I love the old Harlequin Presents romances I pick up at thrift shops and used bookstores, mainly out in the hinterlands of Virginia: their heroine-centric perspectives, island and glamorous European settings, strong heroes who read like real people. But they are often just the slightest bit dissatisfying. Some endings seem rushed. The hero falls heads
Apples Should Be Red by Penny Watson is a book I read months ago, a recommendation based on my love for Victoria Dahl’s older couple novella, Fanning the Flames. I saved it for a Thanksgiving post though because the story takes place in the few days before the holiday. Plus it’s a short, sweet, comedic
Beyond Possession is the latest novella in Kit Rocha’s apocalyptic, dystopian erotic romance series about the bootlegging O’Kane gang. If you haven’t read any of the series, I can’t recommend that you start with this one, although I’d argue that it’s the easiest book thus far in a series that pushes boundaries in nearly every
There are generally several common features to romances that star billionaire CEOs. Overwhelmingly, the CEO is the hero, not the heroine. There’s also better than average chance that he’s into BDSM (and he’s the top, natch). He probably doesn’t actually do all that much work over the course of the novel and, since it’s a
Normally I put my disclosures at the bottom of the post, but the book I’m featuring today is a special case. This isn’t a review. It’s cover copy and a recipe and a heads up that One Kiss with a Rock Star by Shari Slade and Amber Lin went on sale yesterday. Having been a
Whining on Twitter is surprisingly fruitful. I highly recommend it. After reading Andi Marquette’s post on Queer Romance Month about how there “isn’t much interest in f/f” I was like, “But…I’m interested in f/f…” So I poked around on Amazon and GoodReads a little bit and queried Megan Mulry, who had mentioned the post on
Summer Chaparral by Genevieve Turner broke a long reading streak I had of historical romances that just weren’t all I’d hoped for. Don’t get me wrong: I love me some Regencies & Victorians. But they do seem to suck up a lot of the historical limelight. Sure, there are Westerns and Civil War romances and
Five Dates by Amy Jo Cousins is a bright, optimistic romance, the sort of story it’s unusual for me to fall head over heels in love with. I tend to like my romance served with a side of angst and wonkity darkness. But while older, out-of-dating-practice Devin and younger retail-job-loving Jay have some pain in
While Composing Love by Audra North might look like a conventional contemporary romance, in a lot of ways, it isn’t. There’s the primacy of work, even something as formal as what I might term “calling”. The hero and heroine are both enmeshed in questions of identity and ability as they relate to the world and
