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November 2018

#RomBkLove Day 30: Can't Read Just One!

Day 30 #RomBkLoveDo you binge read? What books can't you get enough of?  I tend to binge read series that have extensive world-building. Once I enter the world I hate to leave it. What series have captured your love and attention that you couldn't stop reading them till you got all caught up?

I have a tendency to binge read when I am stressed. I hid from the inauguration by sinking into GA Aiken's bloody and bonkers fantasy  Dragon Kin world. The summer before it was TS Joyce and her werebears. I also relisten to books when I am stressed. Two series that I have listened to multiple times are, The Others by Anne Bishop and the Andrew's Hidden Legacy series. Both the series are very well narrated and tell expansive stories with significant supporting casts.

This year the author I keep returning to is the incomparable Ms. Beverly Jenkins. I love her historicals. Her heroines are undaunted and her heroes are fabulous. Some come ridding in like knights in shining armor and other are rogues that don't know what hit them. I just find her books so soothing, it is hard not read one after and another.

What about you?  Whose books can't you get enough of?

An archive of the day's tweets

A list of all the prompts and posts


#RomBkLove Day 29 SFR & Space Opera

Day 29 #RomBkLove Love among the stars or in the far future? Which ones do you love?  Which authors do something surprising and worth exploring in their futuristic, SFR or space operas? What tropes or issues do you wish more SF dealt with?

My favorite SFR series this year was Ada Harper's Conspiracy of Whispers. I just loved how diverse and inclusive the worldbuilding was, how it was centered on a heroine claiming and fighting for bodily autonomy in a world that wants to strip the agency from anyone still capable of reproducing. Olivia is tenacious, unpredictable and give no fucks.  Galen is over-his-head smitten with her and will help her fight the fights she wants to fight to make the world safer for her. It was just so swoony.

This year I also adored reading Meredith Katz's The Cybernetic Tea Shop. Set in the far future were autonomous sentient AIs were briefly built before being discontinued, a sole sentient and sapient AI remains. Sal runs the a small tea shop, in remembrance of her first original owner, rooted in place by grief and nostalgia but she is slowly falling apart. Clara is a nomadic AI-mechanic, who wonders in one day, and is drawn back day after day to get to know Sal.  The romance was incredibly gentle and beautiful.

What futuristic, SFR or Space Operas did you read this year and can't stop thinking about?

An archive of the day's tweets 

A list of all the prompts and posts


#RomBkLove Day 28: Extroverts. Life of the Party/Center of Attention

Day 28 #RomBkLoveWho are the hostsess with mostess, the life of the party, the center of attention in any room?  How does romance portray extroverts? What books and MCs capture what it means to thrive in a crowd? 

Although Gabe from Alisha Rai's Hurts to Love Youcarries around the baggage of too many family secrets and unacknowledged relationships, he loves being around people. His humor and good cheer bridge many an uncomfortable moment. He is a natural extrovert, easy and at ease with people, and preferring to be in a crowd than by himself.

My favorite quote about Gabe comes from Wrong to Need You, when Sadia is soothing a slightly baffled Jackson.

"If it helps, Gabe wants to everyone's friend. He's like a puppy. A large, tattooed, flannel wearing puppy"

Valentin from Singh's Silver Silence is like many of his furry kin, and extrovert that gets energy from being around his clan.  He is touchy, social and revels in being around others. His laughter and charisma attract and fascinate Silver even as she tries to encase her heart in the ice of Silence, but it is his solid unwavering love that brings her back to him.

Vivy from Emma Barry's Free Fall's laugh is always too loud, the clothes she wears too bold or too bright, she doesn't take no for an answer and feels most herself surrounded by a houseful of her sorority sisters.  Her new husband struggles to learn how to open himself up, after too many years of compartmentalizing and boxing away his emotions, but he is thirsty for her chatter.  I absolutely adored Vivy, and her refusal to stuff herself into tight dresses or ladylike behavior just to please her mother.

Who are your favorite extroverts?

 

An archive of the day's tweets

A list of all the prompts and posts


#RomBkLove Day 27: Introverts: Bookworms, Wallflowers and Recluses

Day 27 #RomBkLoveRomance novels are littered with bookworms, wallflowers and recluses but not all of them are actual introverts. But who gets introverts and what they need in relationships rights? If you are an introvert in whose books do you feel seen? 

I am outgoing introvert and I have to say I don't see a lot of that in romance. I am leader, I am bossy, not shy or retiring,  I love being around people but it is exhausting and I need quiet time to recharge after spending too much time with people.

However I have enjoyed some depictions of introversion in novels recently.

Zoe York's Ambushed by Love, Grace is introverted and independent, which makes her initially hesitant when Frank keeps showing up everywhere she goes around camp after she made the mistake of tipsily crawling into his bed the first night at camp.  I appreciated how he noticed that she needed space and how she firmly but kindly set her own boundaries. 

Jackson in Alisha Rai's Wrong to Need You is very introverted, only really comfortable among people he has known for a long-time and has structured his whole career around not having to deal with too many people directly, instead trusting the peopling to trusted employees. Sadia is one of the people who has always accepted this and other things about Jackson fully. I love how she got him and accepted him

I also loved Ada Harper's depiction of what it means to have to be always one and peopling when one is naturally an introvert.  Sabine in Treason of Truths is flawless in public but needs to withdraw in order to recover each day. Lyre works to ensure that Sabine has what she needs, creating space and privacy for her whenever she can.

Tell me of your favorite introverts? The wallflowers, bookworms, and recluses of romance...

An archive  of all the day's tweets

A list of all the prompts and posts


#RomBkLove Day 26: Hometowns

Day 26 #RomBkLove

A common romance trope is the "Return to Hometown", where MCs have to grapple with a changing hometown or figure out how to adjust and fit back into a place they once left behind.  Hometowns are sometimes locations full of nostalgic power and in other places the MCs couldn't leave fast enough.  What romances grapple with the idea of home and hometown in a way that fascinated you?

The first two books in Alisha Rai's Forbidden Hearts series both grapple with the difficult emotions, lost loves and unresolved conflicts that await the Kanes upon returning home.   For Livvy in Hate to Want You,  she has to deal with the pain of being so close to her old home, and favorite haunts and not really being able to go to them again. There is also the struggle to relate to people who have grown and changed and figuring out how to related to family and elders when the old relationships don't fit quite right anymore.  I loved the honesty of these portrayals and how it all fit in with Livvy and Nicholas's relationship.

Austin Chant's Peter Darling is a return to hometown romance with a fantastical twist.  Peter is not only returning to Neverland, he is returning to a self that he has had to abandon. He goes around aggressively trying to recapture who he was and what he was in Neverland, reigniting old fights and trying to reclaim old relationships.  But things have changed and he has changed. He is aware of things he never was before and that awareness makes him relate to Neverland and its inhabitants in a different way.  I loved the double homecomings in this book and what they meant for Peter and James.

In Mia Sosa's Pretending He's Mine, Ashley is desperate to avoid going back home but her brother's wedding is not something she wants to miss. She ropes her long-time crush and her brother's best-friend Julian in a scheme to pretend to be an item, so she can avoid all the nagging questions about when she is planning to settle down and have a buffer from difficult relatives. I love that Ashley and Julian don't develop a deep longing to stay in the small-town but their HEA involves escaping back to their careers and opportunities in LA. 

 

What about you? What romances about going back home, do you love?

An archive of the day's tweets

A list of all the prompts and posts


#RomBkLove Day 25: Get a Clue! Romantic Mysteries

Day 25 #RomBkLoveNothing like falling in love over a dead body! MCs working together and occasionally at odds while trying to solve a crime. What are your favorite romantic mystery series? Which ones find an HEA not just the murderer?

Used to be a bit mystery reader in my teens and I love when romance and mystery intersect. 

Sherry Thomas's Lady Sherlock Mystery series romantic relationship is complicated and layered, with many obstacles and tensions.  I'm never quiet sure where things are going but I love reading about Charlotte and how she negotiates her feelings for Lord Ingram. 

I am also a big fan of Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell Mysteries, because they are great blend of historical fiction, adventure and romance. Veronica and Stoker are often at odd, but develop a fun working relationship that is complicated by their mutual attraction and Veronica's unconventional attitudes.  

Jeanie Lin's The Liar's Dice from last years Gambled Away anthology was essentially a mystery novella with romantic elements.  I loved how Wei-Wei and Gao are drawn together through their course of investigation.

This year I really enjoyed listening to Laura K Curtis's Twisted  about a true crime reporter who comes back home to dig up the truth about her mother's murder, all while falling in love with the town sheriff. 

 

In which books do the MCs find love as well as solve the case?

An archive of the day's tweets

A list of all the prompts and posts


#RomBkLove Day 24: Sweet as Pie/Cinnamon Rolls

Day 24 #RomBkLoveIn romance sweet, gentle, care-taking MCs are not terribly common but sometimes that is the only MCs we can bear to read. What romances have them? What do you love about them?  

I love caretaking MCs but they are hard to find caretaking MCs that aren't also bossy, and alpha.

Both the heroes in KJ Charles's An Unseen Attraction (Sins of the City) are gentle and sweet-tempered, but it Rowley that to me best fits the Sweet as Pie/Cinnamon Roll description. Although small, and eccentric (he is passionate about his job as taxidermist) he never hesitates to champion Clem. He does all the little things that show care, knowing how to stress Clem, respecting his boundaries and making sure others take that care with Clem too.

Sasha Devlin's Beary Christmas, Baby is another fantastic friends to lovers romance with a cuddly gentle hero. Liev has loved Sira since they were children, but on Christmas eve she has finally pushed him to far, and that realization is the spark Sira needs to realize that what they could have is not something she wants pretend isn't there.

Tristan in Laura Florand's Crown of Bitter Orange is totally a cinnamon roll hero. His whole arc is about overcoming Malorie's suspicions and figuring out how to show her love in ways that she won't misunderstand or mistrust. Unlike his more aggressive Rosier cousins he know, that he needs to handle her with care, and not just bulldoze his way in.

Rosa in Priscilla Oliveras's Her Perfect Affair is a sweet as pie heroine with a spine of steel.  Rosa loves and cares for her sisters, trying to fill the holes left by their parents deaths.  She has tried to so hard for so long and she just lets loose a little bit one night.  When Jeremy tries to take relationship shortcuts after he discovers she is pregnant. Rosa is sweet, loving but no push-over and no willing to compromise of what matters most to her, love.

and if you want more recs check the list that Olivia Dade crowdsourced last year.

An archive of all the day's tweets and debate!

 

A lists of the prompts and posts so far.


#RomBkLove Day 23: Crafts and Hobbies

Day 23 #RomBkLoveWhat are your hobbies? What do they say about you and what you love? I love when authors give MC's something they are passionate about beyond their romantic partners.  What romances combine crafts and hobbies?  Which has been the most unexpected one portrayed?  Anything ever drive your up a wall about the way your hobby has been portrayed?

Although I am a knitter I have generally avoided knitting themed romances but there are few exceptions. I really loved Knit One, Girl Two, by Shira Glassman. One of the MCs is Indie Yarn dyer who is inspired by the vibrant colors of the other MC's paintings.  The book has great scenes with them collaborating and preparing batches of yarn for yarn subscription service. Everything about it was interesting and none of it felt wrong or off.  

Sometimes knitting is simply mentioned in passing and I pay attention. Kit Rocha had Nessa in Beyond Surrender be a failed knitter, how still kept her abandoned projects on a shelf along with all the other things she learned to do and then abandoned, driven by her ADHD into different interests.

I also enjoyed the portrayal of knitting in Annabeth Albert's Knit Tight.  One of the MCs is a knitwear designer who comes back to town to help run his beloved aunt's yarn shop when she falls ill.

Do any romance MC's share your hobbies? What kind of hobbies make into romance novels?

An archive of all the day's tweets 

A lists of prompts and the posts so far.


#RomBkLove Day 22: Found Family

Day 22 #RomBkLoveThis is absolutely my favorite trope ever.  I adore romances where the MCs either already have a group of people they love as family or find that in the course of the story.   What authors and romances have this as their core story. What do you love about books with the found family trope?

I am writing this in the living room at my sister's in-laws house. Over twenty-years ago, one Thanksgiving K brought R to home to her family.  They welcomed my prickly, brash and opinionated sister and just loved her.  Then they loved us all too. Over the last 20 years, I have spend dozens of thanksgivings at their house, even lived briefly with them. They are like an additional set of grandparents for our kids and fantastic set of older wiser adults to listen to us.  

Having lived thousands of miles away from our families for most of our married life, folks like the Ks and other couples over the years, have become surrogate family, they have welcomed us to their house on holidays, picked up the kids from school when there was an emergency and picked us up from airports during snowstorms.  Knowing how important chosen/found family have been in our lives, I love romances where the MCs not only find love but find community.

My go to for found family is Kit Rocha. The O'Kanes aren't just a bi-sexual love army, they are a community. They support each other, they challenge and help each other grow.  The MCs in these books don't just find lovers, they find a crew of people to have their backs.

A lot of PNR romances have this as an element.  In Nalini Singh's Psy-changeling series, Sasha falls for DarkRiver before she falls for Lucas. Starved for touch and affection, she soaks up their love and show her that she isn't flawed for feeling.

KJ Charles's romances often feature found family, communities of Queer people, who love and care for each other, standing together for each other.

Who are the authors that give their MCs not just lovers, but friends who love and care for them?

An Archive of the day's tweets

A lists of previous prompts and posts.


#RomBklove Day 21: Travel

Day 21 #RomBkLove

Today is one of the biggest travels days of the year and I'm hitting the road along with so many others. Lovers in romance, often met away from home, or hit the road together. Whether they travel by carriage, horse, plane, train or auto, what your favorite travel romance? 

In Mia Sosa's Acting on Impulse  Carter and Tori meet while stowing luggage in an overhead compartment on a plane. They end up at the same resort and things start heating up until Tori learns that Carter is Carter Stone, TV Star and she has sworn of dating anyone remotely famous after the very public breakup she just had with a local politician.   The rest of the novel is about them recapturing and growing beyond the little bubble that they initially shared while traveling together.

The first half of Joanna Bourne's The Forbidden Rose is a rough and dangerous road trip from a burned out French Chateau to Paris. Maggie and Doyle are constantly trying to outwit each other on the journey, trying to figure each other out and trying to stay safe. I love the tense love affair that develops between them and how stubborn they both are about protecting the people they love. It is my favorite of Bourne's Spymaster romances.

The Kraken King by Meljean Brooks is a plus-sized travel romance. Originally released as serial, this SF travelogue chronicles the travels of pulp adventure writer, Zenobia Fox, where she tumbles into rebel leader, Ariq. They travel/flee all over the outskirts of the Golden Empire. 

In Beverly Jenkins Night Hawk, Ian "Preacher" Vance is just trying to get back home after going home to bury his mother back in Scotland. His long journey home is interrupted by duty. His duty is wrangling and keeping in custody, the unjustly hounded Maggie Freeman.  From the beginning he is more her bodyguard than her captor, but she leads him on merry chase through the West before finally bringing her back home with him. 

 

 What are you favorite travel romances?

 

 An archive of all the prompt's tweets

A list of the prompts and the posts so far.