Thief of Shadows by Elizabeth Hoyt is one of my favorite romance novels ever. It ranks with Prince of Midnight in terms of sheer numbers of rereads and in a superficial way, it’s a similar book. Our hero Winter Makepeace is also known as The Ghost of St. Giles, a Spiderman-like character who defends
Delphine Dryden is a writer I probably should have discovered a long time ago, but somehow didn’t. I mean, she writes for Wonkomance, she’s in frequent conversation with a lot of my other favorite writers on Twitter (like Cara McKenna, Ruthie Knox and Charlotte Stein) and, well, she’s a nerd. How could it have
Let’s talk about sex. Specifically, sex in romance novels. Can someone tell me what’s up with virgin heroines’ first times being, well, awesome? And not painful at all? I get a little annoyed by historicals where the heroine feels “a little pinch” and then goes on to have an awesome time. Is this realistic for
I’m a late Laura Kinsale convert. Her first book was published when I was still a kid, but in my early absorption with Julie Garwood and a whole host of Harlequin titles (which could be had for 25 cents each from my local used bookstore), I never ran across her work. It wasn’t until
In the seminal modern romance novel The Flame and the Flower, Kathleen Woodiwiss provided the blueprint for the future of the historical romance, at least the Regency ones. But it really wasn’t my kind of book. In fact, I never made it past the first sex scene. Why? Well, let’s just say that it doesn’t
image courtesy of JackieAshenden.com Scene: Bangkok. Take one back-packing heroine and one chess genius hero. Add heat. That’s pretty much Black Knight White Queen in a nutshell. A peanut shell. This erotic romance has quite a bit more emotional range than it seems at first blush. Aleks is a Russian chess champion in Thailand for a
Welcome to Cooking Up Romance! I’ve loved romance novels since I first discovered Julie Garwood’s Highland books in junior high. Until recently, Regency historicals were pretty much all I read, but then I discovered Jackie Horne’s Romance Novels for Feminists blog and my reading has branched out considerably since then. For a couple of months
