In teaching and libraries, we use a term called Mirrors and Windows to describe books. Mirrors are books which reflect your own experience back to you – the character shares your race, your gender identity, your ethnicity, etc. Windows are books which allow you to see into another person’s experience. […]
Over the past weeks, like vast swaths of America, every Sunday night, my family watched ESPN’s The Last Dance documentary series featuring the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) Michael Jordan and his 1990s Chicago Bulls teams. We love basketball–we live in Tobacco Road territory–and have sorely missed the sport.
There are lots of great books due to be released in June, and as usual the AAR team has selected the ones we’re most looking forward to reading. As usual, we’ve got a fairly eclectic list, so hopefully there’s something here for everyone! And don’t forget to drop by to tell is what YOU’RE most looking forward to reading over the next few weeks. […]
My cozy mystery, Killer Chardonnay, features a vintner-turned-amateur sleuth named Parker Valentine and a dashing chef, Reid, who bring food and wine together in the most delicious way. When Parker isn’t busy solving murders, that is. […]
This weekend, my family got in our car and, for the first time in months, left town. We drove three hours west and have spent the weekend in an airbnb. We brought all our own food and drink so basically we just moved our sheltering in place to a different place. And, it’s been glorious. […]
Last week, I was thoroughly enjoying an upcoming historical romance when, in a fit of understandable anger, the heroine slapped the hero across the face hard enough to leave a mark. As I continued reading, I couldn’t stop thinking about how uncomfortable that made me. If he’d hit her, that would be unacceptable. […]
For many readers, when you utter the phrase “old school,” they tend to think of big sweeping historicals. The hated phrase “bodice ripper” often comes up as do the clinch covers of old. And that’s certainly one way of doing old school romance. Maybe it’s pandemic fatigue, but neither one of us was really up to that thread of old school romance. Instead we revisited the world 
of Regency trads by well-loved authors, where Caz found more success than Lynn this month. […]
Hey everyone! I’m so glad to be at All About Romance today to chat about something near and dear to our romance-loving hearts—the tropes we love best, Jane Austen style. […]
I am reading the second in Mila Vane’s A Gathering of Dragons series. As was true in book one, A Heart of Blood and Ashes, the world building in A Touch of Stone and Snow is amazing. It got to wondering about other books with great world building. I thought the spy world in Joanna Bourne’s books, the Viking paradise in Larissa Brown’s A Beautiful Wreck, and the post-apocalyptic water soaked world in Megan Crane’s Edge series.
How about you? What book or series has world-building that blows you away?
Here’s a somewhat shocking confession: I haven’t read an actual book in over a year. And I don’t want to. Unless I can read a book on the Kindle app on my iPad, I’m just not interested. […]