Archive for the ‘Settings’ Category
Thursday, May 17th, 2012
Introduction first: In case you were unaware of the 1000 Awesome Things blog, Neil Pasricha was at a down point in his life a couple of years ago, and decided to cheer himself up by blogging about the good, often unnoticed, things in life. When gas prices go down just as you need some gas. When you turn a pillow onto its fresh side. The fact that we exist. When a cashier opens a new cash line. You know – awesome things.
1000 posts and 3 bestsellers later, the blog is over. In (belated) honour of the 1000th post, I decided to write about the awesome things in romance. It’s been a good exercise, because too often I focus on the annoying or tedious in romance novels. But despite the bad stuff, there are many reasons I stick with romance novels, and they’re all awesome (in my opinion, anyway). So here, counting down, are my Five Awesome Romance Things.
5. You can’t please everyone, but you can please someone. Publishing is a transient business. Just think of all those thousands – no, millions of books that clutter used bookstores, books that are in and out of print, remembered and forgotten. But what’s great about romances is that even 999 people think a book’s absolute crap, there’s probably at least one person who finds it awesomer than Kraft Dinner.
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Tags: awesome blog, awesome things
Posted in Books, Characters, Heroes, Heroines, Jean AAR, Reading, Romance, Romance reading, Settings | 20 Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
Growing up I read a lot of historical novels. Many were set in the U.S., most in rural areas like the Appalachian, Ozark, or Smoky Mountain regions, the backwoods of Kentucky or the bayous of Louisiana. They primarily took place between the Civil War and World War II. They featured young, plucky heroines who wanted more from life than what was available to them at home. Some, like Ballad of Calamity Creek and Christy , focused on young women who came to the mountains to offer people education and discovered wisdom and love in the rural areas where they worked. Others, like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm or Heidi , involved young women leaving rural communities to better their opportunities. And still others, like the Little House on the Prairie saga simply showed what life on a farm or homestead was like. Invariably these heroines were cheerful, hardworking young women who embraced the honest values and down-to-earth life style of country living.
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Tags: All About Romance
Posted in Maggie AAR, Romance reading, Settings | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
What is it about over-priced, calorie-laden, exotic cupcakes that has everyone in such a twitter? I don’t get it. I particularly don’t get it when a friend was telling me that she bought cupcakes for her daughter’s class at school and thought she had a bargain because they didn’t cost over $100. Fifteen cupcakes for under $100? Is that really a bargain these days?
Then I started getting review books that featured cupcake bakers who find love through exotic ingredients and piles of frosting.
First I read Cupcake Rush by Donna Kauffman, and while I understood the minimalist approach of baking small goodies rather than a huge cake, I didn’t really buy that an upscale New York baker would chuck it all to become a cupcake specialist in a downscale Southern seaside town. But I didn’t think much about the cupcake angle.
Then the avalanche of cupcake books landed on me:
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Tags: cupcakes, romance novels
Posted in Books, Pat Henshaw, Reading, Romance reading, Settings | 30 Comments »
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
It’s that time of the year – when we get to celebrate our favorites and do nothing but gush. As usual, everyone picks one favorite (but can also mention their favorite runners up).
This year is similar to last in a few ways: Historicals seem to be carrying the day for many of us, and there isn’t a lot of consensus. Only two books received more than one top nod, and our winner received only three. Though a majority are historicals, our choices include some paranormals, Urban Fantasy, and YA. Here are the books that had us sighing with pleasure and turning pages into the night in 2011:
Louise: The best books that I read this year were not 2011 books, so I had trouble with both the poll and this question. I guess if I was going to name the best 2011 book that I read there would give a slight edge to Jamie MacGuire’s Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire – a great story about two people who are both scarred from their pasts and who become something of a train wreck as a couple until they learn to work things out and realize how much better they are together than apart.
I also loved Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison – an all around great book – clever, funny, steamy, romantic, plus a great starting place for a new series. I guess a third choice would be Spellweaver by Lynn Kurland because as a fan of the series, this book was one I anxiously waited for and thoroughly enjoyed. It is hard to place it on a “best book” list, though, because it is really part two of three and the story wasn’t complete until the third part.
Bessie: I haven’t been reading a lot of straight romance. This year has been catching up with some series of urban fantasy. The new series that was the most fun is by Kevin Hearne -The Iron Druid Chronicles. Atticus is a 2000 year old druid who looks like a 20-something slacker. He runs an occult bookshop in Arizona and lives with his Irish wolfhound Oberon. They share and psychic bond and have some hilarious conversations. The first three titles were all published in 2011: Hounded, Hexed and Hammered. Number 4 is coming out this spring: Tricked. The other series that I zipped through was the Cal and Niko Leandros series by Rob Thurman. Blackout came out in 2011.
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Posted in AAR Blythe, Authors, Books, Reading, Romance reading, Settings | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
In my search for good historical reading, I’ll admit that I’m sometimes guilty of something. I’ll moan about Regency-set historicals as a shorthand for “historicals with idiot twit leads, wallpaper settings and stupid gimmicks that make me crazy.” And I know that’s not fair of me. The Regency period itself has much to recommend it, and modern-day silliness dressed up in poofy gowns was certainly not what it was all about. I don’t dislike the Regency period as a historical era; it’s more that I’ve read too many books that claim this time period as their setting even though one would never be able to discern this from the text of the book itself.
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Tags: All About Romance, Regency England, Roberta Gellis, Tracy Grant
Posted in Lynn AAR, Romance reading, Settings, Uncategorized | 27 Comments »
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
Even a casual visitor to the AAR message boards quickly learns one thing: We are an opinionated bunch.
And in just about every thread somebody posts about a plot device they loathe. Be it a couple who jumps into bed right off the bat or an arranged marriage, the list of plot devices that we loathe seems to number in the thousands. Maybe millions.
Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit here, but not by much. We’re a bunch of cranky pants.
And, when you think about it, we’re leaving authors with little to nothing to work with. Because constructing a plot that doesn’t feature any of the devices that someone loathes would be nearly impossible.
Here’s what I think: We’ve gotten so narrow in our list of what we’re looking for when we read, that we’re denying ourselves a whole lot of good stuff.
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Posted in Authors, Books, Characters, Heroes, Heroines, Historicals, Online, Publishing, Reading, Romance, Romance reading, Sandy AAR, Settings | 28 Comments »
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
I recently attended an event featuring three historical mystery writers at Aunt Agatha’s bookstore. Two of the authors – Jeanne M. Dams and D.E. Johnson – set their mystery series in the United States during the early 1900s. The third, Carrie Bebris, writes mysteries set in Regency England. And for AAR readers who like mysteries with a bit of romance, I can definitely recommend the books by Ms. Dams and Ms. Bebris.
Jeanne M. Dams, Murder in Burnt Orange, is the 7th in her Hilda Johansson series, set in early 1900s South Bend, Indiana. When the series began, Hilda was a maid to the Studebakers, the wealthy South Bend family who owned the Studebaker car company. Hilda quickly became involved with mysteries. A lot has changed for Hilda over the course of the series, and by the seventh book, she’s married and pregnant with her first child. Ms. Dams also writes the Dorothy Martin series featuring an ex-pat American widow in her sixties who lives in England.
Carrie Bebris’ The Deception at Lyme, is the sixth in her Mr. and Mrs. Darcy series; yes, that Mr. and Mrs. Darcy. Each book in the series is based loosely on the characters from a Jane Austen books. Ms. Bebris refers to them as the Nick and Nora Charles of Regency England, but they drink tea instead of alcohol. In her latest, Elizabeth and Darcy go to Lyme (setting for the seawall scene in Austen’s Persuasion).
D. E. Johnson’s latest book, his second, Motor City Shakedown is set in 1911 Detroit. His protagonist, Will Anderson, is the fictional son of a real Detroit car company owner. In his second book, Will walks into the first mob war in Detroit history.
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Posted in Authors, Book Signing News, Books, Characters, Heroes, Heroines, LinnieGayl AAR, Reading, Settings | 8 Comments »
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
I recently began re-listening to Jayne Ann Krentz’s Eclipse Bay, the first in her Eclipse Bay trilogy, originally published over 10 years ago. After being very frustrated by her recent Arcane series books, this re-listen has been refreshing. I’ve found myself wishing that Ms. Krentz would write another series like her Eclipse Bay series, with no paranormal elements (well, except in the mind of one of the secondary characters). Or if not a series, I would love to read a straight contemporary by her such as Trust Me or Family Man.
This re-listen has also reminded me of some of my other romance novel wishes. Now these aren’t about my desires for specific settings (Egypt, Malta, and Santorini head that list) or time periods (post-World War I is a particular favorite). These are wishes I have for books I want specific authors to write.
First up is a wish for Colby Hodge. One of the first books I reviewed here at AAR was her paranormal time travel Twist. Abbey, the heroine, is smart and tough, but has her girly moments. I would love to see this turn into a series, or at least have a sequel where Abbey and the real Shane get to spend some time together.
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Tags: romance novels
Posted in Authors, Books, Characters, LinnieGayl AAR, Reading, Romance, Romance reading, Settings | 39 Comments »
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
I recently listened to Elizabeth Peters’ first Amelia Peabody book Crocodile on the Sandbank for an audiobooks review here at AAR. I was reminded of one of my early posts at the original After Hours site, in which I talked about my favorite couples in mysteries. Some of the authors I originally discussed have stopped writing their series (Nancy Pickard’s Jenny Cain mysteries and Gillian Roberts’ Amanda Pepper mysteries, for example). And as much as I love Elizabeth Peters, her last Amelia Peabody, A River in the Sky, was not one of my favorite reads. A few of the other series I discussed (Carolyn Hart’s Annie Darling mysteries and Diane Mott Davidson’s Goldy Schulz mysteries) are now just hit-or-miss for me.
However, over the past few years I’ve discovered a number of other mystery series that show promise. While the romance threads vary in intensity and emphasis across the series, I still find them all enjoyable.
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Posted in Authors, Books, LinnieGayl AAR, Reading, Settings | 29 Comments »
Friday, July 15th, 2011
You know, the veil between publishing and authors and readers is pretty much kaput these days. And, frankly, I kind of miss it.
I miss the days when I didn’t know anything about authors and just picked out the books I wanted to read while browsing in the bookstore before author names started to leak through. I miss the days when books took place all over the world in exotic places and times. Some were in Regency England, but we all had a taste for diversity back then. I particularly loved stories set in the Gilded Age in New York and Rhode Island.
This was all brought back to me in New York at RWA recently. I was in an elevator with Bertrice Small. Yep, that Bertrice Small. We did that thing you do at RWA where everybody is always looking at chests to read your badge and she spoke to me first and remarked that she very much enjoyed All About Romance. I told her that “I used to read her” which, frankly, was the best I could do. After she thanked me, we began one of those conversations about RWA being very tiring and she indicated that she’d had it and that this would be her last conference.
Anyway, it was a thrill to meet her and it brought back to me those thrilling days of yesteryear. I remember reading Ms. Small and her harem girls and rapes and truly skanky sex when I was in high school. I must have read three or four – or maybe more.
For a moment or two or three, I was back in high school and secretly reading my romance novels, knowing nothing about the industry or authors.
I’m not saying I want to go back because I don’t. I just want to remember for a moment the way it used to be.
What about you? Do you miss those days?
- Sandy AAR
Tags: bertrice small
Posted in Authors, Books, Historicals, Reading, Romance, Romance reading, Sandy AAR, Settings | 14 Comments »
