. With that, my list: (more…)
Tags: All About Romance, Anne Stuart, J.R. Ward, Katherine Sutcliffe, Kresley Cole, linda howard, loretta chase, Nalini Singh, Pamela Clare, Suzanne Brockmann, Top Ten lists
Posted in All About Romance, Books, Cindy AAR | 18 Comments »
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
Long before the Internet with authors’ webpages, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, I knew quite a bit about the authors whose books I read. I knew the names of their best friends, husbands, and children. I was able to surmise when they divorce, and when they remarried. I could tell when their children got married, the birth of grandchildren, and the death of a loved one. I knew their interests and hobbies from the environment to rescuing pets, knitting or four wheeling. And many times I knew of the struggle to get published, or family disapproval of their chosen genre. I discovered all this from just opening the book and reading the dedication page.
(more…)
Tags: All About Romance, Anne Stuart, dedications, Julia Quinn, Kathleen Gilles Seidel, sharon shinn, susan elizabeth phillips, Susanna Kearsley
Posted in Leigh AAR, Romance reading | 42 Comments »
Monday, June 20th, 2011
Every month, the staff here at AAR send me their lists of books on the new release list that they are eager to try. Going over the July list was extra fun because there were four new releases that clearly caught the attention of many. As I went through my emails, I wondered which book was going to hit the top slot. Would it be the new release from Loretta Chase or would it be Anne Stuart, Mary Balogh or Meredith Duran? In the end, Mary Balogh’s book won out with 11 AAR staffers declaring their anticipation of its arrival, but the books by Loretta Chase, Meredith Duran and Anne Stuart followed closely on its heels. In addition, as you can see from checking out the release list and our picks, July is looking like it could be a pretty good month.
|
Title and Author |
Reviewer |
 |
The Secret Mistress by Mary Balogh |
Blythe, Dabney, Rike, Heather S., Jean, Heather B., Maggie, Lee, Sandy, Pat, Jacqueline |
 |
Silk is for Seduction by Loretta Chase |
Sandy, Rike,Leigh, Dabney, Lee, Heather B., Wendy, Jean. Heather S., Jacqueline |
 |
300
A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal by Meredith Duran |
Lynn,Jean, Blythe, Jane, Wendy, Heather B., Rike, Lee, Heather S. |
 |
Shameless by Anne Stuart |
Jean, Sandy, Lea, Jacqueline, Dabney, Lee, Pat, Heather B., Wendy |
 |
Heartless by Gail Carriger |
LinnieGayl,Maggie, Blythe, Jean, Rike
|
 |
The Dark Enquiry by Deanna Raybourn |
Rike, Lee, LinnieGayl, Jean |
 |
One Summer by JoAnn Ross |
Leigh, LinnieGayl |
 |
This Perfect Kiss by Melody Thomas |
Dabney, Lea
|
 |
Give Me a Texas Outlaw by Jodi Thomas, Linda L. Broday, Phyliss Miranda, and Dewanna Pace |
Pat |
 |
Cold Touch by Leslie Parrish |
Lynn |
 |
Black Heart Loa by Adrian Phoenix |
Wendy |
 |
Sunset Bridge by Emilie Richards |
Leigh |
 |
Just Let Go… by Kathleen O’Reilly |
Rike |
 |
Inside by Brenda Novak |
Lynn |
 |
A Summer Reunion by Kasey Michaels, Sarah Mayberry and Teresa Southwick |
Leigh |
 |
Bayou Bodyguard by Jana DeLeon |
Rike |
 |
The Creed Legacy by Linda Lael Miller |
Pat |
Tags: All About Romance, Anne Stuart, Eagerly Awaited, Eagerly Awaiting, loretta chase, Mary Balogh, meredith duran
Posted in All About Romance, Lynn AAR, Romance reading | 12 Comments »
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
Notes from the Underground, written by Fyodor Dostoevsky begins with the famous opening line, “I am a sick man… I am a wicked man”. In the novel, Dostoevsky creates a hero who possesses all the characteristics of a villain: sarcasm, disillusionment, and a general lack of care for the well being of others. The hero is in actuality an anti-hero, a man who acts like a villain, but who ultimately possesses a core of goodness to redeem himself through words and actions.
(more…)
Tags: All About Romance, Anne Stuart, Laura Kinsale, linda howard, Lisa Kleypas
Posted in Heroes, Jacqueline AAR | 37 Comments »
Friday, April 1st, 2011
Earlier this year, Leigh blogged about liking lighter romance. I enjoyed her piece and it got me thinking about my own views on tone in the books I prefer to read. I certainly don’t mind humorous romance or laugh out loud slapstick in the least. The book within a book from What Happens in London is one of my romance reading highlights! However, I have a soft spot for the dark and angsty, or at least the dramatic and serious, and many books on my keeper shelf feature heroes and heroines who really had to work for that happy ending.
(more…)
Tags: All About Romance, Anne Stuart, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Karen Ranney, Laura Kinsale, Patricia Gaffney
Posted in Lynn AAR, Romance reading | 17 Comments »
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
This subject has been on my mind for a while, but two recent-ish blogs got me writing: Joanna Bourne’s musings on the topic, and Lynn’s request for Italian-set romance novels.
See, I love France. I love the food and the art and the cinema. I love the cobblestone streets strewn with leaves and dog poo alike, and I love the mega-stores and tiny boutiques. I appreciate their massive anal attitude towards their language, and am utterly envious of French women who all seem born with the Instant Style Gene. Whenever I go to France, the minute I step off the plane, I feel like I’ve come home.
In other words, I don’t get the semi-automatic “anti-French, anti-revolution bias” that Jennie at Dear Author says is “common to most everyone but the French”, but that, honestly, I think is really only common to English-speakers. (Stereo)typically-speaking. So I’m happy whenever I read a book that’s mainly set in France. (The temporary excursions just, somehow, don’t count.) Pre-Louis XIV is pretty thin on the grounds, but there’s always Susan Carroll’s witch series, starting with Silver Rose, and the second book of the Renaissance Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. In the pre-Revolutionary 18th century there are Georgette Heyer’s classic These Old Shades and Anne Stuart’s recent Ruthless. Turn-of-the-century, I’ve read Susan Johnson’s Forbidden and Judy Cuevas’ Beast, and heard amazing things about Bliss and Dance. All are really good books.
(more…)
Tags: Anne Stuart, cheryl sawyer, dorothy dunnett, France, Georgette Heyer, isolde martyn, Joanna Bourne, judith ivory, judy cuevas, susan carroll, susan johnson, susan squires
Posted in Books, Jean AAR, Reading, Romance reading, Settings | 29 Comments »
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
I sat down to write something kind of snarky about language use in historicals after having come across some particularly heinous examples lately, but I soon found myself thinking about something entirely different: Are we in the midst of a renaissance of the historical romance?
I think we may be getting there. Recently I read – and was blown away by – Anne Stuart’s Ruthless. The novel is a great one any way you choose to judge it, but it’s also noteworthy for taking place in 1765 in France. Yes, that’s right, I said France. But, refreshing as that different time and setting may be, I loved this book because it is a voluptuous (and, yes, I really think that word applies), full-bodied (yes, I like it, even if it is redundant), lush romance between a truly dissolute rake and a strong, self-reliant woman. And, even better, it reminded me of a classic of the author’s from a l-o-o-o-o-n-g time ago that I have saved since I first read it – Lord Satan’s Bride. And I am excited – oh, my, am I excited – about the remaining two books in the trilogy.
(more…)
Tags: Anne Stuart, historical romance, Joanna Bourne, laura lee guhrke, Lisa Kleypas, loretta chase, meredith duran, Sherry Thomas, Tessa Dare
Posted in Authors, Books, Historicals, Reading, Romance, Romance reading, Sandy AAR, Settings | 24 Comments »
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
With the publication of Harlequin’s Famous Firsts Collection, I recently read two romances from the 1980s, Debbie Macomber’s The Matchmakers and Anne Stuart’s Tangled Lies. Though Tangled Lies has a suspense plot, it is less prominent, and it seems fair to consider both romances essentially contemporaries, albeit very different ones in style. After finishing both, I found myself pondering whether they seemed more timeless or dated to me.
(more…)
Tags: Anne Stuart, Debbie Macomber, history of romance, Romance reading
Posted in Books, Characters, Heroes, Reading, Romance reading | 9 Comments »
