Category: romance

books, Chick lit, cozy crime, historical, reviews, romance

Summer Reading 2015 Recommendations

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Here it is at last – Verity’s top suggestions for what to read on your holiday. And less than six weeks after my holiday when I started the list of what I wanted to include. Ahem. It has a lot of footnotes (sorry) and I still haven’t got to the bottom of the list of books that I thought I might want to include, so it may yet have a sequel!

The Vintage Guide to Love and Romance by Kirsty Greenwoodª

This was my favourite book that I read on holiday – and not just because the fab Kirsty runs Novelicious (who I also review for).  The Vintage Guide is funny and sweary and perfect and I nearly got sunburnt because I was to distracted by Jessica Beam’s antics.  I laughed and I cried (on the beach – how embarrassing) – and I was rooting her on.  She’s got a lot to figure out and some issues to overcome, but Jess is so easy to identify with.  Everyone’s had similar experiences to some of the stuff that she goes through albeit probably less extreme. Perfect for lazy days on the sunlounger. Amazon* Kindle Kobo

The Versions of Us by Laura Barnettª

This one isn’t out in paperback yet, so it might be one for your e-reader rather than your suitcase, but Laura Barnett’s debut novel is well worth a read.  It’s been hyped as a One Day meets Sliding Doors – and that’s kind of right – except that I liked it much more than I liked One Day – and it’s got three different realities to Sliding Doors’ two. The Versions of Us presents three different futures based on one encounter in Cambridge in the 1950s. For me, the best part of it was that none of the possibilities seemed to be marked out as being the “right” one – all of the different versions felt real – with ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies. I’m not usually one for books that have been really hyped – but this one’s worth it. Foyles, Kindle, Kobo

The Other Daughter by Lauren Willigª

Another hardback recent release (I’m sorry) but Lauren Willig’s latest stand-alone book just had to go on this list.  Rachel Woodley infiltrates the Bright Young Things after discovering that her life-story isn’t quite what she thought it was.  If you’re interested in the 1920s, you’ll spot familiar faces as Willig weaves her fictional characters into the real crowd who were racketing around causing chaos and scandalising their parents.  This is less romance than Willig’s other books** – and is the first to be set just in one time period, and it’s engrossing and brilliant.  This one is pricier and harder to get hold of in the UK, although if you’re holidaying in the States you could buy it out there. Kindle, Amazon, Foyles, Kobo

The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah

This is new Christie Estate sanctioned Poirot mystery – out now in paperback and which should be easy to get hold of at the airport should you arrive there and discover that you’re short of reading matter.  I enjoyed it – but a week on I’m still trying to work out if it felt like a “proper” Poirot or not.  It certainly helps that Hannah has created herself a new policeman who narrates the story – so the famous Belgian is not always centre stage.  The mystery is well put together and intriguing although I have some of the same reservations about this that did about the Wimsey continuations – but I can’t go into them because it’s a sort of plot spoiler. Never the less it’s a good crime novel set in the Golden Age which will entertain you by the side of the pool. Amazon*, Kindle, Kobo.

First Class Murder by Robin Stevens

It wouldn’t be a list of recommendations from me without a kids/YA recommendation – and this time its the latest Wells and Wong mystery.  Both the previous books in the series have already appeared on the blog (first one, second one) and book 3 is Steven’s homage to Murder on the Orient Express.  Yes I know, two Poirot-y books in one post, sue me. One of our regular treats when I was little was to borrow the audiobook of David Suchet reading Murder on the Orient Express from the library to listen to in the car on the way to our holiday – and my parents had their first date at the Peter Ustinov film version, so it has a very special place in my heart.  Stevens’ story has enough nods to the Poirot for those who’ve read it to get the warm fuzzies inside, but still manages to be totally its own book too.  One for the late primary kid with a good reading age, or lower secondary kids and of course for grown-ups who are children at heart. Foyles, Waterstones*** Kindle, Kobo

So there you have it.  My favourite holiday books for your summer break.  Or your next holiday if you’ve already been and got back! Hopefully there’s something here that appeals to you.  And sorry again for the footnotes, but the history graduate in me finds it the best way to deal with my stream of consciousness ramblings!

ª Books with an ª next to their titles came to me via NetGalley.  The others I bought for myself, with actual, proper money.

*By a fortuitous chance, several of my picks are in Amazon’s 3 for £10 promotion – so I’ve put amazon links to those (rather than Foyles) to help cut the cost of buying my recommendations. If you don’t make it to three on Amazon, recent BotW’s The Cake Shop in the Garden and The Day We Disappeared are also in the promotion, as is the paperback of Marian Keyes’ The Woman Who Stole My Life – a BotW back in November, RJ Palacio’s Wonder (a March BotW) and Graeme Simison’s The Rosie Project which I have raved about plenty and you should have read already!

** Willig’s 12th and final Pink Carnation book has just come out as well – if you haven’t discovered her yet and are looking for a series to binge on on your holiday, they may be a good choice – timeslip historical spy romances – featuring a heroine in Napoleonic France and a modern day American grad student researching her.

***Waterstones have totally championed the Wells and Wong series – so they get a link as well as Foyles.

Book of the Week, Chick lit, romance

Book of the Week: Stealing the Show

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This week’s BotW is Christina Jones’s Stealing the Show.  Now Jones is a long time favourite author of mine – back since I discovered Heaven Sent via the Melissa Nathan Prize (god how I still miss Melissa Nathan.  I bought everything she wrote.  I cried in Tescos when I read that she’d died).

Stealing the Show is an early CJ book – and if you’ve been reading the later  books in the series, this one is the origin of the Memory Lane Fair that crops up in so many.  It’s a look at the life of travelling show people – and it’s a great love story.  I absolutely gobbled it up.  It’s maybe not as funny as some of her later books, but it’s dealing with more serious issues than they are – there’s domestic abuse tangled up in this as well as inheritance and family pressures.

But don’t let me make that sound like it’s a weighty tome that’ll drag you down.  It’s totally not.  It’s so much fun.  If you haven’t read any Christina Jones before, this really might be a good place to start – even if Heaven Sent is still my favourite.

Accent Press have been republishing some of the harder to find Christina Jones novels as ebooks – so this is easier to get hold of than ever. Go read some of her books – you won’t regret it. 

American imports, Book of the Week, romance

Book of the Week: A Lady Never Surrenders

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I had trouble picking a BotW again this week – my top rated books of last week were Janet Evanovichs (and I can’t do another of hers for BotW or you’ll all think I’m insane) and a Nora Roberts that I’ve reviewed for Novelicious (I’ll post a link to the review when it goes up).  So, instead I’ve gone for the fifth in Sabrina Jeffries’s Hellions of Halstead Hall series –  because I’ve really enjoyed reading about the Hellions, and wanted to share it with you.

So, these are historical romances about the Sharpe siblings, whose parents died in scandalous circumstances when they were very young and who have issues tied up with that.  At the start of book 1, their domineering grandmother – who holds the purse strings – tells them she’ll disinherit them if they don’t all find themselves spouses with the year.  Over the course of the books we see them all find their happiness – and they investigate what really happened to their parents all those years before.

I suggest that you read the books in order – not because you’ll spoil who the other siblings end up with but because you’ll ruin the mystery plot if you don’t – and I don’t think it would be the easiest to follow that part of the book if you haven’t got the full backstory.

My favourites in the series were the first two books and I didn’t love book four, but as a whole the Hellions’ stories ticked a lot of boxes for me and gave me 10 (ish) hours happy reading – hence the BotW post on book five.  There is a sixth book in the series – featuring a secondary character from the previous five – which bridges the gap between this series and Jeffries next one – The Duke’s Men (which I’ve already read one of, out of order ), which I’m going to try and get my hands on soon.

So there you go.  An unusual BotW from me – and a reminder that I need to slow down on the Janet Evanovich’s to keep my reading material balanced….  You should be able to find Sabrina Jeffries’ Hellions series where ever you usually pick up your US romance novels – I read mine on Scribd, but you can also get them on Kindle and in paperback.  The first one is The Truth About Lord Stoneville – and I suggest you start there.

 

Book of the Week, romance

Book of the Week: Four Nights with the Duke

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This week’s BotW is the new novel from Eloisa James – who is one of my favourite historical romance authors.  Four Nights with the Duke is book 8 in her Desperate Duchesses series.  My first Eloisa book was Desperate Duchesses 3 – Duchess by Night – which I stumbled across at the library back when I still lived in Essex (so 5+ years ago) and when she returned to the series to add a 7th book last year I was thrilled.  Although I’m still really annoyed that we only got a UK paperback release of books 1 – 4 – I had to buy 5 and 6 from the US to read them as they weren’t on Kindle at that point – and then the paperbacks started again with 7. And of course none of them match…

Romance paperbacks
The Historical Romance bookshelf – three difference sizes across the same author in some cases. Your basic nightmare.

Four Nights with the Duke is the second story in the second generation of the Duchesses –  which appears to be subtitled “Desperate Duchesses by the Numbers”.  Four Nights tells the story of Mia and Vander.  Mia needs to get married (no, not because of that) and the only person she can turn to is a man she swore that she would never marry (and he was there when she did the swearing).  Vander definitely doesn’t want to marry Mia – after all her father was his mother’s mistress and he’s still Very Angry* about that.  But Mia has a rather incriminating piece of paper that means that he’s going to have to do it, or lose everything.  So he offers her a deal – he’ll marry her, but he’ll only spend 4 nights a year with her (if you know what I mean) and she’s going to have to beg him for them…

Now that sort of set up is totally my sort of thing** – this is a plot device that totally floats my boat – the spouses at war/married because we had to trope is one of my favourites – right up there with fake engagements and you’ve been like a sibling to me until…x.  Not an accidental pregnancy in sight (yay!).  Add to that the fact that Mia has an alter ego as a romance novelist and I’m in historical romance heaven.  And Eloisa James is such a safe pair of hands.  There’s never an anachronism that I can spot, or a jarring word (except when I’ve got the American editions with the Wrong Spelling) or something that seems just too improbable – even for romance.

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I read this practically in one big gulp on Easter Sunday – pausing only (with less than 50 pages remaining) to go to the big family meal at my auntie’s in the evening – and if I could have put off leaving to finish it, I would have done.  The only problem with that is that I’ve now got to wait a year until there’s another one, and I think I’ve practically read the whole of the Eloisa James back catalogue now – as evidenced by the Kindle folder and the romance folder…

picture of kindle screen
The Kindle folder for Eloisa James books is three pages long

Having read some Historical Romance recently that I was less than crazy about – and a couple of books that weren’t as good as I was hoping they would be as well, I was really pleased that this totally lived up to the hype that I had given it in my head.  It’s not my favourite in the series (a toss up between a Duke of Her Own and Duchess by Night) but it’s still really, really good. If you’re not a historical romance reader – and want to see what the genre is all about, Eloisa James along with Julia Quinn and Sarah MacLean are the authors I recommend as starting points (they’re also the authors that keep hold of after I’ve read them – as you can tell from the romance shelf).

You can get your copy of Four Nights with the Duke from all the usual sources – it’s got a paperback release – so Amazon, Waterstones and Foyles are all stocking it – and you never know, it might even make it into WH Smiths and the supermarkets too.  And obviously, like me, you can buy it for Kindle or ebook.

And in the interests of full disclosure, I bought my copy of Four Nights – but I am in Eloisa’s fan outreach-y group on Facebook.  But I’m posting this because I loved the book – not because they told me to.

Eloisa James books
BONUS PICTURE: Another brilliant example of the difference between UK romance covers and US ones…

* Sorry, I was watching Pretty Woman over the weekend – and writing that sentence made me think of this quote: “I was very angry with him. It cost me ten thousand dollars in therapy to say that sentence: “I was very angry him.” I do it very well, don’t I? I’ll say it again: I was very angry with him. “Hello, my name is Mr. Lewis, I am very angry with my father.”  Although obviously Vander is angry with his mother and Mia’s Father, not his father.  But still.  It’s a good line.

** The Smart Bitches would call it my catnip.  I’m not sure whether I can pull off calling something my catnip.  I think I might be too British/dull/self conscious.

American imports, Book of the Week, romance

Book of the Week: Never Judge a Lady by her Cover

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This week’s BotW is Sarah MacLean’s latest historical romance – which has been sitting on the pile since soon after its release waiting for an opportune moment. And after four night shifts I needed a treat.

Never Judge a Lady by her Cover is the final book in MacLean’s Rule of Scoundrel’s series – and tells the story of Georgiana, who MacLean fans first encountered back in her previous series. Since then she’s been leading a double life – disgraced daughter of a duke (complete with illegitimate daughter) by day and something else entirely by night. She is Chase, the powerful figure behind a legendary gaming hell.  But will she get her happy ending?*

Never Judge a Lady
Another appalling photo. I blame the Huddl2. And the fact that I had 5 minutes before I had to leave for the train. Poor planning from Verity

 

As you can see I have the American edition (and mine is signed!) despite my embarrassment at bodice-rippery covers (though this is a better cover than many) because I’ve been reading MacLean’s books since before you could get them over here – and we all know I’ve got a thing about matching sets! Also the UK covers are wet and nowhere near as good as the ones other US romance writers get here.

Anyway, when the Big Reveal about Chase took place at the end of the previous book, those who didn’t manage to get accidentally spoilt (unlike me – I found out from the flabbergasted good reads reviewsª) were astounded. It really set the expectations for this book sky high and I’ll admit to being a little concerned that it wouldn’t live up to that – which is perhaps why it has been on to to read pile for a month or two.° But Never Judge a Lady is a brilliant end to what’s been a fabulous series.

The heroine is feisty, smart and independent, the hero is powerful, with a dubious past and missing some key information. Their romance is good (oh lord, the swimming pool scene), the peril is seemingly insurmountable and the dialogue is witty and sparky. Plus we also get plenty of our previous Heroes and Heroines taking pleasure in meddling as they themselves were meddled with. In short, everything you want in a good romance. Perfect post-night shift reading.

You can get your copy of Never Judge a Lady by her Cover from Amazon, Foyles, Waterstones or on Kindle.  If you click on any of those, you’ll find out why I don’t like the UK covers – my US edition came from Word in Brooklyn who are Sarah MacLean’s local store and were offering signed copies at the time.  Also if you haven’t read the rest of the series, I suggest you start at the beginning with A Rogue by Any Other Name and enjoy the Scoundrels in the order you were meant to.  Oh and may be Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart.

* Hint: this is historical romance. Of course she will.

ª I’ve only revealed it here because it’s on the blurb on the back of the book, and if you haven’t read the rest of the series, you won’t mind, and if you’ve only read one or two of them you’ll be wondering why it’s Georgiana’s book not Chases, because the series was clearly going to be a book for each of the Fallen Angel’s owners…

° Also I can’t take a book with a cover like this on the train or into work without risking raised eyebrows and scornful looks.

Book of the Week, non-fiction, romance

Book of the Week: Beyond Heaving Bosoms

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This week’s book of the week is the very wonderful and very funny Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan.  I have recently discovered the Dear Bitches, Smart Authors podcast – and through it the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books website.  Now I’ve documented here in the past my slightly shamefaced addiction to US romance novels with the sort of cover I’m embarrassed to take out in public.  Now whilst I stick mostly to historicals, these ladies have read the lot – and can dissect it brilliantly and hilariously.  If you have a problem with profanity this may not be for you (Hi Mum!) but I just found it absolutely side-splittingly funny and totally on the mark.

My copy of Beyond Heaving Bosoms

As someone who has discovered the massive US historical romance market through Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Sarah MacLean, I also got a lot of recommendations for old school authors to go back and read – to add to the massive book list I’m accumulating from the podcast.

I was reading this over the weekend whilst I was staying at my sisters – and had to keep stopping to read bits out to her – or pass the book over for her to read longer chunks.  She’s not a romance reader – but she found it hilarious too.

My only gripe with the book is that in the chose your own romance novel section, I kept being too sensible and the stories ended too soon… Now I’ve got two days off this week and I’m off to read the new Sarah MacLean which has been sitting at the top of the to-read pile for weeks waiting for me to not have to leave the house!

books, Chick lit, fiction, historical, reviews, romance

Christmas Short Story Round-up

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As I mentioned in October, the Christmas themed books are stacking up.  Now the big day is approaching, I thought I’d start with my run down of the best of my Christmas reading so far.  And to ease myself into the festive mood, I’ve been reading short stories.  Some of these are new this year, some are from last year which I didn’t get around to until I was out of the Christmas mood and consequently held on to ready for this year! So as we hurtle towards December, here are my top picks of the Christmas novellas so far (in no particular order):

Now a popular theme this year has been the Christmas novella following on from a successful non-Christmas book.  I actually find I prefer these novellas to the full length Christmas themed sequels in quite a lot of cases – the shorter form means there’s (often) no need to break up a couple who you’ve really got invested in in the first book just to provide enough drama and plot for the novella. Sealed with a Christmas Kiss by Rachel Lucas is a good example of this.  I read Sealed with a Kiss a year or so ago before it was picked up with Pan and really enjoyed it.  So I was pleased to reacquaint myself with Kate and Roddy and to read about the latest developments in the plans to save the Island.  As always with these things, probably best to have read the original book first.

Unlike Christmas Kiss, I hadn’t read the book that preceded Secret Santa by Scarlett Bailey but that didn’t stop me from enjoying Sue Montaigne’s struggles to organise the Nativity Pageant in Poledore.  This novella is festive but without being cloying or sickly – which is always good.  One of my favourites of the Christmas themed reading so far – and I’ve gone and put one of the other Poledore books on my to-read list.

At the historical end of the Christmas market, The Viscount’s Christmas Temptation by Erica Ridley is another novella that’s Christmas themed without being too saccharine.  It’s a prequel to her Dukes of War series (the first book of which is waiting on my Kindle) and focusses on the organisation of a Christmas ball.  Standalone and fun, this is worth a look if you want a bit of Christmas themed historical romance.

Being a fool, I forgot that I’m several books behind in the Lady Emily series by Tasha Alexander and managed to spoil a couple of plot developments for myself by reading Star of the East.  I still enjoyed it though – but suggest it’s only for people who are up to date with the series.

On to the non-novella but still Christmas and short section – and Trisha Ashley’s Christmas offering is a collection of her short stories – Footsteps in the Snow.  These are stories that have previously been published in various magazines and are definitely at the shorter end of the market, but they still display Ashley’s trade mark wit and flair and I would say are perfect for reading in the tube or on the bus.  I paid 99p for this and was perfectly content – but I wouldn’t want to pay overly much more than that – the back third of the book is a preview of her next novel.

Jill Mansell’s A – Z of Happiness is similarly short – but has the bonus of being free (or at least it was when I downloaded it and still was when I wrote this).  It’s not stories, it’s more musings with an author Q&A, but if you like Jill’s writing, it’s definitely worth a look – especially as it’s gratis.

So there you have the best of my Christmas short stories so far to ease you into the Festive Season.  Still to come, I’m planning a round-up of Christmas novels – ideal for curling up in front of the fire with once you’ve finished work for the holiday.

books, Chick lit, new releases, reviews, romance

Review: Unfinished Symphony of You and Me

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This post was Not In My Plan for this week.  My carefully constructed plan of what to post when, in a nice pattern, on a regular schedule, constructed (and written) around my current batch of nightshifts.  Then I started reading Unfinished Symphony of You and Me on my dinner break at 3.45am on Wednesday morning.  And I’ve just finished it (it’s Saturday afternoon at the moment, but it’ll be Sunday when this publishes, because I can’t let go of the plan so much I post twice on the same day!) and it was too good for me to just add it to the books read list this week and say how much I’d enjoyed it.

I really loved this. I laughed, I cried, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened – but I didn’t want it to be over at the same time.  I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner.

Lucy Robinson’s created a fabulous cast of characters and a heart-wrenchingly brilliant story that shows you the importance of living your life, taking control and following your dream and not waiting for someone* to sort it out for you.

I loved crazy, messed-up Sally’s journey to find herself as she takes her courage in her hands and faces her fears.  I was desperate to find out what had happened that summer in New York to turn her from the mousy wardrobe mistress into a student opera singer.  And I didn’t get too grumpy at the reveal being dragged out, once I finally found out what had happened and how totally ingenious it was.  There were a couple of points where I could see the car crash (metaphorically) coming and wanted to scream with frustration at Sally for being so stupid – but then it was so brilliantly done in the end that I Didn’t Mind**.

I don’t want to say too much else about the plot, because it’s another book where it would be all too easy for me to ruin it for everyone who hasn’t read this yet (go and buy it).  I will say though that Barry is my favourite mad housemate since Bing in Bernadette Strachan’s Reluctant Landlady.  And that’s saying something.

This is a perfect summer read.  Although if you read it at the beach, people may point at you when you start crying (I held out until nearly the end, which is surprising considering that post-nightshifts I get incredibly emotional).  And, of course, my idiocy means I’m reviewing it too late in August for many people who, unlike me, have already had their summer holiday.

Still, recapture that holiday reading feeling and go and buy yourself a copy of Unfinished Symphony of You and Me.  My copy came from Netgalley (in return for an honest review etc) but you can find it here, here, here and here (on Kindle) and I hope still in W H Smith and maybe even the supermarkets too.  So really you have no excuse.  I’m off book some tickets to the opera and to add everything else Lucy Robinson has written to my to-read list – and to try to resist the urge to Buy Them Now (because of that pesky backlog I’m trying to deal with). Go. Buy. Read. Enjoy.

Oh dear.  I think this may be another of my overly emotional crazy posts.  Like my moment over the first part of Harriet Evan’s new book.  This is why I plan things so I don’t have to be coherent on here during my nocturnal moments.

* A man

** And when you consider that I can barely read one of my formerly most read books any more because I’m so angry at the way that the third book in the series turned out, you’ll know that that’s a big deal.

 

American imports, romance

New Romance Review Round-up

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It’s Read a Romance Month, so I thought I ought to do my bit for the cause – and review some romance.  I’m pretty much exclusively a historical romance reader when I read straight up romance, so here are two of the new ones I’ve recently read – both by authors new to me as I continue my quest to find new (to me) historical romance authors, having read everything from the people I like!

First up, and out this week in the US  (and in September in the UK) is How the Scoundrel Seduces by Sabrina Jeffries.  This is the third book in the series – and as per usual I’m late to the party and haven’t read the other two.  This wasn’t a problem though as I still enjoyed the book.  Some elements of the plot felt a little bit far fetched to me, but Jeffries carries it off – just.  My problems with US-written-British-set historicals usually come with the language choices and there were a few moments in this, but probably not any that would annoy an American reader.  I have a personal problem with “princess” as a term of endearment – makes me think of Eastenders and gangsters, but that’s just me!  The denouement seemed to happen very quickly – there seemed to be a lot of build up for not a lot of resolution, and there were a few revelations at the end that felt like they were late attempts to make the baddie more three dimensional and add a bit of depth to a character that we hadn’t seen in the flesh for a long time (I’m trying not to give plot points away here!).  I have another, older Sabrina Jeffries on the pile and there was certainly nothing here to put me off reading it.  If I was giving star ratings, it’d be 3.5 out of 5.

Out next week in the US (and at the start of October in the UK) is Not Quite a Wife by Mary Jo Putney.  Another book that’s one of a series that I haven’t read (sensing a theme here!), this is the story of Laurel and James – who are married but have been separated for 10 years after she witnessed him carry out a “shocking act of violence” (I’m trying not to give away the plot again) and are drawn back together after a chance encounter “turns passionate with consequences that cannot be ignored”.  Now the accidentally pregnant trope is not my favourite of the romance plotlines, but I’m always willing to give them a go – especially this one – as it seemed to promise a strong minded heroine.  However, once I’d read a little and discovered a bit more, the plot device separating them felt a little contrived and flimsy – Laurel knows that James is a spymaster when she marries him, and there’s a certain risk of violence attached to that.  She also lives in a time that was much rougher and she hasn’t exactly led a life sheltered form that since they separated and so I found some of her issues hard to believe.  But, just because a book isn’t really for me, that doesn’t mean that other people aren’t going to like it.  This has a strong Christian theme to it – and the characters have strong moral standpoints rooted in their beliefs so I’m sure that it’ll appeal to those who don’t like their romances to be filled with immorality.  It does have some sex scenes in it though, so it’s not for the very conservative end of the Christian reading spectrum.

So, there you have it – two reviews, neither of them the raves that I was hoping to be able to post when I was lining up romances to read in August for RARM.  So to counter act that, I’d like to point you in the direction of Eloisa James’ latest, Three Weeks with Lady X for a really good historical romance, and some really good non-historical not just a romances – like Jenny Colgan’s Little Beach Street Bakery and the recently re-issued Tickled Pink from Christina Jones.  There’s still some more romance waiting to be read on the pile – I’m hoping for more success next time!

My copies came from Netgalley – in return for an honest review – I’m assuming they’ll be available in all the usual places where you can find romances – but here are links to both on Amazon.com – How the Scoundrel Seduces and Not Quite A Wife

American imports, historical, romance

Bodice rippers…

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There’s a shelf of books I keep hidden in my spare room.  I’m embarrassed to own them. But some of their genre-mates live in my sitting room bookshelf.  What am I talking about?  Historical romances.

a collage of books
My historical romance collection – can you spot the UK editions and the US ones

You’ll have seen from earlier posts that I’ve got a bit of a thing for Georgette Heyer.  Now a few years back, I started looking for other similar books that I could read – and stumbled into the world of historical romances.  Mostly written by American authors, they’ve beguiled many a happy hour in the years since.  So why the segregation?  Well it’s simple.  In this country (that is the UK) books by writers like Julia Quinn come with nice, innocuous pastel coloured covers.  But where I’ve had to buy in from the US to fill in collections – for example the Desperate Duchesses series by Eloisa James – they tend to come with busty women breaking free of their dresses on the cover.  I am literally too embarrassed to be seen to own them – let alone be seen out in public with them on the train.

In cases like this – the Kindle is a god-send – no one can see the cover of the book that I’m reading on my e-reader – and unless they’re invading my personal space, they’re not going to know that I’m reading a “bodice-ripper”.  But take one of these babies out in public and I’m embarrassed about people judging me.

books
Some of these spines are not allowed on my downstairs bookshelves…

Now this is, of course, ridiculous.  There is nothing wrong with reading historical fiction or even reading it in public.  Many are very well researched and historically accurate – Eloisa James is actually Mary Bly, a respected Shakespeare professor at Fordham University – and they’re hardly (or at least not often) up their with Fifty Shades of Grey for their explicit content* and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of escapist fiction anyway.

I’ve read a lot of article recently about people not taking romantic fiction seriously – and I’d suggest that covers like these are part of the reason why.  And some of them aren’t even that accurate when it comes to reflecting the content of the book – whether it is the look of the heroine or the action it portrays.

I also think the American style covers look incredibly retro and naff.  If I had come across them in a bookshop before I’d read some of the authors,  I would never have even thought of picking one of them up – I would have ruled them out as being clichéd, inaccurate and one note – the same way I did with old school Mills and Boons once I’d read a couple of dozen of my gran’s collection.  And they’re not.  For me, the best of them are the logical successors to Georgette Heyer – but with kissing.  And some sex.  Sometimes quite a lot of sex.  But the world has changed since Heyer picked up her pen – and it’s mostly very well written sex.

Eloisa James books
Same author, different countries – completely different cover look!

I’d love to know what it is about the US book-buying public (or how publishers perceive them) that means that the books are packaged and styled like this – and what the authors think of such radical differences.  But until the books start looking a little bit less like a cliché, my American imports will continue to be hidden away at the back of the top shelf of the spare room bookcase!

* I read the Fifty Shades trilogy on my Kindle, in secret, in Poland to make sure no-one would know what I was doing.  And I read it so that I could tell my sister and my mum if they needed to read it.  I concluded they didn’t.