One Good Reason by Sarah Mayberry & Feels Like Home by Beth Andrews

A dramatic story with moments that will break your heart. Unfortunately, the hero’s emotional catharsis is rushed and the the resolution doesn’t match the story’s earlier promise.

This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.

Gabby Wade has held a torch for her boss and best friend Tyler Adamson for four years. Unfortunately, Tyler is now very happily married—and we know it’s for read and for good because Australian author Sarah Mayberry wrote his story in The Last Goodbye (Mills & Boon Super Romance). When Tyler’s elder brother, temporarily home for reasons unknown, mistakes her for a lesbian it’s the last straw. Gabby gets spectacularly drunk…and realises that she’s been going through a long period of heartbreak and grief.

Jon Adamson is helping Tyler out with his furniture business while coming to grips with their father’s death. They come from an abusive family and Jon is wracked with grief that he didn’t do enough to protect Tyler from their violent father.

Gabby and Jon immediately feel a connection when they meet, but it’s a slow burn and they both need to face some truths before they can even acknowledge the possibility of accepting a new relationship, no matter how temporary.

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Source: stockxchng

And then there were five…

I’ve been meaning to announce this for a while, but some time ago Jen (aka @dumblydore) joined the Book Thingo team!

(It might have been around the time she posted this awesome review of Twilight, the graphic novel, complete with customised sparkly features.)

Jen is a Melbourne-based graphic designer with a particular interest in popular culture, and I think she brings quite a different perspective to reviewing books than any of the other Book Thingo bloggers. Many Aussie romance readers have probably seen her work—she has designed banners for ARRA and websites for various authors.

We’re totally chuffed to have her as part of the team!

Book Thingo at Google+

For those of you who play over at Google, we now have a Google+ page. At the moment, it mimics our Facebook page, so you can choose your preferred social network.

Kill a fairy

Last year I created Kill a fairy, a site dedicated to spoiling book endings for those who, like me, won’t read a book without knowing the ending first. There are no spoilers on the front page—they’re all behind the cut—so you can check it out without fear of spoilage.

I’ve tried to walk a tight line between revealing the ending and revealing everything about the novel. It’s not meant to be a full recap, but another way of helping people decide whether or not they want to read a book.

Bits of love strewn online

And for the curious, I post excerpts of my current reads in a tumblelog. This isn’t updated often, but it’s there for when I want to bookmark quotes from books that will either expire (eARC) or need to be returned to its owner (especially library books). I’m tossing up the idea of using it for review notes, as well, as I usually read when travelling, and I don’t always have pens and post-its handy.

Additional notes to accompany the feminism in romance debate at the Australian Women Writers blog.

My thoughts on the place of feminism in romance fiction is up at the Australian Women Writers blog—thanks to Elizabeth Lhuede for hosting the discussion. I invite you all to the AWW blog to weigh in on the debate!

I apologise in advance for the waffly tone, but I’m hoping the rest of you guys will provide the intellectual rigour missing from my opinions. (Yes, I’m lazy, and even with the waffling it took me over a week to finish that post!)

When I first sent her my draft, Elizabeth asked me to elaborate on my brief mentions of m/m romance and rape fantasy. What resulted was notes section that was almost longer as the post itself, so I cut it down to a list of links for AWW.

However, I’m posting the annotated references here for anyone interested in following the discussion or pursuing their own interests in the topics raised. I’d also like to point non-romance readers to Jennifer Crusie’s essays in defence of the genre, which I think provide a good overview, though her arguments are not without their critics.

Finally, I wanted to include something that I removed from my original post because it sounded so very melodramatic, and it’s this:

I’ll tell you what many of these books have in common—a hero who treats the heroine like she’s worth something. Worth changing his life for, worth dying for, worth denying himself for, worth losing his soul for. Whatever is most important to the hero—that’s what he offers in exchange for her love.

And sometimes, yes, it’s the heroine who offers the greater sacrifice. Because romance books are unpredictable like that.

Additional notes to Feminism in Romance

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To kick-off #AWW2012, I thought I’d post a list of reviews we’ve previously posted for books written by Australian women. I’ve included a short except from each review to give you an idea of what we thought of each book.

If you’re on Twitter, I’ll also be retweeting links to these reviews because, in the era of e-publishing, there’s no reason why you can’t grab a copy of their books and try them yourself! Click here for a full list of our #AWW2012 reviews.

Lover Reborn by J. R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 10)

Tohr’s book hearkens back to the earlier books in the BDB series. It’s not without its faults, but in true J. R. Ward fashion, when she pulls out the angst, it’s very, very good.

Click here for a round-up of all BDB-related posts on Book Thingo.

I thought I had weaned myself off the crack, cold turkey, after I managed to resist the call of Lover Unleashed. But as a former Cellie, I was interested to see how Tohr gets his happy ending. Plus a review copy of Lover Reborn turned up in the mail. How could I resist?

Warning: This will be a long post. I’m using subheadings so you can skip to the bits that matter to you. There are spoilers, although I’ve tried not to give away major plot points.

The good stuff

I wasn’t expecting much from this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. For the most part, J. R. Ward restrains herself from going overly over the top and delivers a story that is more layered and coherent—if not always believable—than the BDB has delivered for some time.

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Heart Of The Desert by Carol Marinelli

A beautifully written story—the sheikh romance for readers who hate sheikh romances. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read in the Mills & Boon Sexy line.

This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.

I’ve never reviewed a Carol Marinelli book, but I’ve tried the author’s work twice; both times were DNF, and I didn’t pick up another one of hers again until I started reading Heart Of The Desert, a sequel to her 2009 M&B Medical, Secret Sheikh, Secret Baby. It’s an absolute keeper.

Georgie Anderson almost had a one-night stand with her brother-in-law, Prince Ibrahim Zaraq, but she turned him down at the last minute and harsh words were exchanged. So when they end up back at Zaraq at the same time, it’s all they can do to be civil to each other.

A series of events finds them stranded in the desert—the desert that haunts Ibrahim and seduces Georgie. But Ibrahim is the third prince of Zaraq, and he’s bound by rules and customs that will never accept Georgie in his life even though each of them knows they may never find anyone else who will understand and accept them so completely.

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Innocent In The Ivory Tower by Lucy Ellis

When this book gets good, it’s, oh, so very good. Alexei and Maisy may reflect the traditional alpha male and ingénue pairing in category romance, but they don’t always behave as expected. And that’s a good thing.

This review is part of the AWW2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.

This book is the reason I try to read past a bad beginning to get to the meat of a story. Maisy Edmonds has been left caring for her best friend’s baby, Kostya, when she and her husband die in an accident. When the house suddenly explodes with strange men, it’s all she can do to convince Alexei Ranaevsky that Kostya needs her.

Alexei is Kostya’s godfather and he takes his role seriously. So much so that without any warning whatsoever, he storms the house where the baby is living, agrees to bring Maisy with him to provide some constancy in the baby’s life…and proceeds to pash her when he accidentally but conveniently walks in while she’s clad in nothing but a towel.

First of all…WTF?

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For those of you keeping track, the Sydney Writers Festival program has been released, and event bookings opened on Saturday.

The short of it for romance authors and readers is this: There are no panels focused on romance fiction.

There’s a panel on women’s fiction and one on chick lit:

Girl Trouble featuring Toni Jordan, Kathy Lette and Gretel Killeen:

Who took the chick out of the lit? Will we miss all those pink covers and breathless promotional prose?Have girls moved on? Maybe, gasp, become women? Kathy Lette and Toni Jordan talk to Gretel Killeen, who has never written (or read) chick lit, but is keen to find out where women’s fiction is heading.

Women On Top featuring Toni Jordan:

Whether you like the term or not, you know what chick lit means: novels usually written by and for women who love reading fiction. Easy to read doesn’t mean easy to write: writing chick lit is harder than it looks!

Join international bestselling author Toni Jordan as she explores the essentials of cool chick lit. Learn to draw intelligent and interesting female protagonists, devise a modern story and develop a voice that lifts off the page. Whether you’re a beginner or have a manuscript or two in your bottom drawer, gain a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of this elegant and under-appreciated form.

There’s also a panel on erotic fan fiction, which as far as I can tell from the blurb, features no serious fan fiction writers at all:

Erotic Fan Fiction returns for one seedy night only. A new batch of writers and performers including Andrew Denton, Zoe Norton Lodge, Ben Jenkins and Tom Ballard turn their craft to a night of smut and hilarity.

So that’s about it.

I’m underwhelmed.

To kick-off #AWW2012, I thought I’d post a list of reviews we’ve previously posted for books written by Australian women. I’ve included a short except from each review to give you an idea of what we thought of each book.

If you’re on Twitter, I’ll also be retweeting links to these reviews because, in the era of e-publishing, there’s no reason why you can’t grab a copy of their books and try them yourself! Click here for a full list of our #AWW2012 reviews.

Blue Noise by Debra Oswald

Despite its straightforward storytelling style—or maybe because of it—there’s something rather charming about Debra Oswald’s latest young adult novel about a group of high school students who form a blues band. This isn’t the most sophisticated young adult novel I’ve read, but it has an accessible style and uplifting message that may well suit young teens or older reluctant readers.

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Look, I know you’re all googling it, so to put you out of your misery, our resident Black Dagger Brotherhood expert has tweeted yes.

According to Decadence (@my_lheage):

So there you go. In case you can’t see the graphic: There is a BDB book coming out next year, and it will focus on Qhuinn and Blay.

And according to @sheepangel, it comes out in hardback.

Both of them are the most avid BDB fans I personally know, and I’ve never known them to be anything but accurate when they pass on BDB news.

If you really have to know their source, you can ask them yourself. :D