Top 100 Romances

AAR is re-running the Top 100 Romances poll for the fifth time (and the first since I left the helm). Although I don't participate at AAR anymore (other than an occasional AAR After Hours blog comment), I decided to submit a ballot, and as my shift at the bookstore last night was cancelled, thought I'd take it off my to-do list. So I printed out my 2007 ballot, then listed all my DIK's and B+ reads, ordered and re-ordered, worked and re-worked it, and finished devising my revised, 2010 ballot before going to bed.

If this blog were more widely read, I'd hold off until after the poll closes, but as my daily average remains fairly constant with about 20 visitors, I'm in no danger of influencing the votes of others. As such, I'm listing it here, but won't actually submit it until right before the poll deadline in case I tweak it some more - and as I'm a known tweaker, that's a distinct possibility. And if I do tweak, I'll correct it here.

1. Castles by Julie Garwood, European Historical Romance
2. The Real Deal by Lucy Monroe, Contemporary Romance
3. The Secret by Julie Garwood, Medieval Romance
4. Bewitching by Jill Barnett, Fantasy Historical Romance
5. A Basket of Wishes by Rebecca Paisley, Fantasy Historical Romance
6. The Vicar's Daughter by Deborah Simmons, European Historical Romance
7. Velvet Bond by Catherine Archer, Medieval Romance
8. The Bride by Julie Garwood, Medieval Romance
9. The Lion's Lady by Julie Garwood, European Historical Romance
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Classic Fiction
11. Guardian Angel by Julie Garwood, European Historical Romance
12. A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught, Medieval Romance
13. To Die For by Linda Howard, Contemporary Romance
14. Born in Fire by Nora Roberts, Contemporary Romance
15. Mrs. Mike by Benadict and Nancy Freedman, Fictionalized Biography
16. Dawn's Awakening by Lora Leigh, SF Romance
17. Soulless by Gail Carriger, Steampunk Romance
18. To Love a Dark Lord by Anne Stuart, European Historical Romance
19. A Rose at Midnight by Anne Stuart, European Historical Romance
20. A Fire in the Heart by Katherine Sutcliffe, European Historical Romance
21. Once an Angel by Teresa Medeiros, Historical Romance
22. Lord St. Claire's Angel by Donna Simpson, Traditional Regency
23. The Ideal Bride by Nonnie St. George, Traditional Regency
24. A Family for Gillian by Catherine Blair, Traditional Regency
25. Tallie's Knight by Anne Gracie, Traditional Regency
26. Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas, European Historical Romance
27. Scoundrel by Elizabeth Elliott, European Historical Romance
28. The Rules of Seduction by Madeline Hunter, European Historical Romance
29. Lady Be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Contemporary Romance
30. Saving Grace by Julie Garwood, Medieval Romance
31. A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh, European Historical Romance
32. Calypso Magic by Catherine Coulter, European Historical Romance
33. Moonspun Magic by Catherine Coulter, European Historical Romance
34. Midsummer Magic by Catherine Coulter, European Historical Romance
35. The Serpent Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt, European Historical Romance
36. The Last Rogue by Deborah Simmons, European Historical Romance
37. The Music of the Night by Lydia Joyce, European Historical Romance
38. Dream Fever by Katherine Sutcliffe, Frontier Historical (Australia)
39. How to Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn, European Historical Romance
40. Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts, Contemporary Romance
41. A Dove at Midnight by Rexanne Becnel, Medieval Romance
42. The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell by Samantha James, European Historical Romance
43. Naked in Death by J. D. Robb, Futuristic Romantic Suspense
44. Portrait in Death by J. D. Robb, Futuristic Romantic Suspense
45. Survivor in Dath by J. D. Robb, Futuristic Romantic Suspense
46. Ceremony in Death by J. D. Robb, Futuristic Romantic Suspense
47. Rapture in Death by J. D. Robb, Futuristic Romantic Suspense
48. Seduction in Death by J. D. Robb, Futuristic Romantic Suspense
49. Promises in Death by J. D. Robb, Futuristic Romantic Suspense
50. Ice Storm by Anne Stuart, Romantic Suspense
51. Breathless by Anne Stuart, European Historical Romance
52. A Well Pleasured Lady by Christina Dodd, European Historical Romance
53. Indiscretion by Jillian Hunter, European Historical Romance
54. My Dearest Enemy by Connie Brockway, European Historical Romance
55. Sea Swept by Nora Roberts, Contemporary Romance
56 My Favorite Bride by Christina Dodd, European Historical Romance
57. Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts, Contemporary Romance
58. Night Fire by Catherine Coulter, European Historical Romance
59. Splendid by Julia Quinn, European Historical Romance
60. The Prize by Julie Garwood, Medieval Romance
61. Fairy Tale by Jillian Hunter, European Historical Romance
62. Too Hot to Handle by Elizabeth Lowell - Category Romance
63. Rebellious Desire by Julie Garwood - European Historical Romance
64. Prisoner of My Desire by Johanna Lindsey - Medieval Romance
65. The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe - Contemporary Romance/Women's Fiction
66. The Bargain by Jane Ashford, European Historical Romance
67. The Gift by Julie Garwood, European Historical Romance
68. Day Dreamer by Jill Marie Landis, Historical Romance
69. The Sherbrooke Bride by Catherine Coulter, European Historical Romance
70. Honor's Splendor by Julie Garwood, Medieval Romance
71. All Through the Night by Connie Brockway, European Historical Romance
72. The Wind from Hastings by Morgan Llywelyn, Historical Fiction
73. The Royal Mess by MaryJanice Davidson, Alternate Reality Romance
74. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, European Historical Romance
75. Smooth Talkin' Stranger by Lorraine Heath, Contemporary Romance
76. Phantom Waltz by Catherine Anderson, Contemporary Romance
77. The Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas, European Historical Romance
78. Captive of Sin by Anna Campbell, European Historical Romance
79. The Book of Scandal by Julia London, European Historical Romance
80. Only Mine by Elizabeth Lowell, Frontier Historical Romance
81. Winter Fire by Elizabeth Lowell, Frontier Historical Romance
82. The Heartbreaker by Rexanne Becnel, European Historical Romance
83. The Temporary Wife by Mary Balogh, Traditional Regency
84. The Obedient Bride by Mary Balogh, Traditional Regency
85. Married by Mistake by Melinda McRae, Traditional Regency
86. High Energy by Dara Joy, Contemporary Romance
87. The Anonymous Miss Addams by Kasey Michaels, Traditional Regency
88. A Highly Respectable Widow by Melinda McRae, Traditional Regency
89. Scandalous Secrets by Patricia Oliver, Traditional Regency
90. Derik's Bane by MaryJanice Davidson, Urban Fantasy Romance
91. Shadow Touch by Marjorie Liu, Urban Fantasy Romance
92. The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter, Urban Fantasy Romance
93. Fair Game by Diane Farr, Traditional Regency
94. Ecstasy by Jacquelyn Frank, Urban Fantasy Romance
95. Edge of Hunger by Rhyannon Byrd, Urban Fantasy Romance
96. Lion in Love by Elizabeth Lapthorne, Contemporary Erotic Romance
97. Fever by Kimberly Dean, Contemporary Erotic Romance
98. Against the Wall by Rhyannon Byrd, Contemporary Erotic Romance
99. Duncan's Bride by Linda Howard, Category Romance
100. Chain Lightning by Elizabeth Lowell, Category Romance

Numbers 1 - 71 reflect all my romance DIK's (most that are hybrids didn't make the list, although at least one - The Wind from Hastings - did). Ranking them, and deciding which of my B+ reads to include was the toughest part, as was the decision to eliminate any short stories this time around.

With the exception of my J.D. Robb picks, I'm confident that my ballot will bear little resemblance to the final poll results. That said, have you started working on your ballot, how do you feel yours will match up, and if you've participated in an earlier poll (or all of them), how different is today's?

Top 100 Romances

Still Reading After All These Years

When I finished reading Anne Stuart's The Wicked House of Rohan and Ruthless, it occurred to me that she is one of a very select group of authors I've continued reading since discovering the joys of romance novels in 1993. Of the select group of others, most fell by the wayside immediately or almost immediately. I read 23 books by 13 authors the first year I read romance, and Anne Stuart is the only one I continue to follow oh-so-closely. I don't read all of her romantic suspense, but have read every one of her Ice books and nearly all of her historicals (and have TBR some of her very old category titles). Lisa Kleypas and Teresa Medeiros are nearly auto-buys, but much less read.

Rather than going year by year, let me list my most frequent romance DIK authors (from most to fewest multiple DIKs), whether or not I continue to buy and/or read them, and if not, how long they lasted. It's not a tremendously large list, so it shouldn't take that long.

Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, with 11 DIKs, the 11th added just last year with 2009's Promises in Death: I discovered Roberts in 1997 but didn't read her as J.D. Robb until 2006. I continue to read her as the latter, not so much the former.

Julie Garwood, with 9 DIKs: I read Garwood's 1993-published Castles in 1994, beginning a string of DIK reads. Sorry to say, but I gave her up when she moved into romantic suspense in 2000. She wrote another historical a couple of years ago, and though I bought it, it remains unread.

Catherine Coulter, with 5 DIKs: Coulter was among the thirteen authors I read in 1993. While her quality varied from terrific to horrendous - and some sub-genres went off-limits quickly - I continued to read her Regency-set historicals long after most, stopping after Pendragon, with 25 books by her under my belt..

Kathryn Lynn Davis and Anne Stuart, both with 3 DIKs: If Kathryn Lynn Davis hadn't stopped publishing with Somewhere Lies the Moon, no doubt I'd have continued to read her. As for Stuart, she continues to amaze me.

Connie Brockway, Christina Dodd, Jillian Hunter, Mary Alice Monroe, Julia Quinn, Deborah Simmons, and Katherine Sutcliffe, all with 2 DIKs: I have several of Brockway's books TBR and will probably buy her again. As for Dodd, I continued to read her long after she and her closest attacked my integrity, and that of AAR, but at some point I realized I could no longer give any author business if she actively tried to destroy my website. Eventually that extended to Julia Quinn, whose behavior was more subversive. She was the only author contacted in 2007 to participate in AAR's 10th anniversary who refused, and unless she hears of this, she probably has no idea that I know why. (Hey, as a private citizen, I'm no longer obligated to take the high road.)

I continue to buy and read Jillian Hunter, even though it's been two years since reading Wicked as Sin, which I thought was only slightly better than average. I only fell in love with Mary Alice Monroe in 2002, and until last year's Last Light Over Carolina, she'd consistently blown me away. I look forward to her next book.

Deborah Simmons only recently returned to publishing after a hiatus, and I continue to buy her books, though it's been a while since I've read one. Finally...Katherine Sutcliffe, who stopped publishing in 2005. I stopped reading her after My Only Love, which I liked, mainly because her books' premises stopped interesting me and I knew she was capable of some real clinkers. Then too, she became the poster child for Bad Author Behavior. I felt she was misunderstood and tried to help her navigate what was at the time uncharted territory, and it exhausted me.

What other authors have been published for a very long time whom I continue to read today? The first who comes to mind is Mary Balogh. I didn't "get" Balogh until 2001, but my favorite book by her to date was just published this summer: A Secret Affair. She's been published since 1985, so...wow. Linda Howard is another long-published author to have thrilled me fairly recently - with her Blair Mallory books. Though I only first read her in 1999, she was first published in 1982, so again...wow.

Other authors published way back when whom I read for quite a while, even if none of their books ever earned DIK status: Let's start with Loretta Chase, whose 1995 "classic," Lord of Scoundrels I only first read in 2006. More than a decade after publishing LOS, she published Your Scandalous Ways, which I truly enjoyed, and I happily look forward to reading both back-list and subsequent releases as time permits. Chase's first book, btw, was published in 1987. Next up: Patricia Oliver, who died several years ago. She's the only Trad Regency author I "got" for many years, and deserves mention simply for that reason. Also, Lorraine Heath and Leanne Banks - both of whom I continue to buy if only rarely read - and Elizabeth Lowell, Ruth Langan, and Jill Barnett, all for whom I have multiple books TBR, even though I stopped buying them some time ago.

I'm sure I've left out many authors I'll later wish I'd included, buts it's time for the flip side, and a few long-time authors I eventually gave up on. Obviously there are many, many, oh-so many I can't possibly list them all, but these three came to mind for three different reasons, so I'm listing them: JAK/Amanda Quick, Marilyn Pappano, and Elizabeth Bevarly. I read many books by each of these authors, and gave up on Krentz/Quick when she eventually became derivative of heself. As for Pappano, while I have many from her backlist, and even am a fan of books following Season for Miracles in her Bethlehem series, once I subsequently read SFM, I was turned off so strongly that I never bought another of her books. With Bevarly the reasons are many, and not all are book-related. Apparently I do hold a grudge. 'Nuff said.

After writing all this, it amazes me that Anne Stuart, Mary Balogh, and J.D. Robb continue to thrill after so many years in print. I look forward to additional greatness from them, others on my list, such as Loretta Chase, Linda Howard, Lisa Kleypas, and Terersa Medeiros, and still others - from Madeline Hunter (whose first book came out a full decade ago!), to Elizabeth Hoyt to Rhyannon Byrd to Cherise Sinclair - whose careers are not yet as long-lived. And if Sinclair's name comes out of thin air, know that I rarely write about the erotic romance I read, although that will likely change in the very near future.

Still Reading After All These Years

The Painful Side of Reviewing

No...it's not what you think. The most painful side to reviewing isn't reading a crappy book. It's reading a book by an author you enjoy, taking issue with a big component of said book, and having to write a negative review.

Publishers Weekly, of course, insulates its reviewers by not linking individual reviews to their reviewers. Regardless, sometimes to "man up" is the right thing to do, and that's what I just did.

I'm not going to pour salt into a wound with a name and author because I've already tweeted and FB'd it. Besides, the point of writing this is not specific to any one book. It's something that's happened several times in my career as a reviewer, at PW, AAR, and even TRR. My point in writing about it today is that I thought readers might be interested to know how it feels to write a review for an author whose work you've previously enjoyed...and would like to enjoy again in the future...knowing that it'll dash their hopes.

It feels lousy.

It's the flip side to the joy I get requesting a starred review at the magazine, particularly if the author is little-known or new to publishing altogether. Helping build excitement over a book I loved is fun. Writing negatively about a book by an author I've previously liked a lot, whether I know them - in a cyber or real sense - or not, hurts.

The first time it happened was at TRR, very soon after I'd begun reviewing online in 1996. I'd read my first book by a certain author and liked it so much I'd interviewed her for the site. When she sent Leslie McClain the next book in the series, Leslie forwarded it on to me. I hated the book, and when I turned in my absolutely scathing review, I requested that the review be published online with a byline not my own. I wouldn't compromise my review, but suggested a female derivation of Alan Smithee, which is what Leslie used. I was too new to reviewing to handle an author I "knew" reading such a negative review of her work, particularly since she'd requested I review it.

It didn't take long for me to get over some of that but I continued and continue to feel badly when I write negative reviews for authors I've previously enjoyed. That ill feeling extended to finalizing reviews others had written when I published AAR, particularly if an author sent us a book because I'd liked their writing in the past. An author I became quite friendly with over the years received only strong reviews from AAR. The reviewer for her last book before going on hiatus as a published author for a couple of years did not care for it whatsoever, and I dreaded sharing that information. Chalk that up as another reason I'm glad I no longer publish a website.

But even here, on this itsy-bitsy blog, I gave a qualified recommendation to an author who'd sent me her book for review. Even though I gave it a B-, I soon realized she wasn't happy with the review. Subsequent tweets mentioned and even linked to stronger reviews, but never mine, and I'm fairly certain she won't be sending me her next book to review.

I've often written that the hardest reviews to live down are A's or F's; it's equally hard to laud a book others hate as it is to criticize in the strongest words a book other readers love. I don't know that I've ever written about how it feels to come down on a book when there's a personal connection. It sucks.

The Painful Side of Reviewing

A Neighborhood...or a World...Away

"I owe the success of AAR to the hard work of a highly talented, intelligent, funny, and creative group of volunteers...Blythe, Sandy, Rachel, and Lynn will be splitting the publishing and managerial responsibilities, with the able support of the incredibly talented and hard-working AAR reviewers and staff."

"I have no doubt whatsoever that these terrific women will continue this site's commitment to quality. Indeed, my guess is that the changes they make over time will improve All About Romance, and I look forward to watchintg them do so. And I will watch...from entirely on the outside. I can't imagine anything more difficult than moving into a house and having the old owner constantly peeking through the windows."

~At the Back Fence, my final issue, October 2008

The strong management team I left in place at AAR in 2008 has taken the site in some terrific new directions. Thanks to Rachel the site has an RSS feed, something I couldn't figure out how to do throughout my last several months. New reviewers brought renewed vigor, and existing staffers felt rejuvenated and brought new ideas into fruition. TPTB re-started the advertising program I'd cancelled early in 2008 (in an attempt to regain joy from the site by returning to reviewing), which allowed for further possibilities, including the purchase of a dedicated server, and apparently, a site re-design. In other words, what I'd hoped would happen - an improved AAR - did happen, and for that I am proud.

Many websites simply cease to exist when it's time for the owner to move on. The thought of that happening when I'd decided I needed to leave distressed me to such an extent that I actually remained on board longer than I'd have liked because my need to leave actually preceded my final decision to do so by months. By the time I'd discussed my unhappiness with my AAR colleagues, I seriously considered either pulling the plug or simply abandoning the site so that all the content would remain online like a virtual ghost-museum of romance novels.

Because of the expense and effort involved in owning AAR, I wasn't sure what would happen with the third option of transferring ownership to one or more existing staff. It didn't take long for Blythe, Rachel, Sandy, and Lynn to develop a plan, and within two months I quietly left.

Although AAR had long since ceased to bring me joy, the thought of letting it go after more than a decade was excruciating. It required me to face hard truths and make a tremendous change in my daily life, but the changes I saw my daughter willing to commit to in a castle in the Berkshires gave me the strength to give up what I'd struggled to build for so long.

The last day I owned AAR was a horrendous one. The owner of AAR's host had recently died and the new host company was a large one located states away. Everything went wrong that day, and because I was determined not to leave the new owners a broken site, I stayed up almost all night, in constant phone contact, nagging and nudging tech support along so that when it came time for me to turn over the virtual keys, I could do so with a clear mind. And then, the night of the first day of my new, un-encumbered life, my husband took me to a celebratory dinner, after which we walked to a Barnes and Noble nearby and I picked up a job application. Several days later I'd applied to every Barnes and Noble and Borders in the area, and a week and a half later, the sole store that called me in for an interview offered me a job.

* * * * *

Last night my husband and I went to Toy Story 3 - great movie, btw - with a small group of B&N friends. Allie, who works solely in the music department, drove with us from the store to the theater. Because of a naturally reticent sensibility, I only slowly allowed my personal life to mix with my working life. I think I shocked Allie when I told her I'm not the extroverted person in real life that I am at the bookstore.

In real life I am happy to be on my own, or with my husband or daughter for company. Though I imagine I'll pay for it at some point down the line, and recognize that I am not the poster child for emotional health, I simply am not a person "who needs people" beyond my very small circle. Which means when I walk into the bookstore to work, I consciously press an internal "on" switch that allows me to easily engage with customers, shrug off being yelled at unreasonably by people having a bad day, and actually try and improve the mood of the people I serve.

All of this has been good for me. Unlike Michael Gates Gill, author of How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else, I hadn't lost it all before getting an entry-level retail/service job, but B&N did allow me to re-join the human race after being stuck in my study for a decade. Because people who work at bookstores tend to love books or music to an almost uncomfortable extent, almost none are "regular folk," and given my own "offness," the self-confidence to become more open built as self-consciousness faded. Still, working tires me easily because that "on" switch expends a lot of energy; on the other hand I now can attend a party without feeling the sense of dread that once accompanied invitations to large gatherings.

In other words, I've moved on. I work part-time at Barnes and Noble. I belong to the National Book Critics Circle, review for Publishers Weekly and Amazon Vine, and over the weekend was asked to take part in a new reviewing venture. In less than a month we'll be taking our first family vacation in years, after which we'll settle our daughter at college. Now seems to be the perfect time to let go of the last tentacles of the past.

* * * * *

When my husband and I sold our first house, the man who bought it was an asshole. Rather than working through a realtor, he simply rang the door one day to have a look. He barged in. He made rude comments. He was unreasonable throughout closing - so much so that my husband wanted to back out of the deal just because he was such an ass - but we needed to move on, which Harold understood after we talked about it. Although the sale left a bad taste in our mouth, we moved out of our old neighborhood and into our new house in a different neighborhood.

Our daughter met her first "friends" at local parks, and one in particular lived in the old neighborhood, so I frequently drove by the old house. First the shutters changed color, then they were removed entirely. Landscaping in the front yard changed drastically and the driveway, which need it, was re-paved. While we lived there for the first several years of our marriage and loved our little starter home, as it changed and we changed and the years passed, I felt less of a need to periodically re-visit, and I can't remember when I last drove by.

* * * * *

Blythe and I "met" a long time ago, way back when Prodigy and AOL were how most people experienced the Internet. Rachel I've known less long, but still...a long time. Sandy came to AAR a couple of years after Rachel after having spent time at another romance novel website, one which folded. It was not one that I held in very high esteem because of its cheerleader attitude, but her writing skills were strong and she adapted easily into our anything-but-cheerleader style of review. And a year and a half after that, Lynn joined.

Though Blythe and I don't talk often, there is a closeness there that I've often relied upon. And while Rachel's religious and political views are a world away from my own, we share some struggles and have enough in common emotionally that when she left AAR earlier this year, I felt it deep in my bones. It wasn't until last week, though, that I thought to check into a feature she edited for many years at AAR, the Special Title Listings - the second oldest feature at AAR and one of the reasons for its existence - when it hit me, hard, that with her retirement the lists either went on hiatus or were cancelled.

Aside from my connections with Blythe and Rachel, my strongest AAR relationships over the years have been with Robin and Marianne. Just last night I learned that Marianne's eldest daughter, a Marine decorated for her courage and bravery under fire in Afghanistan, is pregnant. Robin's son, also a Marine, just returned from his deployment, also in Afghanistan. Apropos of nothing, really, other than that I'm incredibly thankful that both are safe and sound, at least for now.

Robin and I talk in fits and spurts, not as much now as when we were co-writing At the Back Fence, but ever since I made my decision to leave AAR and she learned At the Back Fence (the raison d'être for the site way back when) would be no more, our conversations always include an AAR component...mostly our disconnect with it that has everything to do with us and little to do with the capable people writing there. That's not to say AAR's culture never changed; over a decade we experienced several upheavals that served to bring many of us closer while pushing others apart. Through it all I appreciated everybody's talent and believe I respected it, but I can honestly say that some of us mixed like oil and water. In other words, we didn't.

I started this rambling blog entry with a quote from my final ATBF column, including the metaphor that I saw AAR as a house, and when I left the site, vowed not to peek through the windows to make the new owners uncomfortable.

Over the past nearly-twenty months, I've maintained that distance. I visited the site a few times a week to see what's new, but by keeping that necessary distance I hastened my disconnect. I thought I could come back as just another reader and earlier in the year posted a few times, but quickly gave up - it just didn't feel right. And with the site re-design that officially debuted a week ago, it's as though I've not only moved out of the old house and into a new neighborhood, but then the old house was moved, foundation and all, across country, so that it's too far away even to drive by.

I will continue to wish nothing but success for AAR and its owners, but it's time for me to finish the process of letting go.

A Neighborhood...or a World...Away

I Won!

I used to tell people at conferences that I was like the cobbler's children who had no shoes. Because Blythe received books for review at her home in Colorado and I banned myself from reviewing for most of the years I ran AAR in order to maintain a total disconnect between editorial and sales, I bought just about all my own books, save those I reviewed for PW. Which meant that the biggest perk that goes along with owning a book website just didn't exist for me. Boo hoo.

The Internet exploded during my tenure as AAR's publisher, and included in that explosion were author contests. At AAR authors sent in hundreds of books for our weekly giveaways, but they also gifted books through other websites, and later, their blogs. While I was at AAR, I could not participate in these contests. Boo hoo.

That didn't stop me from occasionally reaping the benefits of website ownership. Jill Barnett gifted Blythe and I an entire signed set each of her backlist, Jillian Hunter sent me two hard-to-find beanie babies, and Kate Douglas included a plush wolf with the book I agreed to review when I had my first blog. Seeking out freebies when I ran AAR was unseemly, so I avoided the temptation except when in attendance at RWA conferences, when I proudly announced my book whoredom.

Now I work at a bookstore, so it's assumed I get lots and lots of free books. Not so, particularly since most of what I read outside of reviewing for PW are ebooks. Occasionally we're allowed to visit the strip pile, but far too much of my salary, even with my employee discount, ends up in the store's cash register. Boo hoo.

So I've embraced my "civilian" status over the past year and a half by entering author contests, and yesterday I won a large package from Marjorie Liu. Earlier in the year I won the Australian release (pictured here) for one of the historicals I loved from 2009, Anna Campbell's Captive of Sin, which I'd reviewed very positively for PW. Although I'd already read it and had my review copy, as well as a digital version for my Kindle, the cover art was so gorgeous for the book - and I'm not one who generally cares about covers - that I coveted it - that's right, coveted. And was thrilled when I won.

Earlier this week I noticed a tweet from @marjoriemliu about a contest on her blog celebrating her sixth anniversary as a published author, and being a fangirl for her Dirk & Steele series, entered it. Last evening she emailed to say I was one of two random winners. Here's what I won:

• Christian Kane’s new music, via iTunes, because she's a fan
• A signed arc of A WILD LIGHT, the next Hunter Kiss novel
• A signed arc of IN THE DARK OF DREAMS, the next Dirk & Steele novel
• A signed trade of DARK WOLVERINE (#75-77)
• A signed Dirk & Steele novel
• A signed Hunter Kiss novel

When Liu publicly announced the winners, she also shared that she just signed for three more books. Two are part of her Hunter Kiss series; the third is, at this point, a stand-alone. Though to this point I've only read her Dirk & Steele books, I imiagine I'll soon be trying her other series. Less likely is that I'll become a graphic novel reader, but I've learned to never say never.

I Won!

Classic Sequels and Mash-Ups

Over the past few years I've reviewed for PW several sequels to classic novels and, earlier this week tackled my first classic monster mash-up for the magazine. It has not gone well.

The vast majority of classic sequels have been for Jane Austen novels. Save one, they've been disastrous, and the sole non-disaster was, at best, no better than "not bad." I try to maintain an open mind for every book I review, but must admit that I am not predisposed in favor of these sequels because I'm a purist. I refused, after all, to watch Clueless for years after it was released to critical and popular acclaim, after all, because no matter how much Amy Heckerling loved Emma, she dared to update what for me already is a perfect story.

As for the myriad of sequels published over the last several years, I find it incredibly presumptuous for any author to believe she knows what Austen might have done with her characters after the books she wrote. Had Austen wished to further their stories, she would have. My guess is that she would not be pleased that Darcy hid his erections from his jovial, knowing father-in-law any more than she would want Lady Catherine DeBurgh to continue plaguing future generations of Bennetts and Collinses and Bingleys. Why these books sell really surprises me; that one author has parlayed Pride and Prejudice into eight sequels to date astonishes me, particularly the one I reviewed, which featured the children and grandchildren of a secondary character in the original. A less annoying read was one of the Sense and Sensibility sequels, but it still frustrated me. While it tackled a social issue I can imagine Austen taking on, Austen's sensibility was sorely lacking in the sequel's prose style, resulting in a mostly plodding effort.

Those are my thoughts on classic sequels. While you might think I harbor similar ideas about monster mash-ups, I don't. I love parody, which is the reason why at AAR I created our annual Purple Prose Parody Contest that in its later years encouraged mash-ups. When Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out last year and received a high mark from Entertainment Weekly (which propelled it from a minor release into a major one that eventually spawned other monster mash-ups), I loved the idea of it so much that I pushed it like mad at the bookstore, although my own effort to read it ended with chapter three. Had it been any mash-up other than P&P, I would have soldiered on. On the other hand, what I've read so far of Sherri Erwin's Jane Slayre has whetted my appetite for more. I love Brontë's original, but it's not at the top of my all-time keeper list, so I'm less invested in it retaining its purity. Erwin's love for Jane Eyre as well as her skills as an author come through so strongly that it's easy for me to get into the fun of a Jane plucky enough to slay vampires and the idea of Rochester's crazy, attic-bound first wife as a monster.

That said, the review I sent in to one of my PW editors yesterday was for a book lacking in any of that sense of fun. The book was such an unmitigated disaster that it took me an entire week to get past the first hundred pages. I can't get into more detail until the book is released, at which point I'll provide a link to my review, but right now it's in serious contention for my worst book of the year.

While both of my PW editors know that I'm probably not the reviewer for future Jane Austen sequels, I remain open to the idea of classic mash-ups, although I wonder about their shelf life - for every Jane Slayre there's a Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Of course, I remain happy to read and review humorous paranormal historicals. Not only am I a fan of Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, both Jill Barnett's Bewitching and Rebecca Paisley's Basket of Wishes, which were released in the early/middle 1990s, sit on my all-time keeper shelf.

Classic Sequels and Mash-Ups

Lists

Anyone who's known me online for any period of time knows that I love lists. AAR's Special Title Listings, for instance, grew out of the original Laurie's News & Views (which eventually became the At the Back Fence column). The Lists, along with those original columns, were the basis of The Archives of Laurie Likes Books - along with the Castle of the Week and a smattering of Desert Isle Keeper Romances - all of which formed All About Romance after I left The Romance Reader.

I've popped in and out of Amazon over the years as a reviewer, and in recent months have become fairly active. It wasn't until I read my profile, though, and realized the "about me" description was woefully out of date that I noticed the original two Listmania Lists I'd created were equally old and needed to be reworked so that the books listed therein weren't all a decade old, or worse, out of print.

As of today I have four Listmania Lists: Ten Romance Desert Isle Keepers; Ten Non-Romance Desert Isle Keepers; My Favorite Urban Fantasy/Dark Fantasy Novels; and My Top Urban Fantasy/Dark Fantasy Romances. And, as of today, two of the lists have once again been over-hauled. Since one of my goals with these lists was for them to be "top ten" lists, I'm happy to report that I've achieved that now with the newly renamed Top Ten Urban Fantasy/Dark Fantasy Novels list by adding Lori Handeland's Chaos Bites, which I've written about extensively here and in my Amazon review.

The list most changed, though, was my Ten Romance Desert Isle Keepers. Another, more crucial goal with these lists are to keep them timely and to include as many sub-genres as possible to help as many readers as possible. Well, that list already had ten titles, so when I added Mary Balogh's A Secret Affair, I had to remove an existing title. One of the titles is from a book old and esoteric enough that Amazon doesn't have a cover image of it, so it was my choice to be removed: Velvet Bond by Catherine Archer. (The image I've shown here is the only one readily available online. It's the Spanish language cover and it's close enough to the English cover that I decided not to scan my copy's cover.) And yet...since removing it left my list bereft of any Medievals, and because by adding A Secret Affair I was including another European Historical, I decided to also replace Madeline Hunter's The Rules of Seduction with Judith McNaught's A Kingdom of Dreams. True, Hunter's book is Victorian and Balogh's is set in the Regency, and I've already represented the Regency, but...oh well.

Thank you for indulging my inclusion of this bit of mental masturbation with you. My real reason, though convoluted, for doing so was to learn about some of your top tens...either via comment or link. Granted, it's much easier to do a top 50 or 100, but unless you've ranked them, it's just too simple, and I don't roll that way.

Lists

Weasel-Shit of Romance

For those following the saga of the stolen reviews as detailed in Oh, the Mendacity!, Blogger and Google took action at some point in the last couple of days and removed from the blog of the Queen of Romance Bimbo of Romance the reviews she stole from AAR.

She calls herself the Queen of Romance. I first called her the Bimbo of Romance based on her actions, but as her blog remains un-updated by her hand since April 18th, I have re-dubbed her yet again. She is now the Weasel-Shit of Romance...not only unethical but a coward as well, at least IMHO. I can't imagine her continuing the venture but then, her thought processes never really made much sense to me. The point of a blog is to share your personal thoughts...why bother if they don't even belong to you? BTW, I've discovered that sharing your thoughts when very few people read them is actually more empowering than you might imagine.

As for my own reviews, Amazon just published my latest for the Vine program. If you're interested, click here to read about Aspergirls: Empowering Females with Asperger Syndrome.

Weasel-Shit of Romance

Oh, the Mendacity!

The more I look into the theft of intellectual property perpetrated by the "Queen of Romance" at - not KristieJ's - Ramblings on Romance, the more pissed off I get. After posting once to AAR's News blog, then emailing the "Queen" "Bimbo" herself, I posted my email on the AAR News blog. And then I investigated a bit further and discovered she pretty much "borrowed" the sensuality ratings system I set up over a decade ago...and called it her "personal" system (hers and AAR's). And then, just for fun, I searched and found a review she "borrowed" from me as well.

I then attached side-by-side comparisons of both the ratings and the review to Blythe and Lynn in an email...the review, btw, is for Marjorie Liu's The Wild Road (hers and mine). By doing so TPTB at AAR now have proof of her ethical lapse in case it is needed - ie, if she tries to weezle-shit out of it. I thought about posting the proof here as well, but it's not my place to do so. And yet, if anyone cares to see them, I guess I can always email the two comparison pages.

I think it's time to go do something physical as I need to blow off the steam that's pouring from the top of my head.

P.S. Lynn emailed me back and I read her original blog entry more closely...the "personal" ratings system used by the Bimbo of Romance was referenced in Lynn's blogging. Indeed, the Bimbo subsequently went back and retroactively credited AAR. What remains unfortunate is that the reviews she also "borrowed" feature AAR's grades...and the same AAR sensuality ratings. Gee, it's almost as though she basically lifted them and changed a few words to avoid getting caught. Say it ain't so!

Oh, the Mendacity!

Crush on You by Christie Ridgway

Crush on You

Christie Ridgway

Grade: B-

Contemporary Romance

When Christie Ridgway tweeted recent about having her upcoming release reviewed, I sent her a private message and volunteered myself. I'm glad I did.

First, some background: This Perfect Kiss, which was published in 2001, came thisclose to being a DIK read for me. I just looked back at my PW review for the book, as well as what I wrote at AAR. The book featured not only one terrific romance, but a strong secondary romance as well, and I found the emotional intensity of both couples incredibly appealing. What stood out most for me, though, was the hero, about whom I wrote: "But it is Rory who truly comes alive in this story - his constant erotic thoughts seem utterly male and, most of all, the history that shapes his behavior is strongly echoed by many of the secondary characters."

I believe This Perfect Kiss was Ridgway's second single title. Wish You Were Here was her first, and I enjoyed it as well, enough that after having read it, I wrote an At the Back Fence segment about characters with disabilities (its hero is blind through much of the book). I had less luck with a series title I read of hers, In Love with Her Boss, nonetheless, while I've not read her in some time, I have continued, albeit sporadically, to buy her single title contemporaries for years. In particular I like that they don't have suspense sub-plots; they are romances through and through, and Crush on You is no exception.

Through a bit of web research I learned that the three sisters whose stories will be told in the Baci sisters trilogy were introduced in 2009's Double the Heat anthology. Crush on You is first in the trilogy, and due to be released in late May/early June. The sisters, who inherited Tanti Baci, their family's failing winery, are on a mission to save it by turning it into a destination wedding locale. Part owners in the winery are the Bennett brothers, who own the winery next door. There's been a feud between the families for years, although ten years earlier the eldest sister and eldest Bennett brother were madly in love. Their story is sure to come, but this story features the romance between Alessandra Baci and Penn Bennett.

Alessandra is known as the Nun of Napa; right before she was set to marry her high school sweetheart, he died, and for five years she's borne the burden of being his "almost wife" for the town, and particularly his mother, whose inability to get over the loss of her son she transfers to her son's fiance. Penn Bennett, presumably modeled on Ty Pennington from TV's Extreme Makeover Home Edition, is the illegitimate Bennett brother, visiting Napa to get over a painful love affair. She thinks he's a handsome heel while he believes she's a spoiled flirt. Both could not be more wrong.

Because the Bennett brothers have a stake in Tanti Baci, Penn agrees to use his carpentry skills to prepare the winery for its wedding destination launch under the condition that Alessandra helps. Being in close quarters aggravates their sexual tension, but as they get to know each other - the burden she has on her shoulders, that he's not a conceited phony do-gooder - they share some kisses, some foreplay, and eventually a heated bout of love-making. Penn is frustrated by her inability to fully feel her passion (it's not easy not being the Nun of Napa, after all), but they continue to get closer, even after his ex-girlfriend appears on the scene and Alessandra mistakenly believes he still carries a torch for her.

Meanwhile, Alessandra's best friend Clare, her dead fiance's sister, is preparing to marry a successful man her mother strongly approves of at Tanti Baci. Her mother does not approve of her long-lived friendship with Gil, which is indeed unfortunate in that each is secretly in love with the other. This secondary relationship perfectly incorporates into the main story line. To say more would give spoilers.

Indeed, to reveal any more of the plot would spoil things for readers. Better to focus on the characters, who are well-crafted. The story reads easily, and while Alessandra's "issues" provide pathos and are understandable, her inability to get over herself and her pre-conceived notions about Penn annoyed me. Her single-minded goal about the winery's success, also understandable, makes her a not-so-nice person at times, which I actually appreciated. Quite frankly there's nothing so boring as a perfect heroine. Penn, on the other hand, is entirely drool-worthy, so much so that another of the book's flaws was a lack of word count devoted to the couple as a couple. Ridgway shows them falling in love, but I wanted to see them in love - openly - before the book wrapped up.

My grade for the book may seem low. I've detailed some of my problems with Crush on You, but the main reason for the minus attached to my B grade is that the book, as good as it is, isn't quite substantive enough to sustain a straight B. It is what it is, and that's fine, but wanted a bit more. Even so, I'll be back at Tanti Baci for book two.

Crush on You by Christie Ridgway