Five Questions for Romance Readers

The Definition:

This post is a meme. “Meme,” alternately pronounced to rhyme with “cream” or as the first syllable in “memory,” has been defined in various ways. The definition I like best is “an idea that, like a gene, can replicate and evolve.” I’ve seen variations on the web of the reader’s game (the idea), and I copied (replicated) it, adapting it for my interests and purpose (evolution). Incidentally, I prefer the second pronunciation because the memes I like best are inevitably questions that require me to use my memory.

The Questions:

1. What are you reading today?
2. What are your top five all-time favorite romances?
3. What romance author have you recommended most often?
4. What romance could you honestly call “life-changing”?
5. What romance novel are you most looking forward to reading in 2010?

My Answers:

1. What are you reading today?
I’m reading Madeline Hunter’s Ravishing in Red. Except for her medievals, a subgenre I generally avoid no matter who’s writing it, Hunter is an autobuy author for me. I love her voice, her way with language, and the complexities of relationships that are characteristic of her writing. I was a bit hesitant to start this one because friends have raved about it so enthusiastically that I was afraid it might not live up to expectations. But I find fascinating the core idea of the new series, women living communally, and I quickly fell hard for Sebastian. It’s a great read, and I’m primed for the rest of the series.

2. What are your top five all-time favorite romances?
I could probably list a top 500 more easily than I can limit myself to five, but if forced to choose, I’ll go with the following: Persuasion by Jane Austen; Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase; Frederica by Georgette Heyer; Pleasure for Pleasure by Eloisa James; Till the Stars Fall by Kathleen Gilles Seidel (with A Place to Call Home by Deborah Smith a very close sixth). I’ve read them all more times than I can count, and I discover new things to love with each reading. The characters are familiar now but no less engaging for that.

3. What romance author have you recommended most often?
For years, I rarely recommended romance novels because suggesting one usually resulted in friends proclaiming "I never read romance novels" or warnings that my reading such “trash” would “rot my brain.” One of the joys of discovering online romance communities was building friendships with intelligent women who sgared my enthusiasm for romance reading. Now I recommend favorite books regularly. I recommend all my favorite writers, but I most enjoy recommending older books I’ve loved. I’ve recommended Carla Kelly’s Reforming Lord Ragsdale many times. Till the Stars Fall by Kathleen Gilles Seidel may be the book I’ve recommended most often. Both Kelly and Seidel are writers who often get overlooked, so I delight in making other readers aware of what wonderful writers they are.


4. What romance could you honestly call “life-changing”?
Sometimes I was a covert reader of romance, but from my tenth summer until the present moment, I have read them. I don’t have a single book that I can point to and say that it’s the one that shaped my love of the genre. There have been many romances that opened my eyes to some new truth and have been life-changing in that way. But the most definitively life-changing were the category romances of Essie Summers. When I was going through one of the most difficult periods of my life, when the very term “happy ending” seemed bitterly ironic, I read Summers’ sweet romances that were filled with courage and humor and a love that won over all odds. They allowed me to live in a world where love did conquer all. That world helped me heal.

5. What romance novel are you most looking forward to reading in 2010?
This is another tough question. I can name ten titles that I’m excited about reading next month alone: Moonlight Road, Robyn Carr; In Bed with the Duke, Christina Dodd; On the Steamy Side, Louisa Edwards; Something About You, Julie James; The Family Man, Trish Milburn; On Shadow Beach, Barbara Freethy; Lois Lane Tells All, Karen Hawkins; Match Made in Court, Janice Kay Johnson; Mad, Bad, and Blonde, Cathy Linz; The Wild Marquis, Miranda Neville. Again, if forced to limit my choice, I’ll say that my most eagerly anticipated romance novel of 2010 is a tossup between two, both out in July: Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage, the second of Jennifer Ashley’s Mackenzie Brothers books and follow-up to my top read of last year, The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie; and Last Night’s Scandal by Loretta Chase, the long anticipated story of Olivia and Peregrine, the wonderful, battling, adventuring 12 and 13 year-old duo from Chase’s Lord Perfect.

Now it’s your turn. What are your answers to the five questions?