AAR

[Claire]

Harlequins used to be all I read. Then I migrated towards Silhoutte Intimate Moments and Blaze but then some of the Blaze line started to feel less romantic, more erotica. It's mostly historicals for me now, with contemp's in the mix too. Jessica Bird/JR Ward has written some great SIM's. I wish she would go back and write some contemporaries without the vampires.

I also can't stand how there are SO MANY baby books.

[Nana]

[Niftybergin]

[Katie Mack AAR]

[baseballmom5]

I also think that it's the author that makes or breaks the book. I read Under the Influence by Nancy Warren this year, and was blown away by the emotions in the book! I picked up Power Play by her today!!! I also enjoyed She's Got it Bad, but forgot the author. I'll have to check out Jessica Bird books, I forgot about that!

I love the quick aspect of the books and use them for breaking the reading blahs (which I am currently going through right now.)
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www.shelfari.com/cindyw5
www.cindyreadsromance.blogspot.com

[Katie Mack AAR]

[library addict]

Although I do think the 90s were the heyday of category romances, I still read them.

I think the lines are pretty well established and contrary to popular belief, they don’t all feature nothing but billionaires and virgin brides.

I read mostly Silhouette Romantic Suspense and Harlequin Intrigue with the occasional Blaze, Desire, Historical, Special Edition, Super Romance and Nocturne. I tend to pick first by author, but if a blurb catches my fancy I will try it.

I don’t read nearly as many keepers as in the old days (I miss Loveswept and the Intimate Moments line). The books have become shorter in recent years, but are still perfect to keep in the purse and read while in line at the bank, etc. I have a much higher DNF rate with categories probably because I get most of them from the library so I don’t suffer the I-spent-money-on-this-I-will-read-it guilt But there are certainly still gems to be found in the wide variety of category books being published.

Som of my current favorites are Karen Templeton, Beth Andrews, and Merline Lovelace. And I still read Justine Davis and Rachel Lee though their books lately don't measure up to the keepers of theirs from the early 90s IMO.

[baseballmom5]

[Katie Mack AAR]

[willaful]

[DeeD]

A huge portion of my reading library is categories including those tacky titled Presents. I like the quick read and I hate all of the extra back-ground/history lesson/etc. in the longer single-title books. I tend to skim from dialogue to dialogue a lot anyway - most of the time I don't miss anything major.

[veasleyd1]

I hate to see people say that they just won't read certain books on the grounds of who publishes them.

Here's a challenge.

Justine Davis, Her Best Friend's Husband, is still in stock on amazon.com and also available on Kindle.

Try it, folks, and read with a measuring eye as to "how does this stand up against the recent 'single title contemporaries' you have read during the past few months.

Or get something fairly recent by Janice Kay Johnson and do the same.

[baseballmom5]

Katie Mack- I am almost done w/ Power Play and I LLLLOOOOVVVVVEEE it!!!! Sexy, funny and sweet with another great secondary romance all in 213 pages. I just had to share
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www.shelfari.com/cindyw5
www.cindyreadsromance.blogspot.com

[Susanna Kearsley]

I think a good writer is a good writer no matter what the format. I'd read Sara Craven's shopping list.

One of the unexpected bonuses of getting a Sony Reader for Christmas last year was my discovery of free Harlequin downloads, which have introduced me to some new favourite voices: Elizabeth Rolls, Leslie Kelly, and Susan Napier among them.

And I've recently found a wonderful used bookstore that has an entire spinning rack stuffed with Presents from the late 70s and 80s (MY era!), so I've been spending some really enjoyable hours re-acquainting myself with the titles that made me love romance. I've managed to find and restock my shelves with a lot of my old favourite books by Anne Mather, Violet Winspear, and Sara Craven, most of which hold up surprisingly well in terms of craft and story.

"Seen By Candlelight" by Anne Mather (which was actually first published under another title, "Design for Loving", in the year I was born, 1966 ) or Sara Craven's "High Tide at Midnight" could hold their own against any single title published today, IMO.

[Katie Mack AAR]