About Me |
Like the other reviewers here, I have spent most of my life
(28 years so far) sitting behind the covers of a book and thus traveling
across time and around the world. I've loved historical fiction and
mysteries since I was a child, and as I got older, my mother let me
read some of her romantic suspense and gothic novels. Summer afternoons
spent poring over Victoria Holt, Mary Higgins Clark and Phyllis Whitney
novels opened up a new world for me of heroines who could have fun,
go through all manner of adventures, and fall in love.
In high school I discovered historicals and traditional regencies
at camp. I was put off at the time (and still am, on occasion) by
the “clinch” covers on many novels, so I did not venture far beyond the
world of Harlequin Historicals and the occasional discreet stepback
until I discovered Roberta Gellis’ Roselynde Chronicles
my last year in college. After that discovery, my time spent haunting
used bookstores increased exponentially.
Today, I am an attorney in the Washington DC metro area, a place
rather far removed from the Virginia mountains where I grew up. I still
have very eclectic reading tastes, but prefer historicals, romantic
suspense and mystery novels on the whole. Nonfiction books on history
and politics, gothic novels and regencies also take up plenty of space
in my TBR pile, though. I love reading, writing and generally chatting
about books with people, so I welcome the chance to be a reviewer at AAR.
When I’m not working or reading, I enjoy hiking, surfing the internet
and goofing off with my two beloved cats.
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Personal Reading Tastes |
What I'm a sucker for in a book:
"Different" settings (i.e. not
England or the Old West), especially Russia/Eastern Europe, the 16th-18th
centuries, long, meaty historicals loaded with period detail, characters
who grow and change throughout a book, a touch of mystery or the supernatural,
characters outside of the usual lord/lady/cowboy rut, witty repartee, strong
secondary characters, gothics, and first-person point of view.
What I don't particularly care for in a book:
“Wallpaper” history
(unless it’s a good comedy), bedroom doors thrown too far open, the obligatory
baby-studded epilogue, the insistence on shorter novels (I realize this is more
an editor quirk than an author quirk but I still don’t like it), amnesia, overly
cutesy titles, falling in love with the boss plots, and I-hate-you-no-I-love-you
plots.
What drives me absolutely nuts in a book:
Shoddy historical
research/lots of historical errors, lust dressed up as love, one person daring
the other person to kiss him or her, heroines who keep trying to run away
from the hero, romances at improbable/inappropriate times (i.e falling for
some hunk when your beloved husband is barely cold in the ground), characters
who have a “burgeoning” anything , Dukes of Slut, “child” heroines, “Taming
of the Shrew” plots, spineless, and “clinging vine” heroines (especially if
they’re supposed to be leaders or professionals).
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Favorite Romance Authors |
Favorite Romance Authors
Julia Quinn
Nora Roberts
Roberta Gellis
Best Discovery/Buried Treasure Authors
Bronwyn Williams (historicals only)
My Biggest Glom
Julia Quinn
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
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Favorite Characters |
Favorite Hero
Christy Morrell, To Love and To Cherish by Patricia Gaffney
Favorite Heroine
Penelope Featherington, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Augusta Ballinger, Rendezvous by Amanda Quick
Most Tortured Hero
Charles Fraser, Daughter of the Game by Tracy Grant
Gideon Westbrook, Ravished by Amanda Quick
Strongest Heroine
Melanie Fraser, Daughter of the Game by Tracy Grant
Augusta Ballinger, Rendezvous by Amanda Quick
Favorite Couple
Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Charles and Melanie Fraser, Daughter of the Game by Tracy Grant
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Least-Favorites |
Most Disappointing Book
The Inheritance by Joan Johnston
Worst Book
All the Sweet Tomorrows by Bertrice Small
Amarantha by Melanie Jackson
Book with Most Purple Prose
Anything by Cassie Edwards
Authors I Have Given Up On
Patricia Gaffney
Karen Harper
Jude Deveraux
Authors Others Love That I Don't
Bertrice Small
Susan Johnson
Linda Howard
Most Annoying Lead Character
Mellyora MacAdin, Come the Morning by Shannon Drake
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Favorite Romance Novels |
Absolute Favorites
Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
Favorite Classic
Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen
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Favorites by Sub-Genre |
American Historical:
Morning Glory
by LaVyrle Spencer
Love Comes Softly
by Janette Oke
Rosewood
by Candice Camp
European Historical:
Forever Amber
by Kathleen Windsor
Lord of the Night
by Susan Wiggs
Gypsy Baron
by Mary Daheim
Bridgerton Family Series
by Julia Quinn
The Blood of Roses
by Marsha Canham
Regency:
The Grand Sophy
by Georgette Heyer
Isabella
by Janet Grace
The Emerald Necklace
by Diana Brown
Medieval:
Tapestry
by Maura Seger
Child of Awe
by Kathryn Lynn Davis
A Falcon's Heart
by Jayel Wylie
Roselynde
by Roberta Gellis
Alternate Reality:
In Death Series
by J.D. Robb
Category:
A Rose for Maggie
by Kathleen Korbel
Break the Night
by Anne Stuart
Fear Familiar Series
by Caroline Burnes
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Favorites by Plot Type |
Suspense:
Dr. Rhea Lynch Series
by Gwen Hunter
Daughter of the Game
by Tracy Grant
Be Buried in the Rain
by Barbara Michaels
Cabin or Road:
The Cockermouth Mail
by Dinah Dean
Funny:
How to Marry a Marquis
by Julia Quinn
Stephanie Plum Series
by Janet Evanovich
Sexy:
A Dove at Midnight
by Rexanne Becnel
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Favorites by Mood |
Comfort Reads:
Any earlier novels
by Amanda Quick or Susan Wiggs
Anything
by Julia Quinn
Most-Hanky Reads:
To Love and To Cherish
by Patricia Gaffney
Guilty Pleasures:
Velvet Quartet
by Jude Deveraux
No Gentle Love
by Rebecca Brandewyne
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