Book Reviews / ConversationsOutlander / Romance genre / SFF / Time-Travel / tropes23 Comments
Our conversation on time travel continues with a question from Sirius about Outlander and our list of book recommendations and books to avoid. -Janine Outlander Sirius: Outlander (because I had to ask) – what are your takes on it and do you like how time travel was implemented ... more >
Conversationsbook discussion / book plots / Movies / Romance genre / SFF / Time-Travel / tropes31 Comments
Sirius had some questions for us—and you—about time travel stories. This discussion will run in two parts, with today’s focusing on the questions below and Monday’s reserved for discussing Outlander and for our book recommendations. -Janine Sirius: So this is one of my favorite topics in SFF. I have been ... more >
Conversationsanger / Christmas Stories / cynicism / emotional journey / grumpy / sunshine / grumpy hero / happiness / introvert / tropes15 Comments
Janine: Recently we had an in-depth chat about the enemies-to-lovers trope, and I thought it might be fun to do the same thing with Kaetrin’s recent favorite, grumpy/sunshine. I put the following questions to all the participants on DA’s email loop. Is grumpy/sunshine a trope you are drawn to or ... more >
Conversationsauthor discovery / Best of 2021 / comfort reading / Covid / diversity / DNF / enemies to lovers / genre critique / grumpy / sunshine / LGBTQIA+ / low-angst / statistics / tropes / year in review59 Comments
Janine: I’ve noticed that my reading habits change a little from year to year. Some years I read more or fewer books than usual. Some years I discover new favorite authors. At times a genre shifts in a direction that isn’t as likely to engage me while another becomes more ... more >
Letters of Opinionarchetypes / Beauty-and-the-Beast / Dracula / Fifty Shades of Grey / Frankenstein / genre critique / mythology / Transcendence / tropes / Twilight / vampires12 Comments
The idea for this essay started with a question: what is it about Twilight and its derivations, especially Fifty Shades of Grey and Transcendence, that allow these variations to represent “fresh” and “new” in the retelling? I’m not interested in whether these books are good or bad, nor am I ... more >
Publishing Newscategory romance / cookbook / Crawford Award / diversity / Fantasy / feminism / frequency hopping technology / genre history / Harlequin / Mills and Boon / publishing / spread spectrum / tropes6 Comments
How Harlequin Became the Most Famous Name in Romance – Not always loving the coverage in Jezebel, I approached Kelly Faircloth’s historical post on Harlequin warily. However, by the third paragraph, I realized this wasn’t going to be the usual fluff coverage of category Romance; instead the piece provides a ... more >