Hello, everyone! Maria from A Passion for Books & Real Life is doing a review of Omega Mine by Aline Hunter today as part of Romance Month. Please stop by her blog and check it out!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
KT Grant is a novelist whose most recent release can be found in the Christmas anthology Yule Be Mine. She also writes the very popular romance blog Babbling About Books, And More. I know KT loves her some virgin hero goodness, so I asked her to kick off December with a post about them, one of the most rarefied of all Romancelandia characters. Willkommen, KB!
Nothing says romance like an awesome hero that makes a reader swoon. My favorite type of hero is a virgin one. There are far too many virgin heroines written and nearly not enough sexually inexperienced men. I really dislike a hero who is proud to admit he’s slept with too many women to count. To me, that’s the opposite of what romantic and sexy is. There’s something endearing to read about a man who stays pure, much like a woman would, where they wait for that right person to come along and be with in the elemental sense. And it’s pretty sexy when a woman can take the man by the hand and show him what he’s been missing.
Here are some recommendations for my favorite virgin or sexually inexperienced heroes in romance that I’ll never forget:
Hands down, the best romance virgin hero in all of romance is Jamie Fraser from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. I’ve never been big on time-traveling romance, but Outlander destroyed my bias. When twenty-four year old Claire Randall travels from 1945 back to 1743 and meets the handsome, young redheaded Scotsman, Jamie, sparks don’t fly right off the bat. As Claire gets to know Jamie and visa-versa, they find a respect for one another. And then when Jamie has to marry Claire to save her life, that’s where things get hot. Claire is a married woman from the future who not only makes Jamie first time with a woman a memorable experience, but he shows her a thing or two. He takes to Claire and their love making like a duck to water and it’s smoldering, intense and fun.
The Outlaw and the Lady by Lorraine Heath is perfect for those who love Western romance. The heroine, Angela is blind and ends up kidnapped by the notorious outlaw, Lee Raven. Lee wants revenge for the people that have hurt his family and Angela is caught in the crossfire. When he realizes she’s blind, he makes sure she’s comfortable and treated with respect. Angela then learns who Lee is and one thing leads to another and when they time comes for them to act on their passion, Lee tells Angela he’s as innocent as she is. These two learn how to steam up the sheets together and it’s beautiful. Also the way Lee feeds Angela fruit in bed is beyond sexy. The Outlaw and the Lady is one of my favorite Western romances.
Born in Sin by Kinley MacGregor aka Sherrilyn Kenyon hits the spot for medieval romance. The heroine, Callie is forced into marriage with Lord Sin, the black sheep of the MacAllister family. Sin has been abused and treated horribly. He has emotional and psychological scars from the abuse he’s suffered as a child. Because of this he can’t stand to be touched and has never been with a woman. It takes Callie to break down those walls he has constructed and bestow her love on him. Sin falls for Callie and allows her to not only touch his body, but his heart. Watching a tormented hero like Sin find happiness is very moving.
Colonel Jack Seward from Connie Brockway’s All Through the Night may not be a virgin, but this is a man emotional tortured and afraid of love and everything it entails. When Jack meets Anne Wilders, a widow who also happens to be the mysterious thief he hunts, their attraction for one another grows to an all-consuming obsession. Jack courts Anne gently, unaware she is his thief who makes him think naughty thoughts. And then when he catches Anne and puts two and two together, it leads to a smoldering, erotic interlude in a library where Jack gets down on his knees and uses his mouth on Anne in ways that should be illegal. A gut-wrenching, angst filled, swoontastic romance that begs for a sequel.
Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh features a deadly hero who can kill someone with a simple thought. Judd Lauren comes from a deadly race of people who have cut off all their emotions. Judd has defected, and when he meets Brenna, a woman tortured at the hands of a serial killer, the ice around his heart melts. Judd becomes interested in sex and desire all because of Brenna and only she can become his partner. And when Judd is excited or ahem, horny, he ends up breaking furniture by throwing it around the room due to his telekinesis.
These are only a few of my favorite virgin/sexually inexperience heroes. Are you a fan of these types of heroes? If so, what are some of your favorites?
Thanks, KT! All Through the Night is one of my favorite historical romances, too.
You can find out more about KT and her books online here:
Author website (http://ktgrant.com)
Book blog: Babbling about Books, and More (http://kbgbabbles.blogspot.com)
Twitter: @katiebabs (https://twitter.com/#!/katiebabs)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kate.garrabrant
Saturday, December 3, 2011
This book will teach me to read novels just because they're nominated on a 'best of' list.
Anastasia Steele (that's a mouthful) is a naïve college senior when she meets handsome richy-rich guy Christian Grey. Although he tells her to stay away from him, he keeps following her around. It's all cool, though, because she likes him! Then she discovers he has some Serious Issues that he likes to express via a BDSM lifestyle (it goes way beyond sex), and Anastasia spends the rest of the book hem-hawing over whether or not she wants to sign his insane contract that gives him the right to tell her what to eat, wear, and shave. Will these two crazy kids get together? More pertinently, DO I CARE?!?
I've heard this book described as being either love-it or hate-it, and I have to say I fall firmly into the latter category. At fist it seemed okay... ish. The writing was not great, and was a very awkward combination of first person viewpoint and simple present tense; but it was light and fun and mixed together secretary-billionaire category romance tropes with Twilight, both of which I love. That being said, even though I was entertained, I was a little bothered by the sense of geography--which can be described as shaky at best--and the fact that the American characters talked like extras from a Harry Potter movie. The author is British, and trust me, that and the fact that she has no ear for North American dialect is ABUNDANTLY obvious. Why didn't she just make her characters British? Damn if I know.
So I was already thinking this novel was a little cray-cray, and then the BDSM thing started.
I've read and liked novels with strong BDSM themes, but in those cases the sex felt integrated into the story and made sense for characters. The sex in this book is hot, no doubt, but in a porntastic way, and quite frankly I got bored with it pretty quickly. It has very little to do with the characters, especially Anastasia, who's not even a submissive and has no interest in BDSM at all--I think that's probably the most ridiculous part of this whole thing. I really wanted her to tell billionaire guy to fuck off, but knew she wouldn't because, one, it wouldn't be much of a book if she did; and two, she's a spineless idiot whose actions make no sense.
Plus, if you're thinking of trying this book because it's Twilight fan fiction, I strongly urge you not to do so. The details of the novel may be ripped out of Twilight--it's set in the Pacific Northwest, Anastasia has a flighty mother who's remarried and living in another state, her father is a monosyllabic sports fan, and she has two guys chasing after her (other than Christian): a boy-next-door-type who works with her in a hardware store owned by his family, and the 'ethnic' best friend, José, whose dad is her dad's friend--but those details have absolutely NOTHING to do with the plot, and the tone of this book is not in any way similar. In fact, judging by the amount of lip-biting that goes on, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that James has watched the movies more than she's read the books. Like many other elements of this novel, the Twilight aspect feels like a poorly hacked-on gimmick. It's not an homage to the Twilight series, that's for certain.
I don't know what I find more annoying/insulting about this book--the throw-away Hispanic character, the fact that it could be set in Rio de Janeiro and be the same story, the total lack of attempt on the part of the author to make her AMERICAN characters sound like actual Americans, that it made me want to projectile vomit on several occasions, that finishing it stole away FOUR DAYS of my life that I will never be able to get back, or that the author implies BDSM is good substitute for psychotherapy--but overall it was pretty annoying.
I do not recommend this novel. But if you want to read a book that contains little to no research, poor writing, no attempt at character development, a heroine who falls into every stupid Victorian trope that ever existed, and sex scenes that are little more than porn, then by all means have at it. I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of the book to review, however! That was really nice of them.
Musical Notes: "Marry the Night," by Lady Gaga
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
When Rory's parents accept a year-long job in Bristol, England, she leaves her small town near New Orleans for London and Wexford boarding school. Situated in the heart of Whitechapel, the part of town Jack the Ripper frequented in 1888, Wexford becomes the center of a media storm when it's clear a Ripper copycat is recreating the Victorian killings. When Rory actually sees him on the night of one of the murders, she becomes the focal point of the new Ripper's obsession and attracts the attention of
I have a fondness for ghost stories and I am a sucker for novels with Jack the Ripper subplots, so I wanted to read this book as soon as I heard about it from Memory at Stella Matutina. It's really pretty good, although the cover is a little misleading in some ways--for one thing, this book is not romantic. Three make-out sessions does not a romance make, let's just get that straight. It's really more of a YA version of an urban fantasy novel than anything else (also: Team Stephen!). As for the ghostly image of Jack the Ripper, it would have been more accurate to have it be John Druitt from Sanctuary (side note: I can't BELIEVE there were no Torchwood references in this entire novel, although there was at least a Doctor Who shout-out).
However! One thing the back cover blurbs are completely right about is how atmospheric and creepy this novel is. You really do feel like you're in London, and that ghosts might show up at any moment and try to murder you in your sleep--and these are the type of ghosts who do actually murder people. Johnson's descriptions of the cultural adjustments an American has to make living in London are spot-on; and without boring you with it, she perfectly describes the practical details of not only living in the city but going to a boarding school.
I also really liked Rory and how quirky and weird she seemed into comparison to her English classmates. However, she was a little too grown-up and self-sufficient to be a believable seventeen-year-old, in my opinion. Also, the whole cell phone thing was REALLY lame, and there was a ton of exposition at the end that made the last fifty pages feel like they were going on and on and on. I didn't get her relationship with Jerome at all, and all the other 'normal' characters were marginalized after the Ghostbusters showed up, which was disappointing.
Even with those drawbacks, though, this is a very well-written, well-researched book. It's full of action, is fast-paced, and has a great escapist, spooky feel to it. There isn't a lot of emotional self-reflection going on here, but there's enough character development to keep you engaged. Perfect for curling up with on a winter's night, and definitely appealing to a very wide range of people.
Musical Notes: It's unimaginative, but I couldn't get "Psycho Killer" by The Talking Heads out of my head while reading this.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Hello. I am looking for some books that I read a long time ago. Maybe you can help?
Book #1
I've been searching for this novel for so long that at this point, finding it has nothing to with how good it is or how much I want to read it, but simply the fact that this search is starting to develop into something of the Maltese Falcon/Holy Grail variety. I honestly don't know what I'll do if I ever find this book, possibly cry. But here are the deets:
Definitely for sure part of the book: It's a category romance from the '90s that's about a woman who travels back in time to Georgian England. She works as a maid in an aristocratic house, and the hero's the butler. Meanwhile, Jack the Ripper (who is also a time traveler) is there. They eventually kill him.Book #2
This may or may not be part of the book: I think it was published by Signet under their "[number I can't remember] Light Street" line. I also think the heroine was a crime scene photographer.
This is a novel I recently started thinking about because of ghosts and snow. I don't know why I was thinking about ghosts and snow, but I was, and then I wanted to know what this book was. The details of this one are even more sketchy.
Definitely for sure part of the book: It's a MG novel from the late '80s or early '90s set during a horrendous blizzard in 19th-century New York City. A bunch of people die. An elevator was involved somehow.
May or may not be part of the book: I think there was a contemporary heroine who had visions of the historical scenes due to ghostly encounters, but I'm not sure. There might have also been a tragic love story sub-plot.
Do you have ANY idea what these books might be titled? If you do, please let me know in the comments!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
I've been wanting to do another theme month for a while, and as you might have noticed, I've been ruminating a bit on romances recently. Who doesn't like a little bit of romance, especially in the winter? As Cole Porter put it,
Ev'ry average man you know
much prefers his lovey dovey to court
when the temperature is low.
Therefore I'm pleased to announce that December will be Romance Month at TBF&B. I hope to get through a lot of the romances on my TBR stack this month and review them on this here blog. I've also scheduled some of my favorite romance bloggers for guest posts, and an author interview or two.
PLUS! For the first time, I'm opening up the theme month to anyone who's interested in participating! I know, that's pretty exciting. Whether you love romances, have never read a single romance, or are somewhere in between, I invite you to participate by reading at least one romance novel with me this month. To RSVP, please fill out the form below or go here.
Here's to making December one of my best theme months yet!
Thursday, November 24, 2011
It's officially the holiday season, which means it's time for another installment of favorite not-holiday movies! Last year, I discussed how I really like to watch movies during the holidays that have nothing to do with Christmas, but I think they do, because I guess I don't understand 'Christmas movies.' This year, there's a new crop of must-see not-holiday movies I'm adding to my watch list!
- Sweeney Todd What's cheerier than seeing Johnny Depp singing? If you answered lots of blood and bodies being baked into mince meat pies, thennnn you might want to see a psychiatrist. Unless you were thinking of this movie, in which case, yeah!!! I'm not sure why I like this movie for the holidays, but there is something weirdly cozy about it. Everyone gets their just desserts. Plus, red... that's, like, half the Christmas colors.
- The Golden Compass I love the steampunk design of this movie, and how Lara's really smart. I also love Daniel Craig. Rawr. Plus you've also got polar bears and a little girl setting sail for North Pole, so that's pretty Christmas-y.
- The Lord of the Rings Wizards with long white beards! And lots of names that start with S (like Santa)! And ghosties and fairies and golden rings, oh my! These are also a series of films that feel very cozy to me even though they are insanely long and take three weeks to watch. Plus, my mom got the new blue ray extended edition set, which is like FIFTEEN DISKS, and I'm super-psyched to watch them.
What are some of your favorite not-holiday movies?
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