The Hero: Alec Cameron is an experienced and talented daytime soap actor whose star vehicle just crashed earning him a reputation as difficult.
The Heroine: Jenny Cotton is the creator and head writer for a new historical soap, My Lady's Chamber who takes a chance on Alec for the character of the Duke of Lydgate. She also has a long term boyfriend who plays the butler on the show and who is beginning to cause trouble on set...
pickI spent a happy afternoon in Provence, rereading an old Jayne C. I love the early ones, because she was hitting romance tropes out of the park. Here Stone (gotta love it) is declared unmatchable, so he goes on a hunt for a mate but the woman he finds doesn't meet any of the parameters he told the marriage agency that he HAD to have in a wife...funny, sexy, and super tropey in all the right ways. #alphas. #romantsy #paranormalromance. #keepers
pickLinda is one of my BFFs, but that's not what makes me adore The Glass Kitchen. I loved the thread of deep magic tied to cooking from the moment the novel opens in Texas--right up until the heroine washes up on the island of New York, trying to drown her magic book...Tempest, anyone? #romantsy. #shakespeare #keepers. #womensfiction. #magicrealism. #escape!
pickI read past my subway stop yesterday (thanks to a @Jokila rec!). On one level, it's scary sci-fi that makes reasoned arguments about the likelihood of advanced civilization in the galaxy. Like the best in the genre, it combines wild creativity with a ferocious moral compass. But it's the unnamed, patient, super-intelligent interrogatory voice that fascinated me. In short: the format is as brilliant as the idea! #scifi #keepers #sciencefiction
pickI've read it twice and preordered the next--now what am I going to do??? White Hot is a fantastic example of urban fantasy: Uber powerful alpha hero, but slowly, the heroine is revealed to be even more powerful. Yes!!! Desirable in this world isn't about gleaming teeth but ferocious magic (ignore the cover, in other words). Read it!! #romantsy. #keepers. #urbanfantasy. #romance. #alpha
pickI am a hopeless Jilly Cooper addict. This series is a brilliant evocation of punning, super-rich, (mostly) upper-class British people chasing each other around bedrooms and race tracks. This one is about the race to start a television franchise--very different than anything in the US, so that was fun too. But basically this is witty toffee, and perfect for long plane rides and days at the beach! #keepers #romantsy
Some old school keepers: Jo Goodman writes some of my favourite historical romances. My Steadfast Heart is great (but you can skip Tempting Torment). Julie Garwood's heroines in The Bride and The Secret might feel a little dated now, but I love how fierce they are. #romantsy #keepers
pickThis #romance has a fascinating premise--the heroine is a gorgeous blonde with a porn star voice, type-cast as a TV sex-pot, desperate to break into serious acting. She's smart but people instantly think she's stupid--not true of this cover model. But then I have an anorexic model on a book about a curvy heroine, so I know how that goes! (Pleasure for Pleasure, if you want to witness the disaster yourself.) #romantsy. #keepers.
pickThis is my absolute favorite Heyer! Sophy has lived her life abroad, and so she shows up in England with her mini-greyhound, a parrot, and a monkey--and absolutely no intention of obeying or listening to her family's autocratic alpha. Ha! She rules! She solves everyone's problems...even that of the said autocrat's really dreadful fiancée. #romantsy. #Georgetteheyer. #romance. #keepers. #regency
