My round-up of the titles reviewed in January for the Australian Women Writers Challenge is up on the AWW blog:
One of the difficulties I’ve had in managing the romance list is the grey area between romance genre books and mainstream contemporary novels that feature female protagonists with a romantic subplot.
Here are some quick stats:
- Total romance titles reviewed in January: 29
- Titles published by digital imprints: 12 (~41%)
- Titles published by Harlequin (all imprints): 15 (~52%)
- Titles with a contemporary setting: 23 (~79%)
- Titles with a rural setting: 15 (~52%)
Personally, I read and/or reviewed 9 AWW books last month:
In Safe Hands by Lee Christine (Escape, ebook) — Romantic suspense
Chaos Born by Rebekah Turner (Escape, ebook) — Urban fantasy
Wish by Kelly Hunter (Destiny Romance, ebook) — Outback romance
Man Drought by Rachael Johns (Harlequin Mira, print) — Outback romance (featured in Booktopia’s Romance Buzz)
The One That Got Away by Kelly Hunter (Harlequin Kiss, print) — Contemporary romance (category)
The Autumn Bride by Anne Gracie (Berkley, print) — Historical romance (Regency)
The Goblin King by Shona Husk (Sourcebooks, print) — Paranormal romance (review pending)
The Man Plan by Elise K. Ackers (Destiny Romance), ebook — Contemporary romance
The Girl in the Hard Hat by Loretta Hill (Bantam, print) — Contemporary romance
I ended my round-up by urging reviewers to consider erotica and erotica romance. If you have any recommendations for me to try, please let me know. Bring on the dirty luuurve!
(To give you an idea, I loved Emma Holly’s Menage, I liked Broken by Megan Hart but wished it had a better romance, and here are a few more titles. On the other hand, Lisa Valdez’s Passion and Elizabeth Amber’s Nicholas take pride of place in my so-bad-I-have-to-keep-them-to-remind-me-how-bad-they-are shelf.)
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.
It’s been an exciting year for those of us who have been actively following and participating in the Australian Women Writers Challenge. Throughout the year, the challenge has been cited in literary magazines and media both within Australia and internationally. (You can read some of the highlights here.)
In total, I reviewed 18 books by Australian women writers this year. This seems a fairly low number, considering romance fiction authors are predominantly women. (In my defence, I read much more than than 18 books, but I only listed the ones I reviewed.) I also wrote a piece on romance fiction and feminism at the AWW blog, which you can read here.
I’m signing up again for 2013, but with a couple of differences:
1. The AWW blog will become more collaborative in 2013, and I’ve volunteered to be the contributing editor for romance fiction. This means I’ll be doing monthly round-up posts around romance titles reviewed for AWW.
2. I’m aiming to double the number of AWW reviews I post—so my aim is to review at least 36 books. In fact, I’ll be trying my best to review every AWW-eligible title that I read next year (with some overlap in 2012, as I’ve already read advanced copies of 2013 releases, plus I’m playing catch-up on a few reviews).
With the explosion of locally published and authored romance titles, I have a feeling I’ll have my work cut out for me.
And as this will be my last post for the year, I’d like to thank you for supporting Book Thingo, whether you’re a commenter, a lurker or a Twitter-er. Blogging is a little like talking to a brick wall, and even though we’ve been blogging for a few years now, it still kind of amazes me when I meet people who actually read what we write. So thank you so much for coming back for more. :-)
I hope you have a wonderful start to the new year, and may 2013 bring you joy, peace and an abundance of literary delights.
Wanted: Female Australian romance authors
There’s been some talk recently in the media—both traditional and online—on the gender bias that exists in literary prizes and book reviews. Blogger, tweeter and all-around awesome advocate for reading Elizabeth Lhuede is challenging readers to help redress the imbalance. She has devised the Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge. Her goal is simple:
This challenge hopes to help counteract the gender bias in reviewing and social media newsfeeds that has continued throughout 2011 by actively promoting the reading and reviewing of a wide range of contemporary Australian women’s writing.
To achieve this goal, we need your help!
I think it’s especially relevant for us romance readers because I think most of us will agree that of all the readers of women’s fiction, our reading choices—and authors—are almost always the least likely to get a mention in literary book reviews, never mind one that understands and appreciates the appeal of the genre. Looking at the sign up list, we’re still not all that well represented.
Read the rest of this post.
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.
Read the rest of this post.
I’m currently addressing some parcels I owe to winners of past book giveaways. I’m sorry they didn’t make it for Christmas, but I hope they’ll herald a great start to your reading year.
Photo credit: perfect gift 1 by lusi (stock.xchng)
Giveaway winners
Congratulations to Therese, who won a copy of Red Dust with entry on what she loves about celebrating an Aussie Christmas:
I love christmas in Australia because of the heat, getting together with family, hanging out with the neighbours, enjoying a wonderful baked dinner and then spending the afternoon playing games outside with everybody.
The result was pretty close because Wandergurl, Decadence and I all had different favourites!
Read the rest of this post.
Photo: Book Worm Bot by ittybittiesforyou (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Happy new year, everyone!
First of all, a reminder that our Desperate Duchesses giveaway ends next week. To enter, tell us what chess piece you’d be and why, post your answer as a comment to this post.
To kick off 2010, I thought I’d list the reading challenges that we’re joining this year. We’re paring down our challenge list because, as we found out last year, it can be stressful trying to keep track of them all!
So for 2010, I’m doing the Aussie Author Challenge and the Book Binge Challenge in April, if MaryP hosts it again. Wandergurl is doing the Year of the Historical Challenge. She also wants to read more steampunk novels.
I’m planning to host the Books Alive Challenge in September … and to do a better job of hosting it this year!
Read the rest of this post.
Dark Country by Bronwyn Parry
BOOK GIVEAWAY: Read on for a chance to win a free copy of Dark Country. The contest ends midnight on Friday, December 11 AEST.
Bronwyn Parry’s second novel is a much more intricate thriller that balances romance and suspense in a way that should appeal to the broadest possible audience.
Dark Country opens with Morgan ‘Gil’ Gillespie’s return to Dungirri, hinting at his troubled past and discomfort at returning to a place that holds nothing but bad memories. He’d been involved in a fatal car accident that landed him in prison, so he’s not expecting a warm welcome from the town. Along the way, he meets police sergeant Kris Matthews. Gil is wary of cops, but an incident sparked by old grievances puts him under Kris’s care for the next 24 hours.
The next day, a dead woman is found in the boot of Gil’s car, and as violence escalates, Gil realises he’s endangering the people he cares about and that it may be impossible to walk away from the town this time around.
Read the rest of this post.
Put your books down!
The 2009 Books Alive Reading Challenge finished yesterday (or today if you’re behind the date line). Stop reading and start writing your lists! Include a link to your challenge results in the comments below, so we can check out what you read. I’ll post a round-up post next week, so you have until Sunday to get those reviews done!
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to list your books in the comments below, or let me know if you’d like to do a guest post here on Book Thingo.
Books Alive Quickie Challenge
Here’s a list of the top 10 books I’ve read this year so far.
1. My Lord and Spymaster by Joanna Bourne – If you think romance writers can’t write beautiful prose, you need to read this book.
2. Addition by Toni Jordan – For maths nerds, people who count their steps, and lovers of base 10. You know who you are.
Read the rest of this post.
Hi, everyone! We’ve just passed the mid-point of our Books Alive Reading Challenge, and I wanted to check in and see how everyone’s going!
My reading progress has been abysmal these past couple of weeks. I managed to finish 3 books:
1. The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke (fantasy) — Unique premise, interesting characters. I’ve added the next book to my to-buy list.
2. Blue Noise by Debra Oswald (young adult fiction) — I’m not the target reader for this book, but I can see it appealing to younger teens or older reluctant readers.
3. The latest Kathleen O’Reilly (Harlequin Blaze) arrived last week, and I didn’t sleep last night because I just had to finish it!
What have you been reading? Anything you’d highly recommend (or not)? If you’ve posted any reviews or lists, leave a link in the comments so we can check them out!
