Reading (mostly) romance books down under
Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
Not to to be effusive or anything, but this is the book that began my love affair with Melina Marchetta’s books.
When I read fiction, regardless of genre, I automatically seek a sense of connection with the words on the page. Sometimes a scene will get me, or a character, or a turn of phrase. I long for these moments of empathy that can turn an otherwise forgettable book into a treasure in my bookshelf.
Saving Francesca gives me diamonds on every page.
Francesca Spinelli is one of thirty girls at St Sebastian’s, a previously ‘all-boys’ school that has opened its doors to girls in Year Eleven for the first time ever.’ She misses the feeling of belonging she had at her old school with her old friends:
St Sebastian’s pretends it’s co-ed by giving us our own toilet. The rest of the place is all male and I know what you’re thinking if you’re a girl. What a dream come true, right? Seven hundred and fifty boys and thirty girls?
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The short story is that Telstra gave me a free phone to play with. Here’s a summary of the first week.
You can read my full disclosure and links to related posts here.
So I’ve had the HTC Desire for over a week now, and I have to say that it almost sucks as a phone. I rarely use it for calls, and when I diverted my number to go to the HTC, I found it difficult to handle people actually calling me. I also kept accidentally calling random people.
That aside, the HTC rocks as a toy. It’s a great gadget. Not perfect—but great enough. It’s not as intuitive as I’d like it to be at times, and it suffers from menu overload, but on the whole it isn’t too bad. It does some seriously cute things that I’ll talk about later this week.
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Source: www.melinamarchetta.com
Or as I like to think of it: Meeting Melina Marchetta.
Well, maybe that’s not quite fair. This panel featured four female Australian authors reading excerpts from their books, and each of them sparked my interest in different ways.
But I can’t lie. I was there for Melina Marchetta.
Pier 4 was teeming with people when I arrived a few minutes before 10am for the session. It was a wonderful atmosphere. Attendance at Reading Muster 1 seemed fairly small, which meant I got a great seat … looking straight at Marchetta.
What? I’m a big fan!
I confess I wasn’t expecting much from this session. I’m not big on written stories being read aloud, and I’m also not convinced that authors are the best people to read their work. I’m happy to say I was wrong.
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The short story is that Telstra gave me a free phone to play with. In return, I’m going to use it, read with it and talk about it—the good and the bad.
I debated whether or not I should post my phone reviews here, and in the end I sensed enough interest in people who follow me on Twitter (or their family members!) to think that this may interest blog readers, too. I’ll explain why in a sec.
Last week, Telstra selected me to be one of their 25 ‘social reviewers’. We were given a new Telstra HTC Desire to play with, test, break and otherwise treat it as a customer might normally use the phone.
To be honest, when I entered the contest, I didn’t even know what was so great
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Because ARRA members just wanna have fun. (And read!)
The Awards dinner was excellent. I’d never heard of Cello’s Restaurant before, but it’s a beautiful venue—although the lifts are a challenge if you’re the least bit claustrophobic. High ceilings, chandeliers, and even a grand piano to the side—it’s just reeked of old world romance.
If you follow us on Twitter, you’ll know that Tracey O’Hara issued a challenge that eventually resulted in a call for a bling off at the Australian Romance Readers Awards dinner. And do you know what I love most about my fellow ARRA members? They said, Bring it!
You can see photos of the bling off here and here. (I’m missing a lot of blinged out people, though, so let me know if you have any more links!)
Sadly, I got carried away and left my outfit shopping so late I turned up to dinner, well, quite UNfashionably late. Others also suffered for the sake of bling and leather, with stories of shoes superglued to the kitchen floor, the case of the killer heels, and last-minute
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Anna Campbell took out the top prize in last night’s Australian Romance Readers Awards, held last night at Cello’s Restaurant in Sydney.
Campbell was voted Favourite Australian Romance Author of 2009 and also won Favourite Historical Romance for her fourth novel, Captive of Sin.
The night was a bonanza of wins for Australian authors, with Paula Roe, Kandy Shepherd and Bronwyn Parry taking the prizes in their categories.
Roe won Favourite Short Category Romance for The Magnate’s Baby Promise. Shepherd won Favourite Contemporary Romance for Love is a Four-Legged Word. Parry won Favourite Romantic Suspense for Dark Country.
New Zealand author Nalini Singh, who was also the guest speaker for the event, won Favourite Continuing Romance Series for her Psy-Changeling books and Favourite Sci-fi, Fantasy or Futuristic Romance for Angel’s Blood.
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The Prince of Midnight by Laura Kinsale
Wandergurl gives everybody’s favourite author a second chance, in an attempt to fulfil Kat’s dream of finding the perfect Laura Kinsale novel for her. No such luck.
Lady Leigh Stachan’s family was killed by a crazy cult leader, driving her to travel all the way to France dressed as a boy to find the legendary S.T. Maitland, once known as the Prince of Midnight, to train her so she can avenge her family. S.T. Maitland has spent the past few years keeping to his eccentric self in backwater country France, with his pet wolf, hiding a few ailments of his own. He falls in love with Leigh and decides to help her in her quest.
This is a second chance romance for me. Second chance in the sense that Laura Kinsale never worked for me before, but I promised I would give her another try. AnimeJune (Gossamer Obsessions) and I made a deal: I would give Kinsale a second try if she did the same for Nalini Singh.
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The 2009 Australian Romance Readers Award dinner is on this Saturday at Cello Restaurant in Sydney.
Today is the last day for registrations, so if you’ve let it ’til the last minute or are on the fence about coming along—make sure you register today. Click here for details and a list of finalists.
The guest speaker is Nalini Singh, but there will be many other authors coming along to the dinner. It’s a great way to have a chat with some of your favourites!
Are you coming along? If so, let me know in the comments. It’d be great to catch up with Book Thingo readers.
Romance Writers of Australia has announced the author signing at this year’s conference in Coogee. The book signing is jointly organised by ARRA and will be held at
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Meridian by Amber Kizer (Fenestra, Book 1)
The beginning shows promise, but the plot is heavy-handed and it’s frustrating that so many aspects remain unknown by the end of the book.
From the day she was born Meridian Sozu seemed to be surrounded by death. On her sixteenth birthday she’s suddenly wrenched from her family with instructions to seek out her great-aunt, her namesake who Meridian has never met.
The beginning of the story is intriguing, but there’s something inexplicable about the way Meridian’s family fails to prepare her for her destiny, especially knowing that she’d have to leave when she turns sixteen and her special power comes to fruition.
Meridian is told that she’s a Fenestra, a conduit for the dying to get to the afterlife. She’s pursued by the Aternocti, who ‘carry souls to the lightless place’. Her aunt is 106 years old and Meridian must master her power so she can help her aunt transition to her afterlife.
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Lover Mine by J. R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 8)
With this latest instalment in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, J. R. Ward returns to form and delivers a story packed with action and emotion. The crack is back.
This was the make-or-break BDB book for me. After the disappointment—at times downright disaster—of the previous three books, I was prepared to give this series one last chance.
I’m so glad I did.
Gone are the random new H-words and awful brand name dropping on every other page. Indeed, there’s nary a ‘messie me’ to be found in Lover Mine.
Yes, the BDB slang still veers towards dagginess, question marks are still missing in action, and Ward makes some utterly ridiculous word choices—in some cases inventing new words that made my eyes twitch—but on the whole the editing is a lot tighter and the prose much improved from even the earliest Black Dagger Brotherhood books.
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(The Drakos Baby, Book 2) Books like this are the reason I stopped reading category romance in my mid-20s. I hope I don’t come across too many more of them in the near future. DNF.
(Pregnant Brides, Book 2) There’s nothing earth-shattering about this story. I didn’t hate the hero or the heroine, but that might be damning with faint praise.
This book proves that finely tuned character development and emotional honesty can turn even the most maligned clichés in romance fiction not just into an enjoyable read, but a story worth savouring.
(Elder Races, Book 1) The Elder Races series has become my BDB replacement. It’s totally cracktastic.
A satisfying romantic suspense with a capable heroine. The romance lacks intensity, but a decent mystery plot keeps the pages turning.
(The Bennetts, Book 5) Sexy, angsty and deeply moving, this story is everything we love about category romance. Oh, and the heroine? She’s the tycoon. This one’s a keeper.
Mills & Boon conventions aside—yes, he’s a tycoon, she’s totally hot and they don’t use a condom—the heroine and hero of this book are rarely predictable. I only wish it could have been longer.
Twilight lends itself to the shoujo manga format much better than in prose or in film. Young Kim’s renditions of the characters are disarmingly gorgeous, but even they can’t redeem Stephenie Meyer’s story of destructive co-dependency. And then there’s the font.
(Scarabaeus, Book 2) Not quite as compelling as the first book and the romance is underdeveloped, but still a satisfying conclusion to the Scarabaeus duology.
(Iron Seas, Book 2) It’s rare in romance to find an uncompromisingly strong heroine and even rarer to find a hero who understands how to love such a woman. This book gets it just right.
Special thanks to BOOKSELLER+PUBLISHER for keeping us abreast of what's going on in the Australian book industry, and particularly to Tim Coronel, who patiently explains to us the intricacies of book publishing in plain Tweet-lish.
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