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Am I the only romance reader who doesn’t believe that romance should be “for women by women” solely? Every time I run across that “mantra” lately, it’s starting to stick in my craw. If I had a craw, that is. (G) And that specific phrase doesn’t even have to be “said” for me to start twitching. Take the ever-present discussion of chick lit that’s always popping up somewhere or another nowadays. That one always starts me dwelling on how chick lit is so strongly focused on “her story”. That’s all well and good and actually nothing all that new to romances – not that chickRead More →

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No, not those covers but the ones we buy to put on the books for comfort as much as to cover up those covers. Okay, I’ll stop before I confuse myself. (G) Thing is that I’m always looking for a good book cover and am frustrated by the only place that sells my favorite type, Hidden Secrets, locally is our small UBS. They keep an extremely limited selection in stock and don’t appear to be sold retail on the web anywhere. So, call me frustrated. Anyone know of an online seller of the Hidden Secrets line? Or have suggestions for other good covers?Read More →

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Ever read an extremely satisfactory romance and come away wondering why you didn’t like it more? This has happened with me with two books in the last week or so. I really enjoyed both. Honest. And yet . . . I can’t say I was wildly crazy about either one of them. I also haven’t been able to figure out why. True one was by a first time author, Sally MacKensie, but the other was by someone I’ve liked quite a bit in the past, Jillian Hunter. In fact one of Hunter’s books, Fairy Tale, would probably place on a list of my top tenRead More →

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This is the first book I’ve read in months that I literally devoured in one gulp. Yeah, that just about sums it up . . . so much so that I’m almost tempted to stop right there. I won’t simply because that would be cheating. Right? Well, right? Okay, okay. Here’s the quick summary interspersed with why I liked this one so much. (And this is as close to a review as I get so enjoy. ;-p) Return of the Warrior  (2005-05) is a second in Kinley MacGregor’s Avon Books medieval romance Brotherhood of the Sword group and I didn’t mind at all that IRead More →

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As I type this I’m adding to my book database, Readerware, the handful of books I’ve managed to snag this last week. They are: Cassidy, Carla: The Perfect Family – I don’t know why I got this romantic suspense exactly, except that I’ve enjoyed several of her category books in the past, plus a couple of her more humorously inclined single titles. So, sometimes I simply take a chance on an author’s new direction. At least once or twice anyway. Knight, Angela: Master of the Moon – You know, I’m not sure I’ve ever read this author. I’ll have to double-check after I do theRead More →

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I’ve been literally buried in family matters and errands this week but did get a chance for a very quick used book store (UBS) raid on Tuesday that I had to share. The short version is that an appointment I had was moved back an hour and a half so I took care of a few errands and still had some time to kill. So I grabbed a hazelnut latte at a little local coffee shop and headed over to the local UBS, thinking that would be a nice “me time” way to spend the rest of the hour. Much to my surprise, though, IRead More →

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For the most part, I read one book at a time with one major qualification. I have two of those padded book covers and use the oldest for rereads and the newer one for first time reads. This system makes it easy to spot at a glance which is which but the downside is that I tend to get twitchy if there isn’t something in each of them. So, even though I tend to finish “reading” one book before starting another, I also tend to cheat on that by visiting with old friends. Otherwise, known as rereading or skimming the good parts. Currently Seal IslandRead More →

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Okay, I’m going to rant today on a topic as opposed to commenting on specific books, so pay attention because it will probably be a fairly rare occurence. Over the last week, I know I’ve run across not one but several gripes about romances having too many virginal heroines. (Granted, I may have overdosed on blogs because I have no idea which mentioned this and for that I’m sorry. If anyone did recently mention this topic in a blog entry, speak up and I’ll edit some links in here.) Now, I’m not crazy enough to argue differently and claim there isn’t a definite overabundance ofRead More →

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Okay, fess up now. How many times have you read a great book, realized it was probably connected to at least a couple of others and told yourself to remember to check them out . . . and then never get around to it? Even with a book database like Readerware to help me remember these details, it happens. So, I was quite chagrined this morning to realize that I’d pulled not one but two books off the shelf to reread in the last 24 hours that fell into that “honestly good intentions” category. One, I’m currently rereading and will comment more about in aRead More →

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It took me all weekend and part of Monday but I finally finished it. Not all of that was the book’s fault. Actually most of it wasn’t because of getting involved in family activities and a major migraine that struck Saturday. Part of my distraction was due to the book itself, though. For some strange reason I wanted to stop and go rewatch The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiss at several spots . . . and I’m still having the occasional twinge in that direction so I just might have to scratch that itch in the near future. Maybe Rupert reminded me ofRead More →

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Does anyone else’s book-buying go in cycles? Or am I simply a more eclectic romance reader than most. A week or so ago I found three books in my TBR basket at the same time that were in first person. This was unusual enough to make me stop and take notice. Then, today, I realized that the two books I bought this week are both romantic suspense. Again, a rather unusual occurrence. I’m not even completely sure I like romantic suspense on general principle so in retrospect I have to wonder what I was thinking to buy two at once. I do like the twoRead More →

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I’ve had this book for about a month now, can’t seem to get it read and I have no idea why really. Yes, her earlier Wildside books did seem to be acquired tastes, i.e. it took a bit of time to get used to the way she approaches storytelling, but I loved them. And I believe I’d love this one once I get into it, too, but so far I’ve had about three false starts on it where I completely zone out after about 10 pages, which only puts me up to about page 50 or so. Very odd. So, I guess it’s going toRead More →

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I’ve had this book for about a month now, can’t seem to get it read and I have no idea why really. Yes, her earlier Wildside books did seem to be acquired tastes, i.e. it took a bit of time to get used to the way she approaches storytelling, but I loved them. And I believe I’d love this one once I get into it, too, but so far I’ve had about three false starts on it where I completely zone out after about 10 pages, which only puts me up to about page 50 or so. Very odd. So, I guess it’s going toRead More →

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Life’s been hectic for the last week so I haven’t gotten a lot of reading done but I did start rereading this one a few days ago. It’s become a favorite reread although I probably wouldn’t call it an out and out comfort read. I do enjoy the interaction between the two main characters, Grace and Noah. They are typical Foster hero and heroine and yet somehow subtly different. Yes, Grace is more, um, buxom all the way around than most heroines, Foster’s or anyone else’s, but even that doesn’t explain why these two fascinate me so much. I can’t exactly put my finger onRead More →

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I love this author but falling in love with her writing has been a slow process filled with several hits and misses. I say that to contrast the way I feel about her books with that almost instant connection we readers sometimes feel with the writing styles of authors. You know the type that usually leads to almost no misses. Usually, but not always. Those authors are special to us but I sometimes think the ones who have to really work to get our attention may even be more special in the long run. That instant connection did not happen for me with Lovelace’s novels,Read More →