Romance Novels

[dragonfly80]

erinnyes said:

I'd recommend the In the Garden (Blue Dahlia, Black Rose, Red Lily), Three Sisters (Dance Upon the Air, Heaven and Earth, Face the Fire) and Key (Key of Light, Key of Knowledge, Key of Valour) trilogies, in that case. There's still a degree of domineering man-ness going on, but it's a lot less. Less forcing women to do things they don't want to do "for their own good". She's over-keen on bickering as a sign of true love, but otherwise very enjoyable.

My favorite Nora trilogy is Irish. You don't have a lot of super corny moments and it's in a different location and involves some slightly different jobs and situations from the rest of her books.

Three Sisters is an example of how I have grown to hate her use of the mystical/supernatural/vampire junk. Three women all get men and discover their mystical witchy connection in a matter of months? The spells they chant are ridiculous and very junior high school wanna be Wiccan. Nora has also done the theme of women running away from their pasts and going to work in restaurants/catering companies in Angel Falls.

In The Garden was, IMO, a piece of crap rip off that combined hothouses with that What Lies Beneath movie.


And finally Key was another trilogy that was so similar to the others that I'm having a hard time remembering it. Oh wait, 3 women that are totally different come together to open up a store! I think one of them is a fantastic baker and then there was a hairdresser. It's fate!Destiny! Oh Nora please please please find some new inspiration somewhere. Yet as much as I disliked these books I keep giving the new series chances.

The Circle trilogy is the newest steaming pile o'turds from Nora. I admit Vampires aren't really my thing but I enjoyed some of Ann Rice's early works so I gave it a try. It's another typical group of 6 trying to defeat an ancient vampire while hooking up into 3 neat little couples and there is some time traveling and shape shifting thrown in for good measure.

[Deleted]

Well...different strokes, I guess. I enjoyed those ones. I don't think they're great literature, and they're certainly not great spirituality, but they didn't piss me off. She does repeat the themes and the structure, and the characters are an endless remix of the same traits over and over, but they didn't make me want to scream.

And I actually couldn't get past the first couple of pages of the Irish ones, because the "dialect" writing annoyed me too much.

[Auroranorth]

I like the Three Sisters trilogy, but Key bored me and I haven't tried any of her new ones. I refuse to read Northern Lights because it's set in Alaska and I hate anything written on Alaska unless it's by a resident of the state.

[sugarhigh]

Over the last two days, I've read the first two books in Nora Robert's Three Sisters Island trilogy. The library doesn't have the last one which is really annoying me.

I thought I was over Nora Roberts but I actually really liked the last two books I read.

[aims]

I wish there was a way I could send an idea of a novel to a romance writer to flesh out my idea . Because I want to read a book that is my fantasy/idea/story. But the problem is I want to read the story the exact way I'm thinking about it with no changes....just fleshed out to be a good story. I wish I was good at writing !!!

[Deleted]

Has anyone ever read the Harlequin Maitland Maternity Books?
I subscribe to a book club that mails me 3 mystery/thrillers every month and for the first year I got a free Maitland volume in my shipments. So I read them. They are what I would call Babysitters club for adults.
There's a family with a large number of adult sibs and they're fabulously wealthy. In each book, one of the sibs or one of their lifelong friends meets someone and marries them or has super hot sex adn then gets engaged to them, all in teh backdrop of a baby hospital.

They are ok, but are wearing a bit thin, I have 3 more.
The 8th grade girl in me does enjoy the horny hot sex though!

[jennipoo]

I am such a sucker for western romances. I've been laying out a lot with the weather being so nice lately and all and they're the perfect trashy companion. I really like Linda Lael Miller and Joan Johnston. For some reason, I like books that are part of a series about a family.

I always feel ashamed reserving these at the library and I hide them when people come over. I'm still addicted though.

ETA: Apparently I'm also an idiot, because I posted almost the same thing back in January. Duh, me.

[Deleted]

If you can find her earlier (not England-set) historical romances, JenniPoo, Lorraine Heath wrote some seriously good ones. The Texas Trilogy, Texas Destiny, Texas Splendor and Texas Glory are some of the best westerns (or romances) I've ever read. They are avaialable in print and maybe through interlibrary loan.

[Auroranorth]

dragonfly80 said:

The Circle trilogy is the newest steaming pile o'turds from Nora. I admit Vampires aren't really my thing but I enjoyed some of Ann Rice's early works so I gave it a try. It's another typical group of 6 trying to defeat an ancient vampire while hooking up into 3 neat little couples and there is some time traveling and shape shifting thrown in for good measure.

I read the first two yesterday. This might possibly have worked as one book but there wasn't enough there to make three. And were they ever dull!

[aims]

winkie said:

inkyblott said:

I wanted to comment on your vampire book, I just started a series called the DarkHunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon who also writes Avalon (King Arthur) under Finlay someone but she has a great series, they are adventurous and dark, and I don't really read romances anymore but I really like these. Check them out if you get a chance. I love even more her Avalon Warrior series. But the DarkHunter series is awesome.

Isn't Kenyon the one that wrote the book about the sex slave guy that is cursed into a book for centuries? It has gods like cupid and such in it. It's hilarious because this guy that's cursed is walking around with an erection for pretty much the whole book.