Ten Nights of Love

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I took a completely different approach writing this one so an alternate title for this post might be: who do I (still) read (and why/why not) after ten years?  Grace Livingston Hill No way. Ain’t happening. Just too much description Emilie Loring No. But. Okay, sometimes wish I could read something contemporary like hers. I think it’s the high society element. But, I’m just not sure how that would work nowadays. Glenna Finley I have to admit that I do have a thing for the travelogue element found in her books. So, yeah, maybe. Julie Garwood I have to be in a certain mood. And IRead More →

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originally posted on February 14, 2010 When I first came up with idea of doing this Ten Nights of Love series of posts, I wanted to find something to illustrate them and the obvious choice was the books. As I sorted through my collection, though, I realized that they also showed a lifetime of changes in the covers themselves. So, I wanted to see a gallery of one cover for each author in one post and thought you might enjoy it, too. I included Ten Nights of Love just to keep things even although I may have sort of cheated elsewhere for the purposes of showing an early electronic cover. 😉Read More →

Ten Nights of Love

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originally posted on February 15, 2010 My ever so logical brain wouldn’t let me ignore posting a list of chronological links for this entire Ten Nights of Love series for future reference. Following that, you’ll find a few thoughts that crossed my mind as I made this journey through the years. First, here’s the full list of posts in order: The Introduction Grace Livingston Hill Emilie Loring Glenna Finley Julie Garwood Amanda Quick Dara Joy Stephanie Laurens Christine Feehan Linnea Sinclair Shelly Laurenston Cover Gallery Now for my overall thoughts completely unrelated to individual authors and simply about the journey I just took. I findRead More →

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originally posted on February 13, 2010 who to pick next? For most of Ten Nights of Love, I automatically knew who the various authors were going to be. All I had to do was make sure I arranged them in chronological order to tell the story. For this last author, I kind of knew, roughly, why I was including her but wasn’t sure who to use. You see, a couple of years ago, I actively started dipping my toe into the so-called erotic romance sub-genre. Heck, my entire foot. I call it “so-called” because I’m still not entirely convinced that all the books with thatRead More →

Gabriel's Ghost by Linnea Sinclair

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originally posted on February 12, 2010 those early e-book covers are fun Next up here I have a special treat. I was digging around some old electronic files recently. And I found some things that I treasure almost as much as some of my old paperbacks. A lot of people nowadays know about a book called Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair. But do they know about or have the original story that appeared as an e-book called Command Performance? From before she made it to the big time in print? I do, plus several of her other books in their original e-book form. 😀 divingRead More →

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originally posted on February 11, 2010 there’s a definition of romance novels? I first arrived on the Internet in the mid-1990s. And, of course, I eventually discovered various forums and websites related to romance novels. One of the things that fascinated me was the Romance Writers of America official definition of romance. It’s perfectly logical one would exist from a marketing standpoint. That’s business. I can respect that need. What amazed me was how stripped down that definition was. At least from how I viewed the romances I read. That I’ve always read whether I realized it or not at that point. What I’ve alwaysRead More →

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originally posted on February 10, 2010 defending her heroines Over the twelve years since the Cynster series by Stephanie Laurens first debuted, I sometimes honestly believe I’ve spent more time defending her heroines to other romance readers online than I’ve spent reading the books. Her heroines, mind you, not her heroes. To me, that’s significant because I’m not sure what other author’s heroine’s I’d think deserved the defense. Not needed it, mind you, but deserved it. irresistible force and immovable object In the one and only review I ever wrote, I said this about Honoria, the heroine in Devil’s Bride, and in many ways IRead More →

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originally posted on February 9, 2010 mind blown by a sexy futuristic It’s now late spring of 1995 and I’ve picked up another issue of Romantic Times. Inside is this preview description of what sounded like possibly the wackiest romance I’ve ever heard of. The real kicker was that it was a futuristic – being marketed for its sexiness. Whoa. Now, we have to put this in context because futuristic romances, AKA what the publishers at that time were attempting to pass off as some type of watered down blending of science fiction and romance, were not known for their, ah, sexiness. Heck, they wereRead More →

Rendezvous by Amanda Quick, 1991 - this is the cover on the paperback I have, except it's supposed to have a stepback and doesn't

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originally posted on February 8, 2010 historical romances Once I’d started reading historical romance with Julie Garwood, I did sort of dive into that particular pool headfirst. I remember reading a lot of mostly medievals in those next few years of the early 1990s. All the while still reading some contemporaries. And searching for that elusive perfect fantasy/science fiction romance combination to appear on the horizon. There were occasional fits and starts in that direction with the new Leisure/Love Spell line. Not a lot of enthusiasm on my part for what they were producing, though. But back to reading historical romances. I slowly began toRead More →

The Bride

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originally posted on February 7, 2010 romance novels magazine? Sometime during 1989, I picked up a copy of Romantic Times at the local independent bookstore. When we still had a local independent bookstore here. I distinctly remember that was where I first read a preview of The Bride by Julie Garwood. So, I did something very out-of-character and found that book. I say it was out-of-character because before that I didn’t like to read historicals. The Bride was not only my first book by Garwood. It was the first historical romance I ever remember reading and actually enjoying. I loved it and the rest as theyRead More →

Journey to Love

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originally posted on February 6, 2010 bodice rippers? no, thank you One major misconception is that all romance readers took the bodice ripper route during the 1970s. I’m one of the ones who didn’t. I continued to read read books by Hill, Loring and eventually Glenna Finley. At the same time I mostly read mysteries with a light sprinkling of category romances mixed in. In fact, I’m pretty sure the late 70s all the way through the mid 80s was my Agatha Christie phase. I know I collected most of her books in paperback back then. Oh, I may have occasionally picked up that rare single title historical romance during that era. IRead More →

The Solitary Horseman

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originally posted on February 5, 2010 next library recommendations The next romance author I remember getting handed routinely from librarians as a relatively young teen was Emilie Loring. I didn’t mind at all to tell the truth. Her books were actively published from the 1920s-1970s. That’s a tad misleading, however, since she died in 1951. She wrote and published 30 novels before her death. Then, after her death, her sons found a lot of unfinished manuscripts and notes. So they finished those into 20 more novels that were published under her name over the next 20 years. Considering she didn’t start writing until after sheRead More →

Ladybird by Grace Livingston Hill

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originally posted on February 4, 2010 first big book reading memories As far as I can remember, my big book reading started at around age eleven, circa 1970. The very first adult romance, I ever remember reading was a hardback copy of Ladybird by Grace Livingston Hill. If I remember correctly our pastor’s wife gave it to my mother. Calling it an adult book is probably a misnomer. I’m pretty sure young adult romances didn’t exist back then. I read and collected many of her books during that decade of my life. They were interesting in their own way. My biggest memory of them, though, are pagesRead More →

Ten Nights of Love

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originally posted on February 3, 2010 the inspiration In the fall of 2009, Heather over at The Galaxy Express asked me what the dividing line between romance and erotic romance is. I almost laughed in her face – figuratively speaking. 😀 I mean, come on. One, much more eloquent people than me have tried to explain it. Most of them did great jobs, too. And still gotten lost in their own words. Two, sometimes, I’m not sure there is an answer. Then I stopped backing away and realized that what she was asking. Namely, the age old, ever popular question that comes up repeatedly on romance forumRead More →

Ten Nights of Love

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Ten years ago I wrote a series of posts called Ten Nights of Love. Wow! I honestly can’t believe it’s been 10 years. So I decided this is a very good time to take them down and refresh/re-edit/reformat the whole thing. Starting in one week one of those posts will go back online every Wednesday. Ten years ago I posted them daily to end on Valentine’s Day. This time I wanted to spread them out so I can post other things, too. Also this time, I’ll follow up with an addendum post (posts?) about my “reading” in the 2010s. Then end with an updated CoverRead More →