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?

If Bella’s papercut had a houseful of vampires roaring with excitement, do we really think a tampon would do the trick?

I suppose the heroine could go on the pill and just skip the inactive ones in perpetuity. Or until she dies. Or turns immortal somehow, because how else would we have a decent happy ending?

We won’t mention ghosts. Some of us are still bitter about that. (But yes, that would solve the problem nicely.)

In fact, what happens to vegetarian vampires when they’re walking along the street and get a whiff of the crimson wave? What then, author? What then???

We won’t even talk about blue bins. How would a vampire ever go anywhere near a public restroom?

The upside to all this, of course, is something that I can’t believe authors consistently overlook.

If you’re a heroine with a vampire lover, for a few days a month you won’t have to cook your own cucumbers. He’ll be more than happy to eat at the Y.

Better stock up on the bed linen.

This article was published by Book Thingo via RSS. If you're not reading this through your feedreader or via a Feedburner email subscription, please report it to us using this contact form. Thank you.

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…

Source: Media release

To Die For by Mark Svendsen

1/3/2011 – 9781864719314 – Woolshed Press/Random House
Teen fiction, Australian author

With a crack as though her back was breaking the dory lurched downwards. Christos felt himself twist, then fall inexorably towards the head of the inquisitive shark.

For his birthday, Christos takes his father’s mackerel dory on his first solo trip. He plans to fish and then camp overnight on a local island. But things go terribly, terrifyingly wrong when Christos runs the dory aground on a reef, attracting a four-metre tiger shark as company for the most harrowing night of his life—a night during which he decides what he would be willing…to die for.

Source: Media release

Kiss and Tell by Fiona Walker

1/6/2011 – 9780751544091 – Little, Brown
General fiction with romantic elements

With tight breeches and loose morals, the horse trials circle is a hell-for-leather chase across the magnificent parkland of England’s finest country estates, where the bravest of red-blooded horses and riders compete for bronze trophies, silk sashes and glory.

Silver-tongued charmer Rory Midwinter is quite at home in this hedge-jumping, bed-hopping world. He has no intention of settling down—only his long-term groom Faith Brakespear has other ideas.

Tash and Hugo Beauchamp are the undisputed golden couple of three-day eventing. But their mettle is put to the test by the arrival of The Devil on Horseback, brooding Kiwi rider Lough Strachan. Lough holds the key to Hugo’s darkest secret, and he intends to use it to access his rival’s beautiful wife…

A Bite to Remember by Lynsay Sands

3/3/2011 – 9780575099524 – Orion/Hachette
Paranormal romance, Argeneau vampire series

Rule #1: Never get involved with someone who won’t be there for you when the sun comes up.

Rule #2: Never kiss a vampire…it can be a pain in the neck.

Once bitten, twice shy—and sexy PI Jackie Morrisey so wasn’t going there again with a vampire. Vincent Argeneau might be the hottest guy she’d ever met, living or dead, but she’d been hired to stop a killer from turning him into dust, not jump into bed with him.

So what if Vincent’s had four hundred years to perfect his kissing skills, and looks incredibly tempting when he runs around the house shirtless? He’s also charming, protective…and did we mention he can kiss? Jackie needs to be on her guard, or else she’ll have to come up with a new rule: if you’re going to fall in love with a vampire, make sure it’s a bite to remember.

To The Moon and Back by Jill Mansell

1/3/2011 – 9780755355808 – Headline Review/Hachette
Genre, ANZ relevance

When Ellie Kendall tragically loses her husband she feels her life is over. But eventually she’s ready for a new start—at work, that is. She doesn’t need a new man when she has a certain secret visitor to keep her company.

Entrepreneur Jack McLaren seems to have it all—wealth, good looks and success. But the woman he can’t stop thinking about won’t give him a second glance. If only she’d pay him the same attention she lavishes on his dog!

Washed-up popstar Roo is sure that she’s finally found the one. Niall is everything she’s ever wanted—that is until she learns that he already has a wife.

Moving to glamorous Primrose Hill in North London, Ellie and Roo form a tight friendship, and the young widow begins to rebuild her life. But in a neighbourhood where image is everything, relationships are not always what they seem…

Source: Media release

The Wise Man’s FEAR by Patrick Rothfuss

3/3/2011 – 9780575081420 – Orion/Hachette
High fantasy (Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy)

Picking up the tale of Kvothe Kingkiller once again, we follow him into exile, into political intrigue, courtship, adventure, love and magic…and further along the path that has turned Kvothe, the mightiest magician of his age, a legend in his own time, into Kote, the unassuming pub landlord.

Source: Media release

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

1/4/2011 – 9780857530288 – Doubleday/Random House
Young adult fiction with romantic elements (sequel to If I Stay)

It’s been three years since Adam’s love saved Mia after the accident that annihilated life as she knew it…and three years since Mia walked out of Adam’s life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard’s rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia’s home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future—and each other.

Told from Adam’s point of view in the spare, powerful prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

Source: Media release

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

5/4/2011 – 9780857530196 – Random House
High fantasy (Book of Beginnings trilogy), Author is the executive producer of Gossip Girl

The Emerald Atlas is the tale of three siblings who were taken from their parents as infants to protect them from a terrible power. After a string of miserable orphanages, Kate, Michael and Emma find themselves in the strange town of Cambridge Falls where something is terribly wrong.

Featuring an all-star cast of witches and wizards, dwarves and giants, The Emerald Atlas follows the siblings as they journey through time to locate the lost book of Beginning.

Source: Media release

This article was published by Book Thingo via RSS. If you're not reading this through your feedreader or via a Feedburner email subscription, please report it to us using this contact form. Thank you.

More at Book Thingo:

• Monday Mailbag: Random ARCs in my TBR
• Monday Mailbag: January 2011
• Monday Mailbag: Mills & Boon new releases – August 2011
• Monday Mailbag: July releases from Mills & Boon
• Monday Mailbag: Simon & Schuster books in my TBR

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…

A vampire has no business being in my Blaze.

There are two reasons I read category romances:

1. They’re quick to read.
2. I know what I’m getting when I buy the book. (The quality of the writing may vary between authors, but in general, I have an idea of just how much enjoyment a particular line will provide me.)

You have other lines more than suitable for vampire heroes, such as Nocturne and Mira. Please keep them there. Screwing around with my expectations defeats the purpose of buying a category romance, especially when it’s a crossover to a saturated subgenre. I read contemporary romance when I want to get away from fangs, full moons, aliens and Aubusson carpets.

Imagine a Modern Romance featuring a hero who earns minimum wage. You see what I mean?

I don’t mind my Blazes mixing it up when it comes to settings and characters and plots. They don’t have to be set in the city (although I prefer them to be, because I think there are enough small-town settings in your other lines). The characters can be career-driven or not, family-oriented or not, sexually adventurous or not—I don’t care. I will even tolerate virgins.

But for the love of sparkles, please keep the vampires away from my Blaze.

Love and secret babies,

Kat

* Yes, there are TBR books and then there are the books between TBRs, but that’s fodder for another post.

Thanks to Aussie author Paula Roe for coining the title for this post.

Photo credit: Vampires Suck by Enokson (via Flickr)

Mills & Boon Australia | Mills & Boon UK | Harlequin

This article was published by Book Thingo via RSS. If you're not reading this through your feedreader or via a Feedburner email subscription, please report it to us using this contact form. Thank you.

More at Book Thingo:

• The Eternal Kiss: Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire (Anthology)

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.

A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemsin

A fantasy novel written about a world with a hundred thousand kingdoms, in which one family and effectively one god rules an earth where many other minor gods and goddesses walk among its people. After the death of her mother, Yeine is summoned to the court of the worlds’ ruling family, the Arameri. She is surprisingly named one of their heirs and has to survive political machinations, competition from the other heirs and the gods themselves, who have a greater stake in this than anyone else. The writing flows well and transports the reader to the lofty hights of Sky, the Arameri palace, as well as the surrounding towns and the lives of its inhabitants. There’s a bit of romance that also drives the story forward.

Changeless and Blameless by Gail Carriger

Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series is one of my favourites, and I can’t wait for the next one. Changeless ended with a massive cliffhanger that annoyed the bejeezus out of me, so I never reviewed it. I picked up the next book and devoured it in a few hours, and am pleased to say that it ends satisfactorily. I need the next one, stat!

Set in steampunk London, Alexia is Soulless, married to a werewolf and has a gay BFF who happens to be a vampire. In Blameless, she tries to figure out what exactly being soulless means, so that she can clear her name based on things that happened in Changeless which i cannot spoil! If you haven’t read this series, start with Soulless!

Lover Mine by J. R. Ward

This book is here because it’s the book that got me to believe in The Crack (TM) again. This is all your fault, J. R. Ward. You and your sunglasses and hip hop lingo. Damn you, I’m going to end up with the next book, whatever happens. Do not read this book unless you’ve started the series. Start with Dark Lover at your own risk. You feel me?

TBR Challenge

Every year I start a challenge or two which I forget about two months after. I never end up completing my challenges. Hence, I’ve decided to set up my own.

My challenge is to finish all the books in my TBR by Dec 31, 2011.

There are approximately 75. (I have made extra allowance for the romance novels I haven’t counted). I think it’s do-able. Sort of.

The rules are:

1. All books read from the TBR must be reviewed (even if it’s just part of the mixed bag).
2. You must read at least 50 pages before giving up. If you do give up, you don’t have to review.
3. You are allowed to give a book away if you pick it up and think, What was I thinking?
4. You must not replace a completed TBR book with a new one. You need to finish at least 5 before you are allowed to add to it. (Pre-planned purchases are excluded—e.g. those in the 2011 new releases listing. This is because 70% of my TBR is impulse purchasing. If you buy a pre-planned purchase you must read it immediately without adding to the TBR! )
5. Are there any other rules I should add?

Please feel free to join me in this challenge. Let’s hope I don’t forget about this one.

This article was published by Book Thingo via RSS. If you're not reading this through your feedreader or via a Feedburner email subscription, please report it to us using this contact form. Thank you.

More at Book Thingo:

• Blameless by Gail Carriger
• Heartless by Gail Carriger
• Mixed Bag: June 2010
• Slice: Juicy Moments From My Impossible Life by Steven Herrick
• Dear 2010, I have almost caught up with you.

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

Favourite Sci-Fi, Urban Fantasy or Futuristic Romance

1. Poison Kissed by Erica Hayes
2. The Bard of Bone Plain by Patricia A. McKillip
3. Crown of Crystal Flame by C. L. Wilson

Fantasy romance isn’t included in this category, but I have decided to extrapolate this into the Any SFF Romance Excluding Paranormal Romance category just so I can fill it in. (The McKillip, I admit, is stretching ‘romance’ a little.)

Favourite Short Category Romance

1. Long Summer Nights by Kathleen O’Reilly
2. Greek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress by Lynne Graham

I’m missing a nomination here. I might have to find a Bronwyn Jameson published in 2010 to read before the nomination deadline.

Favourite Historical Romance

1. The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne
2. Marry Me by Jo Goodman (Wandergurl’s review)
3. My Reckless Surrender by Anna Campbell

Favourite Contemporary Romance

1. Exclusively Yours by Shannon Stacey
2. Home is Where the Bark Is by Kandy Shepherd

Any suggestions for number 3?

Favourite Erotic Romance

1. Poison Kissed by Erica Hayes

I’m double dipping here, because I read so few erotic romances last year, and even then most of them were neither erotic nor romantic.

Favourite Romantic Suspense

Sadly, Bronwyn Parry didn’t release a book last year so I’m at a loss. Any recommendations? I actually read a handful of romantic suspenses, but I’m not inclined to nominate any of them.

Favourite Continuing Romance Series

1. Psy-Changeling by Nalini Singh (Play of Passion)
2. Shadowfae Chronicles by Erica Hayes (Poison Kissed)
3. Tairen Soul by C. L. Wilson (Crown of Crystal Flame)

Favourite Australian Romance Author

1. Erica Hayes (Poison Kissed)
2. Kandy Shepherd (Home is Where the Bark Is)
3. Anna Campbell (My Reckless Surrender)

Rules

To be eligible a book must have been published for the first time in 2010. Reprints and reissues are not eligible.

For the Continuing Series category, there must have been a book in the series published in 2010.

For the Favourite Author category, the author must have had a romance title published in 2010.

Only ARRA members are supposed to nominate, so I’m not going to include the link here. However, if you’re a member and have not received an email from ARRA, you should follow up so you can enter your favourites!

Nominations will be tallied and the top 10 in each category will be put to the members for a final vote.

And finally, can I just say that Goodreads has made this process so much less random for me. Here’s my bookshelf, if you’re interested.

Did I miss any of your favourites? I haven’t submitted my nominations, yet, so let me know if you think I got any of them wrong. (And I’ll tell you why I didn’t. *g*)

This article was published by Book Thingo via RSS. If you're not reading this through your feedreader or via a Feedburner email subscription, please report it to us using this contact form. Thank you.

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).

Paranormal Romance –20
Young Adult – 18
Contemporary Romance – 10
Urban Fantasy – 8
Fantasy – 7
Erotic – 5
Mystery/Crime – 5
Historical Romance – 3
Romantic Suspense – 3
Chick lit – 1

My favourites

It would take too long to list everything I mentally assigned A+ to A- and to be honest, I started slacking off on the grades towards the end of the year because I’ve always hated rating stuff (maybe I should convert grades to Awesome, Good, Meh and Crap), so here are the honourable mentions:

The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead

I had already read and enjoyed Vampire Academy in 2009 but I knew I had to get right into this series when Last Sacrifice was released and I am so glad I read them this way instead of having to wait for the next book. I loved Dimitri (why couldn’t I have met a Dimitri when I was 17? Hell, I’d take him now!) and thought Rose was a fantastic heroine. She had flaws and some of her less admirable actions and feelings were later explained, but she was strong and interesting. The series just got better with each book and I don’t know how Mead is going to keep the series going with other characters because Rose really set the bar high.

The Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn

Two things you could say about me as a reader: I always go for the vampire and I’m all about the hero. So you would think that I might not enjoy a series about a female werewolf. Kitty started out as the omega wolf in her pack and took a lot of crap to feel safe. The series is about how she ‘grows up’ and learns to take care of herself when she faces an obstacle. The eventual hero shifted from balding to hot and from beta to alpha, but he’s still not my favourite character and I’m OK with that. It’s also a testament to Vaughn that even after my favourite character (who’s strangely neither werewolf nor vampire) took a back seat, I was happy to keep reading, knowing he wasn’t coming back in this book or the next (even if the first book after his departure was the slowest read of the series). I can’t say this series has converted me to werewolves (we’re talking 15 years of vampire love after all), but it deserves a mention for being such a notable exception.

Grave Witch by Kalayna Price

The first in a new urban fantasy series, Grave Witch follows Alex Craft, who can temporarily raise a dead person’s spirit, which can be useful in solving murders. Her estranged sister hires her to find out who killed the governor in order to clear their father, the lieutenant-governor. Alex pulls strings to gain access to the body and in return has to help a cop find a lead on who’s been butchering random women. She gets off on the wrong foot with the intense and mysterious detective investigating the governor’s murder, but when attempts are made on Alex’s life, they have to work together.

I really liked how Price skilfully balanced the murder mystery with supernatural elements, political entanglements, Alex’s burgeoning relationship with the detective investigating her and an ongoing flirtation with sexy denim-clad Death.

What do I want out of 2011?

I’ve avoided making New Year’s resolutions because I stand a better chance of keeping the ones I don’t make (don’t you love my logic?), but there are things I want to achieve this year:

• Write more reviews — I like to think that an average of one review every two weeks is realistic, but I have a feeling this goal will be the first to fall by the wayside :D If I’m reviewing, I’m not reading, but I could afford to find a better balance.
• Keep reading more books — I don’t have a spreadsheet for it, but I’m sure that around 2005 I read around 120+ books even if I’m not sure I had a life then :P I’ve started several series that I’d like to catch up on and there are more interesting series out there waiting to be started, not to mention any 2011 debuts.
• Try more new-to-me authors — I’m not sure how compatible this goal is with the above catch-up-on-series goal, but it fits with reading more books in general.
• Start a new cheat sheet — This is a very ambitious goal and one that I had last year as well. It took me over a week to do the original BDB cheat sheet (and nothing else) and this is the series I have the strongest familiarity with.

I should add Reduce my TBR to the list, but who am I kidding? I know that I’m going to keep adding to it, especially in the guise of meeting my other goals. I’ve had a TBR for so long I don’t think I could live without it.

I can almost guarantee that I won’t be able to do everything on my list, but the above constitutes an ideal reading and blogging year. We’ll see how I go.

This article was published by Book Thingo via RSS. If you're not reading this through your feedreader or via a Feedburner email subscription, please report it to us using this contact form. Thank you.

More at Book Thingo:

• Favourite romances of 2010

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.

The first test was that it had to look good for the blog. Yes, I’m shallow. Immediately I narrowed the list down to three: Booktagger, an Aussie product; Goodreads, which most of my Twitter friends seem to use; and weRead, which I was using on Facebook. I used a number of search terms for some favourite Aussie authors and recent releases to see which application would find the books with ease. Eventually, I picked Goodreads.

And I haven’t looked back.

To be honest, I’ve become a tiny bit obsessed. There’s something incredibly satisfying about ticking off all the books I’ve read. I’ve also begun feeling competitive about the number of books I’ve listed and about other people’s ratings (Five stars for that horrible book! Or worse: How dare these people give my favourite book one star!).

But by far the most nefarious thing about online bookshelves—especially those like Goodreads where you connect with friends and can see what each other is reading—is the huge impact it’s had on my wishlist.

I think I’ve found a solution to this dilemma, though. When my family asks me what I want for my Christmas, I’m sending them a link to my Goodreads wishlist!

This is an edited version of  an article that first appeared in the ARRA Newsletter in March 2010.

This article was published by Book Thingo via RSS. If you're not reading this through your feedreader or via a Feedburner email subscription, please report it to us using this contact form. Thank you.

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.

When a long-time favourite contemporary author started using the f-word in the love scenes in her later books, I felt a little bit sad. Even though she is a mother in her 40s-50s with many published romances under her belt, it felt like she, or her stories at least, had lost their innocence.

Maybe it’s because the more aggressive slang words for sex and sexual parts (fuck, prick, dick, pussy) make such excellent insults and curse words. Those words already have such strong and negative connotations that they feel out of place in a scene meant to demonstrate a connection and further develop a relationship between a man and a woman who will fall in love and spend the rest of their lives together. In my more unguarded moments, I may drop more f-bombs than is strictly necessary, but the one word I hesitate to use is the c-word. Strangely enough, I don’t mind ‘cock’. (BTW, that last sentence right there should demonstrate the importance of context.)

Right now I’m reading a paranormal romance debut by a new author, which I enjoyed until I got about halfway through and reached the first real sex scene after all the teasing. Suddenly the c-word jumped out at me and it threw me out of the scene for a minute. I continued reading and got back into it by the end of the page. When I turned the page, there it was again in the first paragraph. I almost groaned out loud because it didn’t improve upon repetition. I didn’t think it even belonged in a paranormal romance the first time.

What happens when you cross the f-word with bovine metaphors

My perseverance was rewarded by getting to read about the human heroine’s ‘ridged nipple’ (was the other one normal at least?) and when the hero ‘milked her clit’ (do I even need to say anything to that one?). I think the most disappointing part was when the hero dropped the c-bomb at the beginning of a new sex scene.

I accidentally killed a fairy with this book soon after I started it, so I already know some things don’t turn out the way I expected, but while I think I like the story enough to see this book through, I’m wondering whether or not I’m going to bother with the next one when it comes out. I guess it’s not just the language (even though it’s the biggest contributor) but some cringe-worthy sexual descriptions as well that are putting me off, which is sad, because the premise of the series is promising, the writing in all other respects is engaging and the hero has interesting brothers. I just don’t want them even thinking about sex anymore because in the third quarter of the book, I’ve counted 8 c-words, 2 pricks and 1 ‘tits’. This does not bode well for the romance.

How important are the sex scenes to your enjoyment of romance? Do you skim them, skip them altogether or is their promise a drawcard for you? Are there words you don’t like or do you call a spade a spade? And what happens when you read bad sex in an otherwise good book? Does it ruin your enjoyment of the story as a whole?

Photo credits:
The F-word? by Arjan Einbu (via Flickr)
Gordon Ramsay And Pixie Lott Back New Milk Campaign by Marion McMullen (Coventry Telegraph)

This article was published by Book Thingo via RSS. If you're not reading this through your feedreader or via a Feedburner email subscription, please report it to us using this contact form. Thank you.

Source: Every Time You Click This Link A Fairy Dies by Rob Clark (via Flickr)

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!

I blame my miscreant literary habits on Gone With The Wind, which I read as a teen. I’d never seen the film, but it always seemed to make people’s shortlists for Favourite Romance, so I expected it to be … well, romantic. After a weekend reading marathon, with a box of tissues close at hand, I finally got to the end and discovered that Scarlett and Rhett did not end up together!

That was probably the closest I ever got to actually throwing a book against a wall.

Ever since, I’ve never really trusted the promise of a happy ending; I’ll believe it when I read it. For a long time, I even read the back of Mills & Boon books.

Authors may find readers like me frustrating at times. I’m the kind of reader who absorbs spoilers for J. R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood books, knowing full well I’ll probably spend a gazillion bucks to buy the books in hardback when they’re released. If I find a book that sounds interesting but has elements that I’m not sure about—love triangles, for example—I’ll even trawl through blogs, Amazon and Goodreads to confirm if it’s the right book for me.

But authors need not despair. Spoiling the ending doesn’t affect how I enjoy a story. Sure, it might reveal a clever plot twist, but a story whose entertainment value depends entirely on a surprise ending is, I would argue, always going to be doomed.

Because the journey to that ending is what I want to savour—and I can’t do that if I’m constantly worrying about whether or not these secondary characters will end up together, or if the apparent love interest will cark it eventually. This is especially important if the author is new to me.

I’ve tried a few times to reform my deviant ways. What ends up happening is that I speed through the entire book just to get to the ending. This makes for a less nuanced reading of the text; I almost always end up liking the book more after a re-read.

When a book hints at a love story, knowing who ends up with whom means I’m prepared to put more emotional investment into the characters. Because, even though I read outside the romance genre, I’ll always be a romance reader at heart.

This is an edited version of  an article that first appeared in the ARRA Newsletter in February 2010. Photo credit: Every Time You Click This Link A Fairy Dies by Rob Clark (Flickr).

This article was published by Book Thingo via RSS. If you're not reading this through your feedreader or via a Feedburner email subscription, please report it to us using this contact form. Thank you.

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? For me it’s the thrill of recreating that experience of falling in love, and the certainty that, at the end of it, my faith in human relationships will be restored. Although I read other kinds of books, romances remain my favourite reading pleasure.

At ARRC, I met women who expressed relief at finally finding a place where they can revel in all things romance without the stigma often attached to our genre. But with huge changes happening in publishing today, and the market power that romance readers enjoy, I’m optimistic that we might finally shake off the negative stereotypes.

In Australia, the romance community seems to be thriving. The International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) held its first conference in Queensland last year. The Romance Writers of America awarded its 2009 Bookseller of the Year Award to Rosemary’s Romance Book Store in Brisbane. Every year year, new Australian authors see their debut novels in bookshops. And, of course, established authors continue to wow us with their work.

So if you’re a closet romance reader, or you’re constantly having to defend your reading preferences to people who think romance is beneath them, don’t despair. Fellow readers are only a blog or a Yahoo!Group away, and exciting stories are available with a click of the mouse. If you’re lucky enough to live near an independent romance bookshop or a romance-friendly library, you’ll know just how wonderful being part of the romance community can be.

Last year, Harlequin author Geri Krotow handed US President Obama a copy of her book to give to the First Lady. ‘This looks sexy!’ Obama said with a smile. I’d like to think he gave that book a go.

Now over to you guys. Why do you read romance stories and where are your favourite romance communities?

This is an updated version of  an article that first appeared in the ARRA Newsletter in August 2009. Photo credit: Love Plant by adspark (via stock.xchng)

This article was published by Book Thingo via RSS. If you're not reading this through your feedreader or via a Feedburner email subscription, please report it to us using this contact form. Thank you.