It is a truth universally acknowledged among romance readers that our favourite genre is one that is written by women for women. So when the Australian Women Writers Challenge was announced last year, I hoped it would be a way to bring the romance genre to readers who wouldn’t normally pick up a romance book.
In 2013 I’ll be one of the contributing editors at the Australian Women Writers Challenge blog, and I’ll be looking at AWW reviews for romance fiction. My first post, wrapping up the 2012 entries for romance, erotica and romantic suspense, is up on the AWW blog.
I’ve been struck this week by the dreaded winter lurgy, and as you do when you’re bed-ridden and have a medical certificate exempting you from housework of any kind, I’ve been scouring my bookshelves for my favourite comfort reads.
You know those books—they’re not just keepers, they’re keepers guaranteed to put you in a happy place. They’re books that never age and that you continue to enjoy even after the hundredth read. The best ones let you revisit the emotional highs and lows of that first read, even though you know exactly what’s going to happen next.
Here are some of my favourite comfort reads:
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If you landed on this page after googling any variation of the following: erotica, Krissy Kneen or Triptych, I’ll take a wild stab and guess you saw Jennifer Byrne Presents: Erotica, aired on the ABC last Tuesday.
You’ve probably also realised that this is a blog whose main preoccupation is genre fiction. And not just any genre—one of the most maligned of them all: rrrrrromance.
But wait! Don’t leave! Romance writers and readers have been writing sexy stories for a while now. And yes, I concede that some of the prose is purple, but if a more literary style is your preference, well, we have them, too!
Shocking, I know.
Call me an opportunist, but here’s a list of romance(ish) titles and authors for readers looking for great sex, great writing or—even better—both!
Broken by Megan Hart
Reasons you should read this book:
1. Megan Hart’s writing is luscious. This is as close to literary fiction as you’ll get in erotic romance.
2. The story doesn’t fall strictly in the romance genre—in fact, the romance between the two protagonists is probably the weakest part of the book. It’s everything else that will tug at your emotions.
3. The heroine is married to a quadriplegic. And yes, she loves him.
You can read my review of the book here. Here’s the blurb:
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Kate and Kat talk about their favourite Australian romance authors. Part 10 (final) of a series of vodcasts for Aussie Author Month 2012.
In this series, Kate and I talk about some of our favourite Australian romance authors, with some digression into our to-be-read lists. In our final vodcast for this series, we talk about our favourite books with romantic elements and why we love them so much.
Unfortunately, due to technical issues, the bit where we talk about tentacle porn ended up on the cutting room floor.
If you can’t see the video below, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just under 10 minutes.
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Kate and Kat talk about their favourite Australian romance authors. Part 9 of a series of vodcasts for Aussie Author Month 2012.
In this series, Kate and I talk about some of our favourite Australian romance authors, with some digression into our to-be-read lists. We’re talking about fantasy romance and this is a subgenre that I dearly wish more authors would write in.
If you can’t see the video below, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for over seven minutes.
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Kate and Kat talk about their favourite Australian romance authors. Part 8 of a series of vodcasts for Aussie Author Month 2012.
In this series, Kate and I talk about some of our favourite Australian romance authors, with some digression into our to-be-read lists. This time we talk about romantic suspense. No prizes for guessing our author picks. :-)
If you can’t see the video below, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just over five minutes.
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Kate and Kat talk about their favourite Australian romance authors. Part 7 of a series of vodcasts for Aussie Author Month 2012.
In this series, Kate and I talk about some of our favourite Australian romance authors, with some digression into our to-be-read lists. This time we talk about erotic romance. One thing I didn’t notice until I replayed our chat is that none of these authors have an Australian publisher. And they should!
If you can’t see the video below, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just under eight minutes.
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Kate and Kat talk about their favourite Australian romance authors. Part 6 of a series of vodcasts for Aussie Author Month 2012.
In this series, Kate and I talk about some of our favourite Australian romance authors, with some digression into my to-be-read pile. Here we talk about contemporary romance authors, although I fudge a bit and cross over to romantic elements. But they all end happily, I promise!
If you can’t see the video below, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just under 11 minutes.
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Kate and Kat talk about their favourite Australian romance authors. Part 5 of a series of vodcasts for Aussie Author Month 2012.
In this series, Kate and I talk about some of our favourite Australian romance authors, with some digression into my to-be-read pile. This time we look at category romance.
If you can’t see the video below, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just over eight minutes.
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Kate and Kat talk about their favourite Australian romance authors. Part 4 of a series of vodcasts for Aussie Author Month 2012.
In this series, Kate and I talk about some of our favourite Australian romance authors, with some digression into my to-be-read pile. This time we look at paranormal romance and urban fantasy—another subgenre where you can find some fabulous Aussie romance authors.
If you can’t see the video below, click here to view it directly on YouTube. It runs for just under ten minutes.
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