It's time for recommendations! First, an email from Maeve, who is looking for recommendations for books similar to The Last Hour of Gann, and another email from Bobbie, looking for romantic suspense. Bloodthirsty Jane is here to help! We also chat about what we're currently reading, and I share some of the responses to our last podcast about uglycry books and DNFing books you aren't enjoying.
Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:
I also mentioned the article about Edith Layton that Elyse wrote recently – here's a link to that, too.
Don't miss Christina Lee's brand new ebook BEFORE YOU BREAK, a beautiful and emotional New Adult romance about a bad boy on the edge—and the girl who’s about to fall hard.
A college baseball star isn't supposed to have skeletons in his closet. But Daniel Quinn is hiding a guilty past so dark he refuses to let anyone get close. Except there's something about gorgeous, studious Ella Abrams that goes beyond the electric attraction between them–something that makes him want to open up.
Ella has suffered enough heartache and guilt to fill one of her psychology textbooks, but she keeps that part of herself hidden behind a bubbly exterior. Until she receives an anonymous call while working a suicide helpline and the voice on the other end touches something inside of her that she can't ignore.
Soon Ella and Quinn's physical connection heats up, even as their deep and revealing hotline talks intensify. But by the time Ella realizes that her seductive jock and her sensitive caller are the same guy, it might be too late to save him–or to stop herself from falling too far…
Before You Break will be on sale February 18th wherever ebooks are sold.
Our music in each episode is provided by Sassy Outwater, who is most excellent. This podcast features a song called “Dun Beag” and it’s by Peatbog Faeries from their CD Dust. You can find them at their website, or at iTunes.
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Maeve, I’d also recommend Written in Red by Anne Bishop. My only complaint about it is that one of the villains is cartoonish and annoying. But there are multiple evil baddies, and a strong feeling of danger/suspense runs through the book. It’s evidently the beginning of a series. There isn’t a consummated romance, but there’s a definite slow build between two of the characters. I liked the world-building; it felt fresh. I was convinced that humans in the book weren’t ever really “safe” around the paranormal creatures.
Re historicals with nice guy heroes:
Cecilia Grant – 3 book Regency series – one of the heroes is a barrister (or maybe a solicitor) and he’s very nice to the heroine, daughter of his mentor. I also enjoyed In for a Penny by Rose Lerner (it’s a former Dorchester title, hard to come by right now, but I think being reissued by Samhain very soon). I don’t lend my copy of In for a Penny anymore b/c it’s hard to get and it’s one of my keepers. The hero in In For Penny has to marry for money, and decides to be nice to his wife and make the best of it. Very refreshing.
It’s funny b/c I still often go back to the early Amanda Quick historicals, before the Arcane Society series, when I want a classic Regency with light humor, nothing in the bedroom that I couldn’t read to the kids, and yet a more modern feel than Georgette Heyer. I think b/c these books are close to 20 years old now, they don’t get mentioned often in these lists. They’re still good. Light, fluffy, but the heroes were nice (if sometimes a little teensy bit condescending to the scatterbrained heroines). Not as angsty as Laura Kinsale from the same period, but super-good to read if you’re under the weather and just want hot tea and a book. I don’t hold them to high standards, I just enjoy them.
I also suggest going back to the Daphne Du Maurier that you might have overlooked, b/c she also wrote historicals. Frenchman’s Creek is set in the Georgian period, and I love it as much or more than Rebecca. FC is not really a gothic, IMO, which is why I liked it better. The hero is a well-educated Breton pirate, the heroine a married woman who must make decisions about what she wants … I remember the candlelit dinners in the nearly empty estate so well. for some reason none of my distaste for adultery was activated by this book, so I recommend it. I think du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn (set in 1820ish) was good, but I don’t reread it like I do Rebecca and Frenchman’s Creek.
The Hitchcock version of Jamaica Inn was not as good as the movie of Frenchman’s Creek, IMO, but both are worth watching if you like old movies.
Re Bobbie’s Q about romantic suspense:
I was going to point Bobbie to a certain romantic suspense authored by me (**First to Burn** – subject of Jane and Sarah’s spoiler incident a couple weeks ago) but since she doesn’t want a military plot line and does want serial killers, I don’t know if she’d like it.
What about trying Marie Force’s romantic suspense series from Carina Press? That’s a great and long series – Washington DC homicide detective heroine and politician hero. No military angles, variety of criminals. My DNF-everything mother was totally sucked in to Marie Force’s books. They’re even coming out in mass market paperback from Harlequin now.
Just finished Under Locke the other day and it was wonderful. I immediately reread it. I’ve gotten into reading biker books lately and also read Reaper’s Legacy. It was pretty good.
Agnes and the Hitman is my favorite Jennifer Crusie book. I love it so much. I didn’t like the first of her collaboration with Bob Mayer nearly as much but Agnes is about perfection. I don’t know what happened to Crusie but I wish she’d get back to writing. She hasn’t had a new book in so long and her last was only meh for me.
Maya Banks’s Forged in Steele is ok but that series is taking some serious hits for me. I think that the KGI gets more and more inept with each book, but she’s adding more and more violence for no apparent reason.
Loving Cindy Gerard’s books. Killing Time was good and I’m really looking forward to the rest in the series. I like how we get to keep the BOI boys but she’s moving on as well.
For a nice-guy hero, I think you should try Marie Force’s MAID FOR LOVE. (It’s free at most (all?) etailers.)
Warning: you’ll want to read the rest of the series…
I’m about 40% into The Last Hour Of Gann and it is WONDERFUL.
Can a lizard hero be sexy? Grrrr….yes. Did I instantly identify with the heroine? Yes (and man, have I had a few Nicci’s in my life). Is a great, realistic relationship being built over time? Yes. All that and really good science fiction too? Hell yes. Thank you so much for the recommendation.
This is a late recommendation since I just listened to the podcast, I save them for long drives, but Allison Brennan’s early books are good Romantic Suspense with strong heroines. I’m not a fan of her recent Lucy Kinkaid books or her paranormal ones- but the early books prior are great.