firewhiskeyreader

Bree (blog) (twitter) (instagram) created this tag a couple of weeks ago and I thought I would go ahead and participate!

What is your romance origin story? (How you came to read your first romance novel)

So… This is a good question and I think I have a lot of answers. For one thing, I’ve loved romance for basically my entire life. My favorite Nancy Drew books were the ones where Nancy and Ned are together. (Specifically the one with the teddy bears? EXCELLENCE) Anyway, I was such a big reader and I guess I was growing up during the very early stages of YA really being its own genre so when I had read basically every middle grade novel in the entire public library, I wound up reading adult novels that my grandma inexplicably gave me. I hope that the book I have the most vivid memory of was not a romance? I also hope it’s out of print and no one can find it. At the time, I had no idea how many problematic things were happening with this Native American man kidnapping a white woman book, but now I’m like !!!!!!!!!!!! The racism just really jumps out as an adult and not like, a twelve year old. Anyway, as a teen I read Sarah Dessen’s YA romances and several of those teen romances that Avon, maybe, published? Then I got an iPad and started voraciously reading the top free novels and those are a seriously mixed bag of quality, tbh. So, who really led me back to romance in a real and genuine way, is Sarah MacLean. In law school. And now I’ve been writing forever so let’s jump to the next question.

If you could be the heroine in a romance novel, who would be the author and what’s one trope you’d insist be in the story?

Hello Kate Clayborn! Please write me dealing with my anxiety in a productive way that finds me meeting the love of my life who I don’t really like at first. (But he thinks I’m basically the best thing in the entire world by the end of it, please and thank you!)

What is a romance you’ve read this year, that you want more people to read?

That I’ve read this year?? Yikes. Is it cheating to use a book I’ve re-read? Because honestly, not enough people talk about Rock Hard by Nalini Singh in my opinion. T-Rex?? I mean, come on. What’s a better meet disaster than throwing a stapler at your boss because you think he’s a corporate spy?? Okay, more seriously, a book I loved recently that has only 188 ratings on Goodreads is Real Kind of Love by Sara Rider. This series is one I actually have really enjoyed both books out and I saw a tweet from Sara that she’s working on book three so yay!! Anyway, this one is about an audiobook narrator (!!) with an overbearing family who fake dates her bartender to get her family to chill out. It’s GLORIOUS and that big gesture at the end?? Omg.

What is your favorite romance subgenre? What subgenre have you not read much from?

I think contemporary romance is my large scale favorite subgenre, but paranormal is quickly gaining on it. I haven’t read enough romantic suspense, which is a subgenre I really like, but I feel like I’m just starting to dip my toes into. I’ve also enjoyed my sci-fi romances I’ve read this year, but I think I’ve only read like two?

Who is one of your auto-buy romance authors?

I cannot limit myself to telling you about one. I just picked up my preorders from Alisha Rai and Sarah MacLean so they’re both on my list. Tessa Dare, Alyssa Cole, Nalini Singh, and Courtney Milan are my others. I don’t need a synopsis of any of theirs to know I’m buying. I have a few others where I’ll probably preorder, but I do like to know what I’m walking into first.

How do you typically find romance recommendations? (Goodreads, Youtube, Podcasts, Instagram..)

Twitter, honestly. Romancelandia on my corner of Twitter is so wildly wonderful, I can’t even express to you how much I adore these humans.

What is an upcoming romance release you’re excited for?

SAPPHIRE FLAMES by Ilona Andrews. Also, The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare. (Also, technically, The Right Swipe doesn’t come out until Tuesday, but I already have my copy.)

What is one misconception about romance you would like to lay to rest?

That they’re just sex books. Like, the books I read almost always have sex scenes, but they’re not just that. And the sex scenes would be way less satisfactory but for all the stuff that comes before (or after).

Who is the most recent romance reading content creator you came across that you’d like to shoutout?

Lisa and Lacey both just created YouTube channels so I think I’ll go with them. I have really enjoyed watching their videos!

If someone had never read a romance before and asked you to recommend the first 3 romances that come to mind as places to start, what would those recommendations be?

I mean, as a rule, I prefer to try and sort out what they like about books, but just as like intro to three subgenres within the romance community: A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole for contemporary readers, Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews, and… probably, Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean.

If you would like to do this tag, please feel free to count me as your tagger! And if you don’t want to do it on your own, please let me know your book that needs more attention that you’ve read this year!

xx