Terms of Endearment
Reading books by authors from different countries always gives me a subject to talk about in the blog. I might not have noticed if I had been reading the book, but after listening to an audio…
The Art of Writing Believable Men
While I am in no way an expert on the male psyche, I do have brothers and I worked in a male dominated profession for over ten years so I have had plenty of exposure to…
Deadeye Dick's Last Shot, or All for the Love of Bessie Burton
If you are not a fan of the 1960’s western television show, The Virginian , then this title means nothing to you. As a caregiver for an aging relative, I can almost repeat all the dialogue….
I'm Starting to See a Pattern Here
This past week, I returned a new release unread to the library. While that is not especially unusual, that fact that I am saying goodbye to the works of an author that I have read for…
More Than I Bargained For – When Books Come With a Message
There are a few published authors who have a reputation for being passionate about a particular political or social topic. Most readers know this up front and share these authors’ views. But what about those individuals…
Trauma as Plot Device
The use of rape as a plot device in romance books has been on my mind for a while. While I feel very strongly about it, I hesitated to write about it for fear of coming…
Fries, Chips, Pommes
Most people I know have seen the movie, Love Actually. Remember the part where Colin decides to try finding love in the USA? After he gets to Wisconsin, Colin meets up with Stacey, Jeannie, and Carol-Anne,…
What Agency Pricing and EBook Lending Limits Mean for Readers
At first when I thought about the latest eBook news, this piece was going to be a mini rant about how publishers haven’t got a clue about eBooks and how popular they’ve become. But I suspect…
Eyerollers and Wallbangers
After reading Rike’s hilarious blog on phrases we never see in romance novels and then all the other great additions by AAR readers, I started thinking about what brings me out of the story, and what…
Angst or No Angst?
I love happy endings, and I hate to cry. I know that is one reason that I gravitated to reading romances. Even in fifth grade, after reading Gone with the Wind, I knew that happy every…