Romance and Me: Discrimination Based on Name

Hi Everyone!

You all know that I’m an equal opportunity reader when it comes to romance: I read anything from contemporary to historical, erotic to inspirational, sci-fi to paranormal. I keep an open mind and I’m always up to expand my reading horizons by experimenting with different sub-genres. So with that disclaimer out of the way I can make my confession: despite my tolerant and open-minded reader beliefs I sometimes discriminate books/stories/characters based on names.

And I don’t mean the cutesy and at times over the top names of the town/place the story is set in, like a contemporary romance being set in the small town of Love, or Promise Harbor or a historical romance taking place in Harmony Creek or Temperance Manor. No, those just receive an eyebrow twitch, but they don’t disturb me too much to make me stop reading the book.

Romance and Me:The Truth About Cravings

Hi Everyone!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that cravings are real and they don’t only exist during pregnancies. Oh no. I bet that you all have at one time had the urge to snack on something, but today I would like to talk to you about book cravings. Cravings related to reading. When you are “just in the mood for” a particular trope (yes, heroine won in a card game historical romance), or the hero having a certain job (give me some fire-fighter hunks), or a setting (anyone want wedding romances?).

It happens to me all the time. When I finish a book and I’m at that moment of deciding what to read next I ask myself: what am I in the mood for? And sometimes it’s just general guidelines like I want a historical romance to shake things up a bit after the 4 or …

Romance and Me: The Horror of the Episode Novels

Hi Everyone!

You might have encountered this new trend that seems to be spreading recently, namely that a story is told in several shorter instalments. These are not “series” in the classic sense of the term, where the individual books were full-length 300 or more pages long, no in these new episode-novels the individual instalments are between 25-120 pages usually and end with (often cruel) cliffhangers to entice the reader to pick up the next instalment.

Many recent erotica stories used this form like Beth Kery’s Because You Are Mine series or Maya Cross’ brand new Alpha Group books, and even Eloisa James released her latest historical romance With This Kiss in this format.

Many readers object to this new trend because 1) the story or the different storylines don’t get resolved at the end of the individual episodes, 2) they have to suffer …

Romance and Me: Healing the Mad Hero

Hi Everyone!

In the past week I have come across and read two historical romances featuring “mad” heroes which made me consider this, in my opinion, not too frequently explored trope.

In classic literature having a crazy wife/madwoman as a secondary character is quite common (like in Jane Eyre), but to have your hero or heroine suffering from a mental illness is quite difficult and challenging to pull off and not have them come off as unstable, crazy or plain scary.

But it seems that nowadays more and more historical romances explore the possibility of the hero producing some symptoms and episodes making him fear he is suffering from a mental illness, which is incapacitating him; and the heroine not giving up and trying to find a cure and heal him. I wasn’t aware that this was a recurring theme until I’ve read

Romance and Me: Discovering Amish Romances

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to let you in on what has been going in my life reading-wise in the past two weeks. I read Temptation by Kathryn Barrett, one of Entangled Publishing’s new releases, which is a contemporary romance featuring a modern heroine discovering life and finding love in an Amish setting*. I have to say that prior to this novel my knowledge of the Amish was very limited (my excuse is that living in Europe we don’t hear/learn about them much), I saw For Richer or Poorer with Kirstie Alley and Tim Allen when I was a teen, but that was about it.

So yes, Temptation opened a whole new world to me. (But before I get to that let me tell you what a wonderful, well-written, heart-warming yet sexy story it was, so make sure to pick …

Romance and Me: In Love with a Superhero

Hey Everyone!

For some time now I wanted to discuss superhero romances with you, because as always I would be grateful for any great recommendations

Being an enthusiastic superhero fan is something of a more recent thing for me, I didn’t grow up reading superhero comics or watching cartoons featuring them (though I remember that when I went over to a guy friend’s birthday party in kindergarten we watched an episode of Spiderman). If I think hard when trying to pin point where my interest for superheroes started I go back to high school when I stumbled upon Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. I LOVED how that show wasn’t just about the “boring science fiction/comic stuff” but featured interesting characters with relatable problems/thoughts/feelings and lots of humour, and most importantly I was a sucker for the developing romance between Lois and …

Romance and Me: The Sports Edition

Hey Everyone!

Lately I’ve been on a special romance sub-genre kick: devouring sport romances!

I’m sure that you have come across one of those stories where the hero and/or heroine are athletes, and while I have always enjoyed reading about sexy hunks as heroes, lately I’ve discovered this new addiction of mine. Be it sexy football player like Dean Silverthorne in Candis Terry’s Any Given Christmas, or the hunky hockey players like those in Lily Harlem’s Hot Ice series or Rachel Gibson’s Chinooks Hockey Team series, the irresistibly gorgeous soccer captain in Scored by Lily Harlem or star pitcher Park Jones in Nora Roberts’ Rules of the Game (the very first sporty hero I’ve read about), I love them all!

I’m not a sport fanatic, when the Olympics, European or World Cup football …

Romance and Me: The Office Romance

Hey Everyone!

In today’s post I’d like to talk to you about another trope I like a lot: office romances!

There is just something so exciting about having colleagues, or a boss and his/her employee try to fight their attraction and then sneak around trying to keep their relationship secret For me “office romances” don’t necessarily mean the hero and heroine have to work in an actual office/boardroom, I expand this category to any two people working together and falling in love: they could be co-workers in a hospital, bartender and restaurant owner, wedding planner and cameraman, etc. My only requirement is that somehow their meeting was due to them having to do work together.

When thinking of the different “office romance” stories I looked through the books I’ve read and made a compilation of the office romance books I …

Romance and Me: New Year’s Eve Romances

Hey Everyone!

In my last rant post I told you how I hated New Year’s Eve, well guess what: in the past 2 weeks, novels set around that time of the year kept coming my way.

I read two of Entangled Publishing’s latest releases: Melting the Millionaire’s Heart by Linda Morris and Yours at Midnight by Robin Bielman, which are both true, 100% New Year’s Eve romances: the hero and heroine share a memorable and crucial moment during those famous countdowns before we ring in the New Year.

And despite not being a fan of the holiday (cough, understatement of the year…), I very much enjoyed these stories, which I believe is due much more to the captivating stories and the great writing, than the time they are set in.

Until now I can’t recall having …

Romance and Me: The Holiday Shopping List/Wishlist Edition

Hey Everyone!

Christmas/the holidays are fast approaching and I sincerely hope you have already started your gift shopping, but in all the buying presents for others do not forget to compile your own wishlist and even maybe treat yourself to one or two great stories

By now you know what a huuge Christmas-aholic I am, which also includes my enthusiasm for holiday romances. You want to know why I love this sub-genre  Easy, it encompasses two of my favourite things: Christmas and a love story. The holidays are always portrayed in these stories with their magical ambience that you can easily picture: the snow flakes falling gently, the fire roaring in the fireplace, the hot cocoa smelling tempting and the vibe of the holiday cheer and love permeating everything. (Ok, I can see how this can be too syrupy sweet for some less Christmas-enthusiasts so be …