There was My Friend Amy posting back in February about challenging yourself to read outside your genre comfort zone. Then there is the radical change in reading tastes that Alea of Pop Culture Junkie went through this year - she went from never reading romance to swimming like a (nice) Scrooge McDuck through piles upon piles of romance novels - and she wrote a guest post back in March over at Sarah MacLean's blog giving 9 rules to beginning romance readers. And then most recently, Nicole of Linus' Blanket hosted a bookworms carnival called Outside the Zone, where 8 readers shared reviews of books they loved that they wouldn't normally read - which made me breathe deep and think...I can do this!
Romance is still the genre which is most out of my comfort zone (I've done pretty well in the fantasy department lately, though I still struggle with epic fantasy) so I've decide to tackle it head on!
Admittedly, it wasn't always this way. Between the ages of 13-16, I dipped into my grandmother's collection of Harlequin Historicals rather frequenty. My favorites were the ones where the heroine would dress up like a man, such as TO TOUCH THE SUN by Barbara Leigh (Don't ask me how I remember the title of this now out of print book all these years later!).
Check out this summary:
To be a knight, chivalrous in deed and courageous in battle, was all that Drue had ever wished for. Dubbed Sir Drue, she had sworn to serve her king and seek revenge against her enemy, Connaught. She had vowed to slay the treacherous knight, yet one look into the depths of his fire-blue eyes and she knew she could never kill him.
Though she had captured him fairly on the field of battle, it was Drue who was completely in his power, and she shuddered to think what the proud Connaught would do when he discovered that the "lad" who had defeated him was nothing more than a woman.
Oh yeah.
But then, I discovered the classics and high-brow literary fiction and abandoned romance novels. My grandmother would still fill my car trunk up with bags of Harlequins when I headed back to my college dorm, but I'd just pass them on to friends.
****Short tangent...there was this one novel, ROARKE'S FOLLY by Claire Delocroix, that kept my roommate up all night reading...and because she was so tired, she slept through her alarm and missed a test. We started to referring to the incident as "Lua's Folly".****
So basically, I haven't gone anywhere near a genre romance novel (with one exception) since the late 90s and YOU have the power to change that right now!
How? Please recommend a genre romance novel (you know - the ones that usually have covers depicting a charming, dangerous, possibly-shirtless man) that you have read and loved in the comments. Let's stick with contemporary and historical romances for now (I am not up for any eye-ball scalding werewolf sex at the moment).
I will pick the one that appeals most to me and then BUY it, read the entire thing, and post a review here.
Go, go, go!
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