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 I do occasionally get in the mood for cuddly alphas. It’s her heroines I’d probably want to kill nowadays.
Dara Joy
Sigh. Just sigh. I mean I love her books but her career took such a strange turn it hurts the reader in me to think about it.
Stephanie Laurens
Again I’d have to be in a certain mood. Just not sure what that mood would be. Let you know when it hits.
Christine Feehan
This is going to sound odd, but my son took the Carpathian books & I’d have to find them to read them. To be honest I might be more apt to read something non-Carpathian from her nowadays anyway. And she does have a few non-Carpathian series so there is hope.
Amanda Quick
Yes, but mainly under Jayne Castle. I can and will read anything she write as Castle. Occasionally I will pull out either a Krentz or Quick just because.
Linnea Sinclair
I pulled one out recently. Can’t remember which. But it was more to look something up and ended up rereading it. So yeah, hers is a backlist I need to catch up on.
Shelly Laurenston
YES, YES, YES! She’s probably the main author right now I do actively drum my fingers on the table waiting for the next book.
Now for some new
Dana Marie Bell
I adore her Halle Puma and Halle Pride connected series as well as her Maggie’s Grove series. The thing about her stories that is the most striking is that she has “shifters” with medical problems and disabilities. Which is such an absolutely refreshing angle.
Cleo Coyle AKA Alice Alfonsi
I love her cozy mystery Haunted Bookstore series. Yeah, they aren’t romances. Not completely. However, I truly enjoy the interaction between the heroine amateur detective and her 1940’s hard-boiled detective male ghost sidekick. I read the first one in e-book and enjoyed it. Then I started listening to them in audio books and was blown away. I simply adore the way they use both a woman to read her chapters and a man for his. And, yeah, there is kind of a budding romance between them.
Fantasy novels in general
Then there’s the quest by my son to get me to read or at least listen to more fantasy. Starting with Wheel of Time of course. I may finish WOT by the time I’m ninety. I’m also dabbling in other fantasy books/series. One series I’d like to check out on audio is The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.
In conclusion
Yes, my reading habits have changed considerably in ten years. Do I still love romance novels? Absolutely. They are just not a total obsession for me like they used to be. Unless it’s an author I love.
Would I part with any of my romance novel collection? Not any time soon. Why? Because I might get in the mood to read something. It could happen. Okay, yeah, there is still some obsession there.
I am trying to branch out more but romance is always going to be at the heart of what I look for. In reading material, anyway.