Posts tagged with romance
We approve
Last week on Twitter I mentioned Australian graphic designer Jennifer Wu's amazing Tess of the D'Urbervilles cover, which cheers me up whenever I look at it. (Currently v. necessary.) Ms. Wu informs me that this cover is part of a larger project called #LoveRomance . The #LoveRomance campaign is devoted to championing romance writing and highlighting its exclusion from...
Bad Blood, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Bad Blood is the fourth and final book in Jennifer Lynn Barnes's Naturals series. Once again, Barnes has delivered a briskly-paced thriller seemingly tailor-made for a CW adaptation. (Seriously, the fact that this series isn't already on my TV is bewildering to me.)
Weekly Book Giveaway: Bad Blood, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
I am in no mood for anything other than 100% undiluted entertainment, so this week's Book Giveaway is the latest book in Jennifer Lynn Barnes's Naturals series, Bad Blood. I'm not sure that even Ms. Barnes's book will be entertaining enough to distract me from my overwhelming election anxiety, but I figure it's got a better shot than most...
Heeey
At long last, Judith McNaught's classic (read: effective yet heavy-on-the-angst) romance novels are getting e-book editions. According to Dear Author, Simon & Schuster is beginning a digital roll-out of McNaught’s titles, each containing a new introduction written by the author. The first...
Arabella, by Georgette Heyer
As a longtime Georgette Heyer fan, I was tantalized by the recent rumor that one of her books (The Grand Sophy) is being developed into a feature film. News on the project is scarce, but my hopes are high. The Grand Sophy would make a wonderful movie, but so would any number of Heyer's other books—not least her 1949 novel Arabella, one of her lightest and most beloved regency-era romances...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Arabella, by Georgette Heyer
This week's Book Giveaway is Georgette Heyer's 1949 regency romance novel Arabella. I have no idea why the woman in the cover image looks so pensive; this is a totally cheerful book, I promise! A full review will follow shortly...
The Goal, by Elle Kennedy
Earlier this year, we reviewed the first three books in Elle Kennedy's Off-Campus series, a collection of New Adult romances set in the college hockey world. The final book in the quartet, The Goal, has recently been released, and it has just as much easy charm as its predecessors...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Goal, by Elle Kennedy
This week's Book Giveaway is Elle Kennedy's The Goal, the fourth book in her Off-Campus series. (My mother hates these covers. I admit, I'm a little creeped out to discover that it's possible to develop muscles in one's armpit.) Our review will follow shortly...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Otherworld Chills, by Kelley Armstrong
It's October, and we've been in a very horror-lite mood lately, so this week's Book Giveaway is Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld Chills, a collection of "rare and never-before-published novellas and short stories" set in her "Women of the Otherworld" 'verse. A full review will follow shortly...
Betrayals, by Kelley Armstrong
Betrayals is the fourth book in Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville series. It is also her publishers' third attempt at finding the right cover art style for these books. (The first two installments were American Gothic; the third was modern and geometric.) I really like both the look and the contents of Betrayals, so I'm hoping the ever-changing cover design...
Remembrance, by Meg Cabot
Remembrance, the fifth and final book in Meg Cabot's 'Mediator' series, is her third attempt at transforming one of her YA series into a story for grown-ups. The end result is vintage Meg Cabot—brash, funny, and just a little bit lazy—but now with more swearing, violence, and sex...
Even more vital
Last week, Pajiba put together a list of Jane Austen's heroes, ranked by level of swoon-worthiness. (Please note: these are the film versions of various characters, not the book versions.) Of course, I firmly believe that Edmund Bertram could be played by Sex Incarnate and he'd still be a judgmental, easily manipulated doofus, so I'm ignoring their #10, but...
Sorcerer to the Crown, by Zen Cho
Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown is a mildly amusing historical fantasy novel, full of nods to Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. While her book features some ambitious ideas, Cho rarely explores them in sufficient depth...
Weekly Book Giveaway: And I Darken, by Kiersten White
This week's Book Giveaway is And I Darken, the first installment in a new teen series by Kiersten White. This book is apparently (very) loosely based on the historical events surrounding Vlad the Impaler. I have no idea how a story about a murderous, sadistic, 15th century nutjob will translate into a darkly seductive YA novel, but I'm looking forward to finding out...
Marrying Winterborne, by Lisa Kleypas
Lisa Kleypas's Marrying Winterborne is a massive step up from the first book in her Ravenels series, but it still falls short of her best work. It feels like a throwback to the romance novels of my teen years—books that relied on far-fetched, telenovela-style plot twists, rather than more realistic (and, to me, more interesting) interpersonal conflicts...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Marrying Winterborne, by Lisa Kleypas
This week's Book Giveaway is Lisa Kleypas's latest historical romance: Marrying Winterborne, the second book in her Ravenels series. The first installment was one of the author's rare missteps, but I'm hoping this one will be better.
Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal
The back cover of Mary Robinette Kowal's novel Shades of Milk and Honey describes it as “precisely the sort of tale we would expect from Jane Austen”. That comment is... a little hyperbolic, to put it mildly, but Kowal's book has its own virtue...
The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan
While I thoroughly enjoyed Rick Riordan's 'Heroes of Olympus' series, I was dismayed by the way the author handled Nico di Angelo, his first major gay character. I applauded Riordan's efforts to be more inclusive, but Nico seemed downright tortured by his sexuality, which—considering both modern attitudes towards sex and other, far more pressing problems in the poor kid's life—felt unnecessarily overwrought. I'm assuming I wasn't the only person to complain, because...
Gothic romance dialed up to 11
The trailer is out for director Park Chan-wook's film Agasshi (The Handmaiden), and it looks incredible—dramatic, artistic, and creepy as hell. It's a loose adaptation of Sarah Waters's 2002 novel Fingersmith, and will debut at the Cannes Film Festival next week. Park, who is best known for his 2003 movie Oldboy, has...
The Wallflower, by Tomoko Hayakawa
Tomoko Hayakawa's The Wallflower ran from 2000 to 2015, spanning 36 volumes. That's at least twenty volumes longer than the actual storytelling could support, but there is no denying that the series' main character is one of the most memorable heroines in manga...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Wallflower Vol. 36, by Tomoko Hayakawa
This week's Book Giveaway is the last volume of The Wallflower, the long-running romantic comedy manga by Tomoko Hayakawa. The Wallflower has always been a little flimsy (there was enough story for a ten-volume series, tops, but it ran for thirty six), but it also brought me one of my all-time favorite manga heroines, so I will always have a soft spot for it in my heart...
Night Shift, by Charlaine Harris
Night Shift, the third book in Charlaine Harris's highly entertaining Midnight, Texas series, has the same strengths and weaknesses as its predecessors. With each installment, I grow more invested in the personal lives of Harris's characters... and with each installment, I grow more pained by her idea of what serves as romantic chemistry...
Nah.
ProgrammingInsider just announced that A&E TV and Harlequin Books have formed a creative partnership to produce original scripted movies, web series, books and digital content. They're promising "several scripted dramatic movies based on original stories and bestselling novels that will include a narrative of mystery, romance, thriller, suspense and more." My hopes are not high...
The ABC's of Kissing Boys, by Tina Ferraro
If Beth Reekles's The Kissing Booth had been written by an actual adult, it probably would have resembled Tina Ferraro's The ABC's of Kissing Boys. The two books have a lot in common, but Ferraro's novel is smarter, more substantial, and infinitely less cheesy...
Let Sleeping Rogues Lie, by Sabrina Jeffries
I have read and reviewed three romance novels this month. The first one was straight-up ridiculous. The second was irritatingly flimsy. I don't want to sound like Goldilocks, so I'll just say the third—Sabrina Jeffries's Let Sleeping Rogues Lie—is unquestionably the best of the bunch...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Let Sleeping Rogues Lie, by Sabrina Jeffries
This week's Book Giveaway is Sabrina Jeffries's 2008 novel Let Sleeping Rogues Lie, the fourth book in her long-running 'School for Heiresses' series. A full review will follow later today, but here's a spoiler: of the three romance novels we've read recently, this is DEFINITELY the pick of the bunch...
Raging Sea, by Michael Buckley
The horror in Michael Buckley's Undertow trilogy is largely evoked via ghastly migrant camps, bigoted politicians, and intense racism. These books should have been deliciously pulpy YA sci-fi/fantasy, but considering the current political climate, large portions of them feel uncomfortably realistic...
Reforming a Rake: With This Ring, by Suzanne Enoch
Suzanne Enoch's Reforming a Rake: With This Ring is lazy, cynical, and as predictable as an Applebee's meal. It is also about 1000 times better than the last romance novel we reviewed, partly because Enoch is a far better writer and partly because when it comes to romance novels, I don't mind a little predictability...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Reforming a Rake: With This Ring, by Suzanne Enoch
This week's Book Giveaway is Suzanne Enoch's 2009 novel Reforming a Rake: With this Ring. After reading this, I find myself in need of a historical-romance palate cleanser, and Enoch is the kind of consistently amusing writer who can be depended upon to provide one...
The price is right
Harlequin Books is running a Valentine's Day special: they're offering a bunch of books recommended by the popular romance blogs Dear Author and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, all...