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Last month was fabulous! Thank you all for making it so! June was filled with many great features including: guest reviews, guest bloggers, author interviews, and fun articles. We talked about the size of werewolf and vampire fangs, children in romance, and signs of too much romance novel reading. Shared below is the month’s highlights:
As a fan of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight, this was just darn near hysterical. Thanks SBTB for posting it first! I’m reposting it because well, nobody should miss it!
What would happen if Buffy Summers met Edward Cullen instead of Bella Swan?
I was surprised by how good the editing of this spoof film was… weren’t you? Wow! I wonder if they’ll do it again when New Moon is made available.
Edith Layton passed away this last Tuesday. She wrote many, many romances, with characters a reader could fall in love with. She was labeled “one of romance’s most gifted writers” by Publishers Weekly. I have read a few of her books in the past; my latest read was Bride Enchanted, which I adored. What ones have been your favorite?
You can find a comprehensive book list at her website. Edith has another book, To Love a Wicked Lord, coming out in October of this year.
“What I’ve found, is that life was very different in every era, but that love and love of life is always the same.” ~Edith Layton.
Likes:
Jasper - hot. Great clips from the birthday sequence.
Jacob transforming into a werewolf - nothing like the creepy wolf/man thing of Harry Potter. It’s well executed, which makes me extremely hopeful for the rest of the special effects.
The 3 words being included that Hardwicke didn’t provide in Twilight.
Laurent with his creepy red eyes and his dialogue. Nice.
Edward’s kiss on Bella’s forehead.
Costumes. Yum.
Dislikes:
Bella’s new look makes her look like the actress and not like the character. Sorry, it’s true. Definitely a big irk as I just loved the long curly hair from before and the pale practically makeup-less look. Would have been happier to see a difference between the birthday scene and the scene with Laurent as it would have perhaps just shown Alice’s influence, alas that does not seem to be the case.
Didn’t like how rushed the 3 words were. It’s too hastily cut or spoken… one or the other. Makes it all very awkward.
Toss-up:
I can’t decide if I like or dislike the awkward delivery of a majority of the lines. I’m sure they sound better in the movie and the awkwardness would still fit with the characters as they grow throughout New Moon, but at the same time I’m wondering why some of the lines are delivered in such a jerky/jilted manner.
This past month has been a blast! May was filled with reviews, guest bloggers, author interviews, and many fun articles covering a wide range of topics from TBR piles to romance heroes. I celebrated my blog’s 1st year on the 26th with mantitty and twitter. Thank you everyone who commented and played because you made the day very special! Shared below is the month’s highlights:
I’ll be the first to tell you I’m not a fan of the love triangle for many reasons. The first and foremost reason is because I feel it’s just a ploy by an author to fuel the angst and drama of a mediocre story. Haymore proves me wrong. She does not do this. The love triangle is a valid part of the plot and wholly integral with the storyline. She approaches the love triangle in a very unique manner. I don’t want to spoil anyone, because it’s so different than anything I’ve encountered before in my readings.
Another reason I have trouble with the love triangle situation is the waffling. I simply don’t get it. I’m told this is because I haven’t been in one and until I have triangles are hard to appreciate or sympathize with. If you’re like me you probably think it’s very black and white and very little gray. In my head, I know it’s gray. I know that it is possible to love two people at once, but the Grinch side of me feels that if you can’t make a choice between them then you don’t love either one enough and should let both go. Haymore made me feel the conflict that Sophie, who is in the middle, goes through. I appreciate her position and I sympathize with her, something that is way out of the norm with me.
I have a feeling that a second read through will make it a better read, because I know where it’s going. I was looking at all the wrong things in the book the first time and therefore was anxious and worried about how the plot was developing, certain that Haymore was going to bungle it. I just couldn’t see how it was going to work out.
Haymore surprised me, the ending surprised me, and that says something. It made me reevaluate the whole book and all my complaints and worries held no weight.
A fan of the love triangle will be placing this novel on their favorite shelf. Someone who like me, needs a little persuasion about the loving the love triangle can read this and appreciate it. Who knows, it may hook you so completely you can’t wait to grab a hold of another love triangle!
A brief summary:
Sophie loved Garrett since she was 16 years old and was devastated when he didn’t return home from Water-Loo. Tristan is her best friend and together over many years they healed from their mutual loss. One night after their marriage Garrett returns. Everything as they knew it is changed from property to titles, from money to marriages–Haymore explores Regency law and Regency hearts.
I’m so excited! Today is the first year anniversary for my blog! I’m in good company too as Bitten by Books and The Galaxy Express both had their blog birthday’s this month also!
Poll: What features do you want more of?
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To celebrate this most glorious of days we’re going to play a game to win a contest. Are you ready for fun, fun, fun? Me too!
The game is raunchy and not particularly work friendly if you’re not allow to have glorious mantitty on your monitor. I promise however that all the photos used will be of chests and nothing else…
NotHing elsE?!
Why, yes, nothing else as you see this game is called “Guess the Chest!”
Over the course of the day I’m going to reveal 26 fabulous male celebrity chests and it’s up to you to figure out who they are. Some will be easy, some hard, and some maybe even impossible, but the real question I know you’re thinking is why 26? Because today is the 26th! Oh, that wasn’t your question? You want to know what you could win?
The person with the most correct guesses will win… drum roll please…
This contest is open to all readers, bloggers, random stopping by browsers, domestic and international!
In the event of a tie, those with top marks will be placed in the nifty random generator list-master and a winner will be selected.
I have some other goodies to give away also and those will be announced in the upcoming 25 posts. Get ready to have a blast ladies (and gentlemen)!
Your first chest will now be revealed:
Who is it? You may use the comment form or keep your answers secret by emailing me at reviewromancenovel@yahoo.com with the Subject Header: Happy Blog Day Contest
Here’s the situation succinctly: Avon stuck its foot in its mouth.
Lynn S.: In our 2002 interview, you felt that the online world didn’t have much of an impact on sales. Much has changed in the intervening years, and more and more people - including more women - are online now and use reviews as a helpful guide to the buying process. Has Avon changed its thinking in this area? Avon, also, seems not to include many online reviews in books. Are there any plans to change that policy?
May Chen: In my opinion, the online world still doesn’t have much impact on sales as, anecdotally, I’ve seen books get horrible online reviews but have done well. As far as I know, we still don’t include online reviews on our books, but that can certainly change if we see them start making a difference. Right now, the best endorsements for us still seem to be from NYT bestselling authors and from major traditional print reviewers.
Lucia Macro: Do the consumers recognize the source of the quote? I’m not sure that the vast majority of readers recognize all the online sites. When checking their rankings I’m often surprised at how little traffic they really get. We are all very plugged in, but many casual readers are just picking up a book at their local Walmart and barely have time to watch tv, much less wrestle the computer away from their kids. So an author quote might carry more weight with them.
The whole thing as Jane notes is ironic and is summed up quite nicely by Amy of My Friend Amy in this Twitter message.
Pamela Jafee of Avon responds to the backlash with this comment on Lynn’s post. She responds to the accusations in another comment stating that the quotes are direct without editing.
Right below Pamela’s comment is one by Katie Mack linking to Jennifer Crusie’s thoughts about author quotes on books and if I had any confidence in them before it’s completely gone now.
What gets me most is that they assume because bloggers don’t have corporate search engine ranks that we don’t have power and additionally the assumption that was made about online versus offline. Before I started blogging, I did research online for books that I bought, yes I still made impulse buys, but I often gravitate toward books reviewed around the romance community. I don’t really put faith in newspaper ratings for books or movies because oftentimes the reviewer is somebody who clearly doesn’t share any similar tastes with me. They give it a 2 I give it a 4, they give it a 4, I’d never pick it up/go watch it even if you paid me.
As for the rankings… Alexa is complete bunk as most bloggers who blog about blogging say and they take it with a pinch of salt. Google Page Rank used to be highly sought after and now it’s kind of a “well that’s cool, I guess,” rank. Alexa confuses me, but I do know a bit about Google PR. It’s based on Log Base 10 mathematics. To jump one point you must be ten times more powerful than you were in terms of many things that are hard to quantify like: content relevancy, search relevancy, traffic, bounce rate, internal/external links, backlinks, etc. To jump two numbers you have to be hundred times more powerful; three numbers equals a thousand times more powerful, and so on.
Smart Bitches and Dear Author last I knew were both Google PR 5 (out of 10). Love Romance Passion is a 3 and I’m not quite a year old as a blog.
Think about that… that’s a load of people and community sharing to build those numbers. We might not have the numbers of a corporate giant, and we certainly don’t have the capital to push a book, but we’re innovative and the numbers we do have shows just how big the romance community is online.
Google doesn’t think we’re bottom of the food chain, Avon shouldn’t either.
If you haven’t already heard about it, Harlequin is celebrating 60 years this year! Seriously though, you couldn’t miss it with all the promotion from the news to their site to the 16 FREE ebooks! But there’s still more happening!
In just 10 short days you can go out and celebrate with Harlequin at their upcoming event at Openhouse Gallery in New York, New York. They are exhibiting cover art from 1949-2009.
Yes, I know I said earlier that the clinch covers drive most romance readers batty, they are also a lot of fun! Go with a few friends and see how many mullets and swooning females you can find.
Make it part of a day trip into the city for all those romance readers in the surrounding area. It is open to the public and FREE! (Good date idea!) I hear it’s really an amazing sight to behold so don’t miss it!
Below is all of the pertinent event information you will need:
Who: Harlequin What: Celebrating 60 Years of Cover Art When: May 30 - June 12, 2009 Where: Openhouse Gallery,
201 Mulberry Street, New York NY 10012 For more info: Harlequin Event at Openhouse Gallery
When you go, take pictures and send them into me at reviewromancenovel@yahoo.com so I can share them with other readers!
Georgette Heyer wrote over fifty novels in her lifetime. Forty of them were full length romance novels or historical novels. Wow! This was all before computers! Now with new trade versions of her books coming out again, her name is cropping up everywhere: on blogs, on Twitter, in emails.
Vote for your favorites! Let new readers of Heyer know which ones they simply can not miss!
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How many have you read? Which ones are your favorites? Leave a comment below and share your opinion!
Victoria (Tori) reminds me of Anita Blake. Here’s why:
She’s known for always wearing a gun.
Not to mention she’s a police officer with connections to the vampire scene (not widely know to humans to exist).
She visits vampire clubs.
Tori brings her gun into the bathroom with her when she showers.
Tori even resists Michael like Anita resisted Jean-Claude at first.
Michael reminds me of Twilight vampires, because interestingly enough Tori smells to him as Bella does to Edward. He labels the smell of her to something akin to mimosas. Michael can also feel her feelings, like Jasper of Twilight, and project feelings onto her.
Vampire lore:
All have mind reading capabilities.
All are involved to some extent in the D/S scene.
All possess a type of thrall called: affascinare.
All have theability to project feelings/sensations called: trucchi.
All obey or follow the vampire code/law of Alleanza.
Humans can bond with vampires as equals and as slaves.
They can be warm/hot and have heartbeats.
They breathe.
They sleep?
The bad guys are particularly scary. They make the book very dark indeed. Think vampire Mafia with terribly nasty taste in sexual preferences (torture/slave).
Sex: D/S, voyeurism, good kinky fun
Overall it was a pretty enjoyable read but there were some problems in the story telling. For instance terms are not defined. As the first in the series they should have been. That’s not to say that quite a few can be derived from connotation but the nuances are lost. Additionally, while some of the Italian terminology is similar in format to the English translation, not all of them are.
A few inconsistencies and redundancies scattered the pages, ones that should have been picked up by an editor. They stuck out like a sore thumb in an otherwise seamless story. There is some great dialogue scattered throughout the book. One of my favorites was:
“I wish I believed you.”
“So do I.”
If you can get past the small annoyances it wasn’t half a bad read. The bad guy gets caught, the good guys triumph, the couple gets together, and you close the book happy.
We made it! The final 10 blogs! This concludes the series of posts for the Top 50 Romance Novel Blogs to Watch in 2009.
Now we’re not all done… oh no… there’s one more post. This post will share with you all the reader recommended blogs that weren’t included in the Top 50. Feel free to rec yourself (nobody needs to know you can email me at reviewromancenovel at yahoo dot com !)
The Goddess Blogs- 10 authors, 200+ books, kicking butt and taking names all the while making you laugh out loud like a loony.
The Scarlet Corset- Three Opinionated Booksluts, dishing out straightforward Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, & Historical Fiction reviews; reader culture observations, book industry news, and snark.
Twilight Lexicon- Had to do it. I love Twilight and this blog is a wonderful site devoted to sharing up to the minute news from the movies and actors to the author and books.
We Write Romance- Writers and reviewers blogging about romance books, authors, publishers, news, and more.
Today is part four of five in announcing the Top 50 Romance Novel Blogs. I hope you take the time to go to these blogs and see what they have to offer!
And as always be sure to drop a comment and let me know if I’ve missed any of your favorite haunts as I will be composing a fan list to supplement my list at the end.
Romance B(u)y the Book- Dish with Michelle and the Bellas @ RBTB about Love, Sex, Family, Life, and, of course, Romance! (They have a newsletter subscription contest going on - ends 31st of March.)
Romance Novel TV- Video interviews with romance authors, really need I go on? Make it a destination of yours.
Romance Rookie- I have to promote Jill just because of the Florida background- though her 500+ bk reviews don’t hurt either. She works at my alma mater. If it weren’t for the trees and two kids I’d say we were the same person. (I loved Nancy Drew growing up and am also a Virgo.)
Romance Vagabonds- Four ladies + romance novels + hunks = a whole lot of fun.
Romancing the Blog- The title of this blog was my first idea for naming my blog. Isn’t it cute? The columnists on Romancing the Blog are readers, reviewers, aspiring authors, and bestsellers.
Romancing Trashy Novels- Celebrating the Genre One Book at a Time… aggregating news source, once stop gathering for all your romance needs.
Romantic Inks- I just love the colors of this website and the design - very pretty. 15 women actively write for this blog - that’s a whole lot of wonderful posts!
, coming out in October of this year.
I’m so excited! Today is the first year anniversary for my blog! I’m in good company too as 
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Here’s the situation succinctly: Avon stuck its foot in its mouth.
If you haven’t already heard about it, Harlequin is celebrating 60 years this year! Seriously though, you couldn’t miss it with all the promotion from the news to their site to 
. Here’s why:
vampires, because interestingly enough Tori smells to him as Bella does to Edward. He labels the smell of her to something akin to mimosas. Michael can also feel her feelings, like Jasper of Twilight, and project feelings onto her.
