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April TBR Challenge


Under the Lights by Shannon Stacey

Do you like small town romances set in towns that feel like they actually could exist?  If so, you should try reading Shannon Stacey if you haven’t discovered her already. For this month’s multiblog TBR Challenge, I decided to read her 2015 novel, Under the Lights, first in the Boys of Fall series.

When I talk about small towns that feel real, the setup of this book hints at it.  Stewart Mills is not an idyllic little town with financially secure residents shopping in cute, trendy businesses who seemingly do not need to worry about money or deal with commuting to larger cities. In fact, we learn right away that this small New England town has fallen on hard times and may need to cut one of its social staples, the high school football […]

By Lynn Spencer| 2017-06-23T08:30:00+00:00 April 18th, 2017|Categories: Caz AAR, Lynn Spencer, Romance reading, TBR Challenge|Tags: contemporary romance, Maisey Yates, Shannon Stacey|7 Comments
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The Best of 2015: Lynn's List

othersideofmidnight 2015 was a strange reading year for me. For starters, I have a toddler, so I read more picture books than usual. Going back over books I read for myself, I did read a good number of current year releases in 2015 but an unusual quantity of them were C-grade reads. Most of my highest grades for the year were for older books that had been marinating in my TBR pile for a while. There were definitely 2015 gems to be found, though, and here are mine:

The Other Side of Midnight by Simone St. James – I’ll admit that I picked this book up solely because St. James wrote it. Stories about spiritualists/mediums tend not to grab me, but this one was just irresistible. It’s a creepy and very well written mystery with more than a touch of romance to it. Highly recommend.

By Lynn Spencer| 2017-06-23T08:30:14+00:00 January 23rd, 2016|Categories: All About Romance, Best of 2015, Best of List, Best of Romance, Lynn AAR|Tags: Ann Gallagher, Best Romances of 2015, Blythe Gifford, Elizabeth Camden, Geneva Lee, Kelly Hunter, Laura Griffin, Nicki Edwards, Shannon Stacey, Simone St. James, Susanna Kearsley|9 Comments
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TBR Challenge – Can't Escape the Hype

exclusivelyyours This month’s TBR Challenge was to find a book that got inescapable buzz. As it turns out, I have had one sitting in my Kindle for ages, waiting for that perfect time to be read. When Carina Press launched back in 2010, one of their debut titles, Exclusively Yours by Shannon Stacey generated lots of chatter almost from the beginning and it filled my Twitter stream for months. In fact, this title generated so much buzz and so many sales that it ended up being picked up for reissue in print by HQN. As it turns out, it ended up being the perfect companion for me as I sat through my 3 hour glucose test(ah, the joys of pregnancy.) If you like single-title contemporaries, this one is a cute, light-hearted read. I’d give it a B+ for the huge smile it left on […]

By Lynn Spencer| 2017-06-23T08:30:34+00:00 November 20th, 2013|Categories: All About Romance, Lynn AAR, Romance reading|Tags: All About Romance, Shannon Stacey, TBR Challenge|4 Comments
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What's Your Favorite Type of Cover?

As long as I have read romance novels, I’ve been interested in their covers. They are bright and often lurid and embarrassing. Who wants to sit on a bus, or at a coffee shop, reading a book with the characters practically having sex on the cover? The marketing strategy is something I find fascinating and counter-intuitive, but it obviously works. A lot of casual readers do not know much about many authors or sub-genres or trends within the industry. They just pick up what looks interesting in the grocery store aisle.

In looking at many, many covers, I’ve found that many of them have similar characteristics, and similar styles. While there are, of course, exceptions, most cover styles fall into one of five categories: The Cute Animal, The Cute Couple, The Faceless Couple, The Solo Star, and the Sexy/”Clinch” Cover.
[…]

By Lynn Spencer| 2017-06-23T08:31:09+00:00 May 23rd, 2012|Categories: Books|Tags: All About Romance, Julie James, Kristan Higgins, Maya Banks, meredith duran, romance novel covers, romance novels, Shannon Stacey|39 Comments
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The Art of Writing Believable Men

gibson While I am in no way an expert on the male psyche, I do have brothers and I worked in a male dominated profession for over ten years so I have had plenty of exposure to their logic, conversation, and ways of interacting with each other. After reading a book with very authentic male dialogue, I then read a passage in another book, where a male character tells a friend that his wife is his life. Now don’t get me wrong, because honestly that is a lovely sentiment. But none of the men that I have been around would say that about their wife to me or any of their other friends in normal day to day conversation. That statement just seems like a crying in my beer, she left me country song.
[…]

By Lynn Spencer| 2017-06-23T08:31:28+00:00 June 23rd, 2011|Categories: Heroes, Leigh AAR|Tags: All About Romance, Deidre Martin, Emily Carmichael, Heroes, Nora Roberts, Rachel Gibson, Shannon Stacey, Sue Moorcroft|27 Comments
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Buried Treasures of 2010

seven_secrets_of_seduction 2010 seems to have been a good reading year for many of our readers and also for AAR staff. Some of the books we’ve loved have gotten lots of buzz, but there are always those buried treasures out there waiting to be found. Some of these books come from new authors or smaller presses, and a few are from bestselling authors who, for whatever reason, just didn’t get the buzz here on the site that staffers felt they deserved. So, here is our chance to point out the books from 2010 that we really think more people need to read.

[…]

By Lynn Spencer| 2017-06-23T08:31:36+00:00 February 22nd, 2011|Categories: All About Romance, Lynn AAR, Reading|Tags: All About Romance, Anne Mallory, Barbara Hannay, Buried Treasures, Ellen O'Connell, Grace Coopersmith, Janice Kay Johnson, Kaki Warner, Karina Bliss, Kate Noble, L.J. McDonald, Larissa Ione, Lois McMaster Bujold, Louisa Edwards, Olivia Quincy, Penny Drake, Rose Lerner, Shannon Stacey, Susanna Fraser|12 Comments
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  • Erica Taylor: “You’re a Duke, Andrew,” and How Regency is my Fan Fiction
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