Photo Opportunity by Jess Dee (Tanner Siblings, Book 1)

A friends to lovers story that doesn’t quite reach the emotional heights—or depths—that I prefer in my romances.

I love me a good friends-to-lovers story—it’s one of my favourite pairings. In theory, Jess Dee’s story in which the hero, Daniel, decides he’s had enough of being platonic friends with childhood friend, Amy, and executes a plan to change their relationship status…well, in theory it ticks the right boxes for me. Bonus for being an erotic romance, even though, as I may have mentioned a few times before, I’m so very picky with erotica.

Well…it kind of work and it didn’t. The fact that I’m a sucker for friends to lovers probably kept my interest longer than the book should have. Unfortunately, it just didn’t have enough emotional depth for me to care much about the characters.

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I was going to post on the Pearson acquisition as part of our regular Tidbits post, but I know that many Aussie romance readers will find the Amazon acquisition of great interest, so I’m posting these two bits of news out of schedule.

Amazon and The Book Depository

I just saw this on Twitter (via @kate_elham), but it looks like Amazon will be acquiring The Book Depository, subject to all the legal stuff that has to happen for the acquisition to go ahead. I couldn’t find a direct link to the Amazon media release, but I’m assuming it won’t be long now.

UPDATE #1: Eoin Purcell speculates on his blog that one of the reasons for the acquisition could be to build a better market position in Australia. Wow. We matter! *happy sob*

UPDATE #2: On Twitter, TBD has stated that ‘The Book Depository will continue to operate independently.’ Then again, it’s early days yet. (Or no days, given that the sale hasn’t happened yet.)

UPDATE #3: Philip Jones at Futurebooks makes this comment: ‘[TBD] is big in those areas where Amazon isn’t, and in Australia competes head-on, with some success. Most importantly, it has established networks and routes into those countries, which Amazon simply does not. And I suspect it is these, rather than the turnover, that Amazon is most interested in.’

This is something that came up in one of the panels I attended at the 2011 Australian Romance Reading Convention. I believe Christina Lee from Mills & Boon brought it up. Here’s an excerpt from the tweet feed (I’ve removed off-topic tweets):

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Here are some books for review sent by Random House, which are sitting in my to-be-read pile.

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The Oscars of the romance industry, the RITA Awards, were awarded yesterday at the Romance Writers of America conference in New York.

Wendy, whom you might know from her blog, The Misadventures of Super Librarian, was awarded the Librarian of the Year award.

The RWA website has a full list of finalists and winners, including winners of the Golden Heart Awards and other special awards.

Historical Romance

Regency Historical Romance

Contemporary Series Romance

Contemporary Series Romance: Suspense/Adventure

Contemporary Single Title Romance

Paranormal Romance

Romantic Suspense

Inspirational Romance

Young Adult Romance

Romance Novella - "Shifting Sea" by Virginia Kantra

Novel with Strong Romantic Elements

Best First Book

Christine Wells/Christina Brooke

I found out through the ARRA loop that historical romance author Christine Wells also writes under the pseudonym Christina Brooke. I’m not sure why she changed her name or if she’ll be writing under both names at the same time. I did notice one name goes with her Berkley books and the other with her St. Martin’s Press books.

Maria V. Snyder book signing

So I checked Snyder’s website and she has a list of venues that she’ll be appearing at while in Australia. For bookings, contact the venue directly. Is anyone planning to go?

Aug 5-7 — Byron Bay Writers’ Festival
Aug 9 — Readings Hawthorn, 5pm-8pm
Aug 16 — Dymocks Wynyard, 4:30pm-6pm
Aug 17 — Ultimo Library, 5:30pm-7pm

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Anna Campbell is one of Australia’s most beloved romance authors. She has won the Australian Romance Readers awards for Favourite Australian Author two years in a row, and for Favourite Historical Romance three years in a row. Stephanie Laurens coined the term ‘Regency noir’ to describe Anna’s debut novel, Claiming The Courtesan, a book which generated quite a bit of controversy among readers. Her latest book, Midnight’s Wild Passion, was released in May.

Website: www.annacampbell.info
Social networks: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Genre: Regency historical romance
Latest release: Midnight’s Wild Passion

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Giveaway winner

Congratulations to Jacki, who won our giveaway of The Fragment of Dreams by Phillipa Fioretti by telling us what fragment from history she’d like to own:

I would be very interested in owning the Blueprints for the Pyramids so we could finally work out how they were constructed I would also like to own the Transcript of one of my Ancestors day in Court at Cambridge University.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Romance Novel

Go read this most excellent post by Megan Mulry on reading romance in a literary world. Here are some of my favourite parts of her essay:

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Lunch in Paris: A Delicious Love Story, with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard

Well-written, poignant, and romantic. Each chapter comes with a few recipes, most of which feature in the story. I loved it all.

In line with Travel Tuesday (#traveltuesday) on Twitter, Wandergurl will review a travel book once a month.

Elizabeth Bard met her Frenchman at a conference, and later met up with him in Paris. On their first date, she slept with him before dessert. Thus begins Lunch in Paris, a beautiful story of romance, Paris, growing up and learning how to be an adult.

And, of course, there’s the food. All the glorious food. Each chapter comes with a few recipes, most of which have been described as part of the story.

And I really loved the romance:

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This week’s mailbag is a bonanza, thanks to Mills and Boon Australia, who sent us a box of assorted titles (though I detect a distinct YA bias). Some of these are series books, so I’m torn on reading them or catching on the series first. I’m particularly keen on the Rachel Vincent, after reading her Soul Screamers series. (If you’re a fan of this series, would you recommend starting the series properly, or can I just jump straight in?)

All of these titles will be out in Australia in July.

For Maria V. Snyder fans, don’t forget that she’ll be in Australia in August. From what I’ve gathered, the tour will focus on meeting her younger readers, but there may also be a few opportunities to see her with a more adult crowd. (This is not say I don’t like mingling with younger readers. But as an oldie, I don’t really want to barge into an author event that’s focused on school kids!) I’ll post more if and when I know the details.

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I wrote this article last year for the ARRA newsletter. I’ve updated it to reflect current prices and to remove outdated information.

Many readers considering buying an ebook reader end up trying to decide between the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Here’s a quick rundown.

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