After the signing at Turn the Page Bookstore, where the people are awesome and the diet Pepsi is DAMN cold, I asked each author to sign a book of their choice for a giveaway on this here hot pink page of Bitchery madness. I carried that giant pile to the cash register and managed not to drop any, then I carefully packed them in the trunk of the car and drove them home, where they are now hidden in the china cabinet of my house, where toddlers and cats fear to tread. Seriously, signed books? OMG. SO precious.
I mentioned on Twitter that I’d be giving away the Hella Pile Sequestered in My China Cabinet, and it’s time to rock and roll. Thanks to @YoungLibrarian on Twitter, I have a quest for you folks who would like this Hella Pile of Sequestered Books. You know the Inn Boonsboro has rooms named for famous romantic couples, right? Your task, should you like to win the pile of books, is to come up with an additional room for the Inn. It has to be a romantic couple, even one from a romance novel you adore, and it has to be a couple that has a happy ending. No tragic deaths or wasting away from a massive head cold or some shit like that. Happy endings, yo. Extra awesome points for those who mention the decor or decorating theme of the room based on the couple they choose. Could be a color scheme or a piece of furniture, but get funky, folks.
You have 24 hours starting now, so leave your room/couple suggestions and any decorating ideas in the comments. Winner will be selected from the comments and will receive the following pile of signed books – every one of which is new and signed by the author. So get busy with your romantic inclinations.
ETA: Nora Roberts has also added to the pile of signed books! She’s going to send me a signed Advanced Reader Copy of her upcoming July hardcover, Black Hills, which features a childhood-friends-to-lovers relationship (paging Jane, party of one, your favorite trope is ready) between a wildlife biologist in South Dakota and a New York City investigator who moves to the Black Hills. This brings the total book count to fifteen – yay!
Wow, I’m seriously drooling over that stack of books.
I’m thinking the Shade and Runa room (Desire Unchained.) Chains on the walls and hooks built into the headboard *g*
Oh em gee. I about died when I saw the first room/couple was Marguerite and Percy. Was there ever a more precious couple?
I’m going to go with…geez this is tough. I don’t want to pick a couple that would have a similar room to what is already there… but I also want the couple to be well known – or at least sufficiently known that visitors would squee.
Heh. I could go with one of Nalini Singh’s shifters- but while I love them, I don’t know that I could stomach a room with… animal print.
Oh my gosh – I have it. Wyatt Earp and Josie Marcus. I’m quite fond of the movie(s), and heck – they’re a real life couple too… the decor? Very old west. 🙂 All that great stuff.
(lol my word is “size63” I hope not!)
Ash & Tory room. It would totally have to be gothy looking with black roses with skulls.
I’ll have to think up some more
A room with a cast iron fire in the wall, tung and groove boarding on the walls painted an ivory colour. The massive bed takes up most of the room, heavy burgundy drapes hanging from the ceiling around the heavy 4 posted mahogany bed. A tall dresser matches the bed with a wardrobe to match in the dark mahogany as well. To finish the setting a wash stand with blue glaze bowl and pitcher await the occupants use. The door opens to the lovers Catherine and Heathcliffe coming in to spend their lives and afterlives together. Wuthering Heights from Charlotte Bronte would be a great addition to the Inn.
Shell
Verity and Stuart from Sherry Thomas’s “Delicious”. Maybe a room done in mauve and royal blue.
I’m going to go with a room for Caroline and Ashdon from Claudia Dain’s The Courtesan’s Daughter. And the room, of course, would be designed around a single, perfect porcelain cup, like Sophia’s White Salon: waxed dark wood floors, blue damask linens with white velvet accents, and some really nice pale blue silk wallpaper. There would be a footman in the loo. He would have an accent and would hand me heated towels as I lounge for days in the luxurious tub. Aaaahhhh.
I was trying to think of one from my favorite Nora book, but you can’t have that much tartan in a single room and expect anyone to sleep there.
Seth & Drusilla
Beautiful artwork of boats placed through out the room. A gorgeous picture of “Drusilla” as a main vocal point in the room. Vivid Hand Spun Glass or Fresh Colorful flowers. The room should have the “cottage” feel. Walls painted cerulean blue with floral rugs on pine floors & antique furnishings. The sleigh bed to be covered with a quilt with interlocking rings/rosebuds.
I picked this for a room for this contest, because Seth was a big inspiration through out the 4 book of the Chesapeake Bay Series.
Cal and Min from Bet Me – as for decor, I think Disney snow globes are a must. And there should also be Arts and Crafts style furnishings with a Mission couch.
LOL. Wyatt’s first sherrif job was in my town—southwest MO, he took over from his dad who became judge. His first wife, Urilla, is buried in a rural cemetary (located on our family farm). He left town owing a bunch of money.
Just saying.
Since my friend and I were just talking about this book earlier today, I have to choose Cal and Jane from Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Chicago Stars series (Nobody’s Baby But Mine). It would be a great room with a very nice computer because Jane is constantly on hers. The complimentary breakfast every morning would be Lucky Charms (of course!!) and there would always be a stack of post-it notes somewhere!
Also – a nice big bow somewhere, just because. 😀
i think a scottish room decorated with the colors and plaids of the fraser and mackenzie clans would make a great addition. the characters are jamie and claire fraser from diana gabaldon’s outlander series. they definitely have their ups and downs but reunite and (so far) live happily together.
In 7th grade, before I discovered romance novels (that would be 8th grade), I read An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott. To this day, it is hands-down one of my favourite books and Polly and Tom one of my favourite couples. I would love to see a Tom and Polly room. In terms of decor (and I’m a history of decorative arts masters student, so bear with me here!), I would create a slice of Postbellum New England in winter. It would be a smallish room, cozy, with a potbelly stove in a corner, decorated largely in the Colonial Revival style. The bed would be a dark wood four poster (with simple turned posts) or a sleigh (much like the one in Louisa’s own bedroom). Ideally, there would be a piano for Polly, but I could see that being a problem in a hotel. A small, simple fall-front ladies writing desk (again, I’m imagining one like Louisa’s) with dried or fresh flowers in a pewter vase sitting atop it. The bed should have a handmade-type quilt (I love the Marie Webster “Daisy” design, but there’s a book all about Massachusetts textiles which looks like a great resource, too), a few rugs (hooked or woven) on the floor, and curtains at each window. The walls would have white wood paneling below the chair rail and sprigged floral wallpaper above. I would love to see two small shadowbox frames hung side-by-side, one with a replica of Polly’s locket, the other a replica of Tom’s pocket-book, opened to show “his Polly’s rose.”
So as not to overwhelm with girlyness or leave Tom out of it entirely, there should be little references to the West throughout, such as photos like this one on the walls, as well as pieces of horse tack.
…I may have gotten a little carried away here. Still, An Old-Fashioned Girl is a beautiful book and Tom and Polly a sweetly strong, inspiring couple, whose struggles resonate to this day. I highly recommend the book, and would totally stay in the room! I had so much fun doing this, what a great contest!
The Edward and Bella room. The walls sparkle with happy little trees that make you want to fly high in the sky. There is also a bowl of apples on the nightstand if you get hungry or horny.
The Calvin & Minerva Suite (Bet Me)
Done in retro style red polka dots with green moldings. Complete with a neon sign that says “HOT”. Complimentary Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee.
It’s so hard to choose. There are excellent couples that leave marks in your memories from Roberts’s own titles but that would be cheating at least it seems in my opinion it would be because it’s like sucking up somehow. And I was going to suggest a couple from a Sherrilyn Kenyon Novel, but that’s already been taken. This question is extremely difficult, to be asked to choose only one of the hundreds of couples I’ve watched fall in love and fallen in love with in the process. I’m closing my eyes and randomly picking from my favorites because to choose just one from so many amazing couples is impossible.
I will say Drustan and Gwen from Karen Marie Moning’s Kiss of the Highlander.
You can’t help but fall in love with the couple because of all the challenges they face to fall in love with a man who should not exist and then be pulled to a time where he doesn’t know you and convince him of who you are and to have to make him fall for you again only to think you’ve lost him once more as you’re pulled back to your own time. Then to find him yet again there waiting for you, the book is like an emotional roller coaster. You can’t help but feel for a couple like that especially when you get the happy ending and the pretty bow all at the end.
Since Drustan is from Scotland in the year 1518 the room should be reminiscent of a something you’d picture in a Scottish keep, stone fire places, Scottish plaids. Possibly a with a display with one of those big swords whose name is not coming to mind right now. Hopefully you know the one I mean. It should have that ancient, manly feel of historic manly man, but add in a few modern feminine touches. Possibly add some runes into the mix, maybe carved into the headboard of the bed to give it some druid heritage, as sense of the magic of the couple and room. A photo of stone henge would be a must to combine both modern touches and druid roots since the stones are an important part of the books. But what for Gwen… something to make the room distinctively Gwen’s as well….She into science and likes to read and play chess so maybe a chess set on a table or a few books old fashioned titles maybe something from Einstein. I’m not sure. Maybe just an embroidered pillow or two would give it enough of that feminine touch to remind you that she was a part of it to. He was the more dominant part of the relationship and he’s given everything to be pulled a time that wasn’t his own just to be with her again, so I think the room would reflect him and his heritage more than her and hers simply because he gave up his time and has she decorated the room she’d want it to comfort him as much as possible.
I’m going to go with Rowena and Warrick from Prisoner of My Desire by Johanna Lindsey. The room could have a nice mirror on the ceiling and double sets of chains on the bed – men’s and ladies versions – to help recreate as many rape-but-they-really-enjoyed-it scenes that one might like. If you’re really going crazy there could even be a side entry where you can have someone pretending to be the guest’s brother break in with lusty intentions and fight the hero, should people be into that kind of thing. Although I’d rather not know myself.
From Just the Sexiest Man Alive by Julie James…
I’ll sign up for a double-room built on the scale of hotstuff Jason Andrews Hollywood mansion with a soaring staircase that leads from the sitting room up to the bedroom, so that when heroine Taylor Donovan (aka me) swans down in pointy, strappy heels, Jason (aka my husband) will be watching me with admiration, heat, and love (and most likely a camera going click-click-click).
Cordelia and Aral, from Shards of Honor and Barryar, were the first couple I thought of. It would be romantic with a lake view, and a bit startling with an urban one.
It’s not precisely a romance novel, but Daddy Longlegs is my favorite book ever. So I’d love a room named after Jerusha and Jervis. It would have a lot of books in it. (I am not an imaginative interior decorator.)
The Kevin and Molly Room from This Heart of Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Perfect for a Victorian Bed and Breakfast, shabby chic as described in the book with a hammock on the porch. Signature lemon bars served with afternoon tea.
I wish that place really existed!
Sara and Derek from Lisa Kleypas’ Dreaming of You. Could have a combo of literary and gambling themes…
Ok, I type slow and someone already did my suggestion so I will do another:
The Fred & Ginger Suite (Astaire & Rogers)
White lacquered room with Art Deco fixings and furniture. Gleaming mirror floors on which to tap dance on. Complimentary sand provided in case you disturbed the occupant right below you with your dancing. Closet filled with complimentary powder blue feathered dresses and top hat, white tie, and tails.
This is a luxury suite which provides Eric Blore as your butler.
Dag and Fawn from the Sharing Knife books. And the decor could be all old skool frontiersy with a quilted bedspread and stuff.
Don’t forget the snow globes.
I have so many, but I’ll go with Dain and Jessica from Lord of Scoundrels. It could have a hugenormous oak Jacobean bed with gold embroidered dragons on the linens and bed curtains. Florentine art, maybe a mural, and Jacobean style furniture. Dark carved woods, thick cream textured walls, maybe a wall fountain, and rich fabrics.
I love this one.
Bend over while I pucker my lips………..
How about the Smart Bitches room?
They’re a happily ever after!
A homage to Romance book lovers .
Double beds for gal pals squee trips to the inn.
Because seriously, we’d rather go there with our girlfriends than men.
Decorated in 50s glamour with lots of pink.
Sarah and Candy’s favorite good and bad books beside the beds.
Choice book cover art on the walls with snarky sayings in ‘wall words’ around them.
…………Yes, I will kiss ass to win that stack of books.
From Jacqueline Carey’s novels—Phedre & Joscelin
Sam and Alyssa from Troubleshooters
Dark wood furniture, satin sheets, western/texas theme, hidden panel in the wall to reveal the arsenal – safely hidden from Haley and baby on the way
How about Margaret & Thornton from North & South? Fine North country artisan wallpapers & bowls of yellow roses from the south.
Not because I’m drooling over Richard Armitage, no, never…
oh crud—you needed decorating too??? (I’d go against the slight S&M theme, because that wasn’t their relationship.) Instead, you need to go with her house in central France—beautiful brocades, large & comfortable bed and modern conveniences due to the Siovale engineers! (ha! got around that problem…)
There’d also be a touch of the eclectic around, citing from their adventures…a bear skin rug from Skaldia, some wall hangings from their time traveling through Africa and a touch of Ireland.
oh – my husband just threw out “Han & Leia”—decorated with fuzzy little ewoks
OK, I should be working, but I’ll play. Procrastination is a terrible disease. 😉 I am torn between John Thornton and Margaret Hale from Elizabeth Gaskell’s NORTH and SOUTH, and Jean Paget and Joe Harman from Nevil Shute’s A TOWN LIKE ALICE. I see that the Inn Boonboro already has a couple of rooms from 19th century England (albeit different eras), so my final choice is:
Jean Paget and Joe Harman from A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute. Since the novel spans from the beginning of World War II in England and British occupied Malaya, and goes through the end of the war up to the late 1940’s Australian outback, you’ve got a variety of styles to work with. I am thinking a very light and airy room, simply furnished, with large windows and French doors opening onto a comfortable porch facing the garden. Comfortable wicker furniture (chairs and table) are located on the porch for enjoying the warm summer evenings. The walls are light colored with subtly patterned wallpaper, and the floor is bamboo. Framed, brightly colored Malaysian batiks decorate the walls. There is a ceiling fan, and a simple but comfortable bed with a black cast iron metal bed frame, covered with a cheerful handmade quilt and pillows. A battered trunk is located at the foot of the bed. There is also an old fashioned makeup table with a mirror and a matching stool, and a couple of comfortable arm chairs and an end table. The bathroom can be simply decorated and tiled in black and white with hexagonal floor tiles, 1940s style. I’d go with a claw foot tub and a large shower stall (room for 2) with a rainforest rainfall shower head and side jets to bring back the Malaysian monsoon memories. Ice skates are available for winter recreation (Jean has fond memories of ice skating as a girl in England), and in the summer there is horseback riding (the outback, duh).
OK, end of fantasy. Thanks, Sarah, that was fun. 😉
Well, I know I’m straying outside the genre a little here, but I’m going to have to go with Howl and Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. They remain my all time favorite couple. I don’t know if it’s Howl’s cowardly courage, Sophie’s no-nonsense sassy take on magic, or the fact that two very different and very human people manage to save the kingdom, fall in love, and become heroes without actually being heroes.
The Howl and Sophie room would need to have exposed wood beams, wood floors, all worn. In fact all the furniture would be a bit rustic, wooden of course, and used. It would need a fireplace, and a rickety stair. And a guitar.
here’s more—sans decorating (note to self : don’t play games like this after a few glasses of wine!)
Harry & Sally (When Harry Met Sally)—but for the dining room, only.
Jack & Lily from Legend—forest theme?
Lloyd & Diane—Say Anything (music room?)
Caprica 6 & Gaius for the sci-fi geeks (but I would so say no to this)
Niles & Daphnie from Frasier—urban Seattle
Harry & Ginny / Ron & Hermione from Harry Potter 😀
George Burns & Gracie—for the smoking lounge?
okay, that’s enough damage for this evening…
Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe.
Sorry, but the brain isn’t up to decorating details, but they would want to be right for the time and placfe.
Eugenides and Irene from The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. Mind, the series isn’t finished yet, so it may end unhappily, but I highly doubt it. If you like your romance with well developed characters, seriously unhealthy relationships you can’t help rooting for, two extremely powerful women, a funny, angsty, terrified, brilliant hero, a cold, dangerous, uncertain, brilliant heroine, snark, politics, and gods… need I say more?
The Vaughn and Faith room for Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changelings. I picture a room designed like a tree house. It would come complete with a balcony and railing with vines attached for swinging (if that’s your thing). There would also be a loin cloth laid out on the bed, a requirement for all male guests. The bathroom would include a waterfall perfect for skinny dipping.
decorating??? The Eugenides and Irene room with have white walls, a black and red Greek key border going around the walls just below where they meet the ceiling, a bedside table with two jewelry boxes with imitation ruby earrings and headband, a bed with a headboard with mountains and pine trees, and big windows with fake cracks.
Cupid and Psyche
The decor would feature gauzy, sweeping fabric hanging from the four-poster bed, oil lamps, and lots of silk pillows comfortably arranged on an over-sized chaise lounge (I have no idea if this would evoke ancient Greece, but it’s a myth anyway, so I’m going with it). The balcony would be screened by a lushly planted container garden featuring a reproduction of this statue:
Cupid and Psyche Statue
A copy of USA Today will be left outside the door every morning by the invisible servants. Irate mothers-in-law, three-headed dogs, and a council of the gods are not included.
Oh, you know what would be AWESOME?! The Wall-E and EVE room. It would look like the Apple store, all clean white surfaces and no corners, but with loads of flowers. And everything would be voice-operated.