March 14th, 2010 — 2.5 Stars, Blind, Book Review, Business, Category, Children, Contemporary, Divorced, G-I, Housekeeper/Maid, Marriage of Convenience, Older Woman/Younger Man, Secretary, Tycoon, United States of America, Virgin Heroine
Philomena Peabody made a promise to her mother. She took care of her three younger sisters and when the last one got married, her youth had slipped away. Now at 27, Phil has a lot of thinking to do.
Penn Wilderman is in a custody battle with his ex-wife for Robbie, their adopted son, his nephew. In the midst of all this he’s recovering from snow blindness. (Hurray for an original blindness idea!) When he hears Phil for the first time he thinks she sounds like someone’s mother.
This makes him think she’s much older than him. She’s actually about 10 to 12 years younger (something that gets confused later when he asks his family servant what people would think of him marrying her.) Phil tries to correct him a few times, especially when he calls her “sweet little old lady.” Every time though, he always cuts in and ignores her protests.
Penn convinces Phil first to move into his mansion to help him watch over Robbie, then later to a marriage of convenience in order to help him win at the custody hearing. The plan however nearly backfires on him… because it wasn’t for Robbie’s sake Penn wanted Phil. It was for his own.
It was pretty insulting at the end when he sees her (for the second time, because he couldn’t place her the first time) and tells her he thought he was going crazy imagining himself in love with an old woman. Talk about double standards.
The writing is pretty confusing in parts and some things aren’t as well explained as they could be. Which is too bad because another category romance of hers I really really like and doesn’t have this problem.
The ending resolution could have been dragged out a little. Phil was clever when she ran – she went to work first and deleted her employment history so he couldn’t track her down. He was clever and got to her quickly. Phil begs his forgiveness when he shows up and it’s all HEA in two seconds.
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Buy: If Love Be Blind
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February 23rd, 2010 — Links and Challenges, News
These blogs are added to last year’s list of 50 romance blogs to watch. The grand total is up to 100. That's a lot of romance blogs! 
There are at least 50 more I have not mentioned, especially author blogs, feel free to subscribe all at once to this ever growing list of blogs through the Google Romance Novel Reader Bundle I set up.
This list, like last year's, is posted in alphabetical order.
- Alpha Heroes – And the Women who Love Them! Nicola O. runs it and has been reading romance for over three decades.
Bootstrap Book Marketing – More for authors than readers, though I find it very interesting. If you’re like me you will be bookmarking and saving a lot of the posts to refer back to later. ***Tracy folded this blog before this post went live but all the articles can be found here.***- Cataromance – All about category romance, it’s books, it’s authors, and it’s readers.
- Cheeky Reads – The Sassy Girl’s Guide to Romance!
- ClitLit – Jodi writes about Women, Romance Fiction and Patriarchal Discourse. Lots of great articles.
- Den of the Ogress – Mrs. Giggles romance blog. Careful, she's scary.
- Dirty Sexy Books - Catering to dirty book lovers everywhere… I guess that's me!
- Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings – Not just romance, there are other genres too.
- Fiction Vixen – Paranormal romance, urban fantasy, historical romance, erotica and YA.
- Gossamer Obsessions – Anime June on romance novels, with romance reviews and spoilers, and nonsensical rants.
Top 50 from 2009:
2010 Top 50 Continued:
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February 2nd, 2010 — African American, Black, Defining the Genre, Ethnicity
Black romance is a blooming section of romance industry and is still growing. Officially having its start in 1980 with Entwined Destines written by Rosalind Welles, black romance has expanded and taken shape over the years. While it's true that the genre could benefit from more authors and more books, black romance is a force to be reckoned with and getting stronger all the time. It is my hope to see the genre grow out of its own publishing lines (by sheer volume) and start to mingle alongside romance about white leads. Part of what will make this happen is for the genre to see writers become as influential and iconic as Nora Roberts
, Danielle Steel
, and LaVyrle Spencer
. If authors become a household name to buy, sales will pick up and the genre will be more validated as whole.
It is said that the head of Kensington Publishing had been visiting New York bookstore when he overheard two black women wishing for more African American romance. In 1994, Arabesque was created as the first major line for black readers. Since that point 250 titles by approximately 50 African-American authors have been published.
Arabesque was later bought by Harlequin, increasing the number of released books to 450. Now Arabesque is the nation's leading line of single-title African American romance. Besides publishing Arabesque, Harlequin also publishes Sepia, New Spirit, and Kimani Romance lines. Kimani is a female African-American name that means "sweet and beautiful." Kimani is Harlequin's equivalent to category romance as Kimani novels are mass-market paperback series.
I'm curious to learn if there are Caucasian writers writing about black leads and African American authors writing about white leads? After all we already know there are male authors producing novels that we love... this can't be too far of a stretch.
Photo Credits: 1, 2
Originally posted 2009-01-02 05:07:16. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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November 26th, 2009 — About, News
This is the perfect day to give thanks and without further ado here is what I am most thankful for about romance:
- Billionaires. Like Harlequin, I am thankful for billionaire heroes. Can you imagine an arrogant, brooding, and handsome Harlequin man not being the CEO of his own company? The horror! Shudders. Category romance would not be the same without them!
- Vampires. I love vampires in my romance. I have loved them since I picked up Guilty Pleasures
, my first Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book, and the loving hasn’t stopped. Thank you Joss Whedon for making Buffy The Vampire Slayer
and giving us Angel
! To Stephenie Meyer also, because now I have Angel and Jean-Claude and Edward Cullen.
- Dukes. Historical romance, especially Regency romance, would languish without these handsome brutes. They do plenty of things real dukes did not like become spies for England on a regular basis, but that’s what make them so sexy. Don’t we all want to seduce a duke?
- Blind leads. I love blind leads and I’m thankful for each and every romance book out there that has one and for every author that wrote one! You make my day every time I find a novel with this character flaw. There are never too many!
- Authors. I am extremely thankful to romance authors. Without you, my bookshelves would be empty and my time filled doing something else other than reading, and as reading is my favorite thing to do that would be very sad indeed.
- Publishers and Publicists. Without you I would not have heard of, found, or read many of the wonderful books you sent to share with me. Thank you for that and thank you for your generosity with my readers!
- Bloggers. To my fellow romance bloggers, you are all wonderful and extremely talented, kind, and entertaining! I love reading your blogs and I would miss you if any of you decided to quit blogging.
- Readers. To each and every reader of my blog, I am thankful for you too! I am so happy to have you here and enjoy reading all of the comments you leave. I hope to continue to earn your trust and friendship in the months and years to come.
What about romance are you thankful for?
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November 10th, 2009 — 4 Stars, Big Misunderstanding, Category, Comedy of Manners, Contemporary, G-I, Greece, Love Triangle, Mistaken Identity, Science, Teacher, Writer
This category romance would make a great farcical romantic comedy movie. Just keep reading and you’ll know what I mean.
The Bryants – Jane (heroine), Guy (brother)
The Dysons – Stuart (fiancé), Pauline (future sister-in-law)
Two pairs of brother and sister pretend to be married to each other in order to land a job on an archaeological site in Greece. The heroine is engaged to the brother of the other pair. Her future sister-in-law crushes hard on the site’s leading archaeologist. The dig boss and hero fights falling in love with the heroine. The only supposedly single man on the site falls hard for the future sister-in-law. The only one not romantically inclined is the brother of the heroine.
Sounds crazy? It was!
The hero, Dr. Nikolas Vallas, hates adulterers. He rides hard on the heroine, Jane Bryant, who he sees as the worse of the lot. Guy is either clueless to his wife’s behavior or doesn’t have the masculinity to reign her in or divorce her. Pauline is a creature to pity as she’s utterly clueless to her husband and best friend’s deception. Stuart is a cheating bastard. But Jane--- she takes the cake. She cheats on her husband, with her best friend’s husband, and the son of his long time friend, Tim.
Tim figures out the deception and what Nikolas perceives as more acts of adultery is in fact very innocent. Tim is using Jane as a sounding board for his attempts to win Pauline’s affections. Pauline however is mooning over Nikolas and doesn’t like Tim’s attention one bit. Jane meanwhile is reeling from something Tim said about love. He said something along the lines of “If you’re really in love, you couldn’t wait to be married.” Jane finds herself falling in love with a man who hates everything about her and seems to be falling in love with Pauline.
Petals Drifting is a very erroneous title for the plot. They’re there in the off season for tourists. It’s not fall. It’s more like spring. Anyway, the story is very tense, very quick, and solid. I devoured it.
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: Petals Drifting
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November 2nd, 2009 — Category, Links and Challenges
TBR pile overwhelming? Too many categories to count? Participate in your own personal RCRC! This challenge will be tough, but it will be fun! Let’s get some romances read!
Goal: To read 30 (new to you) category romances in one month.
Break down: 1 category romance per day for 30 days.
Extra Blogger Goal: Review each book for this challenge and post before next day. Normal readers are welcome to share their thoughts during the challenge. Simply click the submit review button above and tell us about the book!
Can you do it? Join in by taking this button and posting it on your blog and/or by leaving a comment below! Prize for 1 person who completes challenge: box of gently read categories, assorted. To be eligible must submit 3 reviews or link me to 3 reviews in November 2009.
5 Tips to Stay on Target:
- Block reading time. Many people say you can read a category in a few hours. Set aside at least 3 hours in your day. I suggest when you first wake up (get up early if you have to), during/around lunch time, and an hour before you turn off the light.
- Carry book with you. If you can’t get block time, carry your category with you. I bet you’ll be surprised how fast you whip through it with all those spare minutes here and there throughout the day.
- Change it up. Switch category romance lines regularly to keep interest. You can still be diverse reading category!
- Stick to one line. If you find yourself breezing through the categories of a certain line and you’re enjoying them, stick with it, don’t switch lines unless you want to, go with what is working.
- Keep notes. This one is for bloggers. If you keep notes while you read, say on a piece of paper that you use as a bookmark, you’re review will be that much quicker and easier to put up.
Good luck!
***Please note that this challenge was designed in mind to help crank through books already in a fairly large TBR pile. I don’t expect anyone to go out and buy 1 let alone 30 new categories to complete this challenge. You can if you want, but that’s not the point for this challenge. Your library, ebay, and amazon are equally good sources for free to low price categories if you want to join the merriment.
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August 23rd, 2009 — Links and Challenges
There are over 50 hand selected links in this edition. That's pretty fan-freaking-tastic if I do say so myself. Due to the crazy amount of awesome content linked to below, I pulled out what I think are the top 10 articles from the batch. If you read nothing else, read these. Have a great Sunday!
Jump to Navigation: Top 10 Posts, Book Reviews, On Genre and Subgenre, Author Interviews, Misc. Fun, On Romance Writing, Book Promotion, Between the Sheets.
That concludes this awesome blow out edition! Submit your blog article to the next edition of romancing the novel using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Technorati tags: romancing the novel, blog carnival.
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