This books sounds right up my alley. I’m particularly fond of older woman/younger man romances.

Check out the blurb from Liquid Silver Books:

As summer begins, newly divorced Kristen Tilden is trying hard to be civil to her ex-husband–as well as the rich society blonde who stole him, Victoria Stafford. But when she meets Victoria’s sexy twenty-two-year-old son Dylan at a cocktail party, sparks fly that are soon blazing into an inferno of lust, deception and scandal.

Kristen just wants one torrid summer of passion and privacy with her young lover. But Dylan wants her for good - and is intent on proving that he can be the man of her dreams, despite the ten years between them. When his mother and her ex-husband discover the affair, all hell breaks loose. Soon Kristin finds herself forced to choose between her professional reputation and her forbidden love … and in the process, discovers that Dylan may not be quite the man she originally thought.

Let me just go and find my credit card…

As a Brit, I’m not too keen on reading romance novels based in England, Scotland, or God forbid, Wales, but I do have a few authors who I make an exception for.

I only really started reading hystericals a couple of years ago, but I knew right off that anything based in England would usually end up with me gagging in disgust. Most of time anyway.

I love Lisa Kleypas’ books, but she writes hot, and I’m all about those hot books. One of my guilty pleasures, are the seriously one-dimensional Cheryl Holt books, but that’s because she uses rude words in her stories, and I like her slutty slappers heroines.

I like Julie Garwood because she’s a damn fine writer, period, Kinsale isn’t too bad either, although I have to say, her books usually take more concentration than I like to expend, whilst reading.

Judith Ivory’s Beast, was an amazing book, but let’s face it, any story where the hero is as imperfect as Charles Harcourt was, is bound to be an attention grabber. I like romance books that dare to be different, Skeeving me out with dragon sex doesn’t count, and Beast was certainly different.

I’ve got another of Ivory’s books on my TBR, fuck knows when I’ll get round to reading it, but Sleeping Beauty, seemed like a good read, so I’m sure I’ll read it at some point this year.

I can take or leave Gaelen Foley’s books, but I have to say, I do love her heroines. It’s a shame she’s such a hit and miss author for me.

I hear that Eloisa James is a pretty good writer, but I’ve never read any of her blurbs that inspired me to buy yet. The same goes with Teresa Medeiros.

I’m told that I’m missing out on loads of other good authors who write European historicals, but I’m not convinced about that. I don’t mind reading books about virgins, but I certainly don’t want a steady diet of them, and I know that historicals by their very nature will have a virgin heroine, more often than not.

I just can’t bear the weak-assed, lily-livered heroines that authors such as Catherine Coulter insist on writing about. Blech.

On the other hand, I find that I’m quite partial to western historicals. I realise that in recent years, they seem to have been going the way of regencies, but quite honestly, I’ve enjoyed the ones I’ve read.

Authors like Catherine Anderson have made westerns a joy for me to read, and of course I can’t mention westerns without pimping my main biatch Sarah McCarty.

I enjoyed Maureen Mckade’s A Reason To Live, although I must admit, it took me longer than usual to read it.

I think the reason I prefer American historicals over European historicals is because as a ‘European’ I’m not interested in reading the English language of old, get horribly mangled by authors who haven’t done their research properly, and litter their books with stereotypical Anglo Saxon or Gaelic phrases, which a lot of the time, bare no resemblance to the original language.

The other reason that I prefer American historicals, is because, it’s so far removed to anything I’ve ever experienced. Quite frankly, I find the civil war period a lot more interesting than anything that happened during the Tudor era. This is probably a black thing, but I’m not very interested in the taming of the duke, or the runaway duchess. I tolerate The Ton in Kleypas’ books, because she’s a good writer.

I’ve always wondered why European historicals seem to be more popular than American historicals. Are the reasons similar to mine, in that you guys want settings that you’re not familiar with?

Mrs Giggles pointed out the tongue-in-cheekiness of Samhain Publishing’s warnings about the degree of sensuality in their books.

My favourite is definitely the “warning: Explicit, hanging from the chandeliers style sex!” description. Hilarious.

Can anybody actually tell what sex the above person is? I’m guessing it’s a dude, but by the looks of him, he’s on some kind of hormone replacement therapy. It seems to be working just fine too. The bastard’s got bigger tatas than I have. Sheesh.

Methinks the guy on the left could do with some sun. Seriously, I can’t even tell where his skin ends and his trousers begin. Also, check out the girl’s arm…


I’m jealous of her wax job. Nary a hair to be found anywhere.

Jesus effing Christ, this guy sure is U.G.L.Y

Seriously Changeling, could your covers suck anymore?

I bought this book after reading Rosario’s review of it, and I have to say, so far, so damn good.

Check out the back cover blurb:

Wearing her shades, a black Stetson, and snakeskin cowboy boots, security agent, Maxine “Max” Blake is the baddest thing walking. Ex-marine, ex-cop and a whole lotta ‘tude, Max doesn’t have time for anything but her job. Her latest assignment: to protect Dr. Adam Gary. Her problem: he doesn’t want her there.

Adams wants to focus on his work, not to be distracted by this tall, sexy woman. A foiled kidnapping attempt may have forced him to take an undercopver agent into his household, but no one said anything about the agent being a woman, or that she’d be beautiful, or that she came with two monster rottweilers.

How is he supposed to concentrate on his top-secret project that could revolutionise the world when all he can think about is her smooth, coffee-colored skin, and those long, lean legs?

But as danger nips at their heels, love may be a distraction neither of them will live to enjoy…

Sounds fantabulous doesn’t it?

What am I loving? A kick-ass heroine with two of the cutest (and meanest) rottweilers EVAH. (and I am so not a pets-in-romance gal.)

What else am I loving? A heroine who is able to protect herself and her charge. A heroine who isn’t afraid to laugh at herself, and a heroine who knows what her vagina is for.

Just my kinda book… *Happy sigh*

Poor Britney. A psychologist would have a field day with this.

I’d probably agree with their assessment.

This is a cry for help, as well as a way to gain some control in a life which seems to be spiralling downwards at a zillion miles an hour.

In reality, she probably has more in common with the late Anna Nicole Smith, than anybody would ever imagine.

I wish she’d let somebody help her, but it seems like she’s hell-bent on making a mess of her life. She really ought to get a grip, because she’s got two babies to look after.

She should have stuck with Justin. At least he wasn’t a total dickwad.

Has anybody else noticed that EC’s authors seem to have become One-Book-Wonder specialists?

When I first discovered EC, authors like Lora Leigh, Jaci Burton, Shiloh Walker used to have books out constantly. But for some reason that’s changed. As far as I can gather, the only ‘original’ EC author who seems to churn out lots of books for them still is Lorie O’Clare.

The new authors seem to write one book, then we never hear from them again. I wonder why this is? I wonder if like me, many previous EC faithfuls aren’t buying them?

I’ll read anybody as long as the blurb sounds interesting, but for some reason, the blurbs at EC just do not inspire me to go buy. It never used to be like that.

On the other hand, I’m buying more books from Liquid Silver Books, and Samhain. At least they’re not over-egging the whole BDSM thing. Have I told anybody lately how much I hate BDSM books? Well I do. They suck in the worst way.

It would be interesting to know if the profits at EC have been in decline this past year. With so many new authors who only seem to write one book before disappearing into EC’s Great Hole, surely that must tell its own story? After all, if they were selling, then surely they’d be writing more books for them?

I have tried the new authors, but most of the newbies that I’ve read, have sucked in a big way, so I’m less eager to try them in the future.

It seems to me that the NY publishers have lured away the cream of crop, and just left the dross.

By the way EC, the website needs a major facelift. I’ve always hated that shitty mustard colour anyway, but three years of looking at the same ‘ole crappy design is just a bit much.

Samhain’s website looks better in comparison, as does LSB’s.

It’s about time you guys made some improvements. Seriously.

Oh yeah, and stop accepting so many BDSM books for fuck’s sake.

Me and TTG spent it apart. I had a business meeting up in the North East, and he had a meeting down south.

I treated myself though and booked a luxurious hotel, which was heavenly. It helped that I could claim the tax back, on the hotel. (g)

TTG sent me some tulips at the hotel to mark the day. They were really lovely, but I didn’t need them, flowers just aren’t my thing, and never have been. I do like tulips though, if I was a flowers girl, they would be my flower of choice.

Whilst I was luxuriating in a bubble-filled bath tub, TTG was having dinner with a work colleague, and because it was Valentine’s day, the waiter assumed they were gay. He even insisted on taking a photograph of the happy couple. Too funny. I can imagine how much The Tall Guy played on this. He can camp it up with the best of them if he puts his mind to it. His campness always reminds me of Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cops though, over the top, but funny as hell.

It’s the first time in a long time time (if ever) we’ve spent Valentine apart, and you know what? It didn’t feel strange at all. Not that I really thought it would, we’ve both always kind of resented the commercial side of Valentine’s Day. I read somewhere that there are usually more fights on V day than on any other date in the calendar year. I don’t know if that’s accurate, but I bet it’s not far off the truth.

Anyway, what did you guys do? Anybody do anything wildly romantic and sickening? Anybody get a proposal?

I’m somebody who likes to get the true tale straight from the horse’s mouth, so with this in mind, I decided to conduct a poll based on African American authors experiences within the publishing industry.

I want to know how other AA authors feel about the current shelving policies, I want to know who they feel is to blame for the current problems that they face. I want to know if they feel that their work is considered inferior in comparison to white romance authors. I want to know their thoughts on what needs to change.

I already tried doing this the discreet way, by sending out an e-mail to all the AA authors that I’m familiar with, but so far I’ve only had 9 responses (I sent 50 e-mails out thus far). Two of the authors were too busy, one person didn’t want to be involved, because they thought I was affiliated to All About Romance, and one author decided to forward the supposedly private e-mail and private e-mail address, to a whole host of Yahoo groups. Thanks for that, I do so love getting spam. Incidentally, she didn’t want to particpate.

Now here’s the hard bit, to get this news out, I need help from you guys. (Yes you need to do some work!)

I would like for all the reader and writer bloggers out there who frequent this site to cut and paste the following message onto their blog:

Racism In Publishing, How Does It Affect You?

Are you an African American author who’s been published for at least one year? If so Karen Scott wants to hear from you.

She’s conducting a survey based on the racism within the publishing industry, and whether or not it’s as prevalent as some believe. She’s looking for black or African American authors who have been published for at least one year.

She would like to know about your specific experiences within the industry thus far. She wants to know how AA authors feel about the current shelving policies, and niche marketing. She wants to know who you feel is to blame for the problems that you face. She also wants your suggestions on how things can be improved upon.

In all, there are twenty questions in the survey, and all that she asks is that people be as honest as possible. Confidentiality is assured if requested, but for the findings to yield more weight, she would request that she be granted permission to directly quote from the answers given by the authors.

She’s hoping to poll at least 100 AA authors, in an effort to ensure that a fair representation is achieved.

If enough authors agree to partcipate, (and depending on the findings) the results may well be sent to representatives within media and press. No promises that Oprah will hear about it, but all efforts will be made to get the message out.

If there are AA authors out there interested in participating in this poll, please e-mail Karen at hairylemony @ gmail. com (without the spaces) with the subject header ‘Please send me the survey’.

The deadline for the survey to be completed and returned to Karen is March 1st 2007

I’d be really grateful if you guys could help me to spread the word, and fingers crossed that I get a better response this way.

Please note that this post will remain at the top of the blog for the next month. For my regular *ahem*, daily posts, please look below.

Thanks to the following AA authors who have agreed to particpate so far:

Lynn Emery

Evelyn Palfrey

Marcia King-Gamble

Niqui Stanhope

Gwyneth Bolton

Beverly Jenkins

Monica Jackson

MJ King

Raine Weaver

Kayla Perrin

Kymberlyn Reed

Angela Henry

Seressia Glass

Kyra Hicks

Eugenia O’Neal

Shelia Goss

Millennia Black

Bettye Griffin

Harrine Freeman

I’m sure it’s no coincidence that these ladies also have great websites. (g)

I wrote this review last year, but I thought I’d repost it because I happen to like Sharon Cullars and I think you should all go and buy her book so that she can keep writing. *g*

How yummy is this book cover?

So I recently read Again, by Sharon Cullars. Here’s the blurb:

Tyne Jensen has been as unlucky in love, as she’s been in her career as a journalist. That is until she meets David Carvelli at her sister’s wedding.

The two are inexplicably drawn to each other, and although David is willing to pursue their mutual attraction, Tyne has decided that she just can’t be arsed, although it’s been a while since she got laid.

Another reason why Tyne doesn’t want to get involved with David is because he gives her the heeby geebies he seems familiar to her, even though she knows that they haven’t met before.

David on the other hand is all too willing to get between her legs because she’s hot, and she reminds him of the woman who he’s been having wet dreams about lately.

As David and Tyne navigate their way into bed accepting their mutual attraction, they are unaware that their relationship is one that has somehow managed to transcend time, and that they share a history, that spans over two centuries.

Will they be able to rewrite history and live happily ever after in the here and now, or will ghosts of years gone by destroy any chance they have of being happy together…?

My Verdict

I liked this story. I really did. However, it wasn’t perfect, but before I go on about the things that made me want to growl like a lion on steroids, I’ll tell you what I did like about it.

I thought Cullars had a good voice, she was easy to read, and the book was compelling enough to keep me amused during the horrendous landing that me and The Tall Guy experienced on our way back from Dusseldorf. (I’m still convinced that the pilot on that flight was on some sort of a training scheme).

I liked the heroine because she didn’t piss me off. I liked the hero, because he didn’t piss me off. You may think that this is an odd thing to point out, but trust me, I’ve read some right duds lately, but thankfully, this wasn’t one of the legions of shitty books that have come my way in the past few weeks.

Although Tyne was having a hard time at work, and things hadn’t gone quite as she had planned, she didn’t sit around bitching and moaning like a crack addict going cold turkey. She was a woman in control, and that’s how I like my heroines. There aren’t many authors(IMO) who can pull off strong heroines, that don’t end up pissing me off, for one reason or another. Cullars managed to do this rather nicely.

David, the hero, was very appealing, even though he had some issues. It was easy to warm to him, because I’m a romance reader who prefers the hero to be more gaga over the heroine, than the other way round.

There was a point in the story where David did start to get a leetle annoying, but I got over that, quick sharp.

Now, let’s talk about what I didn’t like about the story.

There were just too much jumping about between the different times, and the constant head hopping between the different characters did my head in . At one point, I’d read a full page before I realised that David was no longer David Carvelli in modern day Chicago, rather he was Joseph whatshisface from the year 1879. This happened more than once, and it frustrated the tits off me.

Again was unpredictable in parts, mostly due to the fact that at one point, you couldn’t work out how Cullars was going to give Tyne and David a happy ending. She gave them a HEA, but to be honest, it wasn’t as satisfactory as it could have been , considering everything that had gone on.

Something else that I didn’t particularly appreciate about the story, was the sub-plot involving David’s mother’s ESP abilities. Totally unnecessary, and just took up precious pages that could have been dedicated to David and Tyne’s evolving relationship.

Again was a beautiful story, and although it wasn’t totally flawless, I do think that a lot of readers would be able to look beyond the not-so-good things, and still manage to enjoy, what definitely was a better than average story.