What are your reading week of January 29, 2007

I finished The Lady in question last night. While it was good I didn't like it as much as the other Effington books so far. - 4 stars

I also started When we meet again which is the 10th Effington and 3rd Pruzinsky book.

Julia

I'm almost finished Out of the Storm by JoAnn Ross.

Started re-reading Unzipped by Lois Greiman.

Picked up Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs Saturday and am almost done with it.

I'm reading Must Love Dragons by Stephanie Rowe. It's the sequel to Date Me, Baby, One More Time. I'm amused so far.

Next up is The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman admittedly young adult, but sweet...

I am finishing an oldy but goody, A Texan's Luck by Jodi Thomas, the 3rd in her Wife Lottery series, which I've read at least 10 times; and I'm about to start Anna Jeffrey's newest, Salvation, Texas. Texan's Luck is an historical Western, Salvation is a contemporary Western. I'm kind of burned out on Regencies for the moment.

CC

I finished Dark Moon by Lori Handeland this morning and started on Blue Moon by the same author. I actually began reading them backwards and didn't realize it until I was through with the first third in the second book I was reading. So now I have read 3 and 4 and am now starting on 1. (I think... LOL!)

I think I liked Blue Moon the best so far of Lori Handeland's series. I'm curious to know which you like better :-)

Afternoon! I finished Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas.. what a book! I loved Amanda! So smart and witty, very bold also.. I love strong women! Jack Devlin? Well... who could say anything bad about him! WOW.. anyone up for some raspberries??????

Right now, I am reading Passion by Lisa Valdez. I tend to like the more scandalous stories!

I'm currently reading Hunting Midnight, and am taking a long train ride tomorrow (and back on Wednesday) so going with me are Stardust and Outlander, which I have never read, but hear that it's good.

Hunting Midnight is good, but I'm not sure it's a keeper. But I'm enjoying it. I got a stack of Emma Holly's books and I'm working my way through them slowly.

savannascarlett, I'm glad to hear Suddenly You is good. I picked it up on a whim the other day, and haven't read it yet. I've loved everything else I've read by Lisa Kleypas, so I'm glad to hear this one's good too.

Plowing my way through Julia Quinn's Bridgertons series. Finished The Duke and I and The Viscount Who Loved Me over the weekend and now I'm just about to wrap up An Offer from a Gentleman.

This is a pretty good series. I'm REALLY looking forward to Romancing Mister Bridgerton since that is Colin's story and he's so cute.

7Crescent Moon better... but I'll reserve full judgment until I read them all!

katybear, I'm curious how you will like the rest of the series and which one will be your favorite.

Julia

I am just finishing up Mr. Impossible. I've enjoyed it very much so far. Soon on to Someone to Watch Over me and Suddenly You by Kleypas; Enchanted and Forbidden by Elizabeth Lowell, and Lady's Pleasure by Renee Bernard.

Salvation, Texas was pretty good, but not nearly as good as Jeffrey's previous books, The Love of a Lawman, The Love of a Cowboy and The Love of a Stranger.

Okay, Demon, I'm starting on Lora Leigh's Tempting The Beast: Feline Breeds 1. I'll let you know what I think. If anyone else puts this in their TBR or Wish List, I should warn you, it's published by Ellora's Cave and is labeled erotica, although EC's term for it is "romantica", a term they copyrighted.

CC

I just finished With this Ring by Carla Kelly. She is one of my favorite writers and I wasn't disappointed. This is a regency, with a plot that moves right along. I recommend it to anyone interested in the era and especially the Penisular war (well, the vererans anyway).

Hey, Xor. What's the sensuality rating on With This Ring?

Thanks!

CC

This might make me appear completely out of touch, but what is the difference between a regency and a historical? I'm quite curious.

I finished my Meg Cabot book and will be starting Katie MacAlister's Light My Fire next.

dl, I hope this helps. While all regencies are historicals, not all historicals are regencies. Historicals can cover any period, one of which is the regency period.

At this moment (as soon as I get off the computer) I'm going back to Patricia Rice's Sweet Home Carolina which is part of a recent series of hers I'm really liking a lot, and I like this one. A little too much small town worship, but I can deal.

Recently finished The Winter Lodge by Susan Wiggs. Again, part of a series but no particular necessity to have read the previous ones. Much better tie in of the previous characters story, without it becoming their story.

Not Another New Year's by Christie Ridgway was merely ok. I hadn't read Must Love Mistletoe which is clearly connected. Heroine is a small town school teacher whose fiance of four years was in the service and got killed while saving the lives of 27 people. At which point she discovers that he had married someone else six months before. This is an interesting twist on the rat-bastard exboyfriend that I wanted to like more than I did. I got a little tired of the heroine being so "oh I've been such a goody goody, but I want to have a fling" but that point was well handled. I also really liked the secondary romance with the hero's brother and an Arab American playgirl heroine a LOT.

Chill of Fear by Kay Hooper was another one of her series about the FBI unit with psychics. I like them a lot but not enough to buy them in hardcover, so I was happy the paperback finally came out. Heroine is 33 and is a medium whose father has always believed the fact that she sees people who aren't there means she's crazy, so she's been heavily medicated most of her life.

I really liked a number of the plot twists in this. They weren't completely original but they were interesting and perfectly fair and a couple were of the "Whoa! I didn't see that coming at all, but of course" variety, which is always great. I'm a Hooper fan from way back though.

Justine Davis's Dark Reunion (no touchstone) is another detective agency series. It's got a definite heartwrencher premise - heroine who was a fabulous detective researcher agent type for a private agency is pulled in by her boss whom she owes big time to help a man whose eight year old kidnapped son she failed to find a year previously. Worked for me. It's a recent series romance so grab it quickly if you are a Davis fan.

Demon, Tempting the Beast was better than Prince of Ice. It was very erotic, which I enjoyed, and not that far "out there" that the fantasy plot nagged at me on every page. I might even read the others in the series, though I suspect the plots must all have to be very similar. I'll tell you one thing, a man growling now has a whole new meaning for me! The heroes have lion DNA, but they don't turn into lions...or tigers...or bears. :)

CC

DL, the Regency period was from 1811-1820 during that time King George III was insane and his son George IV ruled as Prince Regent.

Julia

Difference between Regency romance and regency historical see this

article.

Thanks for the explanations! I was hoping no one would pick on me for asking :-)

Simon, that was a fantastic article. (You always find the best ones!) Thanks so much for posting it. She was so passionate with her desciptions it gave me goose bumps and I can totally identify with the Star Wars analogies. I sooo love that scene with Han Solo getting froze in carbonite. I think I must read some of her historicals, if just her writing about writing them is that good, the stories themselves must be something else!

So, is Pride and Prejudice a regency? (I'm not sure what time period it took place in). But, I got the impression that it could be.

CC-Thanks for the comment about the Breeds novel! I'll definately have to check those out now too, you've made me curious.

Julia, right or wrong, I tend to lump Regency and Georgian together, and include anything set between 1790 to about 1830. From 1830 to 1860ish I think of as Victorian, 1870-80ish as Industrial. Again, I'm sure the purists will jump all over me, but that's how I catalog them.

CC

DL - Pride and Prejudice is regency/just prior to regency. If you haven't read it (or seen the movie), it will give you a good idea of the period. Jane Austen was writing during the period of the napoleonic wars.

If you're having trouble picturing what they wear, houses, what things looked like, etc., rent A&E's Pride and Prejudice. Eye candy.

DL +CC,

In my Pride and Prejudice copy it says published 1813.

"Met with great critical acclaim on its publication in 1813, it is thought to be a reworked version of First Impressions, an early work which was refused for publication in 1797."

So the Regent would have been George III.

But for my part I would say Regency, just because I can't picture it as a 18th century novel. But that is just my personal impression.

Julia

I like to use this link for whenever I am unsure which King/Queen ruled at that time.

CC, forgive me but I even classify my Amrican Historicals by British Regents. - Ducking now -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_monarchs

Julia

Anyone who is interested, Lisa Kleypas has an excerpt posted on her website from Mine Until Midnight, the sequel to the Wallflowers Series and Cam Rohan's story which hasn't been published yet. I just read it, and I'm still drooling. Sebastian may have some competition for best hero!

http://www.lisakleypas.com/previewsminetilmidnight.asp

CarolinaCatherine, Thanks for the the excerpt notice! I really enjoyed the Wallflower series.

Carla Kelly's With This Ring has no explicit sex (of the licking, sucking, pounding kind that happens in a lot of romances these days), but does have our married hero and heroine having sex eventually, once he is well enough. But it is more the kissing, fade to black, then cuddling kind. So, I am not sure what sensuality rating to give. I thought it nicely sensual but not graphic.

Regarding Jane Austen: She wrote "Regency" romances but they were really contemporary romances for her because she wrote about her own time! We finally figured out that is why Georgette Heyer is given the title of queen of the regency...

Heyer is still the best I think. But Austen is the inspiration for this type of book. Unfortunately after Heyer many publishers went for formulaic Regencies and a lot of poor ones were published. However the best writers managed to give us some very good books in this subgenre.

I think I'm going to start Prince of Ice tonight. It's been on my TBR list for quite some time, and it's wishlisted at PaperBackSwap, so I figured I should get through it and pass it on.

I just finished Outlander last night. I get why everyone loves it so much! I borrowed it from someone, and I've already added it to my list of books to buy. There are others in the series, yes?

I finished When we meet again last night and liked it a lot. Alexei makes a wonderful hero. What I particularly like was the misunderstanding leven was at a low. Sometimes all these little misunderstanding bug me so much. And because the heroine was clever and believed in him and said, that can't be true.

Anyway the book I'll start today is Let it be love which is the last in Victoria Alexander's Effington series. (At least so far)

Julia

Julia- are those Effington books pretty good? I see Victoria Alexander books at my used bookstore all the time, but I've never picked any of them up.

Well, I finished Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas this morning. Whew! It was pretty steamy. I wasn't really that crazy about the romance part of it though. I liked the hero ok, but there just didn't seem to be much to the romantic part of the story. Not one of her best that I've read so far, but an ok read.

Now I'm back to the Bridgertons with To Sir Phillip, With Love.

Hi Katy,

I liked the Effington's a lot. If you think of picking them up start with:

1 The wedding bargain
2 The husband list
3 The marriage lesson
4 The Prince's bride
5 Her Highness, my wife
6 Love with the proper husband
7 The Lady in question
8 The Pursuit of Marriage
9 A Visit From Sir Nicholas
10 When we meet again
11 Let it be love

Julia