Today, I’m sharing my most popular posts for the season of Winter 2020/2021. In order to schedule posts ahead, I have decided to define the season by months rather than dates, so these posts were published on or between March 1, 2022 and May 31, 2022.
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10. The 16 BEST Romance Tropes
“There’s only one bed” has to be the best line written in fiction. Our love interests are forced to share a bed, often because the inn or hotel they have stopped at is completely booked. While someone inevitably plans to sleep on the floor, it makes the most sense to share that big, comfortable bed… This trope is the best when it leads to a steamy romance, but can also add humor or longing to the slowest of slow burns.
9. An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn Review
I love a good take on a fairy tale, which is exactly the premise of An Offer from a Gentleman book three in the Bridgertons series. Sophie is the illegitimate daughter of an earl, and is “raised” by her evil step-mother – a.k.a. forced into being her slave. The step-mother, Araminta, is the perfect villain, beautiful and completely unlikable. She has two daughter of her own, the also detestable Rosamund, and Posy, a young woman who wants to be like a sister to Sophie, but is put down by her mother and sister and initially isn’t much help to Sophie at all.
8. Neon Gods by Katee Robert Review
This is a super steamy romance novel with a heavy dash of kink. There’s some very solid world-building, and I’m excited to see how the rest of the series goes. I won’t say it was the most well-written story ever, but it’s a fun read and the erotica itself is well-done. It was a 4 star read for me.
7. The Bride Goes Rogue by Joanna Schupe Review
This one was so steamy and so fun! Preston is truly a scoundrel, but Katherine can hold her own. I was addicted to Schupe’s writing while reading this one, and the excerpt for the next title in this series? Ohhhh my goodness, I am so excited! Schupe will become a must-buy from me and I can’t wait to delve into her entire backlist. The NYC setting was just icing on the cake.
6. It’s In His Kiss by Julia Quinn Review
What makes a novel in this series work for me is the characters, and It’s In His Kiss was full of winners for me. I knew going into it that even if the hero and heroine didn’t work for me (which they did), I loved Lady Danbury, the person who connects them. Lady Danbury is a staple of the Bridgertons series. She’s a tough old lady who is willing to crack you with her cane if you need some sense knocked into you. Hyacinth, the youngest Bridgerton sibling, is a friend of hers and reads to her once a week, and Gareth is her grandson.
5. I Read Bridgerton So You Don’t Have To
I’m a huge romance fan, especially of historicals, so when I heard about Bridgerton, the Netflix show, I absolutely had to read the books first. If you want to know what might happen in future seasons and what’s different about the show than the books, then you’ve come to the right place. I read the Bridgertons series so you don’t have to – but if you love historical romance, you should!
4. Book Lovers by Emily Henry Review
I have never read Emily Henry before, and just from her popularity and the cartoony covers, I was not expecting full blown romance with steamy scenes from her work. I figured they’d have more of a “women’s fiction” spin. (No hate to that genre.) But OMG, my eARC of Book Lovers really showed me what this author is all about. This totally romantic, gorgeously written story had me sucked in and completely in my feels from page one.
3. To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn Review
Eloise is feisty and fun, but she’s ready to settle. She planned to be a spinsters with her BFF, but that friend, Penelope, just married Eloise’s brother. Eloise loves to write letters and has been keeping up a correspondence with Sir Phillip, the widower of her distant cousin. When Sir Phillip proposes marriage, Eloise decides on a whim to travel to his house in the country to get to know him. Phillip had proposed this idea, but Eloise shows up unannounced, meaning he hasn’t procured a chaperone. Once her brothers find out, they’re forced to marry, even though they already had decided they suited well enough and had plans to anyway.
2. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn Review
What I really liked about this book is that Colin and Penelope don’t have to work hard for their Happily Ever After. They have been friends for years, and Penelope always has loved Colin. Finally, Colin has grown up enough to see her the same way, and it isn’t long before they get married. The rest of the book deals with them helping one another through two struggles. Penelope faces the potential unearthing of a major secret of hers that could lead to scandal. Colin deals with his insecurities in that he wants to leave a legacy, and feels unsure about doing so through his major skill, writing. Colin is a little unreasonable dealing with Penelope’s struggle at times, but it all ties back to his own jealousy/insecurity. Because I’m used to reading romances about two people pining for one another and taking ages to be happily in a relationship, it was refreshing to read a book where two people got together, then worked hard to help one another succeed in life.
1. 18 Romance Tropes I Never Want to Read Again
Today I’m talking about romance novel pet peeves. This is a prompt I gleaned from 365 Days Of Writing Prompts For Romance Writers by Kim Knight. Read my review here and check it out on Amazon – it’s free with Kindle Unlimited. Here are tropes I never want to read in romance again!
Thanks for your support and for reading my book reviews and other bookish posts!
