Romance Novels

[BarbR]

I can't remember if I've made this recommendation here, but this is the book I've given to two of my girlfriends when they've been in the hospital:

Breathing Room by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

Thirty-something self-help guru heroine, smart aleck, funny hero, very interesting secondary characters, and a wonderful, sexy love story. My guess is you won't be disappointed. This would be my "desert island book."

[Karen]

WTF?!

She has since deleted the review, but not before it came to light that MacGillivray uses yahoogroups and author groups to encourage, browbeat, or by other means, individuals into taking down negative reviews by reporting that the review is a) not helpful and b) abuse. MacGillivray also appears to have taken even further steps to ascertain personal information about Reba

2c. Re: vote down this bitch please
Posted by: “DeborahAnne MacGillivray”
[e-mail] scotladywriter
Date: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:17 pm ((PDT))
Well, thanks to XXXXXX our PI , we now have her name, her husband’s
name, her chidrens’ names, her grannies and great grannies name. Her
address phone number and email
lol…quite interesting.

Hilary Sares, MacGillivray’s Kensington editor, purportedly ” is very aware of this situation and said only people with nothing better to do plays in this mess.”

As a reader, I hope that this is not true, that an editor wouldn’t be so cavalier about an author hunting down a reader’s personal information in this manner. I also hope that MacGillivray and her pals would stop using the Amazon system as their own little playground. This sort of thing works to devalue the very product that MacGillivray is working so hard to build up. I’ll be blogging more about this on Sunday.

How the hell can some writers and their fans think that stalking is the proper response to a three-star review? The blog is full of comments about this woman and her terrible treatment of readers and other authors. I guess it's more proof that if you have no shame or decency you'll get away with things since people are too scared or stunned to respond. But I definitely won't buy her books. What a contrast to Nora Roberts, who's not afraid of speaking her mind but still comes across as mature.

[cantienne]

Oooh, I always love romance-blog drama. I'd seen a post on this a few days back, but hadn't checked up on it - it totally exploded! Thanks!

[proper stranger]

Wow. I had no idea that Amazon reader reviews inspired such Crazy. Truly frightening.

[Deleted]

Ah, and let's not forget the ultimate trashy, "housewife porn*" type books that you get at the supermarket-the ones with crappy plots but really hot sex? Really awful, but fun to read-and to laugh over some of the "descriptions".


I liked Julie Garwood's medieval Scottish romances, especially Saving Grace. Or Prince Charming-that one was fantastic.

*What a guy friend of mine from high school used to call them.

And there's this Russian trilogy by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, over three generations of British girls falling in love with this one family of Russian counts. The best one was the second book, Fleur.

[dangwhathaveu8]

Thus begins my little rant...

Whoever told Susan Squires that she should become a writer should be shot in the fucking face, like 'No Country for Old Men' style. Same thing goes for Kerrelyn Sparks, you bitch. Why did you have to write "The Undead Next Door"? I really am considering mailing back that crapfest to her P.O. Box and asking for my money back. She has just turned me off to reading any other paranormal romances I might have considered for a longgg time. The plots were ridiculous, the chapters were long and boring, and her characters were air-headed. I have a problem too with books, once I start reading something I have to finish it--unless it goes beyond 500+ pages. So I finished it knowing that it was made of fail and now I am kicking myself for being OCD about it. /rant

Having said that... Any recommendations for Regency era books? I was browsing through some titles on Amazon and found two authors that sounded promising... Elizabeth Boyle and Emily Bryan.. Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Difficulties?

[Deleted]

Off the top of my head, I like Barbara Metzger, Loretta Chase (I think she does Regency) and Anne Gracie for Regencies.

[smockery]

I used to read Regencies quite a bit and liked Julia Quinn, Barbara Metzger, Mary Jo Putney (before she went into the fairy stuff), and Carla Kelly. Most of their good stuff is their older stuff IMO.

[tiggertoo]

Has anyone read A Year and a Day by Virginia Henley? I just started it (never read anything by her before) and it begins with the heroine becoming aroused by making out with an animal. That is one of the weirder things I've ever read. A reviewer on amazon.com claimed it wasn't bestiality because it was supposed to metaphorical. (The animal was a lynx and the hero, who she hasn't met yet, is named Lynx.) But it's not really metaphorical because it really did happen in the book (meaning not a dream or a vision). The lynx pins her down and starts licking her (she's naked) and she starts to get all excited. Unfortuntely, the lynx gets distracted by a hare so we don't get to see the end of that love scene. Shame! It is about an interesting historical period (Robert the Bruce) so I will probably finish it.

My latest fav read was Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas. I guess this was her first contemporary romance and I really enjoyed it. It's not a typical romance. The story begins when the heroine is 14 years old and follows her life until she's about 24 years old. There's a couple of love interests and the story had some twists and turns that I didn't expect. I bought the book, instead of just borrowing it from the library, and will definitely reread it.

[ladyvorkosigan]

To smockery's and weekender's Regency lists, I would also add Mary Balogh especially her "Slightly" series.

tiggertoo you'll have to tell us how the Lynx book turns out. It sounds pretty messed up.