Author Archive

Reviews, Books, Reviews

Review: Laura Curtis’s MIND GAMES

Romantic suspense is a really tough genre to write in, I imagine. The balance between romance and suspense can be tricky, with far too many books (at least in my opinion) asking you to suspend disbelief enough to think that the hero and heroine would be able to relax in the middle of all their danger so they can have sex. I don’t read a lot of romantic suspense as a result, and so I was delighted to read Laura Curtis’s Mind Games. Mind Games does a great job of ratcheting up the romance as the action ratchets up, and there are no quickie interludes to make me roll my eyes. Here’s the blurb for Mind Games:

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Morning Bites, Reviews, Movies, Reviews

Hidden Gem: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Filmed in black and white, the horror romance film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a gorgeous movie, managing to be both ominous and wonderfully sweet. It tells the story of a vampire “who preys on men who disrespect women.” The director, Ana Lily Amirpour, is Iranian-American, and the movie is spoken in Persian with English subtitles. Amirpour describes her film as “Iranian Vampire Spaghetti Western,” and it is, sort of, but it’s also so simple and beautiful it’s far more than that snarky description.

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Morning Bites

Weekend Reading

  • Earlier this week, Jaci Burton revealed the cover of her sixth Hope series book, Don’t Let Go. It will be out in July 2016.
  • Goodreads has opened up voting in its Best Books of 2015 event. The first round is happening now!
  • Ever wonder if sex scenes are as fun to film as they are to watch? Wonder no more! Many stars from steamy scenes share the reality of filming those hotter-than-hot scenes.
  • …But if you want to read romance novels without so much graphic sex, a new site called BookScouted helps you find them (h/t to Laura K. Curtis):

 

It’s an unfortunate fact that books with lower heat levels get less buzz, fewer reviews, and smaller marketing opportunities.

Whether you’re here because you like your sexy times off page (or not at all) OR you just want to know about the good books you’re not hearing about, we’re for you.

For us, this is about getting a hidden market out to readers.

A quick note: Our books aren’t religiously based. They’re just good books of all genres you may have missed.

 

 

Autumn Thorns Yasmine Galenorn
Morning Bites

What’s Your Favorite Spy Romance?

Spectre opens — finally! — in the United States, and so that means it’s time to shout out your favorite spy romances. Because sexy spies and romance novels go together like peanut butter and jelly!

Joanna Bourne’s Spymasters series, Anne Stuart’s Ice series, and Carolyn Crane’s Associates series all feature spies as its heroes and/or heroines.

What’s your favorite spy romance?

Aural Pleasures

Aural Pleasures: UNSUNG by Shannon Richard

Shannon Richard’s Unsung pairs a jilted bride with a tattooed country musician, and their one-night stand leaves some permanent consequenes. Awkard! Shannon is here to talk about music, Unsung, and real-life musical inspirations for her heroes.

Music is a MASSIVE inspiration for my writing. A lot of times I will hear a song that inspires a scene…or sometimes even an entire book.

With Unsung there was a new kind of inspiration when it came to the musical world. The hero is Liam James, and he was conceptualized with two specific musicians in my mind: Kip Moore and Eric Church. Both men are country musicians (like Liam), they both rock scruffy gloriousness on their faces (also like Liam), and there is just something about their Southern demeanor and general badassness that I’m rather found of (again, like Liam).

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Morning Bites

War and Peace On Screen


Speaking of long books, a televised version of War and Peace is coming to A&E later this year. It stars Paul Dano and Lily James, and while it isn’t a romance, it does have certain romantic elements that sweep readers away. It’s also a very long book, so the chance to see it distilled into a miniseries is lovely. Given that the book ends with a treatise from Tolstoy about the problems with how history is written, it’s also a good chance to bypass the lecture and get straight to the story.

Will you be watching?

Reviews, Books, Reviews

Review: Sugar Jamison’s THE BAD BOY CEO

Sugar Jamison’s The Bad Boy CEO is a deliciously satisfying contemporary romance, with a sparkling-hot main relationship and plenty of interesting secondary characters, some of whom will no doubt get their own books. Here’s the synopsis:

Colt King has spent his whole life trying to prove he’s not the trash his hometown of Destiny, Nevada, thought he and his brothers were. As soon as he was old enough he left town, vowing to make a name for himself and never looking back at the place that looked down on him. But that plan goes out the window when his ailing elderly aunt asks him to come home.

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Morning Bites

How’s Your NaNoWriMo Going?

For some authors and some aspiring authors, November is a blur, since they’ve signed up to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, for short). It’s not too late to hop on-board, with the goal of writing 50,000 words by November 30. If you sign up, you can join the legion of folks all scribbling madly, trying to make their wordcount. It’s a great motivator, and also a wonderful way to join a group, especially if you’re not usually a group-joining person.

If you’ve already signed on for the month, let us know — how’s your NaNoWriMo going?

 

Morning Bites

What’s the Longest Book You’ve Ever Read?

R. Lee Smith, whose Last Hour of Gann made a splash among sci-fi/romance fans back in 2013, clocked in at over 400,000 words (and I devoured every one of them).

Smith has a new book out, titled Land of the Beautiful Dead, which is a mere 751 pp. (Gann was over 1200 pp.)

As I contemplate reading this massive work, I want to ask you to share your biggest (read, that is).

What’s the longest book you’ve ever read?