Anthology Appreciation Week

I’m writing this on Monday, not my favorite day of the week. I always think there should be a day between the end of the weekend and the start of the new week, a low-key day that makes little demands. Maybe then I would like Mondays better. It’s also raining today, and the song running through my head is an old one—“Rainy Days and Mondays” by the Carpenters.

Talkin' to myself and feelin' old,
Sometimes I'd like to quit.
Nothing ever seems to fit,
Hangin' around,
Nothing to do but frown.
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.

One thing that can raise my spirit on a Monday and a rainy day is a good book. Today I’m rereading the repackaged edition of Scottish Brides, a 1999 anthology featuring novellas by Christina Dodd, Stephanie Laurens, Karen Ranney, and Julia Quinn. My rereading has reminded me of how much I love anthologies. I hate piecemeal reading, but usually I’m forced into it. I don’t often have the luxury of the free hours it would take to read a book at one sitting. But I can read a novella in an hour or less and enjoy that satisfying feeling of having finished a good read. An added benefit is the occasional delight of discovering a new-to-me author whose voice I love.

Scottish Brides is such a delight that it set me to thinking about my favorite anthologies. Could I choose seven favorites, one for each day of a private observance of Anthology Appreciation Week? After checking my catalog of keepers, I decided that I could do so only if I imposed some limits.

No Christmas anthologies allowed on the list. I have so many Christmas favorites that they belong in a separate category.

No single-author anthologies allowed. Their keeper status was determined by a different criterion than multiple-author collections. This decision eliminates Here’s to the Ladies, a Carla Kelly collection of American frontier army stories that is a jewel.

No anthologies that are on the keeper shelf on the basis of a single story. These may merit the designation “favorite novella,” but they do not qualify as a favorite anthology. I strike Talk of the Ton and The One That Got Away with beloved stories by Eloisa James, Secrets of a Perfect Night with Rachel Gibson’s “Now and Forever,” which may be my favorite contemporary novella ever, and In Praise of Younger Men with Jo Beverley’s dark and steamy “The Demon’s Mistress.”

No short story collections permitted, only novellas. Now I cut collections by Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Alice Munro, Bobbie Ann Mason, and the Mossy Creek stories.

I’m left with a more manageable list that, with difficulty, I cut to my top seven anthologies plus one honorable mention. These are the anthologies I reread most often, the ones that mix authors I love with new discoveries, the ones that include multiple novellas that entertain, delight, and move me. These are the anthologies that I find most deserving of celebration during this self-proclaimed Anthology Appreciation Week.


1. Irresistible Forces
Irresistible Forces is an anthology of SF/Fantasy romances that I bought solely for the stories by Putney and Beverley, both long-time autobuy authors for me. It is my #1 favorite anthology because I enjoyed every story in it, and it made me a fan of such blended genre tales. I expected to love the stories by Beverley and Putney, and I did. MJP’s contribution, “The Alchemical Marriage,” is an Elizabethan-set story with a Spanish Armada connection. It also serves as a sort of prequel for her Guardian books. Jo Bev’s “The Trouble with Heroes” is a layered piece filled with humor, pathos, philosophy, and politics. The themes of sacrifice and honor will be familiar ones to readers of her romance novels. My only quibble is that I wanted it to be longer.

I had heard friends rave about Bujold’s Vorkosigan tales, but since I almost never read science fiction, I doubt that I would ever have read them had I not read “Winterfair Gifts” and realized that Bujold was writing about relationships. And Catherine Asaro’s “Stained Glass Heart,” one of my favorite novellas ever, includes such beloved romance tropes as arranged marriage and lovers who were childhood friends. It has an innocence and joy that fills me with delight just remembering it. Deb Stover’s “Skin Deep” is an angel story that is great fun to read and left me thinking someone should turn it into a movie; Jennifer Roberson’s “Shadows in the Wood,” the shortest in the anthology, is a Robin Hood tale in which Merlin and Arthur’s sword Excalibur figure.


2. The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown
Like most Julia Quinn fans, I love Lady Whistledown, and I think the LW anthologies were a brilliant idea. This collection is my favorite. I love following the thread that links the stories. Suzanne Enoch’s “One True Love” is a lovely arranged marriage tale with lively exchanges between an H/H at odds and great sexual tension. Karen Hawkins’s contribution, “Two Hearts,” is a friends-to-lovers romance that tickles the funny bone and warms the heart. Hawkins’s gift for creating strong, endearing characters holds true here. Royce and Liza are my favorites in the anthology. Mia Ryan’s “A Dozen Kisses” features a wonderfully interesting hero, one with a brain injury that makes him appear slow-witted. I enjoyed the story, but I was frustrated because I felt it deserved to be more fully developed than the format allowed. “Thirty-six Valentines” is a typical Julia Quinn offering. The characters delight, the dialogue sparkles, the conflict amuses, and the story is an A all the way.

3. Where's My Hero?
Please don’t throw things at me if I admit I’ve only read two of the three stories in this anthology. I have the greatest admiration for Kinley McGregor/Sherrilyn Kenyon’s achievements. I have friends who are huge fans of her work, but it’s just not for me. This anthology ranks high on my list because I adored the other two stories by authors I consider brilliant in knowing what they do best and doing it better than anyone else.

I’m one of those readers who has a long list of secondary characters whose stories I long for. This anthology is perfect for readers like me in this respect. The heroine of Lisa Kleypas’s “Against the Odds” is the mathematician daughter of Sara and Derek Craven (Dreaming of You); the hero is Jake Linley, the interesting doctor who appears in four Kleypas novels (Someone to Watch Over Me, Where Dreams Begin, Lady Sophia’s Lover, and Worth Any Price). About time he got his own story. I enjoy watching the relationship between these atypical characters develop, but the parts of the story I like best are the scenes where Sara and Derek, one of the best H/H pairings ever, appear.

I read Splendid when it was first published and have been a Julia Quinn fan ever since. I was delighted to learn that “A Tale of Two Sisters” was the story of Ned Blyden, a secondary character in Quinn’s first three novels. I loved the character, and his story is a perfect fit for him. He and Charlotte are wonderful together, and Ned’s “poetic” composition makes me literally howl with laughter. “Charming” is a word that’s overused, but it is the best description I know for this story that truly is “highly pleasing, delightful to the mind and senses.”

4. Faery Magic
In this anthology, four writers, including three of my long-time autobuy authors, combine the magic of myth and legend with the enchantment of Georgian and Regency settings to tell stories of the intersection of the human world and the world of faery. The stories are connected by the world they share, but each offers unique delights. Jo Beverley’s “The Lord of Elphindale” is about a half-faery, half-human heroine who defies the very purpose for which she was created in an act of love. Karen Harbaugh’s “The Faery Braid,” a new take on the old tale Rapunzel, shows the hard choices life requires. “The Love Talker,” Barbara Samuel’s tale of a faery lord, cursed for his heartless seductions, who learns love and compassion from a simple country maid, is a lovely story made even more extraordinary by Samuel’s gorgeous prose. The heroine of Mary Jo Putney’s “Dangerous Gifts” learns that coveted gifts may come with too high a price.


5. Scottish Brides
The novellas in this anthology are all rooted in Scottish history and folklore, but they may be most notable for exemplifying so well the qualities readers look for in each of these authors. Christina Dodd’s “Under the Kilt” is a sexy tale featuring Hadden Fairchild, the brother of the heroine in A Well Pleasured Lady, a stubborn alpha who is all a Scots hero should be. “Rose in Bloom” by Stephanie Laurens is the tale of a rake reunited with the verbal sparring partner of his childhood, the Rose of the title. Julia Quinn’s “Gretna Green” has all the charm and fun I expect from a Quinn story and two likeable characters who share terrific chemistry and engaging banter. “The Glenlyon Bride” by Karen Ranney uses standard plots (arranged marriage and mistaken identity) to tell a sweet love story that is anything but standard in its development of a relationship that encompasses body, mind, and spirit.

6. Bride by Arrangement
I love Mary Jo Putney’s marriage of convenience tale, “Wedding of the Century,” in which an American heiress and a duke in need of a fortune discover how perfect they are for one another. Merline Lovelace’s “Mismatched Hearts” is a competent story of an H/H, engaged to the wrong people, whose honor is tested before their HEA is assured. “My Darling Echo” by Gayle Wilson is an unexpected treasure, the heart-warming tale of a blind earl and a struggling widow who marry first and fall in love afterwards.

7. Three Weddings and a Kiss
“The Kiss,” more short story than novella, is notable because it is the work of Kathleen Woodiwiss and features as hero Jeff Birmingham, brother of Brandon, the hero of Woodiwiss’s famous The Flame and the Flower. “Fancy Free” by Catherine Anderson is an American frontier tale of revenge and misunderstandings with some nice touches of humor, although I found it much less satisfying than Anderson’s best work like Annie’s Song and Phantom Waltz. Loretta Chase’s “The Mad Earl’s Bride” is among my top five novellas. There is nothing ordinary about this tale of a dying earl and the bluestocking heroine whose knowledge and stubbornness create a happy ending against all odds. The novella connects to Lord of Scoundrels, and Gwendolyn deserves a place beside Jessica Trent in the pantheon of romance heroines. “Promises” by Lisa Kleypas features a hero who is a shadow of Derek Craven and a heroine who persists in an inexplicable attachment to another man. Still, it’s Kleypas, and even a less than stellar Kleypas has much to recommend it.

Honorable Mention: It Happened One Night
All four novellas in this anthology tell the story of a man and a woman who meet serendipitously at an inn after years apart. Stephanie Laurens’s “The Fall of Rogue Gerrard,” which won a Rita for best novella, is vintage Laurens. A reformed rake meets a sensible woman from his past, is caught up in her most insensible scheme, and loses his heart. “Spellbound,” a tale of an estranged husband and wife who uncover the lies that separated them and rediscover their love, has the well-developed relationship, the emotional punch, and the memorable characters that have made Mary Balogh a legend in romance fiction. Jacquie D'Allesandro's “Only You,” a Rita finalist, is an interesting take on youthful lovers separated by class who are given a second chance. “From This Moment On” by Candice Hern ends her Merry Widows series. It’s my favorite among these stories. I love Wilhelmina, former courtesan and current widowed duchess. I love that she and Sam are mature characters. And I love that he was her first love. This one is a winner from an author who is underappreciated.

Do you appreciate anthologies? What are your favorites?

From the Pen of a Beta Reader

Jayne Ann Krentz is wrong. I say this with trembling and trepidation but with unwavering conviction. After all, JAK is a goddess, a legendary defender of romance fiction, an author I’ve been reading for decades. And I’m just one among countless wannabes. Nevertheless, Ms. Krentz was wrong when she said, "No one wants to read about a beta hero." I am one, and I love reading about beta heroes. Furthermore, I know I’m not alone.

When I look back at the beta heroes I have known and loved, I realize that they are more than personal favorites. They are the heroes in some of the classic texts of our genre. Take Mr. Knightly in Jane Austen’s Emma—definitely a beta. Austen calls him a “sensible man,” sensibility being a quality she herself valued highly. Knightly is kind and compassionate and capable of great romantic love. He sees Emma’s faults clearly and loves her anyway.


Many of Georgette Heyer’s heroes are true alphas. Some would argue that heroes like the Duke of Avon (These Old Shades), the Marquis of Alverstoke (Frederica), and Lord Damorel (Venetia) define the generic conventions of the alpha hero. But Heyer herself divided her heroes into two types: Mark I (the alphas) and Mark II (the betas). Some of my favorite Heyer heroes--Hugo Darracott (The Unknown Ajax), Freddy Standen (Cotillion), and Gervase Frant, Earl of St. Erth (The Quiet Gentleman)—are betas all, practical, honorable, and capable of abiding friendship with a woman.


Connie Brockway’s As You Desire and Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mr. Bridgerton rank high on many lists of all-time favorite romances; both feature beta heroes. Brockway’s Harry Braxton, best friend and protector of his long-time love, was an RT KISS-award winner, and affable charmer Colin Bridgerton and his beloved Penelope are on All About Romance’s most recent Top Ten Couples list. Clearly many readers appreciate the hotness factor possessed by a good beta. Even JAK herself must love a least one beta hero: Harry Stratton Trevelyan, scientist/philosopher hero of her popular Absolutely, Positively.

Examine almost any successful series, and you will find a beta in the mix. Murphy Muldoon, hero of the concluding book on Nora Roberts’s popular Born in trilogy, is an Irish farmer with a poet’s soul. Lord Robert Andreville, hero of Mary Jo Putney’s Angel Rogue (Fallen Angels), is a spy with a truly tortured past, but the charming Robin is also a beta, who uses humor and friendship to win his love. Another of my favorite betas is Ewan Poley, Earl of Ardmore, the hero of Eloisa James’s Kiss Me, Annabel (Essex Sister #2). This handsome Scot heats up the pages of a courtship journey book, but his kindness, sense of humor, and religious convictions mark him as beta hero.

The most recent beta hero to claim my heart is Sir Tobias Aldridge, hero of A Lady of Persuasion, the third book in Tessa Dare’s debut trilogy. Toby serves to demonstrate what a beta hero is, what he is not, and what endears beta heroes to many readers.

Betas are kind and decent.

We meet Toby in Goddess of the Hunt and watch the heroine of that book realize that her feelings for Toby were merely infatuation. In Surrender of a Siren, we learn that Sophia has jilted Toby. Early in A Lady of Persuasion, we discover that Toby, at some cost to his own reputation, has protected the jilt Sophia from becoming fodder for gossip. His doing so allows Sophia and Gray to return triumphantly to London. When Lucy is in labor and Jeremy is near mad with fear, it is Toby who talks until he’s hoarse to distract Jeremy; it is Toby who reminds him that Lucy knows her husband and loves him anyway.

Betas have a sense of honor.

Alphas do not have a monopoly on honor. Toby’s honor is the foundation of his devotion to family and friends. Even his mistakes are linked to his sense of honor. He is wrong to lie to Bel about his campaign, but he instinctively understands that he must find his own purpose in life, not have it handed to him by his wife.

Betas often have a highly developed sense of humor and often use a light touch to diffuse a tense moment.

Toby understands Gray’s concern for Bel and deals with big-brother-in-protective-mode with grace and humor. His offer of a brotherly hug left me laughing out loud. His playful teasing of Bel helps her to learn the need for balancing solemnity with a glad heart.

Betas are problem-solvers.

They lack the alphas’ need to control the lives of their pack, but when presented with a problem, they can come up with a solution, often an ingenious one. When Gray, a classic alpha, is confronted with Jeremy’s fears for Lucy, he is helpless. Joss, caught in memories of his own loss, only increases the fear. It is Toby who spends hours talking of “mundane, everyday concerns that he hoped would serve as a reminder that beyond this day, beyond Lucy’s labor, mundane, everyday life would continue.”

Betas are not wimps.

Toby has ample physical courage. He is not intimidated by Gray. When Bel is in danger from runaway horses, Toby risks his own life to save her. He faces a man with a loaded gun with fortitude and finesse.

Betas are not inferior lovers.

Scene after scene in A Lady of Persuasion reveals Toby as a tender, passionate lover who satisfies his beloved in every way. He also expresses his love in words and in meaningful ways such as the honey-sweetened ice cream.

Finally, betas are not out to save the world; their focus is on home and heart.

Toward the end of ALOP, when Toby announces that he will become an MP, a position in which he will serve “with honor,” just as he will manage his estate responsibly, he says to Bel, “But my highest goal, my true reason for living, is right here in my arms. It’s you, darling. It’s us.” A few paragraphs later he adds, “I intend to be, above everything, a devoted husband. . . . And a doting father.” Bel knows she’s the “luckiest woman alive.” So does the beta-loving reader.

What about you? Are you a beta lover? If not, why not? If so, who are your favorite betas?

Exercising My Rights

A bill of rights is a formal summary of those rights and liberties considered essential to a people or group of people. Daniel Pennac in Better Than Life (1996), his wonderful book about reading, lists the rights of readers. Pennac's primary concern is with instilling a love of reading in children, but I think his list is important to any reader. These are rights I consider only slightly less important than those guaranteed to me by the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States. I exercise these rights freely, and I will defend them fiercely.

1. The right to not read any book.
I have the right to not read any author’s works, any subgenre, or any particular book that I find poorly written, offensive, boring, or just not to my tastes. I don’t read vampire books, scary thrillers, or erotica. I see my choice as a matter of personal taste, not a reflection of my intelligence or morality. There are also particular writers whose books I don’t read. It’s my dime and my time invested in the act of reading. I’m entitled to exercise my autonomy. I may be puzzled by your inability to appreciate the books I love, but I respect your autonomy too.

2. The right to skip pages.
I usually begin a book by skipping pages because I read the end first. Family members and friends look at me askance when I admit to this habit, but I’m not interested in the journey if the destination is wrong. I often skim or skip altogether scenes of graphic violence in romantic suspense. I also skip sex scenes that seem to me gratuitous, mechanical, or deep purple.

3. The right to not finish.
For years I felt that if I started a book, I had to finish it. No more. Now I rejoice in my right to give a book up at any point. Sometimes I read one page and know it’s not for me; sometimes I read a hundred pages or more before the book becomes a DNF. Occasionally I return to a DNF book and find that my mood or tastes have changed, but more often the DNF is just not my cup of tea.

4. The right to reread.
How often did you reread your childhood favorites? I’ve never known a child who did not reread. I’ve just never given up the habit. The major criterion I use to separate keepers from just books I enjoyed is whether the book is worth a reread. Rereading is like visiting old friends; it is warming, reassuring, and constant. I even have a reread shelf because often a passing reference to a book in conversation, real or virtual, or a connection in a new book to something I’ve read previously makes me long to return to the world of a particular book.

5. The right to read anything.
I read romance (single-title and category, historical and contemporary, sweet and sizzling), mystery, women’s fiction, literary fiction, history, memoir, poetry, and anything else that captures my fancy. My choices are unaffected by the prejudices of those who attach adjectives like “trashy,” and “esoteric” to my chosen reading material.

6. The right to escapism.
Some books I read to be confronted with realities beyond my own experience—the insanity of war, the grimness of real poverty, the suffering of the powerless. Sometimes I read to escape the disappointment, the heartbreak, or just the sameness of my own life. The right to escape is every bit as precious and necessary as the right to discover.

7. The right to read anywhere.
I live in a book-filled world. I have books in every room of my house, in my car, and in my purse. I read while I drink my morning coffee, when I have a solitary lunch, before I fall asleep at night. I read when I wait in my doctor’s office, when I stand in line at the grocery store, and when I get caught in traffic. So long as my reading endangers no one, I read anywhere.

8. The right to browse.
I am constitutionally unable to pass books without browsing. I go to the library or bookstore to pick up one book, and I examine a dozen or more, sampling pages. A quick trip to the grocery store is extended by fifteen minutes because I have to take time to browse the book section. Having dinner at a friend’s, I pick up a paperback from an end table and riffle through the pages.

9. The right to read out loud.
I love to read out loud. I grew up with a book-loving mother who not only read to her children when they were small but who also was wont to exclaim “Just listen to this” just before she read her adult children a passage from a current read that had struck her with its beauty, insight, or humor. I find myself doing the same thing. I am also a poet, and not surprisingly I relish the feel of the word in my mouth, its fall against my ear. When a prose passage I write seems wrong and I can’t find the problem, I read it aloud. I find the ear is often a better critic than the eye.

10. The right not to defend your tastes.
The summer I turned ten was a defining period in my life as a reader. That summer I discovered Emilie Loring and Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen and Agatha Christie, and ever since the canonical and the popular have filled my bookshelves and peppered my conversation. I read Proust and Putney and see no need to defend any of my choices.

Have you ever thought about a reader’s rights? Are there others you think should be added to Pennac’s list?

Coming Attractions: Part 2

Listing books by month and category is a strong reminder of the paucity of contemporaries. I only have three on my TBB list: two by auto-buy authors and one by a debut author who is already receiving a lot of buzz.

Contemporaries


The Perfect Christmas(September 29), Debbie Macomber
I love Christmas books. I start buying new ones as they are released every fall, and then around Thanksgiving I take out all my Christmas keepers and read Christmas books through the end of the year. Debbie Macomber’s books are always part of this ritual, and I look forward to adding a new one to my collection each year. This year’s book sounds like great fun. A thirty-something heroine, ready for a husband and kids, hires a professional matchmaker, who assigns her three Christmas tasks: serve as a charity bell-ringer, dress up as Santa’s elf, and prepare a traditional Christmas dinner for her neighbors.

Lakeshore Christmas(September 29), Susan Wiggs
Wiggs takes readers back to Willow Lake in this sixth book in her best-selling Lakeshore Chronicles books. This one pairs an unlikely duo, a prim librarian and a long-haired, tattooed former child star, as directors of the annual Christmas pageant. While I’ve liked some of the Lakeshore Chronicles more than others, they have all been good reads. This one promises cheery fires, heartwarming carols, ample goodwill, and love story with an HEA. I’m sure there will be sightings of characters from former chronicles as well.

Note: If you, like me, have been waiting for Daisy’s story, Wiggs says we will have to wait a little longer. It will be a 2011 publication.

Can’t Stand the Heat(September 1), Louisa Edwards

The buzz on this romantic comedy has been enthusiastic. A light-hearted, fast-paced tale of the relationship between a food critic and a chef, Can’t Stand the Heat sounds promising. The word I heard is that if you like heat, you’ll love this kitchen. I’m looking forward to visiting. A second Recipe for Love book is due on shelves in March 2010.

Paranormal

Storm of Visions, Christina Dodd
I can take or leave paranormals; mostly I leave them. But I have been a Christina Dodd fan for ages. If La Dodd writes a book, I’m going to buy it. Like thousands of other readers, I thrilled to her Darkness Chosen Books and was delighted when I learned that CD was writing a spinoff series. The Romance Vagabonds were privileged to break the news of the new series, a fact that makes these books even more special to me. I loved Storm of Visions, which reached #5 on the NYT bestseller list. Storm of Shadows (September 1) promises to be just as great a read. I particularly love that the heroine of this book is a habitué of universities and libraries and is seduced into danger by the promise of museum visits. Now That’s my kind of heroine! You can read an excerpt here.



Romantic Suspense

I read little romantic suspense. Some of the best authors in this subgenre write too scary for me. I avoid things that might give me nightmares. But a handful of writers manage to hook me despite my caution. Two of that small group have September releases.

The Perfect Liar, Brenda Novak
Trust Me introduced Novak’s Last Stand series about an organization that focuses on helping survivors of violent crimes. The Perfect Liar is the fifth book in that series, and it offers something different, an Air Force captain charged with rape. His accuser is a stalker who has evidence to support her claim. Ava Bixby of The Last Stand must determine who the victim is and where danger lies. Romantic Times gave this one 4.5 Stars. You can read an excerpt here.

Make Her Pay, Roxanne St. Claire
Someone gave me one of Roxanne St. Claire’s Bullet Catcher books more than a year ago. Since romantic suspense is not my favorite genre, Take Me Tonight languished on my TBR shelf until I hit several DNF historicals in a row and needed something different as a palate cleanser. I gave TMT a try, loved it, and I’ve been a Bullet Catchers fan ever since, glomming the older titles and looking forward to each new story. Make Her Pay (September 29) is Bullet Catchers #10, if you count novellas. It features a hero with a Greek name and a redemption plot. I’ll be at the bookstore on release day for this one. You can read an excerpt here.

Categories

Back in the day when bookstores were harder to find, I used to buy category romances by the armload. I read many fewer categories these days, but I still have favorite authors that I look for and a couple of lines that I check out each month.

The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst, Louise Allen
Harlequin Historicals offers readers some wonderful books by terrific authors. Louise Allen is one of the best. Allen’s Scandalous Ravenhurst series is up to #6 with Clemence’s book (release scheduled for September 1). The books have been a bit uneven--some terrific and others just ok, but TPMR sounds good. High seas adventures,cross-dressing heroine, honorable naval officer undercover—I like the ingredients. You can read an excerpt here.

Here to Stay, Margot Early
Harlequin Super Romance is my favorite contemporary category line because I like context with the love stories I read. I particularly like the Everlasting Love books. I was sorry to see Harlequin discontinue the EL line, but I’m glad that the stories after the conventional HEA survive in certain books within the Super Romance line. Here to Stay (September 8) weaves together rich girl/poor boy and big secret themes. The themes may be overused, but since it’s an Everlasting Love book and I've read books by Early that I really liked, I’ll give it a try. You can read an excerpt here.

A Marriage-Minded Man, Karen Templeton
Templeton is one of the category authors whose books I always look for. I was fortunate enough to win an early copy of this book, and I’ve already read it. I have a soft spot for reunion stories, and AMMM is a good one. Tess and Eli are likeable characters, and the issues they overcome are real issues in contemporary life. You can read an excerpt of this Silhouette Special Edition here.



Anthology

A Christmas Ball
I love anthologies, and I especially love Christmas anthologies. A Christmas Ball (September 29) sounds like a terrific way to start celebrating early. It contains novellas by Emily Bryan, Jennifer Ashley, and Elissa Johnson. All three historical romances are set at the Christmas Ball of Lord and Lady Hartwell. Ashley is the only one of these authors I’ve read, and it is her story that puts the book on my list. “The Longest Night” is part of her Nvengaria series. Shapeshifter Valentin has returned to England at the command of Grand Duke Alexander (The Mad, Bad Duke), but he also has a second mission, to win the heart of Mary Cameron, who nursed him back to health. I’m eager to try Bryan’s story because I’ve “met” her viaTwitter and because “My Lady Below Stairs” sounds fresh. The heroine, Jane, is the bastard daughter of an aristocrat, and a stable hand vies with the betrothed of Jane’s runaway half-sister for the role as hero. Johnson’s “Traditions,” appropriately named, is a more traditional story. An earl in search of a bride finds his head and his heart at odds as he falls for a prim, bespectacled lady. All the stories sound like great fun.


What’s missing from my list? Any other early Christmas releases? I’d love to add more contemporaries.

Coming Attractions: Part 1--Historical Romances

I spent some time last week updating my book calendar, reflecting on my summer reading and anticipating books scheduled for September releases. I have nineteen romances on my TBB list for next month, so fall promises to be another glorious reading binge. I seem to be reading more and more historicals, and September will be no exception. Eight single-title historicals head my list.

Liz Carlyle’s Wicked All Day (September 29) continues her Neville series, connecting most directly with Tempted All Night. Zoe Armstrong, a secondary character in TAN, becomes the heroine of Wicked All Day. I depend upon Carlyle to provide richly developed characters and love scenes that are exactly that rather than just more sex scenes. I’ve read the excerpt, and the new book sounds like vintage Carlyle.

I find the premise behind Kathryn Caskie’s Seven Deadly Sins series fascinating: “The Sinclairs of Scotland are known throughout society as The Seven Deadly Sins. Cast out by their father and denied their inheritance unless they mend their wild ways, they travel to London to seek respectability.” The Most Wicked of Sins (September 22), the second book in the series, is Ivy’s story. Her sin? Envy. You can read the prologue and Chapter One here. I’m hooked.

A Lady of Persuasion (September 29), the final book in Tessa Dare’s first trilogy, is my favorite. First, Toby, the object of Lucy’s infatuation in Goddess of the Hunt, is the hero, and watching his revenge plot turn his world upside down is delicious. Then, the heroine Isabel is a rare character in romance, a politically ambitious woman who manages to be both idealistic and pragmatic. A bonus is getting all the interconnected characters from the series together in a single book in a manner that feels natural rather than staged. Even though I read this one in mss form, I’m eager to have a copy of the book. Not least because the covers are all so gorgeous, and the three are so obviously a set. You can find a very brief excerpt here, and Tessa will post a longer excerpt later this month.

Jo Goodman offers her readers a change of setting with Never Love a Lawman, a marriage of convenience tale set in 1882 in a Colorado mining town. I haven’t been able to find an excerpt, but since Goodman is known for her intelligent protagonists, I’m willing to take a chance on her. This is what she had to say about her characters in a Library Journal interview: “I give my heroines more freedom to speak their minds and step outside the strictures of their society than would have been tolerated. In some ways, it's the heroes who are anachronistic. They accept the heroines for their strength and tend to be more amused/aroused than emasculated by a clever woman. That's what makes my heroes exceedingly intelligent.” You can read the full interview here.

It has been a year since His Captive Lady, Book #2 in Anne Gracie's Devil Riders series was published, and a year is a long time without an Anne Gracie book. The first book in the series, The Stolen Princess, won the RWAustralia Romantic Book of the Year R*BY ("The Ruby") in the Long Romance category just a few days ago, and IMO His Captive Lady is even better. I do love Harry. To Catch a Bride (September 1), Book #3, is the story of Rafe Ramsey, son of the Earl of Axebridge. It is set in Cairo as well as in Regency England, and the heroine is first introduced as a cross-dressing street urchin. It sounds intriguing. I know I can depend on a Gracie book to make me laugh and cry, so I’m expecting another keeper. You can read an excerpt here.

Lisa Kleypas’s Hathaways are one of my addictions. I salivate just thinking about the third book in the series, Tempt Me at Twilight (September 22). Kleypas, who has created some of the most memorable heroes in romance fiction, matches Poppy Hathaway with a mysterious Alpha hero, the kind of self-made man Kleypas is especially skilled at crafting. Harry Rutledge sounds like another candidate for the Kleypas pantheon of heroes. John Charles in Booklist described TMAT as “brimming with superbly nuanced characters, simmering sexual chemistry, and wicked wit.” Sigh! You can read an excerpt here. I wonder how long we have to wait for Leo’s book.

Paranormals rarely found on my TBR lists, so I haven’t read Kathryn Smith in a while. But I love her character-driven historicals such as For the First Time and Still in My Heart. Predictably then I was delighted when I first heard that she was writing another historical, and I’m excited that the release day of a new historical is only weeks away now. When Seducing a Duke, the first book in a new series, sounds worth the wait. You can read an excerpt here.

Kasey Michaels books have been finding a home in my TBR stack since the mid-80s when she was writing engaging traditional Regencies like The Savage Miss Saxon and The Tenacious Miss Tamerlane. I read her European historicals (including all the Romney Marsh books), her contemporaries, and her Maggie mysteries. No way would I miss How to Tempt a Duke (September1), the first in a four-book (or more) Regency series featuring the Daughtrys. How to Tempt a Duke is a Romantic Times Top Pick. You can read an excerpt here. You can also purchase a special ebook prequel, How to Woo a Spinster, from Amazon and Harlequin, and Book #2, How To Tame a Lady will be released October 1.

While I’m waiting for September, I still have some August treasures to delight my romance-loving heart. Tessa Dare’s Surrender of a Siren, Laura Lee Guhrke’s With Seduction in Mind, Karen Hawkins’s The Laird Who Loved Me, and Tracy Anne Warren’s Seduced by His Touch all continue series that are must-reads for me, and all will be released on August 25.

Are you reading more historical in recent months? Are you anticipating one that I left off my list? Would you be as pleased as I would if all romance publishers would declare a moratorium on titles using “Duke”?

Note: I’ll post Part 2 with September books from other subgenres later in the week.

I Heart Contemporaries!

I spent a couple of hours last week catching up on my reading journal, and I was dismayed to realize that of the twenty-three books published May-July that I was adding to my keeper shelves, only four were contemporaries. I used to read more contemporaries than historicals. When did that change?

I still get as excited as ever about a new book from Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Robyn Carr, Toni Blake, or Rachel Gibson. I was wildly vocal about my delight when Nora Roberts returned to the straight contemporary with her new Wedding Quartet, and I’ll probably lead my own marching band if Jenny Crusie ever joins her. I think Lisa Kleypas’ contemporaries are just as wonderful as her historicals, and I’ve added Kristan Higgins and Julie James to my autobuy list. I drove all over town looking for a copy of Liz Bevarly’s Neck & Neck. So it’s not as if I’ve forsaken contemporaries.

But I can’t deny that I am reading fewer, and even fewer are joining my keepers. I think of five friends who have joined/will soon join the ranks of published authors, and I realize that all of them write historicals. I’m concerned. I not only read contemporaries, but I also write them. I’d like to think my dream of publication has some chance of being realized.

Sarah from Smart Bitches and Jane from Dear Author are promoting an ongoing Save the Contemporary movement. It sounds like an endangered species protection act to me, so this blog is my contribution to the action. Here’s my list of all-time favorite contemporary romances—single-title only. With Harlequin’s sales, I don’t think categories are endangered, so I’ll save favorite categories for another blog.

Till the Stars Fall, Kathleen Gilles Seidel

Lovers reunited is my favorite theme, so it’s not surprising that TTSF is one of my most beloved books. Seidel has the gift of creating characters so real the reader feels she might run into them at the supermarket or a neighborhood party. Krissa and Quinn are mature, intelligent, and flawed characters whose past is part of their present. I love the way Seidel weaves strands from the larger culture into their story. I’ve long since lost count of how many times I’ve read this book, but every time I do I sigh “Perfect” as I turn the last page.

In the Midnight Rain, Ruth Wind

This book by Barbara Samuel writing as Ruth Wind is an extraordinary book in every way. More than their professions make Ellie Connor, who writes about musicians, and Blue Reynard, who raises orchids, atypical as heroine and hero. They are wounded people whose strengths are hard-earned and whose pasts persist in intruding on the present. The same could be said of the town, Pine Bend, Texas, which becomes another character in the book.

A Place to Call Home, Deborah Smith

Claire Maloney, the daughter of a prominent family in Dunderry, Georgia, and Roan Sullivan, son of the town drunk, meet at a St. Patrick’s Day parade when she is five and he is ten. The bond they form as children cannot be destroyed by other people or by life’s vicissitudes. Twenty years after they are separated, they meet again. I’m beginning to see a pattern here. In APTCH too, the past proves its power in the present, but Claire and Roan share a love that overcome the obstacles of once-was and the now-is.

Sea Swept, Nora Roberts

I could easily write about my top ten Nora Roberts contemporaries. She has her own double-rowed keeper shelf in my house. But Sea Swept is my favorite. I love the premise of the Chesapeake Bay series: the childless couple who adopt three lost boys and the fourth lost boy who becomes the youngest brother, a last gift from their father. But Cameron Quinn, the baddest boy of the group, and the fiery Anna Spinelli—two people determined to remain unattached who are conquered by love--are my favorites.

Virgin River, Robyn Carr

I have a deep affection for community-based stories, and Robyn Carr’s Virgin Rover series is among the best. I particularly love Virgin River, the first book, because it shows a woman almost felled by an unbearable loss who is healed by a combination of her own resilience, a community’s acceptance, and the love of a man who won’t give up. Even in the other books in the series, I look for Mel and Jack. Theirs is an HEA to keep cherishing.

Dream a Little Dream, Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I’d hate to give up any of my SEP keepers, and choosing between DALD and First Lady as a top favorite was a difficult task. But DALD won out because it offers an angst-ridden love story between two wounded creatures, Rachel and Gabe, and a lighter, sweeter secondary love story between Kristy and Gabe’s minister-brother, Ethan. DALD is also rare in non-inspirational romance in that religious faith is part of the book. I appreciate Phillips’ giving a balanced portrait. Rachel’s former televangelist husband who perverted the faith he preached is offset by Ethan who struggles to reconcile a faith based on mercy and love with his all-too-human anger and thirst for revenge.

Smooth Talking Stranger, Lisa Kleypas

Kleypas brings the same mix of heat and heart to her contemporaries that have made her historical favorites. Sugar Daddy and Blue-Eyed Devil are both keepers for me too, but I will admit to my shallowness here. I chose Smooth Talking Stranger over the other two because I love Jack Travis. His combination of good-ole-boyness and tender nurturer just melts my heart. Ella evokes my sympathy, but it’s Jack that makes this book a winner.

Welcome to Temptation, Jennifer Crusie

Crusie’s description of her hero might have been enough on its on to make this book a favorite: Phineas Tucker "looked like every glossy frat boy in every nerd movie ever made, like every popular town boy who'd ever looked right through her in high school, like every rotten rich kid who'd ever belonged where she hadn't." But to that she adds the best lust-turns-to-love story I’ve ever read, a cast of memorable secondary characters, and the hilarity I look for in a Crusie. I love Bet Me and Fast Women, but WTT is the Crusie I return to most often.

My Man Pendleton, Elizabeth Bevarly

I’m a long-time Bevarly fan. She has written some of my favorite categories, but MMP is Bevarly at her best. Kit is just this side of ditzy, but if you are a fan of classic screwball comedies, as I am, you will love her. And Pendleton—ah, Pendleton! He’s smart, confident, and hot. His way with language alone captures my heart. I still laugh when I read his business advice: "In my opinion, sir, the implementation of such a visionary objective does seem to impact our mission statement, but I wonder if it won't be more productive in segmenting our quality group."

Just the Sexiest Man Alive, Julie James

Julie James is romantic comedy’s best hope. Her first book was such fun to read. The exchanges between successful lawyer Taylor Donovan and Jason Andrews, People's "Sexiest Man Alive” reminded me of a modernized Hepburn-Tracy verbal duel. Even more remarkable is than in an age of insert-sex-scene-here romances, James creates a book with irresistible appeal that has a ton of sexual tension but little sex.

Do you read contemporaries? What are your favorites? Do your part to save the contemporary and share.