Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah, I’ve eaten my body weight in gelt, so it’s time to go lift weights – or books. Or both!
To continue the festive merriment to celebrate reading, both paper and digital, I have a collection of contemporary romance – hardcovers and paperbacks!
All you have to do to win is leave a comment, and I’ll select a winner each day. These contests are open to international winners, and I will do my best to ship this week, provided people send me their addresses promptly.
Standard disclaimers apply: I’m not being compensated for this giveaway. If anything, my gift is exceptional support of the United States Postal Service (Happy Hanukkah, US Mail Carriers!). We r who we r. Edited for television. Keep cool. Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear. A one that is not cold is scarcely a one at all.
Ahoy! Contest the seventh!
On the Seventh Night of Hanukkah, Smart Bitches Gave to Me: A massive selection of contemporary romance and contemporary fiction!
Just leave a comment below, and tell me which contemporary romance setting is your favorite – cities? small towns? cruise ships? space stations? – and you’re entered to win. Comments close in 24 hours, but fear not, there’s another book – paper or digital – giveaway coming soon. Because Hanukkah lasts for eight crazy nights, and I have lost my ever lovin’ mind.
Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Reading!
I like the small town next to the city romances personally. Keep it mild then go out for the spice.
I haven’t ever read a space station one yet – but it sounds good. 😉
Anywhere I don’t know that is so well described that I can follow the action on Google Earth is great. Particularly memorable in this respect was Laney Cairo’s Fand, with a journey on foot out of LA.
Hmm well I like almost any setting except a romance in hovels where they are murdering criminals in love in filth. I have to make a pass on that one.
My favorite are the suburb settings, since there is the quiet romance and the big city extravagence. It is hard imagining the romance scene in a flat in the city since a lot of time people are moaning and panting and just imagine those poor neighbors. In fact shifters in the city flats would be meowing or barking during some moon time romp and that might get freaky in the innercity.
I’m going to say cities, because I like heroes and heroines who are doctors, lawyers, FBI agents, etc.
My gut reaction is to say cities but thinking about it, most of my favorites are set in smaller towns.
Any European city that I have been in, preferably with enough location detail to make me go, “ooo! I’ve been there! It was awesome/gloomy/creepy/so romantic/insert your own adjective here.”
covered35 – now that I’m 35, time to hide the bosoms!
I like the big cities.
I like small town settings if they’re in parts of the country I’m not too familiar with.
I don’t really know if I have a favorite setting. If the story is written well, then it doesn’t matter to me. Even though I will say ranches are fun. I do love cowboys!!
I think it’s really dependant on the rest of the story and how the author uses the characters in the environment. I lean twards the small town ones, kind of visiting an ideal, but if it gets too Mayberry I run for the hills, (or back to civilization).
I think big cities are the most fun!
I like the city setting, but when the descriptions go into bad, slushy, icy weather, I always want to scream, “Move to Northern California, you dolts! Fall in love by the Golden Gate Bridge! We have barbeques in February and can go hiking and wine tasting year-round!”
I’m a country girl who still has no TBR pile.
I like the small town settings in romance novels even though I know they’re never really portrayed accurately.
I like to read about small towns in contemporaries because I live in a big city.
My two favorite settings are (a) cities I know really well, so that I can imagine exactly what the couple’s surroundings look like, and (b) exotic international cities that I’ve always longed to visit, described so vividly that I feel like I’m there.
Anywhere, as long as it feels real. Louise Penny, for example, makes me yearn to live in her fictional small town of Three Pines. Just do it right and don’t ever—I’m looking at you, Jim Butcher—use “midtown” and “Chicago” in the same sentence.
Big cities, definitely!
I also live in the city, so I love small town stories. But I’m a sucker for those set in London, like Elizabeth Young’s (R.I.P.).
Small town. I love to think they’re idyllic, not that I’ve ever lived in one.
On an unrelated note: holidays and giveaways?—this is like the best week ever!
Big cities!
I like stories about doctors, veterinarians, cowboys/girls and cops. My favorite settings are farms and small towns, but I can handle the city too.
I don’t have a favorite, it just has to seem real. I don’t like stories in Washington DC because they always get too much wrong.
Some of those books look awesome. Favorite contemporary settings: the south. Small towns work, but I’m also okay with cities like New Orleans, Atlanta and my own Dallas. Some of my favorite contemp romances are from Deborah Smith (On Bear Mountain, Blue Willow, etc).
I guess I usually don’t care what the setting is, as long as the book is good. On the other hand, if I’m in the mood to escape then I want something that’s not set in my town (Chicago). And if it is set in Chicago, then I really hope the author did his or her research because it’s very distracting when characters take trains that don’t exist or stand at the intersection of two streets that don’t cross.
Cities, as long as the author gives a ‘taste’ of the place and what makes it special.
I prefer smaller cities or small towns. I never can get comfortable in a big city.
definitely, the country/small town setting
if story is set in contemporary NYC, I invariably get snagged on minor discrepancies—“wait, she wouldn’t be able to take the 6 train to West 14th. . .”—and miss the whole show
The desert, I’m a sucker for Sheik stories.
xxx
I’ll read contemporaries set anywhere, but I do have a fondness for small-town stories, especially if they’re set somewhere not in the U.S.
Hmmm. I tend to not care whether it’s a specific setting so much as a specific circumstance, like “trapped in a blizzard” or “taken hostage by pirates.”
The setting becomes an important part of the story, but it plays second fiddle for me to the actual conflict.
Happy Hanukah!
I prefer cities usually, but lately I have been glomming on futuristic settings.
I like cities – BUT I love small-town settings. Mostly because I’m from a small town, but also because The Best Contemporary I’ve Ever Read was set in a small town and ohhh man it was great. It wasn’t technically marketed as a contemporary (more a modern mystery/romance plus old lit references) but there was a HEA and there was a Childhood-Friend-Turned-Hot Plot, so I think it deserves to be listed under Romance.
Now I’ve got go try to find it at the library to read it again…
I have always been a sucker for book set in small towns.
I love cities but DANG, a cruise ship would be awesome? Now I must hunt down books in cruise ships… actually I have read a few. But still. Fun!
I like anywhere, really. It’s less about the locale, more about the characters for me. I’d read a hot steamy passion set in Antarctica’s McMurdo base if it wsa good!
Are there contemporary books that take place on space stations?
I like office settings for contemporary romances. I love sports settings. I have whole collections of racing, football, baseball, and hockey romances. I do think those are my favorites, actually. How do you get enough of jocks with hearts?
Road trip novels. LOVE them… and I don’t mind small towns either, as long as the hero and heroine get some secluded time away from the nosey neighbours
oops.. *nosy. That’s embarassing…