Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Romantic Reads

Tell Me Something Tuesday, a meme started by CambriaHebert, but now hosted on Rainy Day Ramblings. It is a chance to get to know your fellow bloggers by sharing fun stuff, discussions and more. Grab the question and post your answer on your blog and link up at Rainy Day Ramblings! Have fun!

This weeks question:
What are some of your favorite romantic reads?

This is actually a hard question for me. I do love romantic reads, but I admit I tend toward UF where the romance is secondary, sometimes non-existent. However, when I do pick up a romance, I often find myself enjoying my time within those pages. Let me see if I can come up with a few..

YA
Okay, trying to figure out those that have romance as the prominent theme and not as a secondary one...

The Sea of Tranquility
by Katja Millay
"I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk." 
Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay. 
Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space. 
Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to. 
The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.
Pushing the Limits series:
I am aware of the problems and why not everyone likes these as much as I do, but I consider them my guilty pleasure. :D

Graffiti Moon
by Cath Crowley
Senior year is over, and Lucy has the perfect way to celebrate: tonight, she's going to find Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose work appears all over the city. He's out there somewhere—spraying color, spraying birds and blue sky on the night—and Lucy knows a guy who paints like Shadow is someone she could fall for. Really fall for. Instead, Lucy's stuck at a party with Ed, the guy she's managed to avoid since the most awkward date of her life. But when Ed tells her he knows where to find Shadow, they're suddenly on an all-night search around the city. And what Lucy can't see is the one thing that's right before her eyes.

NA
Okay, I admit I don't have much here yet. I still have to get into this genre and many of you have increased my list of what to try! *mumbles*... I'm going to die in a book avalanche... *mumbles* 

Just One Day
by Gayle Forman
A breathtaking journey toward self-discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay
When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance ofTwelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.
Historical Romance

Highlander Most Wanted
by Maya Banks
In Highlander Most Wanted, a reclusive woman content to live in the shadows shows a Highland warrior the true meaning of love. 
Genevieve McInnes is locked behind the fortified walls of McHugh Keep, captive of a cruel laird who takes great pleasure in ruining her for any other man. Yet when Bowen Montgomery storms the gates on a mission of clan warfare, Genevieve finds that her spirit is bent but not broken. Still, her path toward freedom remains uncertain. Unable to bear the shame of returning to a family that believes her dead or to abandon others at the keep to an imposing new laird, Genevieve opts for the peaceful life of an abbess. But Bowen’s rugged sensuality stirs something deep inside her that longs to be awakened by his patient, gentle caress—something warm, wicked, and tempting. 
Bowen seizes his enemy’s keep, unprepared for the brooding and reclusive woman who captures his heart. He’s enchanted by her fierce determination, her unusual beauty, and her quiet, unfailing strength. But wooing her will take more than a seasoned seducer’s skill. For loving Genevieve, he discovers, means giving her back the freedom that was stolen from her—even if it means losing her forever.
The Scent of Jasmine
by Jude Deveraux
Would you risk your life—on the love of a lifetime? 
Charleston, 1799: A daughter of Southern gentility and a gifted painter, Catherine Edilean Harcourt has no lack of suitors at home in Virginia, waiting to fulfill her dream of marriage and family. But Cay’s adventurous spirit, fostered by growing up with her three brothers, is piqued while visiting her godfather in South Carolina. Bedridden with a broken leg, he asks Cay to fill in for him on an urgent task: on her way to a fancy dress ball, she must deliver a packed horse to an old friend’s son—who also happens to be an escaped convict charged with murdering his wife! Cay agrees to the plan, which doesn’t go at all as planned . . . whereupon she finds herself fleeing Alexander McDowell’s captors, riding blind into the night with the fugitive Scotsman. Though she should fear him, Cay finds herself overwhelmingly attracted to Alex, and drawn into his tale of misguided justice and his innocence as they seek refuge in the steamy Florida everglades. Will trusting him be the worst mistake of her life? Or will falling in love be the salvation both of them have been looking for?
The Devil Wears Plaid
by Teresa Mederios
AN INNOCENT WOMAN 
Emmaline Marlow is about to wed the ancient patriarch of the Hepburn clan to save her father from debtor's prison when the Hepburn's sworn enemy Jamie Sinclair bursts into the abbey on a magnificent black horse and whisks her away. Jamie is everything her bridegroom is not--young, handsome, virile...and a perilous temptation for her yearning heart. 
A DANGEROUS MAN 
Jamie expects Emma to be some milksop English miss, not a spirited beauty who will defy him at every turn. All of his plans to use her as a pawn in the centuries old Highland feud begin to go awry when irresistible passion flares between the two of them. A man can kidnap a bride, but is it possible for him to steal her innocence without losing his own heart?
Hm... not sure where I should stop... I mean there is romantic suspense... I so enjoy that genre. PNR, then of course the hundreds of other books where there is a lot of romance in the book, but I don't consider it a primary theme. I think I'll still with this lot since these are genres listed that I end up enjoying but don't end up reading a lot. 

So, any good romances in genre's you don't often read you can suggest?

27 comments:

  1. The Just One Day duo is definitely a wonderful romance, as is The Sea of Tranquility and McGarry's novels. I haven't read the Historical Romance you recommended, though I really love the genre, so I think I'll have to look into those and check them out. Thanks for these recs, Melissa! :)

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    1. Oh you so need to try Maya Banks! I think you'll love her.

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  2. I love highlander books. Not sure if you know this but I love guys with accents. Scottish, British, anything, Make my heart pitter patter. LOL. Love the Dare series as well.

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  3. Ooo you've got some of my favorites on this list Melissa! I of course adore all things Katie McGarry, so the Pushing the Limits series definitely tops my list of romantic reads. And I LOVE the historical romances from Maya Banks. LOVE THEM. Genevieve's story is my all-time favorite though. I was an emotional mess reading it:)

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    1. You have added several to my NA list to try. I also love Genevieve's story. I hate to cry, but I still loved it!

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  4. I've been on a Julia Quinn kick...and Tessa Dare. ALWAYS good romantic reads.

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  5. I've read a lot of paranormal romance...not as many straight-up romance books. For PR though, I really like the Nice Girls series by Molly Harper. I feel like that series has enough romance mixed in with the rest.

    I also really like J.T. Trumble who writes great lgbt contemporary fiction with some lovely romances.

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    1. J.H. Trumble (whoops!) - http://www.jhtrumble.com/

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    2. Love the Molly Harper series. So much fun! I didn't add PNR b/c that would make my list SO LONG. LOL I'll have to check out the Trumble books thanks!

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  6. I do like the romance secondary most of the time as well. Though I do enjoy romantic comedies. The Sea of Tranquility and Just One Day were two that I really did love though!

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    1. Yea, I love a good UF and the romance is usually secondary or third... LOL Love romcoms!

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  7. You have so many of my favorite romances here, I just love the Just One Day/Just One Year books, and Katie McGarry's series too. I really have to check out Highlander Most Wanted, because all my favorite bloggers love it! *runs off to request from library* Thanks for sharing these swoony reads. :-)

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    1. I still need to read Just One Year. Can't wait! Oh and I'm so going to devour all those Maya Banks highlanders. LOVED that one!

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  8. I really really need to read those Gayle Forman books. I keep seeing them. I like McGarry's series and The Sea of Tranquility and Graffiti Moon were fantastic. Excellent picks!

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  9. I love the you included all the age groups and yes I loved all of the YA you mentioned and I struggle with that genre. Ah give me a highlander..but I would have to go with Jamie in Outlander :)

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  10. Love your YA choices, so will have to check out Graffitti Moon

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  11. oh what a wonderful selection, have not yet read any of them but I heard a lot of love from most of them. Especially Sea of Tranquility and Pushing the Limits

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  12. Oh I want to read a couple of those adult ones, Highlanders you say? Scottish men, plaid, kilts??? Yes, yes bring them on!!

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  13. I don't know of any in genres I don't read. However I know that I tend to prefer romances that don't involve love triangles.
    Some of my favorite pnr romances are in the Halle series by Dana Marie Bell. Yes they have a lot of sex scenes, but the stories don't revolve around them and I really love the characters too.

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  14. I really like Deveraux, but I don't think I've read this book (will have to check if I have a name in French). I also really need to read The Sea of Tranquility, I heard so many great things about it!

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  15. I love Just One Day, too! Dare You To is one of my favorite reads of last year, and I'm very curious about The Sea of Tranquility. I've heard some great things about it :)

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  16. I loved Graffiti Moon! The Sea of Tranquility had me in a puddle of tears - SO good!

    I've read so many romantic books but oddly enough my mind is drawing a blank right now.

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