Love and Lust: Welcome to Sea Port

Welcome to Sea Port is a series from Katrina Jackson. I read the first three: From Scratch, Inheritance, and Small Town Secrets. The series features mostly Black characters, and a variety of relationships: From Scratch is a threesome (MMF), Inheritance is male-female couple, and Secrets is two women. Sea Port is a small, remote, and …

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It’s all taken care of: The Marriage Pact

The Marriage Pact, Wendy Sotis, 2018 Several years ago, Sotis started writing Austen fan fiction, and has published many variations of Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship, with more promised, but The Marriage Pact is an original Regency romance. James and Celia have been friends for years, due to connections between their families, and as the story …

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More or Less Contemporary Reads

Now that I'm all caught up reviewing my historical reads, here's what else I've been reading. An assortment of contemporaries, with a little suspense, erotica, a sweet, and even a romantic threesome. Tell Me No Lies, Kathryn Shay, Harlequin Super Romance, 2006 Cease Fire, Janie Crouch, Harlequin Intrigue, 2018 Mystery Date, Crystal Green, Harlequin Blaze, …

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Escape to the Past: The Rock Creek Six

After several years of reading romance novels, I've narrowed my preferred romance story type for reading and writing: Contemporary tales featuring ordinary people, with strengths, flaws, and pasts, who are happy on their own, but find another person who helps them grow. I've enjoyed other types - paranormals, millionaire, billionaire, suspense, and so on - …

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A Teasing Temptation: Never a Bride

JoAnn Ross is a prolific writer, who has written in a variety of romance subgenres. Just looking over her list of titles is enough to make me want to read some of her work (especially the book where the couple write a romance - and you can also buy the romance they wrote). However, my …

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Luck and Privilege: Book Inserts

Many of the older romances I pick up, and even some of the newer ones, have mail-in cards that sign you up for a monthly book subscription. The cards usually include a gift, sometimes a contest, and always a sticker of some sort that you must remove from one page and attach to another. Presumably …

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A Breathless Race: Chasing the Heiress

Chasing the Heiress is a 2016 historical romance  from Rachel Miles. This is from Zebra books, specifically their Shout Fresh New Romance line. Not sure what that all means. The story is in a series called Muses Salon, but in this book the titular salon is just an idea occasionally mentioned. It's been a while …

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Snowstorm Seduction: Stranded with the Rancher

One of the challenges of romance is getting your couple together, and keeping them together until propinquity kicks in, in a short period of time. A favourite device for this is weather enforced isolation. I do this in my Romance One, where a rainstorm and bridge washout leave my couple stranded and alone. I was …

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Campground Love: Hometown Girl Again

This book and the next I'll be discussing have several aspects in common with my Romance One draft. It's reassuring to see this, because it lets me know that my ideas are well within the genre. For example, in Stranded with The Rancher (next post), it's a storm that brings together and isolates the couple …

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