Photo: Blood by xTrish (via Flickr)

Warning: Not for the squeamish. (And I haven’t had this much fun with euphemisms ever.)

I love a good vampire romance as much as the next Twilight fan, and I love it when authors force their ethical vampire heroes to fall in lust with human heroines. It’s a heady thrill to read about the excruciating dilemma of a vegetarian vampire, a conscientious objector when it comes to live blood sport, whose instincts throb in the presence of his One True Love and her pulsating arteries.

It’s why we let Edward get away with stalking bloody Bella. Because he’s conflicted! And hungry! And noble! And sparkly!

Wait, what?

But seriously. There’s a question that has never been addressed to my satisfaction by any paranormal romance or urban fantasy book I’ve read:

What happens every month when Aunt Flo is visiting, when all is not quiet on the waterfront, when the heroine is trolling for vampires?

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This month’s mailbag features fishing, horse riding, vampires, shapeshifters, magical worlds and, of course, love.

Thyla by Kate Gordon

1/4/2011 – 9781864718812 – Random House
Teen/YA urban fantasy, Australian author, Australian setting

Thyla is a story of Tasmania: of darkness, of convicts, of devils and tigers, and of promises that stay true through the centuries. It is the story of what happened to Cat, and what Tessa really is.

My name is Tessa. I am strong.
I am brave. I do not cry.

These are the only things I know for certain.

Found wandering in the mountains behind Hobart, Tessa has no memory of who she is or where she came from. Frightened and alone, Tessa tries to make sense of the mystery of her past and her strange nocturnal longings. And of the strange vicious scars on her body…

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Somehow, a vampire snuck into my Blaze. I am so outraged. An open letter to Mills & Boon.

Dear Mills & Boon,

I heart your category romances; you know I do. I love some of your authors like a sheikh loves his billions.

But Harlequin, we have a problem.

Last week, I had nothing to read, so I decided to open one of the many ebooks sitting in my Reader, waiting for just this moment: the in-between TBRs decision dilemma*. I had a bunch of titles from Mills & Boon’s Everyone’s Reading website. I was surfacing from a historical romance binge, so I was eager to get into Kimberly Raye’s Cody.

I didn’t read the blurb when I downloaded the ebook. It was a Blaze. I thought it would be safe to assume a few things about the book.

When I open a Blaze, I expect a contemporary story with a bit of drama, a bit of humour and, more often than not, urban lifestyle issues. I can usually relate to the characters’ conflicts, secrets and insecurities.

But this one? The first page is set some time after the US Civil War. And the hero? Well, he’s a vampire. Yes, a freaking vampire!

Let me take a deep breath and calm down, because…

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Wandergurl’s recommended reads from 2010 and a self-imposed challenge to conquer her TBR pile.

Book picks for 2010

The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne

Effectively the prequel to The Spymaster’s Lady, this equally wonderfully written novel is about ‘Maggie and Doyle’. Marguerite de Fleurignac, a French noblewoman, encounters William Doyle in her burnt out chateau. They both pretend to be people they are not, as she is trying to desperately smuggle out people during the revolution and he is an English spy looking for her father. The romance is lush and lovely, the spy plot moves around nicely, and I was kept captivated. Highly recommended.

Feet of the Chameleon by Ian Hawkey

This is a largely anecdotal history of modern African football and how it has shaped various countries’ political histories. I read this book during the football (soccer) world cup while in Africa so it was especially poignant. It explained a lot of things that were interesting to me, and would be interesting for anyone with an interest in Africa, its people and its history.

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Kat’s favourite books of 2010. Oh, and look! It’s just in time for the Australian Romance Readers Awards nominations.

I wasn’t going to post a best-of list for 2010, simply because it takes me ages and causes a lot of internal angst. But the nominations have opened for the 2010 Australian Romance Readers Awards, and I thought I’d use the nomination form as my best-of list. I’ve included the rules, for the curious.

Favourite Paranormal Romance

1. Play of Passion by Nalini Singh
2. First Drop of Crimson by Jeanine Frost
3. Lover Mine by J. R. Ward

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Decadence looks back at the books that highlighted her 2010 reading year.

If I had to sum up 2010 in one word as a reading year, it would have to be growth. I read a total of 80 books, which is the most books I’ve read in a year since I started recording them in a spreadsheet in 2007. I read an average of almost 7 books a month and doubled the number of new authors I’ve read from 15 in 2009 to 30 in 2010. I reread 11 books and have 201 books in my TBR.

My best reading month was December with 12 books, and 3 books makes February my worst reading month. I began 2010 with Salvation in Death by JD Robb and ended the year with Bloody Valentine by Melissa de la Cruz.

Genres

The numbers are a bit funny, partly because quite a few of my books cross genres (e.g. some of my paranormal reads were also YA, which is how I classified them).

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I wrote this article for the ARRA newsletter last year when I discovered Goodreads.

A few weeks ago, I succumbed to the inevitable: I signed up for Goodreads.

My bookshelf is the most packed it’s been since my early uni days when Mills & Boon invaded my bedroom and multiplied while I was asleep. I needed a way to organise my titles, to keep track of what I have, what I’ve read, what I’ve lent out to friends, and, okay, what I’d like to buy.

I could have used a spreadsheet, but I’m lazy and I want someone else to do most of the work for me. I had so far resisted the lure of online bookshelves. I’m already saturated by social networks—Facebook, blogs, Twitter—on top of all the other technology designed to keep me connected and distracted. So I was reluctant to sign up for yet another time-sucking thingamajig. But when I asked other readers how they kept track of books, most of them sent me a link to a virtual bookshelf.

Deciding which bookshelf to use can be a bit of a stress. What if I spend a week entering all my books and ratings only to find that the application sucks? The risk! The commitment! So I brainstormed a series of tests I could use to evaluate which book tracking application would suit me best.

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Because sometimes less is definitely more, especially when authors have to resort to bovine metaphors.

I have a confession to make: I have a potty mouth, which I (mostly) keep under control, but I don’t often like reading the f-word in romance. I don’t have a problem with the f-word in general, but it’s very much a matter of context for me. Words I skim over without blinking in erotica or romantica don’t feel right in romance. When I want to read something down and dirty and explicit, I go for a romantica, but when I read a romance, I expect my sex to be a little bit prettier. That doesn’t mean it can’t be hot, just less sleazy in its descriptions.

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I wrote this article for the ARRA newsletter early this year. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that every time I talk about reading the back of the book first, #afairydies.

On the weekend I was reading Solace & Grief, a young adult urban fantasy by Australian author Foz Meadows, and around a third of the way in I just couldn’t help myself: I read the ending.

When I tell people of my spoilery ways, they either tell me that they do it, too—and nine times out of ten they’re romance readers—or they’re shocked that I could do such a thing. It ruins the story! they insist. And I tell them, No, it allows me to read the book instead of stressing out about how it might end!

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I wrote this article over a year ago for the ARRA newsletter. Some of the references were dated—I’ve updated them as much as I can—but I think the general sentiment holds true.

This will sound melodramatic, but it’s a great time to be a romance reader. Not only did our not-so-little corner of the literary market thrive during the recession, we’re at the forefront of some of the most exciting innovations in publishing today.

This is because we buy and read a lot of books. I thought my TBR (to be read) pile of five books was bad, until I met people at the Australian Romance Readers Convention (ARRC) who have rooms filled with unread books. Despite romance’s lack of prestige in literary circles, its readers spend billions of dollars worldwide each year.

Why do we love reading romance stories?

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