Open Thread for Readers for March 2026
Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general? Post about it here!
What is your favorite location for a romance book? Small town, large city, overseas, or somewhere else?
Off earth entirely is another choice! I have liked romances that are set in all those places, @Jayne; I can’t say that I favor one location over another. Hmm, on second thoughts, I read SO many romances set in Scotland and New Orleans as a teen and young woman that I now turn away from romances set in those locations. It took me a while to steel myself to read The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, but then it became a favorite. So, a good author can have me liking any setting.
@Kareni: Oh, yes off Earth. Duh, why didn’t I think of that? I can’t think of any location that I read myself sick of it but that’s a good point.
I don’t seek out or reject romances because of their setting, but I’ve lived on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain for over 25 years. If a book is set in New Orleans, I’m going to know pretty quickly if the author actually “knows” the Big Easy. And, having spent my teen years on the coast of Georgia, I’m still laughing at the Georgia-set romance I dnf’d when the town was described as being “100 miles north of Savannah.” Yeah, that would make it in South Carolina, not Georgia. I do like books that are set in places I’m completely unfamiliar with—for example, I tend to read a lot of Australia- and New Zealand-based romance—because I never have to concern myself with accuracy.
Today is the start of Read Across America Week in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday. I know what I’ll be doing.
I used to prefer romances set in the city to small town romances because I was tired of idealized small towns, but now there have been enough city romances that it doesn’t make a big difference to me. I also preferred sunny climes during the years I lived near the Canadian border but after moving to LA, that stopped mattering to me. When the author gives some attention to a historical feel, I like historical settings best. The Edwardian era is my favorite, but not that common in romances. I am less a fan of SFR and fantasy romance because often they give short shrift to the romances. Fantasy with romantic elements, though, I love.
Foreign country settings I would love more if they bore more resemblance to the actual places they depict.
What about you, Jayne?
I did like it in a Kim Harrison book that had people swimming off Beaver Island on Michigan. She got it right that they would need wet suits. It was yay! She’s been to northern Michigan.