Meet Reviewer/Newsletter Coordinator Katie Mack
Katie’s Blog | Katie’s LibraryThing Shelf
About Me Favorite Romance Novels
I come from a family of voracious readers. I was reading by the time I started kindergarten at age 4, and read anything and everything I could get my hands on. All week long I looked forward to Friday nights, when my mother would load all of us kids in the car and make the journey to the county library, where I would check out as many books as my library card allowed.
Growing up I read everything from Hardy Boys, Howard Pease, mysteries, sci-fi fantasy, westerns, you name it. I discovered romances around age 11, when one day I ran out of books to read and went searching the depths of my mother’s cabinets. She would buy category romances for a nickel a piece in library sales. When I discovered her stash of hundreds upon hundreds of romances, it was like winning the reading lottery.
Absolute Favorites
Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Favorite Short Stories
The Matchmaker’s Mistake (Harlequin Duets #48) by Jane Sullivan
Turning Up the Heat (Jingle Bell Rock) by Susan Donovan
The Nutcracker Sweet (Jingle Bell Rock) by Nancy Warren
Personal Reading Tastes Favorites by Sub-Genre
What I’m a sucker for in a book: Heroines in a male-dominated field/profession; riches to rags stories; sports romances; Best Enemies stories; Beauty and the Beast stories; restaurant-setting romances; not-so-gorgeous characters; tortured hero/heroine; adventure romances; nerd heroes/heroines; cross-class romances.
What I don’t particularly care for in a book: Secret baby plots; virginal heroines in contemporaries; Duke of Slut heroes (historical or contemporary); more than 10 years age difference between hero/heroine; first person narratives; young (early twenties or younger) heroes/heroines in contemporaries; rekindling high school romances; alpha-jerk heroes; childish/immature/selfish/vain heroes/heroines; prim and proper heroines.
What drives me absolutely nuts in a book: Rape, coercion, or any so-called “forced seduction” between the hero and heroine, in any time period (book will be thrown against the wall in a fit of rage); TSTL heroines; sex between the hero/heroine when one of the characters is intoxicated.
Favorite Romance Authors
All-Time Favorite Romance Authors
Jennifer Crusie
Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Rachel Gibson
Best Discovery/Buried Treasure Authors
Jane Graves/Jane Sullivan
Michele Albert/Michelle Jerott
Kathleen O’Reilly
My Biggest Glom
Jane Graves/Jane Sullivan
Jennifer Crusie
J.D. Robb
Contemporary:
Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
Tall Tales and Wedding Veils by Jane Graves
The Trouble with Valentine’s Day by Rachel Gibson
Frontier or American Historical:
I Do, I Do, I Do by Maggie Osborne
European Historical:
Ravished by Amanda Quick
To Seduce a Sinner by Elizabeth Hoyt
The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt
Category:
The Ivory Key by Rita Clay Estrada
Manhunting by Jennifer Crusie
When He Was Bad by Jane Sullivan
Favorite Characters Favorites by Plot Type
Favorite Hero
Roarke, In Death series by J.D. Robb
C.L. Sturgis, Tell Me Lies by Jennifer Crusie
Tony McCaffrey, Tall Tales and Wedding Veils by Jane Graves
Favorite Heroine
Eve Dallas, In Death series by J.D. Robb
Heather Montgomery, Tall Tales and Wedding Veils by Jane Graves
Min Dobbs, Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Most Tortured Hero
Ryan Kinsmore, Fallen from Grace by Laura Leone
Jackson Rule, Jackson Rule by Dinah McCall
Strongest Heroine
Eve Dallas, In Death series by J.D. Robb
Samantha Jellicoe, Flirting with Danger by Suzanne Enoch
Favorite Couple
Eve Dallas and Roarke, In Death series by J.D. Robb
Heather Montgomery and Tony McCaffrey, Tall Tales and Wedding Veils by Jane Graves
Kate Svenson and Jake Templeton, Manhunting by Jennifer Crusie
Cabin or Road:
Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Absolute Trouble by Michelle Jerott
Baby, I’m Yours by Susan Andersen
Suspense:
In Death series by J.D. Robb
Funny:
The Trouble with Valentine’s Day by Rachel Gibson
Tall Tales and Wedding Veils by Jane Graves
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Sexy:
Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
Tangled Up in You by Rachel Gibson
Favorites by Mood
Comfort Reads:
Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
The Trouble with Valentine’s Day by Rachel Gibson
Most-Hanky Reads:
Honey Moon by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
The Ivory Key by Rita Clay Estrada
Guilty Pleasure:
A Dangerous Game by Candace Schuler
Legal Tender by Kelsey Roberts
The Seduction of Jake Tallman by Cait London
Least-Favorites
Most Disappointing Books
Cutting Loose by Susan Andersen
Bad Penny by Sharon Sala
Worst Books
Dangerous Games by Lora Leigh
Lucky in Love by Carolyn Brown
Authors I Have Given Up On
Janet Evanovich
Authors Others Love That I Don’t
Christie Ridgway
Elizabeth Bevarly
MaryJanice Davidson
Most Annoying Lead Character
Betsy Taylor, Undead and Unwed, by MaryJanice Davidson
Wren siblings, from Stephanie Bond’s Body Movers series
Non-Romance Favorites
Favorite Classic Novel
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Favorite Mystery
Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Favorite Fantasy
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Favorite Nonfiction
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Beauvoir and the Second Sex by Margaret A. Simons
Language in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa
Favorite Women’s Fiction
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
Favorite YA Book
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Favorite Set of Connected Books
Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
In Death series by J.D. Robb