Desperately seeking… foreskins!

There’s been a lot on my mind this year, but at the top of it is this: foreskin.

I enjoy reading about sex both in romance novels and in non-fiction. The other day I was flipping through a tome entitled The Guide to Getting It On that devoted an entire chapter to the foreskin—discussing what it is, how men and their partners feel about it, and how they make it a pleasurable part of their sensual/sexual lives. It then occurred to me that not only have I never encountered a chapter in a romance novel about the foreskin and sex, but I’ve never seen the word ‘foreskin’ printed on a single page in one! […]

By |2020-09-26T09:09:45-04:00September 27th, 2020|Categories: Heroes, Real Life|Tags: , , |49 Comments
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the [email protected]: What romance takes you to a far away place?

I’ve just finished my annual re-read of Meredith Duran’s debut The Duke of Shadows. The first part is set in India during the ill-fated rebellion of 1857. The rebellion began in Delhi where Emma, the book’s damaged heroine, and Julian, the equally damaged hero, are. Duran shows us Delhi through Emma’s eyes and her descriptions of it are vivid, violent, and, appropriately, that of a stranger trying and failing to understand the real Jewel in the Crown. Duran is, for me, an author whose settings are transportive. Sherry Thomas does that too–it’s one of the reasons I read my favorite of their books again and again. […]

By |2020-09-24T16:42:54-04:00September 25th, 2020|Categories: Dabney AAR, the ask @AAR|Tags: |30 Comments
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Coming Soon – The Romances We’re Most Looking Forward to Reading in October 2020

2020 may have turned out to be the Year from Hell, but the weeks and months seem to be passing as fast as ever and here we are at October, for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the time when the nights really start drawing in and the weather takes a definitely cooler term. Traditionally, it’s the time we all start thinking about curling up somewhere warm with a good book, whether it’s one that will give us the warm fuzzies, or one that will keep us biting our nails or on the edge of our seats […]

By |2020-09-23T21:55:52-04:00September 23rd, 2020|Categories: Eagerly Awaiting, Romance reading, Upcoming releases|Tags: , |27 Comments
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the [email protected]: What American romances have given you a strong sense of place?

Right now, three of my four children are driving across America, taking ten days to go from the East Coast to the West. One of them is moving to take a new job and his siblings decided to accompany him and see the nation. Thus far, they’ve visited the Civil Rights Museum in Alabama, hiked in the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, slept on the banks of the Mississippi, and sat in the sand dunes of New Mexico. […]

By |2020-09-17T16:35:27-04:00September 18th, 2020|Categories: Dabney AAR, the ask @AAR|29 Comments
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September 2020 TBR Challenge – Dress for Success

“Dress for Success” can mean all kinds of things. In Lynn’s case, she went for fashion designer lead characters. Or, one can do as Caz did, and pull out a Pygmalion-esque story. And then there are masquerade balls, heroes and heroines in disguise…all kinds of possibilities.  What would be your favorite “dress for success” book?

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By |2020-09-16T07:16:08-04:00September 16th, 2020|Categories: Caz AAR, Historicals, Lynn Spencer, Romance reading, TBR Challenge|Tags: , , , , |31 Comments
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What’s Your Reading Journey?

If you’re an AAR old timer (I’ll let you define what that means), you may be wondering if I fell off the face of the earth. Short answer: Yes, yes I did. Short version for those who don’t avidly follow my life: I was a managing editor and then publisher of AAR for years (1998-2016-ish). In 2014 my marriage of 25 years ended, in 2015 I met the love of my life, in 2018 he died. Now it’s 2020, and even with a world that has had no bottom since 2018, I am still on the planet. The seismic shifts in my world have drastically affected my reading, though. […]

By |2020-09-12T20:58:25-04:00September 13th, 2020|Categories: AAR Blythe, Reading, Real Life|Tags: |59 Comments
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the [email protected]: How do you feel about politics in fiction?

I just finished reading two books, Maria Vale’s Season of the Wolf and Carl Hiaasen’s Squeeze Me. Both made me think about the role of politics in fiction.

In Vale’s The Legend of All Wolves series, the reader sees human incursion into nature and man’s love of sport hunting from the perspective of wolves. Vale doesn’t use phrases like climate change and habitat loss, but her point is inescapable: Humanity is wreaking havoc on the wild. […]

By |2020-09-11T10:55:57-04:00September 11th, 2020|Categories: Dabney AAR, the ask @AAR|Tags: |78 Comments
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Inspire desire with ‘the good bits’ from great books By Siobhan Fitzgerald, co-founder, thegoodbits.com

Romance readers have long known the power of the erotic to awaken desire—but for the uninitiated it can be a shock. Imagine reading, or listening to, Sierra Simone’s Priest for the first time on the bus home from work, and being just a little bit overcome with a compelling attack of WOWEEEEEE. […]

By |2020-09-09T14:03:47-04:00September 9th, 2020|Categories: Romance reading|Tags: |12 Comments
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Wolves, the Wild, and the Other: An Interview (and giveaway) with Maria Vale

I’m not drawn usually to shapeshifter stories but the rave reviews at AAR for Maria Vale’s series, The Legend of All Wolves, convinced me to read book one, The Last Wolf. Hooked, I binged on the next three and enjoyed them all. The series is uniquely complex and, as I read the books, I had questions. Maria, thankfully, was happy to answer them. She’s also–woo hoo!–giving away a free ebook set of the series–make a comment below and you’ll be entered into a drawing for them! […]

By |2020-09-08T06:47:40-04:00September 8th, 2020|Categories: Authors, Dabney AAR, giveaways, Interviews|Tags: , , |28 Comments
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