So, um, yeah: lesson learned now that I have Stanza installed on the iPhone? I’m totally going to be buying more ebooks. And chances are good that a lot of them will be romance books.
Yes, yes, you may all make jokes about poking me in my romance section now. Well, at least those of you who were working at 
lyricae
Ahem. Anyway, here is a roundup of recent books purchased, both in electronic form and not. First, the physical books:
- Also in paperback, FINALLY, the third book of Kristen Britain’s Green Rider series, The High King’s Tomb.
- Patrick Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind, just so I can see what everybody is on about. Paperback.
And now, the ebooks:
- Rachel Caine’s Devil’s Bargain. Astute followers of this blog may note that I’ve read this one already as a library checkout. This is me now buying my own copy!
- Also by Rachel Caine, Line of Sight, another of her romances. This was one of the Athena Force novels. Should be amusing for sekrit-agenty sorts of stuff.
- Silent on the Moor, by Deanna Raybourn. This is the third of her Julia Grey series, bought in electronic form mostly because they dramatically changed the cover styles for this installment and I disapprove. But I do want to read it, so!
- Comeback, by Doranna Durgin. Who I have loved greatly in the past for her fantasy novels, but she hasn’t done much in that genre lately and I miss her writing, so romance ebook it is!
- And, because I also miss good writing by Elizabeth Lowell and she hasn’t come out with anything new lately, I’ve picked up her quartet of “Only” novels, Only Mine, Only His, Only Love, and Only You.
Grand total of books purchased for the year is now 53. Which coincidentally brings me up about even with the reviews I’ve posted so far, although I’m about to pull ahead on those. This tells me overall that my book buying tends to keep up pretty well with my book reading, even though the turnaround time between “when I purchase” and “when I read” may be huge indeed.
This also tells me that I will definitely need to ration my ebook purchasing because otherwise I could go nuts with this like whoa. No more ebooks at least until paycheck after this next one! *^_^*;;
I envy that ability. I love a good romance story, but I have such a hard time finding ones that a) have a decent plot, b) have *real* characters, and c) don’t portray men as lust-crazed beasts or women in disguise.
So far, I’ve been really happy with Karen Chance’s Cassie Palmer series — then again, they’re more fantasy than romance, but there’s equal helpings of both. :)
I find that my chances of a good romance are fairly high if I read ones written by people I’ve already established to be decent authors in other genres. For example: Rachel Caine and Doranna Durgin. I’ve quite enjoyed their fantasy novels, and I’ve already read a couple of Rachel Caine’s romances; I fully expect to enjoy Doranna Durgin’s. It also helps that they’ve both written for some of the Harlequin lines that feature more action and intrigue. I’m quite bummed that the Bombshell line fell over–that was exactly the sort of thing I like in a romance, a good hefty dose of action to go along with the romance side of thing.
C.E. Murphy has some excellent romances she wrote for the Bombshells, too, under the name of Cate Dermody. Highly recommend those if you can find ’em. :)
Elizabeth Lowell’s ones I’m burning through right now are alright; they read a lot like her suspense novels, which is to say, same sorts of characters, only with more smexxing. I do miss her suspense novels, though.
Also, Nora Roberts has a decent track record with me. Good plots with substance as well as characters that feel real to me and don’t commit unforgivable acts of stupidity while establishing their relationships. Man, I hate hate hate hate the “Big Misunderstanding” trope of romance, and La Nora’s characters are very good at avoiding it. I’m really a fan of her “In Death” books that she does under the name of J.D. Robb, since they’re at least vaguely SFnal.
Aw man, the “big misunderstanding” has been done to death. *shudders* I mean, if you’re going to have a serious misunderstanding between two characters, at least make them work a little to actually solve the problem…! lol.
Might check out Nora — she’s pretty popular here at my library, but I just didn’t have the guts to try her stuff out. What’d you recommend starting with?
Re: Nora books, depends on your tastes.
If you like the idea of the “In Death” series, you might start with those; that’s what pulled me into her writing. As I mentioned, she writes those under the name of J.D. Robb. Main appeal here, they’re more “police procedural” than romance, really, since the heroine is a homicide detective in New York. But there’s also a strong relationship between her and her husband Roarke that Roberts has done a good job of maintaining through a ridiculous number of books. Meanwhile, there are several amusing side characters who also have progressions through the series, and a lot of the side plots are about them establishing their own relationships.
And, they are at least vaguely SFnal in that they’re set a few decades into the future. There are robots, flying cars, and other technological advances, as well as interplanetary flight. Every so often the series actually manages to pull out a halfway decent SF plot as well; there’s one of ’em that dealt interestingly with the ramifications of cloning human beings.
She’s done quite a few trilogies that are paranormal-flavored, but I tend to prefer her standalone non-paranormal romances. She’s better when she’s not doing paranormal stuff, IMHO; as a fantasy reader, her paranormal efforts feel half-hearted to me. So I prefer her standalones when I’m not reading the J.D. Robbs.
I REALLY liked Tribute, which was the last one of hers I read, and which was about a young woman who’s a former child star and who now renovates houses coming back to try to renovate her grandmother’s old mansion. Grandma was a famous beautiful actress, and OHNOEZ! She died in mysterious circumstances! The male lead was quite swoonworthy as well, as a graphic novelist and unabashed geek, and I actually squeed when he mentioned owning both old AND new Battlestar Galactica DVDs. ;)
Very, very interesting! I may indeed have to put some of those on my reading list.
Thanks for the recs! :)
You’re very welcome!
Oh, and I’ve got to add that I just blew through one of Rachel Caine’s romances, and I liked that quite a bit. It’s one of the Athena Force series of novels that Silhouette started when they were still doing the Bombshell line–a big ol’ interconnected group of books about an elite academy training young women in secret-agenty things, with a dash of paranormal abilities on the side. I’d already known I liked Rachel Caine’s romances as well as her fantasy novels, but the Athena Force book she did was fun enough that I’ll be reading more of those. :)