A reader named Sheri emailed me, asking if there were a place at SBTB she could talk to other romance readers about what she's reading, and know that folks would understand what she's talking about. Sheri wrote, I would love for there to be a place where all of us fans and romance lovers had a place to talk without a thread, just free form. I am sure there is a place like this somewhere on the internet but I …enjoy your website and its followers so much. I really feel like it would just be an added bonus. I am going to be starting the Evanovich Plum Series and while I feel like this is a big undertaking, I am sure no one in my immediate circle would care. I am sure however that the bitchery would totally understand and give lots of humorous support.
The whole Plum series, all upteen books? Oh, yes, I know exactly what you're facing. The early books will make you laugh hard enough to consider using the bathroom, so be ye warned.
Sheri's email got me thinking, though, about having a Friday afternoon thread for y'all, just to talk about what you're reading right now, or planning to read this weekend. I love hearing about what you're reading when I post the Top 10 list, but perhaps a separate thread just for discussing what you're reading would be of interest. I'll tag them all “reader thread” for easy following.
So, whatcha reading?
Just finished Joanna Bourne’s “The Black Hawk” and the more I ruminate on it the more I love it. Can you tell by the way I keep bringing it up?
Started JAK’s “Copper Beach” this morning. She’s becoming formulaic, but still, I’m no quitter.
I am currently working my way through Amanda Quick’s back list. I recently read Ravished, the first of Quick’s work for me, and it immediately went into my top 5 favorite historical romances of all time. Just this morning I finished Surrender (the 4th I’ve read). It takes a pretty great writer for me to hate the heroine as much as I did for a large part of the book and still think the book as a whole is amazing. So far she ranks 1 amazing, 2 enjoyable but didn’t wow me, and 1 better than good but not Ravished.
You may want to check out GoodReads for some great book discussions. I too lack for someone with whom to discuss books, but I find some great discussions/reader groups, recommendations, and reviews on that site.
I just started reading Covet the first in J.R. Wards Fallen Angel series
Just finished A Lady Awakened – I liked it, though it didn’t quite have the, what, squee factor I guess. It was one of those books that sort of slowly charms you – I found that I had to persevere for the first few chapters and then got really caught up. Mind you this parallels the heroine’s relationship with the hero, which is testament to the writer’s skill.
No idea what to read next – I feel like I need a new author. Claudia Dain has been recommended but I didn’t really love the one book of hers (medieval setting) that I read. Would love to hear thoughts from anyone who’s read her regencies.
I just finished “The Player’s Club: Finn” and am trying to figure out what to read next. I am totally on a novella streak, Player’s Club aside, and want more novellas.
Meljean Brook’s Heart of Steel about the lady Corsair and the arrogant adventurer swathed in steampunk goodness.
I started Lothaire last night—and I’m looking forward to using the long weekend to finish it. So far, sooooooo good.
I’m rereading Mr Impossible, which is still awesome. What I really want to read is Kate Elliott’s Cold Fire, but I need to go back and reread number one in the series, as I’ve forgotten half of what happened.
I’ve been going through some of Nora Roberts’ older (maybe, I’m pretty new to reading romance so they’re all ones pub’d before I started reading 3 yrs ago) romantic suspense. Not the hollywood starlet type things but Sanctuary, Blue Smoke, etc. My library just started offering kindle lending so it’s been nice to catch up.
Plowing like crazy through the Courtney Milans, myself! Will be jumping back over to Book 3 as soon as I finish a mad dash through (non-romance) Cherie Priest—I want to be sure and get Unraveled read before the book chat at the end of this month.
After that, romance-wise, I’m likely to take on more Kate Noble. 🙂
I absolutely love Claudia Dain’s Courtesan series. I thought it was delightfully witty and clever and unsentimental. It also includes one of my all-time favorite lines:
“Men are so easy to lead around, and they provide their own little leash.”
I’m working my way through Stephanie Plum too. I started a few months ago and read them in groups of 2 to 4 at a time, then take a bit of a break (for my wallet’s sake, mostly). I’m up to the last few now, almost caught up. Picking it up this late in the game adds an extra layer of entertainment: tracking the technology trends. The earlier books are all about answering machines and car phones, and then they progress to “cellular phones” and finally reach the “cell” and voice mail stage.
@Booklight: Ravished is my favourite Quick book, of the several I’ve read. Seduction was my least favourite: it had some very awesome elements, but they weren’t enough to outweigh what, in my mind, was a horrifying controlling hero.
im reading Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing Of The Dog for the first time. its a time travel that reads more like classic english literature, not a lot of focus on the SF/F of time travel, and i heard the two main time travelers have a little bit of a romance while they’re searching Victorian England for a missing artifact so here’s hoping!
Some Like it Hot by Louisa Edwards. It is the 2nd in her latest chef series. Super hot – unfortunately, every time I’m at the gym reading it on the elliptical, I hit a sex scene. Talk about getting overheated!
Dear Author has a monthly post that allows readers to comment about whatever they’d like, although I’m always open to more places to talk about the stuff I’m reading. 🙂
I just finished the audio book version of Bellwether by Connie Willis (it has a little bit of romance – I loved the “must be scientifically compatible” line!). I work for a university so, although I don’t have to worry about tenure and research as part of my job, I still cringed in sympathy during the bits about the funding forms.
I’m currently listening to The Murder Room by P.D. James (my first P.D. James book) and reading The Very Comely Countess by Miranda Jarrett (historical romance in which the hero is a spy and the heroine is an orange seller the hero recruits to be his partner). I’m also a few chapters into Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher (YA contemporary fiction about a high school student who falls in love with a girl who turns out to be transgendered), but I seem to have stalled on that one.
@Lusty Reader – Ha, another Connie Willis person! I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog.
I’m reading Silent on the Moor, which is the 4th (I think) of Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia books. I liked the others (obvously, enough to keep going) but I’m enjoying this one a lot more. Not sure exactly why, but the gothic setting, the fact that Nicholas Brisbane is as darkly brooding as the Yorkshire Moors, and the fact that even though I’m about two thirds of the way through I still have no idea which of the many possible ways the plot will go. I’ve got Nicola Cornick’s Dauntrey Park and Michelle Moran’s Madame Tussaud on my next list and I’ll definitely get to one of them over the weekend.
Thanks Lil – and that line’s funny enough to make me give her another chance!
I’m working my way through a lot of Nora’s older stuff too. I found myself caught up on her newest stuff and starting going back. I’m now got a self imposed Nora Roberts’ Reading Challenge.
I’m reading In Her Sights by Robin Perini. I don’t usually read RS, but a riflewoman author… I just had to read her story. Plus, I wanted to check out more books from Montlake Romance, having read and enjoyed The Other Guys Bride.
I’m under 6 months until the completion of my dissertation, so no new romance reading for me. *cries uncontrollably*. I’m living vicariously through yall and making notes for my post-PhD reading list.
However, I do put myself to sleep at night reading a few pages of romances I’ve already read (that way I can always put it down after a few minutes), so I have some Julie Garwood, Maya Banks, Jill Shalvis, and Diana Palmer (I can’t help it, I love/hate her books) on my bedside table.
I loved it so much – but I won’t let myself move on to #2 for another few months, in order to make the series last.
i’m trying to get into marjorie liu’s dirk and steele series…i am enjoying them, but also not enjoying them. i think it might be the way the characters speak to one another.
like, dude, you just met, and now it’s all, ‘i’ve been enslaved for two thousand years…but they didn’t enslave my spirit’
which is actually very nice, but an odd thing to say so someone who a)has the power to enslave you again and b)you just met a day ago
but i’m gonna hang in there.
Be sure you catch her three sisters island trilogy – fantastic!
I know what you mean about JAK – I find the Arcane novels formulaic (and in a different way from her earlier books , which were also formulaic but more fun). But I keep reading them, because even an ok JAK is still pretty enjoyable. I’ll probably get this one from the library.
I enjoy Amanda Quick’s one-word Regency-era historicals… but when she gets to the Arcane Society Victorians, her style becomes just a bit too precious and mannered for me to be able to read. I’m going to give Perfect Poison one more try, and then I’m quitting the Arcane Society Victorians for good.
Okay, I have a confession to make and then I’m going to duck. I just downloaded Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase. Yes, yes, I know! I deserve to lose my romance reader card. The thing is I’m not a heavy consumer of historicals. And also, as a writer, I know I’m going to feel like such a hack after reading her book. I mean, come on, that book is at or near the top of EVERYONE’S all-time favorites list. So this weekend I’m diving in. Hopefully when I’m done I won’t be ruined forever. Now that I’ve bared my writing insecurities to the world, I’m going to go find a corner and rock.
Just read Cecilia Grants, A Lady Awakened, which I must thank Sarah for, because I would not have picked it up without a recommendation. The plot didn’t particularly appeal to me, but I don’t think there is a book that Sarah loves that I don’t enjoy, so I tried it, and boy, was that true this time. I felt like I was reading a Jane Austen book except, you know, with sex. I loved the language which was close enough for me and the characters have ideals that felt very true to the time. It is the first time I’ve seen a plot where the heroine has a real problem with his lack of responsibility and not his player-like ways. There were a few things that didn’t ring true to me, but they were fun, so I let them go. Love this book!
I also “read” (really: listened) to the Janet Evanovich series starting about a year and a half ago. Hilarious and fun. The only downside to the audiobooks is that the narrator changes frequently in the first few books but they settle down to just one narrator by the 7th book or so. I had no idea this series had been around for so long so I was very confused by plot points revolving around the expense of using car phones. I had kind of forgotten we even had those!
I have been obsessively devouring everything Mercedes Lackey has ever written in the Valdemar world that I can get my hands on (why oh why does the library only have vols 1 & 3 of not 1, not 2, but 3 different series??). Not exactly romance, although there is a distinct thread of it weaving through each set of stories. And of course, sex is all off-screen. But I am SO SO SO in love with Vanyel & Stefan that it’s not funny.
I am reading Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James. i got through the first book (Fifty Shades of Grey) really quickly, but I find this second book less captivating. i keep putting it down. Anyone outthere who read Shades of Grey and finds the second book disappointing? I am also rereading Victoria Holt’s books and have “Daughter of Deceit” on my kindle to read this weekend.
oh my gosh, too funny! esp because ive never read her before and dont hear people online talking to much about her. so far the writing is very clever…and is making me want to go boating with a handsome man in a straw boater hat 🙂 im loving all Willis’ allusions to other classic literature as well.
@Booklight: Writing my review of Quick’s Ravished is one of the highlights of my life. (I rarely write reviews). http://paleohigh.blogspot.com/…
@Tracy: I read Lackey’s Valdemar series when I was in high school (late 90s) and still love it to this day. I haven’t kept up with the series in the past few years, but I did recently acquire the audiobooks to the Arrow of the Queen trilogy and LOVED making my way through those three books again – they’re still my favorite of the series and some of my favorite Fantasy to date!
@booklight et al re: Quick – when i was 13 years old and glomming every historical romance in sight my library had EVERY Amanda Quick regency so i was obsessed with them and read every one in all their neon pink and orange cover glory. i think i remember loving Reckless the most…where she snuck out with him for adventures…and i think she was the one with the twisted leg from a carriage accident? hmm i think i need to reread them now! and i think i heard somewhere the Quick/JAK/Castle confusion of pen names will getting a little clearer?
I’m reading Elizabeth C. Bunce’s “Liar’s Moon,” which is a YA fantasy with a tiny smidge of romance in it. I’m totally digging this series.
I may go for a contemporary after this, not really sure. I go through reading phases and I haven’t been in a romance phase for about a month now.
@LustyReader, I LOVED To Say Nothing Of The Dog! It’s kind of like a combination Victorian bedroom farce (quite a bit of romance/matchmaking, actually) and cozy mystery with time travel thrown in. I will warn you that as you get nearer the end it gets more intense. But it’s a great book and I’m looking forward to reading more Willis.
Just finished the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld; for anyone out there reading YA I recommend it highly. Wonderful alternate-universe Steampunk/Biopunk version of WWI with a heroine who is tougher than the hero (although he shapes up by necessity before the end of the series) and best of all IT’S NOT DYSTOPIAN!
Just started Redeeming the Rogue by Donna MacMeans and enjoying it a lot so far.
Connie Willis’ books are always crammed with fun stuff to either recognize or hunt down. Bellwether had me googling fads at least once per disc (I just had to find out if the dance marathon stuff was true, and I looked up examples of hair wreaths made of real human hair). The main character also spends a lot of time at the library “rescuing” books – she found out that books that haven’t been checked out in a year get weeded, so she checks out her favorites, even if she already owns them, and things she thinks others might want to read. Working in a library and knowing how our weeding system works, I have to admit I do the same thing.
When I read her book Remake, I spent a similar amount of time noting the movies and scenes she mentioned. Lol, I wonder when Willis has time to sleep, what with all the research she must do?
Loulou, I read Fifty Shades of Grey after Sarah’s review of it triggered my car-crash-romance-novel reflex. Actually, I liked it more than she did – not the writing, but I was curious about the relationship and was hooked enough to buy the second one. But no. 2 seemed like a collection of random events in search of a plot and weighed down by many, oh so many WTF moments.
I just finished “The Winter Sea” by Susanna Kearsley, and I loved it. It reminded me of “A Knight in Shining Armor” by Jude Deveraux with it’s time traveling theme.
@ECSpurlock im finding i do need to concentrate while reading To Say Nothing of the Dog, glad i have the 3 day weekend coming to up to concentrate on the end! AND i ALSO just finished S Westerfeld’s Leviathan series last weekend and am a HUGE fangirl of the series. best fantasy/adventure series ive read in YEARS. when the perspicacious loris puts on eddie malone’s discarded mustache?!?! *dies*
I used to LOVE Mercedes Lackey, and I still consider her Last Herald Mage and Arrows books to be some of my favorites – Arrows of the Queen is one of my big comfort reads. However, I had to quit reading the series after Lackey wrote herself into it. I think it was in Alberich’s books, which I had been really looking forward to. I kept wanting to throw the book against the wall every time a scene with Myste came up. I have no idea if that character showed up in other books – if not, I *might* be tempted to read more of the series again.