The e-mail from Google stated, “Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others.” The e-mail lists the copyright owner as Sony, the copyright work description as “Adele + Exitos” and the “location of the infringing material” as the post by Dubois, which was removed by Google Blogger.

Who instigated the complaint remains a mystery. A “sworn statement” at the end of Google’s e-mail simply says “[private]” under the signature. The statement says, “I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.”

Adele the singer has a recording contract with Columbia Records, which is owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Although names cannot be copyrighted, they can be trademarked. And Adele is trademarked, according to the Trademark Electronic Search System.

I contacted Dubois, she explained that the entry "ADELE + EXITOS" was the only thing mentioned, with no other explanation given for the removal:

As a result, Google removed my post from the blog with no warning. Since my blog spoke about nothing other than my book, I'm at a loss as to why they objected. They also sent the copyright infringement letter to the blog owner, Marianne Stephens, and all 18 of the other authors who participate on our group blog. However, it was my specific blog post that was listed as the "infringement." Google asked me to respond to the accusation, which I did. Google will either repost my blog in 10 days if my answers seem satisfactory, or a lawsuit will be filed against me by Sony in the state of California, according to the letter they attached. Sony claims that I will be held responsible for all their court costs and must appear in California to respond.

Since Adele is my legal name (and on my birth certificate) I know have done nothing wrong. Some spider bot at Sony probably picked up my name on a blog post and had Google shut me down. What upsets me most is that they removed my blog post first and demanded answers later. It's ironic that pirates have stolen from me for years with no repercussions, yet I've been cited for discussing my own copyrighted book on a legitimate group author blog with my birth name. 

I have no idea what the issue is really about, except for my use of the name Adele. I'm confident that when Sony and Google investigate, they'll drop this baseless accusation and go away.

Best--Adele (My real name. Honest)

So if the post was removed because of the name "Adele," how many pages on Blogger are there from writers named "Adele?" And then there's the romances with titles like Someone Like You. Good gravy. What a strange, strange thing for Sony and Google to do. Adele Dubois tells me she's heard nothing from either company despite filing complaints.

Over at DearAuthor, Jane has assembled All Of The Bullet Points that highlight the major points of the recent ruling from Judge Denise Cote denying the motion to dismiss from Apple, Penguin and Macmillan. 

Legally this is a complex process with a great many steps, but I absolutely cannot shake my dancing inner 9 year old rolling her eyes and saying, 'CHILD, PLEASE.' Motion to dismiss? "Child, please."

I think this is among the most jaw dropping parts: 

When Random House refused to move to Agency, David Shanks of Penguin went to Barnes & Noble “I would hope that [Barnes & Noble] would be equally brutal to Publishers who have thrown in with your competition [Amazon] with obvious disdain for your welfare.”  B&N continued to promote RH titles and so Shanks went back to B&N.  ”Following this contact, B&N’s management decided not to feature Random House in any future advertising.”

"Child, please." 

Seriously, read it. As Jane says, prepare to have your mind blown.

Via Amy: conservative political Duane Lester went into a local newspaper after they reprinted his work without permission in their newspaper, and confronts the editor in chief on camera about violation of his copyright, and presents them with an invoice for payment from the use of his content. It gets tense, and Mr. Lester stays calm and refuses to be distracted. It's kind of amazing. 

Meanwhile, in ebooks, my column this week for Kirkus features five contemporary romances available for less than $5 each. I think the total cost of all five books I featured was around $16, give or take a few cents for taxes. 

So, what interesting stuff are you reading online today? 

Categories: General Bitching, The Link-O-Lator

It's so awful, I'm going to put a second silly cover beneath it to help sooth your ravaged psyche. You ready?

Ok, breathe! Breathe again! And look at this guy sniffing a glowing wangsword. Focus on the wangsword before you caption the clown. Breathe in, breathe out. 

I think "Focus on the wangsword before you caption the clown" might be one of my most favorite sentences ever. The glowing wangsword spent a lot of time in the sidebar a month or two ago, and many of you commented on his glowing majesty. Let him guide you to mental peace and clarity before you behold the clown romance again.

Anyway, caption that clown! Leave your favorite caption for the clown in the comments, and I'll pick the winner. You can "like" your favorite comments to try to influence my voting. You've got 48 hours, and the winner will receive a $25 gift card to the bookstore of his/her choice. 

And if you want to cleanse your palate by captioning the glowing wangsword, go ahead - just tag it "THE WANGSWORD" in the comments so I don't get turned around. 

Standard disclaimers apply: I'm not being compensated for this giveaway, except that the clown is now on my harddrive. Void where prohibited. Winners must be over 18 years of age and wearing a nose. A big red one. One Direction gives me the jibblies. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Don't take candy from a bowl if the candy isn't wrapped. Not only do most people not wash their hands enough, but maybe the clown touched it.

So, bring on the captions. And try to keep breathing. Gaze at the wangsword and you'll feel better. 

Categories: Caption This Cover, Covers Gone Wild! (Non-Snoop Dogg Edition), General Bitching

It's also time for the Brenda Novak Auction, which has raised over $1.3 million dollars for a cure for juvenile diabetes. The auction is going on all month - and there are a lot of really neat things to bid on. Let's go shopping!

In the Once in a Lifetime Experiences category, there's a two night stay at the Ritz Carlton in Lake Tahoe, and as I write this, the high bid is $165. WHAT? There's 15 days left, but hey, bid early bid often. There's also a 2 night stay at the Grand Palms Hotel in Pembroke Pines, Florida, and the high bid is $50 as of this moment. Hey? What's that over there? Nothing to see here about hotel stays.

There are also cruises, trips to Europe, and an African safari up for bidding. Good gravy.

There are also 25 different meals & drinks with authors up for bids, from coffee with Nalini Singh to drinks with Victoria Dahl - and lunch with Diana Gabaldon. And if you don't want to eat, but you do want to read, there are ARCs - a rather large collection of them.

And if you really want to read, there are auctions like this one: a year of Grand Central Forever titles . Imagine that package of awesomeness arriving on your porch every month.

I donated an author interview, in case you're interested. And DearAuthor has donated an ad and an interview as well. Holy smokes, there are a ton of awesome things to bid on. And now that I've looked at all the categories, I've marked a few things to monitor in the hopes the price doesn't go higher than I can afford. I should probably bid - but then, once you place the bid, the competitive obsession takes over!

This is horrible fun, really.

So, are you bidding on something? What are you hoping to win?

Categories: General Bitching, Random Musings

If you loved Sarah's post entitled, "Where is the Hymen?" you will love Bonk.

In Bonk (which for months I've been referring to accidentally as Boink, God knows what that says about me) Mary Roach takes on the subject of what scientists do and don't know about sex, and how they know it.  I apologize for the over-abundance of long quotes here, but they are the best way to convey the flavor of the book.  Also, I'm being self-indulgent.  I read most of this book in a hospital cafeteria (Mom had a hip replacement - she's all better now).  Anyway, there I was, cackling madly over the cafeteria food, with no one to say, "Hey, you gotta hear this!" to.  I certainly wasn't going to read these passages to my mother (although given the pain medication she was getting at the time, I doubt she would have been offended).  Here's an excerpt I'm fond of from the chapter, "The Prescription-Strength Vibrator:  Masturbating For Health":

"There are images that stay with you your whole life, whether you want them to or not.  Here is one that I imagine will make the cut.  A man in a blue smock and a hairnet walks across a factory floor with an armload of enormous chocolate-brown dildos.  He is loaded down to the point of absurdity.  He is Audrey Hepburn leaving Bergdorf's in some 1960's romantic comedy, her arms piled so high with packages that she can barely see over the top.   I want to trip him, not out of meanness, but just to see the penises fly through the air and rain down around us".

It's all like this, although there's more actual science than you might assume just from that quote.  That particular section comes from a visit to a sex toy factory.  The factory noise is deafening, so the manager has to yell things like "THESE ARE THE VAGINAS".  If you can think of a way that I can work yelling, "THESE ARE THE VAGINAS" into my daily life, let me know.  By the way, when reading Bonk, don't skip the footnotes - they are the best part.  Here's a footnote from the chapter "Monkey Do:  The Secret Sway of Hormones" that might be useful to any men who are lacking in seductive techniques:

"Ladies, do not get involved with a chimp.  Not only are they fast ejaculators, they want to perform this minor irritation constantly (highest copulatory frequency of all primates.)  And here's how they let you know:  "the male invitation posture", in which the male sits on the ground, knees up and legs wide open to, quoting Reproductive Biology of the Great Apes, "reveal his erect penis."  As an alternate wooing strategy, the male chimpanzee will shake a branch at you."

Be still, my heart. 

This is my favorite style of science writing:  it's accessible to the layperson (me), it focuses more on funny or interesting anecdotes than hard facts (I'm not proud, people, but that's the way I roll), and yet it manages to get a lot of hard facts across.  It was hilarious.  It was also informative - mostly about history, but about biology as well, and, for the more daring among our readers, I daresay it includes shopping tips.  There's a fine line in science writing between being accessible and being patronizing, and this book definitely was accessible but also made me learn and think, sans patronization, and Lord knows, it was entertaining.

The only problem I have with Bonk is that reading it is rife with side effects.  For example, the descriptions of penile implant operations are seared into my brain in the most unpleasant way.   Even worse is the fact that I am no longer capable of saying or thinking anything that doesn't seem to me like a double entendre, a pun, or a highly suspect word.  I am eager for this effect to wear off.  Also, reading the book involves a lot of potential for public embarrassment, what with the blushing and the giggling and the uproarious laughter, not to mention having very nice strangers ask me what I'm reading.  If those are side effects you can live with, read on!

This book is available from Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo.

Categories: General Bitching, Reviews, Guest Bitch Reviews, Non-Romance Reviews, Reviews by Author, Authors, Q-S, Reviews by Grade, Grade A

Why?

HuffPo has a quote from Don Walker, a spokesman for the library, who said, "it's semi-porgnographic." The HuffPo article indicated that several other libraries in Florida had refused to purchase copies, but Brevard bought 19, then took them out of circulation, sending notices to the 200 or so people on a waiting list.

Library services director Cathy Schweinsberg told Florida Today: Nobody asked us to take it off the shelves. But we bought some copies before we realized what it was. We looked at it, because it’s been called ‘mommy porn’ and ‘soft porn.’ We don’t collect porn.”

Brevard County Public Libraries don't collect porn. But since there's no established definition of what porn is, particularly for a library, I took a closer look at their collection to ascertain the items within their collection that I knew included sexually explicit depictions.

They have over 150 different Longarm novels, and a rather healthy collection of romances, including titles by Lora Leigh, Laurell K. Hamilton, Joey W. Hill, and Emma Holly.

So how does 50 Shades of Grey qualify as porn, while those works do not?

Your guess is as good as mine. 

There's a petition online featuring plenty of irritated folks telling the library not to censor what their patrons read, but if you'd like to write a letter to the Brevard County Library Director, Cathy Schweinsberg, her address is:

Cathy Schweinsberg
Library Services Director
Brevard County Public Library
308 Forrest Ave.
Cocoa, FL 32922

Or you can email her at cschweinsberg@brev.org. There's additional contact information for Ms. Schweinsberg and for the library administration at their Contact page. 

I don't know if any reasoned argument can sway the decision, but if you do write, please keep the argument reasonable and not attackernating, as tempting as it may be to say, 'OH COME ON NOW.' This is the letter I've sent her:

Dear Ms. Schweinsberg:

I'm writing in regards to your decision to remove 50 Shades of Grey by EL James from your circulating collection on the grounds that it is "porn."

I am not a resident of Florida, but many, many women I know are, and we are all avid readers of romance.  The danger in removing one book on the grounds that it is 'porn' is that you have not defined what it is that constitutes pornography.  Is it because this book features scenes that are labeled as BDSM? Your library carries Exit to Eden by Anne Rice, which also features BDSM, as well as several other works by writers of erotic romantic fiction that include bondage and domination scenes.

Is it that 50 Shades of Grey features explicit sexuality? Many other books do as well, and not just romance. For example, I examined your catalog and found over 160 different books in the Longarm series. Are you familiar at all with Longarm? It's a popular western series known for extremely graphic descriptions of sex and violence.  Here is a sampling of scenes from Longarm books:

"Longarm was able to enjoy Ramona longer, and wilder, as Carlota cuddled close to kiss Ramona passionately on the mouth and finger Longarm's ass as he long-donged her sister."

- Longarm and the Deadly Dead Man
Located in your South Mainland Branch, currently checked out

 

"Longarm paid no attention to her giggling. He concentrated instead on feeling of sliding inside that sweet pussy and out again."

- Longarm and the One-Armed Bandit
Located in your Titusville Branch, currently on shelf

I apologize for the frank and explicit nature of the excerpts included, but if you are going to remove a book based on it being "porn," I wanted to make sure you were fully cognizant of the sexual content of several hundred other books in the Brevard County collection. If 50 Shades of Grey is porn, I'd posit that the Longarm series qualifies as well, though I remain unsure as to the specifics of your definitions.

Because 50 Shades of Grey is no more or less explicit than many other books in your collection, I conclude that pulling 50 Shades of Grey from circulation in your library is censorship. Worse, it is censorship based on an arbitrary and ill-fitting definition of pornography.

The fact that you carry books in your collection which are equally as sexually explicit means that you've removed 50 Shades of Grey on an inaccurate, ignorant, and ill-defined basis. If you're going to exclude all books with sexual content, you're going to remove many romances, works of literary fiction, and some mysteries and thrillers from your collection as well, to say nothing of Lady Chatterley's Lover and similar classics. If 50 Shades of Grey is pornography, then any book featuring sexual content may qualify. That might be more than half your circulating collection.

It should not matter what is in the books in your library. Neither censoring nor defining pornography are part of the job of a library, nor is it the responsibility of a library director to define what is and is not pornography, and to remove books that patrons have asked for. My understanding is that your job is to carry the books that your patrons are interested in reading, and to do so without judgment. I know there is a petition online regarding this matter already, with over 1500 signatures, my own among them.

Please reconsider your decision to remove 50 Shades of Grey from circulation. It was certainly not my favorite book that I've read, but I will defend the right of any person who wishes to read it, in your library, or anywhere else.

Thank you for your time,

Sarah Wendell

Thanks to BigStock for the censorship image. 

Categories: General Bitching, Ranty McRant

• The Fall of Shane MacKade by Nora Roberts * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• The Return of Rafe MacKade by Nora Roberts * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• The Heart of Devin MacKade by Nora Roberts * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• The Pride of Jared MacKade by Nora Roberts * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe (SBTB Grade: B)
• Spellbound by Nora Roberts * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S | (Short Story)
• Unfinished Business by Nora Roberts * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
   
• Bear Meets Girl by Shirley Laurenston * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• Reforming Lord Ragsdale by Carla Kelly * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S |

This series is described as Bewitched meets Murder, She Wrote and I am SO curious - have you read it?

• Witch Way to Murder by Shirley Damsgaard * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• Charmed to Death by Shirley Damsgaard * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• The Trouble With Witches by Shirley Damsgaard * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• Witch Hunt by Shirley Damsgaard * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• The Witch is Dead by Shirley Damsgaard * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• The Witch's Grave by Shirley Damsgaard * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• The Seventh Witch by Shirley Damsgaard * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
   

And Jennifer Lynn Barnes' first two books in her series are $1.99. Raised By Wolves was a book club selection.

• Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• Trial by Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe

And Avon has some erotic romance titles on sale, too

• Hotter Than Wildfire by Lisa Marie Rice * $3.99 * A | BN | K | S | ARe
• Pleasures of the Nights by Sylvia Day * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S |
• Circle of Desire by Carla Swafford * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S |

Categories: Ebooks, Free or Cheap Ebooks, General Bitching

I started this book last Saturday morning while my kids were at swim lessons, and I was in a dark, humid, and loud indoor pool on uncomfortable bleachers.

I did not notice any of those things once I started reading. This book is amazing: confident and clever, funny and touching, and wonderfully done.

This book is a simultaneous story - Mayberry's Harlequin Blaze, Hot Island Nights ( A | BN | K | S | ARe ), takes place at the same time with two separate characters. Is there a name for that style of storytelling? I know Twin of Ice and Twin of Fire and the Julia Quinn duo Mr Cavendish I Presume and The Lost Duke of Wyndham employ the same method. What's it called, dovetailed stories? Hinged stories? Entwined stories? I am sure it has a proper name but darned if I can find it. Anyway.

The story opens with Violet at a formal event with her best friend Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's fiance, Martin. Violet loathes Martin, and the feeling is mutual. She thinks Martin is stifling Elizabeth, and fears for her friend's happiness in their marriage, but she won't breathe a word about that - though she is pretty honest about her opinion of Martin to Elizabeth, before Elizabeth tells her to shut it.

Violet is vivacious, daring, outrageous and happy being the center of attention, positive or negative, while Elizabeth is every centimeter proper and demure. Martin isn't too fond of Violet, either, and thinks she's a bad influence on Elizabeth - not that Elizabeth is out to get drunk and dance on table tops because Violet said so, but that Violet's presence in Elizabeth's life is bad for Elizabeth socially, that people think less of Elizabeth because she's friends with and often seen with Violet. And, well, Martin cares very much what people think.

The beginning scenes set up Elizabeth and Violet's characters marvelously. The story doesn't waste any time going from first to second to third gear. It's full speed ahead from the first page.

Violet focussed on her friend, turning her back on the prig across the room. "Can we go yet?"

Elizabeth's lips twitched. "You know we can't. They haven't given the speeches yet."

"So? No one will notice if we slip out. We paid for our tickets, they have our money. That's the bit they're really interested in."

"Behave. It's not that bad."

"E, be real. These people are the walking dead." Violet's gaze swept over the well-dressed crowd attending the Heart Foundations annual fundraiser. "Older than Moses, richer than God, and more boring than a truckload of accountants."

Elizabeth laughed, then immediately lifted her hand to her mouth to hide her smile, almost as though she was afraid someone would take her to task for being amused by Violet's irreverence.

Violet's character is wonderfully done. She is complex and intricate, and she has made mistakes that she wishes she could change - but knows that the sum of her mistakes make her who she is, and when it matters, she's pretty sure of herself. Best part about Violet: she owns a boutique called "Violet Femmes," which I want to shop at. That's sort of a hazard with some of these Harlequin books by really clever writers. I want to shop at Violet Femmes, I want to wear the stockings described in Sarah Morgan's book Doukakis's Apprentice ( A | BN | K | S | ARe ) - when the characters' reality is clever and witty, I'm bummed that it isn't actually real.

Anyway, I'm not doing a terribly organized job of reviewing this book. Can you tell I really enjoyed it?

After the gala in the scene above, Violet goes to her party (after changing her clothes in the back of Martin's car, daring him not to look, which he does not, much to his credit) and Elizabeth and Martin go out for a drink at a bar, each going their own way to what they think is their best option. Even though Elizabeth had wanted to go with Violet, she knew she should go with Martin.

But the following day, Elizabeth shows up at Violet's in tears. Martin has kept a secret from her at the request of Elizabeth's grandparents, who raised her, and upon discovering their deceit, Elizabeth walks out on them all, and heads to Australia to find out the answers to the secret she's discovered (this would be the plot of Hot Island Nights, all that secret-discoveryness). Violet helps Elizabeth fly away, and then, to her surprise, she finds herself thinking about Martin, especially after he shows up disheveled and desperate to find Elizabeth, worried out of his mind that she's gone and that she's ended their engagement.

Violet brings Martin some peach Schnapps to let him know she's thinking of him, a gift which does not go over well with the prideful Martin, and their dislike of one another, without Elizabeth between them any longer, becomes something much more flammable, with or without alcohol as an incendiary device. They're ridiculously attracted to one another - and not sure what to do about that at all.

I liked Violet, I liked Elizabeth - and I even found myself liking Martin. Mayberry balances the superficial impressions that Violet and Martin have of one another with the truth behind the facade of their suppositions. As a reader, I knew what Violet thought of Martin, and then I learned why Martin was the way he was - and even though Violet wasn't entirely wrong, she wasn't entirely right about him, either. And even though Martin thought Violet was entirely inappropriate and too much of everything wrong, he learns why she is that way, and he learns that as much as he's bothered by it, he's captivated by her exactly the way she is. Violet has a quiet desire for the calm normality of family behind her outrageous exterior - but neither her interior nor her exterior is a lie or is a false representation of Violet's character. Martin is the opposite: he thinks he should radiate that calm self assurance, but inside he's just as fiery as Violet is outside. Each person learns to admire the other, both what they show, and what they later reveal.

It's a very clever study in opposites, especially in the way Mayberry layers expectations on top of the character's inner and outer selves. Martin has a way he has been taught he ought to act. Elizabeth as well, and they both suppress their desires and the more outlandish pieces of themselves to remain true to that external direction of what they should be. Violet is slightly different: she has been told too often that she isn't what she ought to be, and so she has been more true to the outrageous parts of herself and allowing those impulses as much room as they need, but it's not mere rebellion or acting out. She's being herself, with as much freedom as she can grab, because she is long tired of being told she ought to be different than who she is, so she's even more. She's like hot sauce with extra chili powder on top.

And let me say two words about the sexual tension between these two.

HOLY. SMOKE.

That is all.

That is not to say the book did not have flaws. At the point where the conflicts within everyone else's relationships had either been glimpsed as unchanging or rectified sufficiently, the only thing left was Violet's worry that Elizabeth would be upset with her for her relationship with Martin. While I completely understood Violet's thinking - having been rejected so completely by her own family, she was unwilling to admit her actions because they could sever her relationship with the one person Violet loves and thinks of as her family - I grew frustrated with her own conviction that Elizabeth would throw the queen of all hissy fits. Elizabeth was in Australia, having shrimp on the barbie, and that is a euphemism, with some other dude. She was marvelously happy from the conversations they had. I understood the conflict, in other words, and I empathized with Violet, but it was bigger in Violet's head than it was in reality- and everyone but Violet knew that.

Also, editing wise, characters "gather their scattered thoughts" at least twice. I liked the phrase enough but noticed it when it appeared in a later chapter.

The other problem was that at the point where Violet had to face her reluctance to tell Elizabeth about Martin, Martin himself became the most kindest and understandingest manest in the worldest, and the story at the end focused entirely on Violet, and not enough on Martin.

Now, the rest of this review could be considered quite spoiler-y, so I'm going to drop it down a bit further on the page. If you don't want to read a discussion about the book's strengths and few weaknesses, skip this part and, please, do yourself a favor and spend the $2.99 or pound-ninety and buy this for yourself. It is SO worth it. 

This book is available from Goodreads | Amazon  | Kobo | Smashwords

AND NOW THE SPOILERY PART

I was emailing with a friend, Carin, about this book while I was reading it (which is not something I often do. I was enjoying it so much I had to talk about it while I was reading it, and usually I wait until I'm done to send the "OMGREADTHIS" email. It's contagiously fun, this book) and she and I discussed this aspect of the story at length. Carin received the book because she's part of Sarah Mayberry's mailing list, and Mayberry sent everyone on her list a copy of the book, which I thought was a really kickass thing to do. I wanted to share our conversation because our reactions matched so closely.

Carin:

I thought it was very well written and clever.  Definitely worth reading the old Blaze.  I actually think I liked Hot Island Nights just a bit better. 
 
And the sex in Her Best Worst Mistake  (spoiler for that below in case you haven't finished yet.)  I appreciated that!
 
(Here’s the sex spoiIer) I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance where the man finishes first, then helps the woman, but Mayberry did it and it was still hot!  No simultaneous orgasm every time.  And still hot.

Sarah: 

I totally agree! I thought the sex scenes were smoking hot, and I find myself often skimming them in other books. I read the whole book today, and while I thought the story lost steam at the end, as each conflict was checked off one after another, I really enjoyed it.  I'm going to buy and read Hot Island Nights now. 

Carin: 

The end of the book was more about Violet’s personal growth than it was about the relationship.  And Martin became a bit Marty Stu by then – perfectly understanding her.  But I was hooked by that point.

Sarah: 

He was almost too perfect at the end, wasn't he? He knew exactly what she needed, and would do anything for her - but I thought about how he had treated Elizabeth at the beginning - whatever she wanted, so long as it fit what he wanted/expected, he would do. How different it was for Martin to say to Violet, "We are doing what you need, and I'm here for support," even if it was grossly inconvenient for him personally or professionally, helped alleviate the Marty Stu at the end, because I knew in the beginning he'd been something very different. 

But there was no conflict between them then, even when I expected there to be! No sniping, no fighting. And I didn't think Elizabeth's reaction to the two of them hooking up was as big a deal as Violet did.

Carin: 

We should talk more after you finish Elizabeth’s book and see what you think then.  I thought it was weird that Violet was so worried about Elizabeth’s reaction.  I understood it more when Martin explained it to her – that she was afraid of being rejected by her new family, but up til that I just didn’t get why she thought it was a big deal.
 
I’m actually a fan of low conflict romance.  The conflict here was pretty much all internal and I’m fine with that.  Lauren Dane’s Brown siblings series is much the same way.  I just enjoy that slow but sure development of the relationship.

Sarah: 

I like low conflict romance when it means no serial killers, but when the major conflict that keeps the story going seems weaker than the number of pages I have left, I get a little bored. Even though the story ran a little lower speed at the end, I didn't want to stop reading. It was a wonderful book that I was so, so happy to read.

I'm not sure what else I can say to convince you to give this book a try. It's $3, or nearly £2, and it's a wonderful read. Go get it. It's wonderful fun. 

Categories: General Bitching, Reviews, Reviews by Author, Authors, L-P, Reviews by Grade, Grade A

I fail to see how this could possibly be a bad thing. Beth has piles and piles of databases at her fingertips, and I have piles and piles of nosy questions about romance readers, research and scholarship, so why the hell not, right?

I asked Beth to define an annotated bibliography for those of you who might not be familiar with the concept:

"An annotated bibliography is a compilation of sources meant to further research on a specific topic by not only collecting the sources, but also summarizing, assessing, and/or reflecting, which is included as an annotation. My definition is paraphrased from the info on the very fabulous Purdue Owl: Annotated Bibliography page, which is what I used when working on mine. Usually, you would fully read the article, but the nature of the assignment allowed me to only read the abstracts or skim the articles."

Many of the works she found both examine the genre, AND the location of the genre within a specific readership. Beth writes: "A lot of the other sources I have come across use the RWA report for their own research about romance readership. A less-publicly available source for hard and fast statistics has been doctoral dissertations and masters theses, as those authors conduct surveys of their own. I have also found some articles that talk about readership in relation to geographic location, genre, change over time, age, etc. Having started on this project, I agree with what you've mentioned on the site about new scholarship of the romance -it's nice that scholarship of the romance is finally moving past validating its existence as a genre."

Considering that my biggest question was about romance readers and what she could find in all the databases within reach, this project turned out pretty freaking amazing. Some of the sources are available without database access, or at least show you a preview. Where a source required access, I removed the link, but if you'd like more information, you can always email me. 

So here, we present: The Annotated Bibliography of Romance With Awesomesauce. Created by Beth Kamp. (You can download a PDF version if you'd like (~108k) - right click and save, please!)

Romance Readers: Contemporary Scholarship of Readers of a Controversial Genre

Compiled by: Beth Kamp

Introduction

The process of creating a bibliography about romance readers forces the obvious question: Who are romance readers? On the surface, the answer is equally obvious: those who read romance fiction. But this answer becomes more complicated when you consider the various identities belonging to a romance reader inform who reads romance, how they read romance, and what kinds of romances they read. Gender, geography, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion, cultural heritage, and socio-political ideologies are some examples of factors that affect reading habits. The types of romances –genre, format, etc. also are influencing factors of reading habits, as well as factors that are themselves influenced by the identities of romance readers.  For example, one author included in this bibliography asserts that the increasing popularity of romances that feature Middle-Eastern heroes and/or are set in the Middle East is a reflection of a national narrative that emerged after September 11th. Another example that appears in this bibliography is the reciprocal relationship between the publication of shojo manga and its readership based on two geographic locations –Japan and the United States.

Related to the question ‘Who is reading romances?’, is the question, ‘Why are they reading romances?’ Featured in this bibliography are sources whose authors have studied romance readers to achieve various ends, and therefore the approach to studying romance readers varies as well. For example, RWA publishes a yearly report which aims to inform publishers and the public about the reality of romance readers today, and, indeed, various incarnations of this report feature regularly in the citations of other works in this bibliography. Another example is a doctoral student who studied romance readers to identify and subsequently bridge gaps in library services to this particular set of patrons.  Sometimes, as in the case of the author studying Middle Eastern romances, the researchers become the romance readers. (Whether they were already readers to begin with is a question that usually goes unanswered.) This tension can be described, albeit somewhat over-simplistically, as “insiders vs. outsiders,” and is a dichotomy that partly shapes the scholarship concerning romance readers.

This is not the only trend that shapes scholarly publishing concerning romance readers. Romance fiction is often lumped together with popular fiction in general, and then often studied within a specific context, like the works of an author, a specific time period, a location, etc. Feminist narratives are a popular paradigm used in studying romance readers, in which the romance reader is portrayed either as being empowered or as an unfortunate victim of popular culture. No matter the aim, researchers often employed the method of consulting readers directly, sometime via formal essays, interviews, or, in one case, the author joined a romance book club for a substantial period of time.

Even as some reader populations benefit from more visibility through scholarly research, some reader populations remain unstudied. For example, I did not find a source that studied male romance readers. My own limitations have also influenced the compilation of this bibliography; I can only access sources available to me through the University of Iowa and are written in English. Despite these limitations, the following bibliography represents a sample of the scholarship of romance readership. If the sources are not publicly available online, they might be accessible through your local public library. For further research, I would recommend searching humanities-oriented databases using the phrases “readership,” AND “popular fiction” AND “romance.”

Annotated Bibliography

Allen, T. (2004). Mystery and the Romance Reader. Collection Management, Vol. 29. DOI: 10.1300/J105v29n0312

Abstract: “Mystery fiction and romance fiction share many common elements often including the same readership. Romance readers consume vast numbers of books not all of which are romances. Similarly mystery readers often enjoy that most intense form of romance: romantic suspense. In the last decade, authors such as the phenomenally popular Janet Evanovich have pleased large numbers of romance and mystery readers by combining elements of each genre along with a distinct style and voice. The reasons why individual readers, who might classify themselves as primarily romance or mystery fans, find pleasure in other genres comes down to a myriad of appeal factors. Matching readers with books they will enjoy, no matter what "official" category they occupy, is a very satisfying job. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]”

Anderton, G. (2009). Excitement, adventure, indifference: romance readers’ perceptions of how romance reading impacts their sex lives. (3383833).

Abstract: “This mixed-methods study examined romance readers' perceptions of how reading romance novels has impacted their sex lives, feelings about their sex partners, knowledge of sexuality and their sexual behavior. Fifty-three women romance readers over the age of 18 completed an online survey composed of multiple choice and open-ended essay questions.

The literature on romance novels and romance readers suggests that romance readers may use romance novels as sexually explicit material to produce sexual arousal. In this study, it was found that participants use romance novels primarily to relax and escape the pressures of everyday life and only secondarily to produce sexual arousal.

Most of the study participants (75.5%) reported that reading romance novels has had an impact on their sex lives. This occurred in several ways, including making participants more likely to engage in sexual activity and by making them more likely to try new sexual activities. Most participants (85%) reported that reading romance novels has not had an impact on their feelings about their sex partners or has had a positive impact on their feelings about their sex partners. With regard to safer sex practices, participants said that romance novels present incorrect or misleading information about safer sex and that they regard them as unreliable in this area.

A smaller number of participants (24.5%) stated that reading romance novels has not had any impact on their sex lives, sexual behavior or knowledge about sexuality. These participants emphasized the fictional nature of romance novels and stated that they read strictly for pleasure and do not learn anything or make any behavioral changes based on what they read.

The results of this study suggest that some women who read romance novels feel that reading romance novels is strictly a recreational activity, which has or should have no bearing on other aspects of their lives, and that other romance readers are open to potential positive effects that romance reading may have on their sex lives. This finding suggests that it might be useful in further research to focus on this second group of women. Another major finding of this study was that women who read romance novels and who are satisfied with their sexual relationships feel that there is no basis for comparison between their sex partners and the male protagonist or hero in a romance novel, or that their sex partners compare favorably to the male protagonists or heroes in romance novels. In contrast, women who read romance novels and who are not satisfied with their sexual relationships feel that their sex partners compare unfavorably to the male protagonists or heroes in romance novels.”

Brackett, K. P. (2000). Facework Strategies among Romance Fiction Readers. Social Science Journal, Vol.29.  

Abstract: “Focuses on the face-saving strategies that romance fiction women readers employ in social situations. Criticisms leveled against popular romantic fiction and its readership; Strategies employed by readers in situations where they are discredited or discreditable; Preventative strategies; Corrective strategies; Separation strategies.”

Bryson, M. (2004). Public Library Services to the Romance Reader: An Online Survey of Romance Readers. Retrieved from Carolina Digital Repository.

Abstract: “This study describes the results of an online questionnaire survey of romance genre fiction readers. The survey was conducted to determine the behaviors and needs of romance genre fiction readers and how well public libraries are meeting those needs. Research shows that popular public library services to romance genre readers, has not kept pace with trends in the fiction reading patron base. Services to romance readers are, or should be, essentially the same that exist for any fiction genre: pertinent readers' advisory, conscious collection development, and access to collections through cataloging records. North American public libraries are failing to support the reading interests of 51.1 million readers (Romance Writers of America, Inc 2003, 3-6).”

Clawson, Laura. (2005).Cowboys and Schoolteachers: Gender in Romance Novels, Secular and Christian. Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 48.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/sop.2005.48.4.461

Abstract: “This article uses content analysis of 120 novels to con- sider romance novels as evidence for a particular culture of gender and the family, and as a means of comparing cultural representations of secular and Christian masculinity, femininity, and families. It finds that, although on the surface the texts are most obviously differentiated by religion, gen- der differences within the religious categories are greater than overall differences between those categories themselves. The most interesting and significant difference between secular and Christian romances emerges in the male hero. Specifically, this analysis finds that secular men are depicted as overwhelmingly strong, economically and physically, but that this strength is frequently overcome by the emotional strength of the heroine, who tames them. Christian heroes, on the other hand, are less overpowering figures at the beginning of the texts but are more dominant within the relationship, subject instead to the will of God.”

Edmondson, B. (2007). The Black Romance. Women’s Studies Quarterly, Vol. 35. 

Abstract: “Further, over a decade ago African American feminist scholars Claudia Tate and Ann duCille broke new ground when they attempted to rehabilitate the African American romance by arguing for its political relevance and relationship to the supposedly more 'authentic' fiction that critics focused on as the progenitors of modern African American literature. Building on both these arguments, I am making the claim that, even in its earliest conception, the romance in both African American and Afro-Caribbean writing has never been completely separate from that of other, more explicitly nationalist, genres such as the protest novel.1 Further, I posit that the black-on-black erotica that now defines the African diaspora romance had its earlier progenitors in a combination of earlier romance plots: in the 'coupling convention,' as duCille puts it, of early African American narrative in which the black hero and heroine couple marry for the good of the community; as well as in the more problematic issue of the black-white interracial romance. Adapted from the source document.”

Erwin, L. (2002). Genre and Authority in Some Popular Nigerian Women’s Novels. Research in African Literatures, Vol.33.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3820975

Annotation: This article compares Western romance readers and their reading habits to those of women in Nigeria.

Jarmakani, A. (2010). “The Sheik Who Loved Me”: Romancing the War on Terror. Signs: Vol.35.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/651044

Abstract: “Since 2001, sheikh‐themed romance novels have burgeoned in popularity to such an extent that they compose a standard subseries for major distributors such as Harlequin and its subsidiaries, Silhouette and Mills & Boon. If romance novels have long been the subject of vibrant feminist inquiry, the increased popularity of the sheikh character in mass‐market romances in recent years suggests their further relevance to contemporary U.S. political and military involvement in the Middle East. While the character of the sheikh is certainly not new in U.S. popular culture, I understand his recent resurgence as a complex signifier of the productive fantasies of transnational capitalism and global sisterhood, both of which imagine global unity while disavowing differential relations of power. I also read the sheikh romance novel as an allegory for the triumph of modern disciplinary forms of power, whereby the sheikh‐hero’s transformation comes through the form of a companionate, bourgeois ideal of marriage with a white heroine.”

Kamble, J. (2008). Uncovering and Recovering the Popular Romance. Retrieved from ProQuest Digital Dissertations. (3338954) 

Abstract: “Popular romance novels are a twentieth- and twenty-first century literary form defined by a material association with pulp publishing, a conceptual one with courtship narrative, and a brand association with particular author-publisher combinations. The theme of romantic love in romance novels forms the basis of a drama involving the extra-private worlds of the protagonists (financial, civic, and familial). The framework of the romantic relationship allows the genre to study the challenges these spheres face over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A comprehensive look at the genre's history and diversity, as well as its reception in different readership communities, undergirds this analysis of three tropes involving the romance hero--capitalist, soldier, and heterosexual. The analysis proves the genre's struggle with an economic, political, and social ideology that has gathered force over the last hundred years. Though popular as well as academic critiques of the genre disparage its formulaic sexual content or its attachment to the ideology of middle class morality, its very nature as "commodity literature" helps challenge conservative thought on capitalism, national defense strategies, and sexual orientation.

The dissertation also considers the impact of the dust jackets and paperback covers of romance novels on non-romance readers. A survey of this material history suggests that it has contributed to derogatory opinions on the genre; in particular, the genre has been indicted because of the "bodice-ripper" covers that adorn many romance novels rather than the actual content. A look at reader and author discussions on the genre, alongside textual analysis of selected works, proves that romance fiction is not fixated on a clichéd plot and descriptions of sexual intercourse; it involves complex themes that are disguised as stereotypical genre elements. Readers' online debates demonstrate how this romance "formula," albeit a function of its commodification, engages them in addressing quandaries related to societal preoccupations. The concluding study of romance reading in India further supports the possibility of multiple, even liberating, readings that can empower romance readers.”

Mitchell, K. (1996). Ever After: Reading the Women Who Read (and Re-Write) Romance. Theatre Topics, Vol. 6.

Annotation: This article chronicles the author’s journey to turn a romance novel, as well as romance readership, into a play. Not a romance reader herself, she joins a romance reading club and enlists the members as her advisory board, where she learns about demographics, reading habits, and expectations of romance readers.

Moudileno, L. (2008). The Troubling Popularity of West African Romance Novels. Research in African Literartures, Vol. 39.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30135307

Abstract: “This essay acknowledges the success, in West Africa, of a collection of romance novels written in French. Launched in the 1990s by the Nouvelles Editions Africaines as the Adoras collection, the series has grown to become one of the most spectacular success stories in African (francophone) editorial history. This essay argues that the popularity of the Adoras novels not only as a popular genre but also as fiction in French can be perceived as troubling in a context where France is still perceived as the sole foyer of francophone creativity, where "higher" written genres are still struggling with legitimacy issues, and where critics typically declare the absence of a francophone African readership.”

Neal, Lynn S. (2006). Romancing God: Evangelical Women and Inspirational Fiction. Chapel Hill, NC. University of North Carolina Press.

Annotation: “Although often disparaged by scholars and pastors alike, Christian romance novels play a unique and important role in the religious lives of many evangelical women. In an ethnographic study of how and why women read evangelical romance novels, Neal interviews and surveys writers and readers and explores the texts themselves. She finds a complex religious piety among ordinary people.”

Rehberg Sedo, DeNel. (2011). Reading Communities from Salons to Cyberspace. New York, NY. Palgrave MacMillan.

Annotation: This book is a collection of essays that features a few essays concerning female readership and popular culture. The essays are arranged chronologically, which provides the reader with a broad historical overview of the history of reading communities.

Romance Writers of America. (2011). Romance Literature Statistics: Readership Statistics.
Retrieved from: http://www.rwa.org/cs/readership_stats

Annotation: The RWA’s compilation of statistics is the most comprehensive and representative report on romance readers in America, and many sources in this bibliography identify the RWA as an authority on romance readership, as is evidenced by their citations. The “Romance Literature Statistics: Readership Statistics” gauge readership by geographic location, acquisition behavior, format, subgenre readership, and other activities.

Shibamoto Smith, Janet S. (2008). Changing Lovestyles: Fictional Representations of Contemporary Japanese Men in Love. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, Vol. 16. 

Introduction: “This essay is a study of one emotion, romantic love, in a single literary genre, the romance novel. More specifically, it is a study of changes in late-twentieth- century cultural understandings of romantic love as inscribed in the fictional romance. Transformations in representations of romantic heroes in popular romantic fiction over the course of the late twentieth century, arguably in response to the demands of a largely female readership, provide important clues to shifts in how women relate — or fail to relate — to potential and real romantic partners in their everyday lives, and why. The changing grammar, as it were, of a man’s love for a woman discernible in the series of texts analyzed below allows glimpses into the figured worlds of Japanese romantic love.1 These figured worlds link in complex ways to [End Page 359] women’s understandings of their everyday lives in the dynamically shifting field of gender relations in Japan, and to how those understandings affect their decisions not just about romance but also about marriage and reproduction, these last matters of central concern in the context of Japan’s contemporary demographic crisis. Although a textual analysis cannot provide direct insight into women’s and men’s real lives, it does provide one aspect of the backdrop — in media-hypersaturated Japan — against which those lives are lived.”

Smith, Caroline. (2008). Cosmopolitan Culture and Chick-Lit. New York, NY. Routledge.

Annotation: This book attempts to reconcile the real reader with the fictional female characters portrayed within the pages of popular books like Bridget Jones’s Diary and Sex in the City.

Wang, Shaoguang & Davis, Deborah & Bian Yanjie. (Jul 2006). The Uneven Distribution of Cultural Capital: Book Reading in Urban China. Modern China, vol 36.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20062642

Abstract: “Drawing on interviews with 400 couples in four cities in 1998, this exploratory study focuses on variation in reading habits to integrate the concept of cultural capital into the theoretical and empirical analysis of inequality and social stratification in contemporary urban China. Overall, we find that volume and composition of cultural capital varies across social classes independent of education. Thus, to the extent that cultural capital in the form of diversified knowledge and appreciation for the certain genres or specific authors is unevenly distributed across social classes, we hypothesize that the possession of cultural capital may be a valuable resource in defining and crystallizing class boundaries in this hybrid, fast-changing society.”

Whitsitt, N. (2003). Hausa Women Writers Confronting the Traditional Status of Women in Modern Islamic Society: Feminist Thought in Nigerian Popular Fiction. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, Vol. 22.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20059159

Annotation: The author examines the effect of Hasau society on popular romance fiction and the effect of popular romance fiction on Hasau society. In her research, the author interviewed over 200 readers.

Wood, A. (2006). “Straight”  Women, Queer Texts: Boy-Love Manga and the Rise of a Global Counterpublic. Women’s Studies Quarterly, Vol. 34.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40004766

Annotation: This article focuses on Japanese manga in the United States, particularly shojo manga, its romantic themes, its portrayal of sexuality, and its reader communities.

Zubair, S. (2010). ‘Not Easily Put-Downable’: Magazine Representations and Muslim Women’s Identities in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Feminist Formations, Vol. 22. DOI: 10.1353/ff.2010.0024

Abstract: “This research is an attempt to provide useful insights regarding Muslim women's identities through a study conducted on the readership and reception processes of popular women's magazines in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. One of the objectives of this research is to challenge the oriental 'othering' of Muslim women as a monolith. The research showcases diversity across the board within a Muslim country like Pakistan by highlighting the cultural conflicts and ambivalence inherent in the ideologies discursively constructed through the genre of women's magazines. The research draws upon Lazar's (2005) model of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) and Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) theory of social semiotic to highlight the ambivalence inherent within the juxtaposition of images of women's bodies and accompanying religious codes. Read in conjunction, they articulate a certain ideology regarding the construction of Pakistani women's socioreligious identity(ies) that serve the interests of patriarchy and the Muslim clergy. More importantly, the research presents a detailed analytical study of the relationship between magazine representations and how these affect women's multiple and complex identities. The findings suggest that the magazine representations are a powerful resource Muslim women draw upon in constructing their identities, as women read these magazines not only as a source of pleasure, but also in quest of their identity(ies).”

Categories: General Bitching

1. The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE
2. Bared to You (A Crossfire Novel) by Sylvia Day | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo |  ARE
3. What She Needs by Anne Calhoun | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | HQN | ARE
4. Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | 
5. Brook Street: Thief by Ava March | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | HQN | ARE
6. The Long Shot by Ellen Hartman | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | HQN | ARE
7. Regency Pirates: The Pirate Next Door by Jennifer Ashley | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo |  ARE
8. The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE
9. Dangerous Secrets by Lisa Renee Jones | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | 
10. One Reckless Summer by Toni Blake | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo |  ARE

So, did you buy yourself a book or three this weekend? What have you bought? 

Categories: General Bitching, SBTB/DA Bestsellers

I have the plot of a book I read ages ago stuck in my head, but I
cannot remember either author or title. It is set in Australia (possibly New
Zealand, but I am pretty sure it's Australia). The heroine's fiance elopes
with her best friend shortly before the wedding. The best friend was also
about to marry someone else, the hero. Hero and heroine decide to get
married for practical reasons: he is about to land a big contract to work
for a year in a tropical island-kingdom, but it is a very conservative place
and they won't give him the job unless he is married, she has no job (she
has left her home town and her job (as the town librarian, I think) because
of the humiliation of being jilted and she needs to get away.

They marry and go to the tropical island, where the marriage becomes real, they come back
and face their ex-s, they live happily ever after. It's driving me crazy
that I can't rememeber it. Can anyone help me?

I asked Maria for more information about the book, such as whether it was a category or a single title (thick or thin paperback) and she replied: 

It was definitely a thin book!  But, you see, I live in Greece and what I read was a Greek translation. The cover was similar to a Harlequin Presents book, but Harlequin Hellas uses different categories and different covers  in their books. And I remember reading it sometime between 1995 and 2000, but it could have been originaly published years before that. I realise I am not giving you a lot to go on, but I do appreciate you taking the time to help me. The story has stuck in my head like a tune and I can't get rid of it! Thanks!

This is a tough one - anyone recognize this book? (And check out the Harlequin Hellas site if you have a moment - the images are very cool!) (Also: Thanks to BigStock for the new HaBO image!)

Categories: General Bitching, Help a Bitch Out