A category to get your to be read pile jump started
Dec 12 2011
2011 does not stand out as one of my more memorable reading years; many books fell in the okay/mediocre range, with a whole lot of B range books and a handful of C range books. Only one D, and no Fs! – which I guess is a good thing, though I feel oddly nostalgic about [...]
Dec 7 2011
Dear Ms. Balogh, Recently The Famous Heroine and The Plumed Bonnet were rereleased together in a 2-in-1 edition after many years out of print, and I reviewed and recommended The Famous Heroine. That book left me wanting to know more about Alistair, Duke of Bridgewater, one of the hero’s friends. In The Famous Heroine Alistair, [...]
Dec 6 2011
Dear Mrs. Kelly, I know that when I start a Carla Kelly book, I’ll get a certain number of things. An honorable hero, an unflappable heroine, some idiot secondary characters who may bluster and threaten to cause the hero and heroine some problems but who usually are mainly all hot air and dismissed as the [...]
Dec 6 2011
For the purposes of this list, I have excluded reissues, books published before 2011, and books which may present a conflict of interest, either because the author had a story in the Agony/Ecstasy anthology or because she assisted me with my novel-in-progress. Here then are several of my favorite 2011 releases, listed in alphabetical order [...]
Dec 5 2011
I can’t recall whether it was Anne’s idea or mine to have her write from Cole’s point of view, but after I read Transfixed, featuring Marin whipping the heck out of Cole and him enjoying it immensely, I wanted to know more. As Cole admits at the end of Transfixed, his activities in Marin aren’t [...]
Dec 5 2011
Historical Once Upon a Winter’s Eve by Tessa Dare, recommended by Lazaraspaste | A | BN Sony | Kobo Coming Home for Christmas (anthology) by Carla Kelly, recommended by Jayne | A | BN Sony | Kobo |HQN Her Rebel Heart by Shannon Farrington, recommended by Jayne | A | BN Sony | Kobo Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer, [...]
Dec 4 2011
The captivity narrative has a long tradition in the romance genre dating as far back to the 1912 publication of The Sheik by E.M. Hull In the 70s and 80s, the captivity narrative often took the form of the Noble Savage and the White Woman. The racist undertones were perhaps unintentional. In Taken, I found a [...]
Dec 3 2011
Of all the stories in the book, ”The Wooden Pony” by Shoshanna Evers seemed the most traditionally BDSM but the set up was so nicely done (the couple meets through an online ad). It dovetailed nicely with Christine d’Abo’s story, Bruised Ego. The female protagonist here was searching for an outlet for her need for [...]
Dec 2 2011
It was important that this anthology be as inclusive as possible. I don’t recall receiving a submission for a trans protagonist but I did receive several lesbian stories. This was my favorite because of the mix of characters and topics. Quirky but quiet. A. L. Simonds can be found here. Sex wasn’t supposed to be [...]
Dec 1 2011
Because these stories were short and in a large collection, I viewed it as an opportunity to experiment and include stories that I felt were non traditional. Sunny Moraine’s story Wet Wire was unconventional for romance. Drawing on the influences of perhaps the “Matrix” and Neuromancer, Wet Wire is an erotic tumble down the electronic [...]
Nov 30 2011
Bettie Sharpe is re-imagining faery tales of old for the romance crowd. Ember took on Cinderella and Cat’s Tale is a Puss ‘n’ Boots retelling. Given the rise of darker faery tales in the form of the television series, “Once Upon a Time“, and the two Snow White movies (Snow White and the Huntsman looks to [...]
Nov 29 2011
Margaret Rowe brings us the short featuring Viscount Lucien Ransford who is going to make his new wife pay for trapping him into marriage. Good thing for their marriage that Maida enjoys the punishment. Like the previous story, I felt like this one provided a good mix of the agony with the ecstasy while still [...]
Nov 28 2011
What’s a good girl to do when she has a bucket list of sexy activities she would like to explore and her beloved fiance isn’t terribly adventurous? Jessica Clare explores this dilemma in her short Bachelorette Party. If the voice sounds familiar it is because Jessica Clare is also Jill Myles (author of paranormals for [...]
Nov 27 2011
The 100 anniversary of the Titanic will be upon us and there is a growing body of fiction that will be commemorating it. I am not sure if the impending anniversary spurred Lily Daniels (aka Janine from DA) to write the story, but I thought it was a timely story. The excerpt is fairly short [...]
Nov 26 2011
Sarabeth Scott’s story reminded me a tiny bit of Daddy Longlegs with Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron but it may have been a nutcracker story with Clara as the heroine. Clara is the female protagonist whose need for punishment is a deeply held secret known only to one man. “Stand,” he said. He did not offer [...]
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