Posts tagged with romance
Weekly Book Giveaway: Just Dreaming, by Kerstin Gier
This week's Book Giveaway is Kerstin Gier's Just Dreaming, the final installment in her Silver Trilogy. I usually find Gier's books equally fun and frustrating, so we'll see if this story manages to land firmly in one camp or the other. A full review will follow shortly...
The Most Dangerous Duke in London, by Madeline Hunter
Madeline Hunter is not a romance novelist I read consistently, but she is high on my “reasonable impulse buy” list—the authors I save for beach vacations and particularly unpleasant head colds. Her books never blow my mind, but they never offend with hideous anachronisms or insane behavior, either, and sometimes that's all you can ask for...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Most Dangerous Duke in London, by Madeline Hunter
This week's Book Giveaway is Madeline Hunter's latest Regency romance, The Most Dangerous Duke in London. A full review will follow shortly, but spoiler: if this guy is the most dangerous duke in London, London's dukes are a singularly mellow bunch...
I'd prefer a print edition, but...
Okay, this is awesome: there seem to be some fancy-looking (or at least non-cheesy) eBook editions of Mary Burchell's classic mid-century romance novels...
Best of luck
According to the Romance Writers of America, Harlequin is planning to shutter five series lines next year: Harlequin Western (June 2018), Harlequin Superromance (June 2018), Love Inspired Historical (June 2018), Harlequin Nocturne (December 2018), and Kimani Romance (December 2018)...
The anti-Scarlett
There's a great interview over on Jezebel with romance novelist Alyssa Cole. Cole, an African American woman, decided to write a Civil-War era historical romance inspired by Mary Bowser, a former slave who became a Union spy in Jefferson Davis's White House...
Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan
You know that bit in celebrity magazine interviews where they list in painstaking detail the outfit the actress is wearing? Or describe her utterly fabulous house? Well, picture an entire book composed of those paragraphs, and you'd be covering at least 75% of the plot of Kevin Kwan's 2013 novel Crazy Rich Asians...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan
This week's Book Giveaway is Kevin Kwan's 2013 novel Crazy Rich Asians, the book that inspired the currently-filming movie of the same name. I'm fascinated by the casting process for this film (which has been full of drama), so I thought I'd better read the book. Our review will follow shortly...
Maybe one day he can play Colonel Sanders?
And in the second bit of unfortunate romance-novel news of the day, a male romance novel cover model was arrested in California this week and charged with robbing a series of banks and gas stations in Connecticut...
You get what you pay for
Well, this is nice of them: Kentucky Fried Chicken has written a romance novella featuring Colonel Sanders, and made it available as a free digital download. According to CNN Money, "Tender Wings of Desire tells the story of 'rebellious Lady Madeline Parker,' who falls for Harland Sanders, 'a handsome sailor with a mysterious past...
Silence Fallen, by Patricia Briggs
Silence Fallen is the tenth novel in Patricia Briggs's best-selling Mercy Thompson series. In this fast-paced, action-heavy installment, shape-shifting VW mechanic Mercy is abducted from her home territory in the Pacific Northwest and spirited away to Italy, where she finds herself a pawn in a chess game being played by an ancient and powerful vampire...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Silence Fallen, by Patricia Briggs
This week's Book Giveaway title is Silence Fallen, the 10th book in Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson series. We rarely review such advanced series installments, but I have a soft spot for these books: they are set in my beloved Washington, they feature a Native heroine, and—judging on a scale of long-running urban fantasy series—Briggs's stories are approximately one bajillion times better than this...
The Dark Days Pact, by Alison Goodman
When I read the first book in Alison Goodman's Lady Helen series, I found it solidly written but over-engineered. The second installment, The Dark Days Pact, has similar strengths and weaknesses, but the deepening emotional stakes make the overall story far more satisfying...
The Promise in a Kiss, by Stephanie Laurens
It's been a few months, so it's time for another attempt in my ongoing (and frequently unsuccessful) search for historical romance novelists whose work I actually like. Sadly, if her 2001 novel The Promise in a Kiss is any indication, Stephanie Laurens is considerably closer to the dreadful Jane Feather than Georgette Heyer...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Promise in a Kiss, by Stephanie Laurens
This week's Book Giveaway is Stephanie Laurens's The Promise in a Kiss, the eighth book in her never-ending Cynster Family Saga. (Twenty-five books and counting!) A full review will follow shortly...
Harrumph
I was chagrined to discover that Sophia Bennett's young adult novel Love Song doesn't seem to be easily available here in the U.S. Love Song recently won the Goldsboro Books Romantic Novel of the Year prize. It's only the second time in the award's...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Heart of the Storm, by Michael Buckley
This week's Book Giveaway is Michael Buckley's Heart of the Storm, the final book in his Undertow trilogy. I've never fallen as deeply in love with this series as I did with Buckley's Sisters Grimm stories, but these books are plenty fun in their own right. A full review will follow shortly...
The right call
There's a great article over on Buzzfeed about the difficulties of casting John M. Chu's upcoming film adaptation of Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians. Chu promised “amazing Asian actors cast in EVERY SINGLE ROLE”, and there's a lot riding on him getting this right: Crazy Rich Asians will be...
Devil in Spring, by Lisa Kleypas
I have long treasured Lisa Kleypas as one of the world's most consistently entertaining historical romance novelists. Unfortunately, her most recent series is putting a dent in that image, which I find very upsetting. I rely on you, Lisa Kleypas...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Devil in Spring, by Lisa Kleypas
This week's Book Givewaway is Lisa Kleypas's Devil in Spring, the third book in her Ravenels series and a second-generation sequel to her 2006 novel Devil in Winter. I'm really not feeling that cover art. I've seen a fair amount of Victorian fashion, and I'm pretty sure they weren't big fans of strapless wedding gowns...
Pre-Valentine's Day
NYMag's new site The Strategist just posted a list (charmingly) titled "12 Romantic Books That Won't Make You Gag". I'm not, you know, a six-year-old boy, so romance doesn't actually disgust me, but whatever. They have some good picks on there...
The Darkest Torment, by Gena Showalter
Gena Showalter's The Darkest Torment is the literary equivalent of a music video—flashy and evocative, but short on coherent plot. Admittedly, this is the twelfth installment in an ongoing series, so I didn't expect to grasp the minutiae of Showalter's world, but the standalone elements of this story (including the entire romantic story arc) didn't make much sense, either...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Darkest Torment, by Gena Showalter
It's been quite some time since we last reviewed a straight-up romance novel, so this week's Book Giveaway is Gena Showalter's The Darkest Torment. Apparently, and all appearances to the contrary, that dude on the cover isn't a professional surfer/part-time model, he's a demon! (Or something. The back cover is not 100% clear on this point.) A full review will follow shortly...
The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Rachel Cohn and David Levithan's The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily is the sequel to 2010's Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. Once again, the authors flip between the two title characters' points of view, as Dash and Lily drift around New York at the holidays. A year into their relationship, the once-devoted couple is struggling on several fronts, but don't worry—in Cohn and Levithan's books, there are few problems that can't be fixed with an impossibly twee grand gesture...
Holiday Book Giveaway: The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily, by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
Today's Holiday Book Giveaway is David Levithan and Rachel Cohn's The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily, the sequel to 2010's Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, which we reviewed here. It's also the first book we've read all week that isn't about murder or mayhem...
Envious Casca, by Georgette Heyer
If you find Georgette Heyer's best-known romance novels, to borrow a phrase from Jane Austen, rather too light and bright and sparkling, her mysteries are considerably nastier. Heyer had a gift for creating caustic, almost misanthropic characters, and nowhere is this displayed to better effect than in the pages of Envious Casca, her 1941 locked-room whodunit...
Holiday Book Giveaway: Envious Casca/The Christmas Party, by Georgette Heyer
Today's Book Giveaway is Georgette Heyer's Envious Casca, possibly my favorite country-house mystery of all time. Please note: Sourcebooks has recently reprinted this novel as A Christmas Party. I sympathize with any publisher's desire to get their hands on some of that sweet Christmas-book money (who doesn't want to read about murdering relatives during the holidays?), but...
Stars of Fortune, by Nora Roberts
I really only had one problem with Nora Roberts's Stars of Fortune, but it's a big one: Roberts simply isn't very good at writing fantasy. She keeps trying, but the genre does not play to her strengths...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Stars of Fortune, by Nora Roberts
This week's Book Giveaway title is Nora Roberts's Stars of Fortune, the first book in her Guardians trilogy. If past experience is anything to go by, I'll probably have a LOT of complaints, but who knows? Sometimes Roberts decides to knock it out of the park. Plus, the final book in the series comes out tomorrow, so at least I won't need to wait if I decide to finish it...
Unexpected bedfellows
Sports Illustrated's The Cauldron has posted an essay by Erin Finnegan about the intersection between sports stories and romance novels. I'm not sure I buy all of the author's arguments (I think the combination of wealth, fitness, and celebrity has a lot to do with the appeal of sports-star romance heroes), but...