There’s a book you love set in 1960, but is it a modern historical? Modern historicals differ from classic contemporaries in that contemporaries were written when the setting was “now,” but to a modern historical author, the setting was “then.” If that 1960 book was written in the sixties, it’s a classic contemp. That same 1960 story written and published a decade later? That’s a modern historical! […]
My mum, Nancy Jane Wullschleger Thurston, died on March 19th, 2019, just after I came home from visiting her in Sudbury, Ontario. She slipped peacefully away during an afternoon nap, in her own home, surrounded by books, puzzles of all kinds, with birds to entertain her outside her window. […]
I’ve read some terrific books and some dire books this year – which is par for the course when you review as many of them as I do – but my genre of choice, historical romance, was, in the main, fairly disappointing in 2018. Even some of the authors I can usually rely on to deliver absorbing stories with emotional depth featuring appealing, multi-faceted characters haven’t delivered to their usual standard, and I’ve found myself looking to other sub-genres more than ever before to supply the steady diet of strong and compelling reads I need in my life! […]
I think I’ll be just shy of my reading goal for 2018, but maybe that’s a good thing because it was a really tough job to narrow down my favorites for the year from the ones I did manage to read! In my preferred category of contemporary romance there are many that exceeded my expectations and I’m taking this as a promising sign for the genre in 2019. Here’s a glimpse at the books that caught my eye and heart this year.
Is there a ‘best of’ list that doesn’t have this contemporary romance on it? For all the reasons you’ve probably heard, it’s made my list too. An #OwnVoices novel with a personal look at autism and Vietnamese family dynamics, it’s a delight from start to finish (and super […]
For the final TBR Challenge of 2018, we get to have some fun with holiday romances. This time around, we both chose Christmas stories from the Harlequin Romance line, though the tones of our picks couldn’t have been more different. Whether you are in the mood for light and dreamy, or deeply emotional and dramatic, it looks like we have you covered with these two winning picks. […]
The Romance genre holds a special place in my heart, but I tend to read across genres and I think my Best of 2018 really reflects that. Looking over my Goodreads history, it was easy to pull out reads that stood head and shoulders above the rest, and they happened to be a sampling from several different kinds of reads. […]
This has been an interesting year for romance. It was one where contemporaries have thrived, YAs have blossomed – but it’s been harder to find the right kind of historical. In reverse order, here are my favorite books of 2018!
YA has had one heck of a year; I can name at least six books in the genre I’d give an easy best of recommendation to. Lee’s book makes the grade for so many reasons, but the first is that it’s terribly absorbing and easy to fall into. A rip-roaring adventure that gives us the next step in Felicity’s adventures, this book is about self-discovery and self-assuredness. An asexual, aromantic heroine who dreams of becoming a doctor and finds her calling in the world at large, a lesbian […]
How do you find the books you love? I’ll tell you what I do, but first, a (shameful) confession.
After a youthful love affair with paperback Harlequin romances (my younger sister and I loved to borrow stacks of them from the library and binge read them when my mom wasn’t watching), I stopped reading romance. In high school I turned my attention to popular literary fiction and whatever my dad recommended or lent to me (Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Robert Ludlum). […]
We both went in similar directions with TBR Challenge this month. The prompt gave us a choice between paranormal and romantic suspense, and as it turns out, Caz and I both headed in the suspense direction. Caz chose a solid romantic suspense thriller with plenty of action while I went in a more humorous mystery direction. […]
I am one of those people who’s always playing catch-up in my reading. Every year, I frantically use the DIK Power Search and cram as many books in as I can before choosing my top reads at the end of it. […]
