Reading Year in Review 2016: #TBRChallenge

2016 marked the 5th anniversary of me taking over hosting duties for the #TBRChallenge and it was....well, it wasn't a very strong year for me Challenge-wise.  While the year started out pretty great (two A grades!), the second half the year was a quagmire of Meh It's OK, I Suppose C Grades.  It also marked the first time in my five years of hosting that I missed a month.

What does this mean going forward with the 2017 #TBRChallenge?  This year, I mean it!  I really need to DNF more books out of my TBR.  Why am I slogging my way through Meh, C Reads when there are undoubtedly hidden gems awaiting me?  Also, I really need to stop procrastinating.  I could DNF more if I didn't wait until the last minute to pick a book, read said book, and write the dang review.

Anyway, that's the plan. Let's see how long my good intentions last.  In the meantime, let's relive what I read for the 2016 #TBRChallenge:

January - Theme: We Love Short Shorts!

• I started off the New Year right, DNF'ing my original pick (a Harlequin Romance that wasn't working for me) in favor of Curveball by Charlotte Stein - an erotic romance novella that totally blew up my skirt. Grade = A-

February - Theme: Series Catch-Up

• I read the first book in the trilogy as part of the 2014 TBR Challenge, so it seemed fitting to read book two, A Man Worth Keeping by Molly O'Keefe for 2016's Challenge.  Unfortunately, while I loved the continuing on-going family Drama Llama, the romance wasn't nearly as convincing.  Grade = C+

March - Theme: Recommended Read

• A KristieJ favorite, I finally dug out The Way Home by Megan Chance.  This historical western was amazing.  I inhaled this almost 500-page book in a mere two days and only came up for air because of The Day Job.  Darn working for a living!  Grade = A

April - Theme: Contemporary

• A completely forgettable erotic romance, My Prerogative by Sasha White.  So forgettable that it's probably a good thing I reviewed it should I ever need to dredge up details in the future. Grade = C-

May - Theme: Something Different

• I dug one of the few YA romances I had in my TBR for this month, Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols.  I loved (LOVED!!!) the Nashville, country music scene world building and the heroine.  Was less enthralled by the romance and the hero. Grade = C+

June - Theme: Favorite Trope

• So deep is my devotion to the Virgin Hero trope that I'll even read a Fake Country/Royalty book.  A Royal World Apart by Maisey Yates is a very solid book in her Harlequin Presents output.  Grade = B

July - Theme: Award Nominee or Winner

• The month I skipped.  Because I suck.  Part of the blame was the RWA Conference, the other part was that work was nutso insane for me in July.

August - Theme: Kicking It Old School

• I love, love, love Jessica Hart's Harlequin Romances, which is how I had No Mistaking Love (1993) in my TBR.  While the writing was pure Hart (loved it!), and I really liked the heroine - the hero was pure Throwback Alphahole.  Grade = D+

September - Theme: Random Pick

• Ever get thrown by the "tone" of a book?  That was me with The Cowboy Way by Anna Alexander.  It was like this weird hybrid of a Harlequin Western (formerly American line) and an erotic romance.  It was just....odd.  Grade = C-

October - Theme: Paranormal or Romantic Suspense

• It's a sad tale of woe when a book starts out great and fizzles at the finish line.  Agent Bride by Beverly Long had a compelling suspense thread that died at the end and a romance that never really got off the ground. But it made for great airplane reading.  Grade = C

November - Theme: Historical

• I got suckered by a glowing review.  A Scandalous Situation by Patricia Frances Rowell was another book where the tone of the story was all over the place for me.  Grade = D+

December - Theme: Holiday

• We wish you a very meh Christmas.  Come Home for Christmas by Pat Pritchard was a serviceable read, but with no deep dive into the characters' internal baggage and the tortoise-like pace of the romance this one never registered above OK for me.  Grade = C

Kids, that leaves Auntie Wendy with 2 A's, 1 B, 6 (!) C's and 2 D's.  Excuse me while I go put my head in the oven.  No seriously, this is totally why I need to stop procrastinating and DNF more!  All those C's are totally unacceptable - and only ONE B?!  Ugh.

Anyway, there is always 2017.  I vow I will try and do better.  And hey, why not join in on the fun? It's not too late to sign-up for the 2017 TBR Challenge!

#TBRChallenge 2016: Come Home for Christmas

The Book: Come Home for Christmas by Pat Pritchard

The Particulars: Historical western romance, Kensington Zebra, 2005, Out of Print, Not Available in Digital.  Pritchard also writes under the name Alexis Morgan, which is her more active pseudonym these days.  Some of her other Zebra westerns have been published in digital (after rights reverted back), but this one isn't one of them (yet).

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  It's a Christmas book and it's a historical western.  Of course it was in my TBR.

The Review: And yet another book for this year's TBR Challenge that I should have DNF'ed.  Not that this was bad.  It's not bad.  I've read worse.  Believe me.  No, I was just indifferent.  And I'm not sure if this is the fault of the book, the changes we've seen in the genre over the past 5 years (ALL THE FEELS!!!), or just the general reading funk I've been in for most of 2016.  It's probably a combination.  Just toss it all in the blender.

Jed Stark is a US Marshal tracking down a teenage horse thief.  However once he catches up with the boy (who has been slippery), he starts to suspect something rotten.  The boy claims the horse (a prize stallion) belonged to his grandfather, that the man accusing him of stealing the horse didn't "buy" the horse from his grandfather - but stole him then shot the old guy for his trouble.  Oh, and the town sheriff is in on it.  Doesn't help matters that the boy, Hawk, is part-Native.  Jed doesn't have the stomach to drag the boy to the hangman's noose, especially since his story sounds all too credible.  So while he gets it sorted out, he takes Hawk to the Johanson farm.  Over the years, the Johansons took in a lot of orphans, including Jed, who they thought of like a son.  But Jed left as soon as he was able, mostly because he knew he'd never be good enough for the likes of their daughter, Sadie.

When Jed left six years ago it broke Sadie's heart.  Her mother now gone, that leaves only her father - who according to the doctor is quite sick and isn't long for this world.  Now Jed is suddenly back, after all this time, to leave them Hawk, while he hits the trail again to sort out the mess.  But not before Sadie makes him promise to come back and visit regularly.  Her father is dying - slowly, but still dying.  Having Jed visit gives the old man something to look forward to.  However can Sadie's heart stand more of Jed's coming and going?

Hawk's troubles are dispatched of in short order, which leaves most of this book dealing with Jed leaving, coming back, helping with the harvest, leaving again, and then finally settling down to give Sadie her happy ending.  The conflict, such as it is, is the standard I Had a Horrible Childhood and I'm Not Good Enough for the Likes of Her.  Nothing wrong with this (even if we've all read it a billion times) - but Jed's past is never dealt with in a manner that's more than cursory.  It's hard to understand why he feels like he's not good enough for her if the author only turns over a couple tiny rocks and ignores the huge honkin' boulders where the bogeymen are lurking.  It all comes off as nothing more than Jed's stupid manly pride standing in the way.  Especially when it takes Ole, Hawk and Jed's marshal buddy, Bart, to basically tell him what a jackass he's being.  Heroes generally need one secondary character to tell them they're being idiots, but Jed needs three?!  It makes him come off as whiny and tiresome (Oh boo hoo! I'm not good enough for her!)

Without a deep dive into Jed's internal struggle, this book felt too long at 350 pages (it would have worked loads better as a Harlequin Historical).  I'm not sure if it's because the genre has gone so instant gratification in recent years (More Drama! More Feels! And All in 150 Pages!!!!), or I'm just an old cranky fusspot.  Probably a little of both.

That all being said, the world-building here is quite good.  I could see Johanson farm.  This isn't an inspirational, but the author gives her characters a sense of faith - which many pioneer families had in the 19th century even though it's an aspect that gets glossed over a lot in secular historical romance - and, wait for it, they're immigrants.  Sadie's parents are Ole and Olga Johanson.  They're farmers.  The history behind this historical romance is quite good and Pritchard weaves it all in without beating the reader over the head with The Research Stick.

This is a tortoise romance.  While a lot of today's romance is all racing ahead like a hare hopped up on meth, this is the slow and steady style of romance that will occasionally win the race.  Ultimately this didn't win for me because I wanted to go deeper into the internal conflict, but it's a quiet read that sometimes, as a reader, you need.  Damning with faint praise, but we could all do worse.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2016: A Scandalous Situation

The Book: A Scandalous Situation by Patricia Frances Rowell

The Particulars: Historical Regency romance, Harlequin Historical #716, 2004, Out of Print, Available in digital, #3 in Earth, Air, Fire, Water series.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  One of my colleagues at The Romance Reader gave this a 5-Heart rating back in 2004 (A Grade) and it sounded suitably angsty. 

Trigger Warning: Heroine is a survivor of a sexual assault....by a group of masked men.

The Review: I'm not sure how a book can be boring and a hot mess at the same time - but somehow this book achieved it.  It's exactly the sort of book I should have DNF'ed but (once again) waiting until the last minute to read my Challenge book for this month meant little time for alternatives.  But hey, it's done with now and at least it's out of the TBR, right? 

On the cusp of her coming out, Iantha Kethley's carriage is held up on the road to London.  As one would expect, the assault has a lasting effect on her to the point where close quarters terrify her, a touch from anyone (male, female, her own mother) sends her skittering across rooms, and being out in polite society?  Ha ha ha!  It is to laugh.  She can tolerate the company of children - but once young boys grow into men, forget it.  It's in one of those moments of claustrophobia that she finds herself out painting, only to get caught in a snow storm.  Coming to her aid is Robert "Rob" Armstrong, a local baron just returned from India.  Iantha's response is to pull a pistol on him.

Rob convinces her that she can trust him, and there's nothing for it - the storm is bad.  They go back to his rundown estate/castle/whatever and must weather the storm for a couple of days.  When he finally is able to return her to her parents' home?  He naturally asks her father for her hand.  That's when Rob learns of Iantha's assault and the fact that six years later she receives threatening, gloating letters about the assault.  Of which Bow Street has been unable to get to the bottom of.

The problems with this story are immediate in that the author drops the reader right in the middle of the action with no character development to speak of.  One hopes in these instances that backtracking in the narrative and layering will give readers a more nuanced view of the characters and fully flesh them out.  Here?  Yeah, no.  Doesn't happen.  Iantha is the heroine with a tragic past, Rob is...a nice guy who lost his wife and child in India to a fever/illness.  And that's all I got.

The tone of the plot is also all over the place.  This story not only includes the fact that Iantha was gang raped, but there's a murder at a house party (that people sure seem to get over mighty quick - I don't know, a guest is murdered in my house I think I'd harp on about it for a while...), espionage, and the fact that Iantha's rapists (or maybe just one of them?) is still out to get her.  Oh, and did I mention that Iantha also writes an advice column (a Regency Dear Abby) for a ladies' publication?  Seriously, I'm still trying to figure out why the heck that was thrown into the stew pot.  Then you have the requisite sex scenes where Rob is trying to coax his damaged wife through the ways of the marriage bed and...none of this hung together well at all.  It's all over the place.

Because of the thin character development, I found the plot ran towards tedious.  There are also problematic elements like the inclusion of an Indian Prince in Rob's household, a man immediately suspect when the house party guest is murdered because....well, he's a brown guy.  Frankly the only reason his character is in this story is to tell Iantha about Indian deities and "warrior women" and naturally all that leads to Iantha working past her fears and blah, blah, blah (I know I shouldn't blah, blah, blah a horrific sexual assault - but given the lack of character development?  I standby my blah, blah, blah).  I found the use of Indian culture and Hinduism as a prop for Iantha to work past her fears a bit insulting.  This isn't helped by the fact that once the Indian Prince serves that purpose?  He's dispatched from the story.

I'll be honest, I've been a foul mood for the past week - so it's entirely possibly that my foul mood could be coloring my reaction to this book.  I think it's the matter of me expecting more and not getting it.  There's probably a good story here - somewhere.  If, you know, there were character development and the plot wasn't so much of a hot mess. 

Is this the worst thing I've read?  Shockingly, no.  But it's also not very good.  I was indifferent to the point of flat-out not caring.  A sure sign that I should have DNF'ed.  As it stands:

Final Grade = D+

#TBRChallenge 2016: Agent Bride

The Book: Agent Bride by Beverly Long

The Particulars: Romantic suspense, Harlequin Intrigue #1608, 2015, Book #2 in Return to Ravesville series (stands alone well)

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: It is a truth universally acknowledged that when Wendy is at conferences she will grab any Harlequin not tied down.  I picked up this one at RT 2016 mostly because of the striking female cover model (Her make-up is flawless and that veil? Swoon).

The Review: Cal Hollister is a former Navy SEAL (because of course he is) now honorably discharged, with no job, and at loose ends.  As much as he's loathe to return to the tiny Missouri town where he grew up, he knows he can no longer avoid it.  His older brother shouldn't have to carry the entire burden of fixing up their stepfather's house to sell.  Complicating matters is that a freak snowstorm has blown through Missouri and travel conditions are not ideal.  So it's really amazing that Cal happens to notice what looks like a white flag flapping along the side of the road.  When he stops to investigate he discovers it's an unconscious woman, wearing no shoes, and in a bridal gown.  That white flag was actually her wedding veil.

"Stormy" has no idea what has happened.  She wakes up half frozen to death looking into the eyes of a stranger.  And when he asks her what her name is?  She has no idea.  She has no idea about anything.  Who she is, how she got on the side of the road, and why she's wearing a wedding dress.  What she does know is that something is not right and it becomes apparent to both her and Cal that whoever she is?  She's in deep doo-doo.  Because some very bad men are out looking for her.

I read this book while traveling and it truly was perfect airplane reading.  The suspense hooked me right away and the amnesiac bride angle?  I mean, how can you not LOVE that?!  Stormy's memory comes back in drips and drabs, and as resourceful as Cal is (hey, the guy was a SEAL), our heroine isn't entirely helpless, faulty memory aside.  Once Cal realizes that she's in some type of danger, his hero instincts kick in and they work to solve the mystery of her identity together.  I loved reading about them fitting the puzzle pieces back together.

What doesn't work so well?  The romance.  As compelling as the suspense and the amnesia storyline is, the romance felt like an afterthought.  I bought into these two as "a team" but as far as sexual tension?  Not so much.  Also this story takes place on a very abbreviated timeline - Cal finds Stormy on a Wednesday and she "knows" that Saturday is somehow super important.  She's not sure why, she just knows it is.  So to have them solve the mystery, have sex, save the day, and fall deeply in love to the point where Cal is talking "let's get married" at the end?  Yeah, no.  Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.  Why oh WHY could this not have been a Happy-For-Now (HFN)?  This is the 21st century - we don't need all our romances to end with a marriage proposal (no, really - we don't).  Especially in books where the couple hasn't even known each other for a week and one of those characters is SUFFERING FROM AMNESIA!

Which leaves the suspense.  Remember how I said the suspense was really good?  Well it is, until it isn't.  It kind of falls apart at the end.  Namely, why Stormy was wearing the wedding dress.  Long explains it, but dang if it isn't weak-sauce. As in, super weak.  Look, I know villains don't always think in a logical manner, but this strains the seams considerably.  It just doesn't hold up to any kind of scrutiny.

What we have here, ladies and gents, is the very definition of a meh read.  The suspense starts out great, the romance is ho-hum, but then it all kind of falls apart at the end.  But you know what?  It kept me entertained while I was traveling to the point where I didn't want to put it down and I inhaled it in a matter of hours.  So hey....it wasn't all bad.

Final Grade = C

#TBRChallenge 2016: The Cowboy Way

The Book: The Cowboy Way by Anna Alexander

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, first book in series, 2014, Self-Published, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: This was an impulse grab at an RWA conference during their Indie Book Signing.  Either the 2014 or 2015 conference.  My cataloging notes for this title are non-existent.  Anyway it's a western, there's a guy wearing a cowboy hat on the cover - that was enough for me.

The Review:  I know some romance readers who have jumped whole-hog into self-publishing that they're literally only reading self-published authors these days.  I'm not one of those readers.  I have nothing against self-publishing.  I think it affords many exciting opportunities.  What I want is a good story and strong characters - whether it comes from a traditional print publisher, a smaller digital-first press or it's self-published, I don't rightly care.  The issue I see with some self-published books though is that they could strongly benefit from either a hard-a$$ beta reader and/or critique partner or the eye of a keen editor.  And that's kind of where I'm at with The Cowboy Way.

Ranch owner Trey Armstrong wakes up in the hospital.  Seems there was an accident.  His ranch hands got worried, went out to look for him, and found him on the ground, with a bloody head injury and his horse standing near by.  His accident, naturally, has repercussions.  While he remembers his name and some other details of his life - he's blanked out on a big one.  His wife.  Trey does not remember his wife, Greta.  The doctor says it will come back in time, and Trey goes home to begin unraveling the mystery that is his marriage.  But the more time he spends with Greta?  The more he realizes that it wasn't all sunshine and roses.  What happened between them?

Amnesia is a perenially popular trope in Romancelandia, but one that is especially hard to pull off.  In this instance, there's a good story here.  Alexander goes the smart route by not biting off more than she can chew.  Trey's amnesia is selective.  He remembers his ranch hands, but not his wife.  He remembers his old horse, but not his new one.  But his home office looks cold and impersonal.  He can't remember how to work a computer.  And the decorating in the house (namely the bedroom he supposedly shares with his wife) feels "off."  I honestly kept reading this story because I was curious about the secrets that Trey's amnesia was covering up.

Where this story didn't work was in character development - there really isn't any.  Trey and Greta never really elevate themselves past "characters."  There's never enough life breathed into them to make me feel like these could be "real people."  All I really know about Greta is that she's curvy like a 1950s pin-up and apparently the best cook in six counties.  Seriously all she seems to do in this story is cook for the men and have sex with her husband.

And that's the the other thing - the sex.  The reader knows immediately that this is a marriage that wasn't on the surest footing prior to the accident.  Trey may have selective amnesia, but Greta does not.  Greta knows what's been going on in her marriage.  This is a category length book (around 200 pages).  So given the baggage of the marriage going sour, and Trey's amnesia - the fact that these two jump into bed enough to warrant multiple sex scenes felt really off to me.  In fact the tone in general of this story is like a mash-up of a Harlequin Western (the former American line) and an erotic romance - and there's even flashback scenes tossed on to the fire.  It's not always an easy mix.

In the end I mostly kept reading this because I'm a sucker for marriage-in-trouble stories and I wanted the moment where Trey's amnesia is "cured" and he must confront what happened.  But these characters are just never fully fleshed.  I was completely ambivalent that this "stuff" was happening "to them."  As a reader, that's the goal.  I want to care about these people - and I finished this book feeling like I didn't even really know them.  They weren't real (and yes I know characters in a novel are never real but you all know what I mean...)

Is this the worst thing I've ever read?  No. Believe me, I've impulse-grabbed worse books at conferences.  But there wasn't anything here to light a fire under me to continue with this series or possibly investigate another book by this author. 

Mileage always varies on these types of reviews but....meh.

Final Grade = C-

#TBRChallenge 2016: How Times Have Changed

Title: No Mistaking Love by Jessica Hart

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Romance, 1993, Out of print, not available in digital

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: A few years ago I fell in love with Jessica Hart's Harlequin Romances, and naturally she has a ginormous backlist that I've been collecting ever since.  This is one of her oldies.

The Review: One of the misconceptions about genre fiction that tends to annoy me the most is when people seem to think that genre doesn't evolve.  That it doesn't change.  That the romance novel published today is going to be identical in style and tone as a romance novel published 20 years ago.

Um, no.

No Mistaking Love is a perfect example.  Cracking open my battered used copy, reading the first few paragraphs, I knew I was reading a Jessica Hart story.  This is truly amazing, but her style and her skill in the category format was just as strong in this 23-year-old book as it is in her more recent works.  The words sing off the page.  Her way of setting her stage, of developing her characters - I knew these people inside and out before I was clear of the first chapter.  Where this book shows genre evolution?  Baby, it's all in the content.  I wanted to gut the hero before I got out of Chapter Two and my opinion of him never rose above garden slug.

And that's probably an insult to garden slugs everywhere.

Kate Finch had a horrible crush on Luke Hardman (get it? "hard" and "man?") when she was a gawky, awkward teen girl with Coke-bottle glasses.  She's all grown up now, but that doesn't mean she's not above feeling flummoxed when she spots Luke at the theater one night.  After all, most girls don't forget their first kiss.  But it's a brief moment, they don't even speak in fact, and she's put it all out of her mind until she shows up to a job interview she has the next day.  You guessed it - that too-good-to-be-true sounding secretarial job?  Turns out Luke Hardman is now her boss.  Oh, and he doesn't recognize her - which any romance reader worth her salt knows is going to come back to bite Kate in the butt during the final chapters.

Luke is cookie-cutter, high-handed, Alpha jerk.  The author tap dances a bit around his insecurities of "not being good enough," but this is so minimally explored he merely comes off as a boorish AlphaHole.

"Oh really?  In my experience, women have a fine disregard for the truth when it suits them!  I'm sure you can type, I'm just not convinced that you haven't increased your speeds - oh, just an extra ten or twenty words a minute! - to make your CV look more impressive."

And this would be on page 29.  DURING THE JOB INTERVIEW!!!

Luke is like this for the whole blessed book.  Right down to telling Kate she WILL get her hair cut to look more stylish and sophisticated and he WILL buy her a new wardrobe for the same effect before they go on a business trip to Paris.  And even though he told her to be polite and charming to the French businessmen he wants to broker a deal with, when she is polite and charming he accuses her of forgetting that it was a "business meeting":

"Instead of tarting yourself up like a dog's dinner and leaning all over Xavier so he could get a good look at your cleavage?  Anyone watching you would have known that business was the last thing on your mind!"

This is Luke for the whole blessed book.  When he's not being insufferably rude, he's being a possessive jerk.  I seriously loathed him from the moment I met him to the close of the final chapter.

Kate on the other hand?  Despite the fact that she falls for Luke (thereby making me question her intelligence) - this was the early 1990s.  Which means romance heroines were starting to push back a bit more against brutish heroes.  They'd still swoon, but at least they'd do some pushing back.  Kate verbally spars with Luke to the point where you can almost confuse this with an Enemies To Lovers story.  She gives as good as she gets - it's just a shame that Luke doesn't seem to learn his lesson.  At all.  They're blissfully in love at the end (because of course), but there's nothing on the page to make me think Luke will change his ways AT ALL.  He was a high-handed jerk at the start of the story, he remains one at the end.

And did I mention that at the start of the story he's dating a model Kate knew growing up?  And that towards the end of the story he's sending Valentine's Day flowers to not only Model Helen, but some chippy named Lynette as well?

RUN KATE!  RUN AND SAVE YOURSELF!

Sigh.

However, I'm not entirely sorry I read this.  Hart's writing and style sing for me, even when it's 23-years later.  The way she weaves a story is just marvelous.  This is also an interesting book when looking through the lens of category romance history.  The story is entirely the heroine's point of view (as it so often was back in the day), but she's got some backbone.  This isn't a damsel waiting to be rescued.  It's just too bad it's 1993 and we were still stuck on this sort of insufferable hero.  Although really, these days the genre is boasting criminals, mafia bosses and stalkers as "heroes."  Luke is positively Boy Next Door in comparison.

If you're a Hart fan, I do think there is some merit to reading this - if only to further immerse yourself in the history of her writing.  As a category romance history nerd?  There's also some merit to be found here (did I mention the fairly graphic - by 1993 standards - sex scene?  In a Harlequin Romance!).  However if you don't nerd out on old categories and you've never read Hart before?  Yeah. It's not worth a treasure hunt through library sales or used bookstores.

Final Grade = D+

#TBRChallenge 2016: The One Where Wendy Is a Big Fat Failure

For the first time since taking over hosting duties for the TBR Challenge in 2011, I have failed to meet my own deadline.  There are reasons.  Most of them involving my work life right now (busy, busy, busy!) and the RWA conference. 

So no TBR Challenge review from Wendy this month.  Part of me feels like a total failure and the other part of me is like, "Geez, Wendy - it's the first time you missed your own deadline in 5 years.  Lighten up."

#TBRChallenge 2016: Feels Like the First Time

The Book: A Royal World Apart by Maisey Yates

The Particulars: Harlequin Presents, 2012, The Call of Duty series #1, Out of print, available digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: At the time this landed in my TBR I had just discovered Maisey Yates. So when I saw this book in a pile of library donations I was sorting through, I liberated it. (To feel less guilty about it, I donated a couple of bucks to the Friends of the Library.)

For the purpose of this month's Favorite Tropes theme: this one features a Virgin Hero.

The Review: I know the popularity of the Presents line mystifies a lot of romance readers, so let me see if I can help.  Emotionally speaking, these are high intensity stories. Angst, drama, ALL OF THE FEELS, packed into a tiny 185 page package. I started and finished this story in one Saturday afternoon.  It delivered characters who grew over the course of the story and a climactic emotional "black moment" that literally bumped my reaction of this story up by half a grade.  Frankly, I felt a little hungover after I finished reading it - but in a good way.

We've got ourselves a Presents staple here: a fake royalty story.  Evangelina Drakos is a misbehaving princess of a tiny, made-up country that smells faintly Greek/Mediterranean.  Eva is tired of living in a gilded cage, so she acts in a way most sheltered, pampered 20-year-old women would - she rebels for the sake of rebelling.  What she fails to think through is that if she acts like a child, her father (The King) will continue to treat her like one.  Which means after her latest escapade (ditching her bodyguards in a casino) he's giving her a new bodyguard.  One not so easily distracted - Makhail Nabatov.

Mak has read the princess's file and thinks he has her pegged.  Spoiled brat who wouldn't know a day's hardship if it smacked her on the ass.  Needless to say these two are verbally sparring almost from the on-set.  He's all about duty and honor and she's some Poor Little Rich Girl.  Of course it's all more complicated than that.  Mak has built his own empire (hey, this is a Presents - so OF COURSE even The Bodyguard is a Gazillionaire....), loved and lost, and carries around a serious amount of guilt over past tragedies.  Eva is a woman who doesn't know who she is, and because of that her rebellion against King and Country is petty at best.  But at the end of the day she just wants someone to see her.  To listen to her.  Hell, at the start of the story she just wants to be a person who can go out and buy her own lingerie.  On the surface, Eva may have First World Problems, but deep down it's about identity, knowing who you are, and having people who love you support who you are.

It's a good thing Presents are short (185 pages y'all) because I think this book wouldn't survive the DNF Test if it were longer.  Early on Mak comes off as cold and unfeeling, Eva as a spoiled brat trying to get Daddy's attention.  And that's what the author wants to make you think of them.  Otherwise their growth over the course of the story, their attraction to each other, wouldn't have the same weight behind it.  Mak learns to open himself up to another human being and Eva grows up.  And it's because of the personal growth of both characters, and their romance, that the Black Moment towards the end has the impact it does.  It's good stuff.

I picked this book up for two reasons really: 1) I've liked Yates' work in the past and 2) Virgin Hero.  I love Virgin Heroes.  That said, when it comes to contemporary romance, if the hero is a virgin it's like the author, editor, whomever, feels like there has to be some Convoluted Reason Why the Sexy Hero Still Hasn't Gotten Any.  He's still a virgin because he was kidnapped and raised by wolves.  He fell into a coma and woke up to find himself on The Planet of the Apes.  Crazy Train stuff like that.  And naturally, Yates gives us a reason - although in Mak's case it's wrapped up in bad luck, incredible tragedy, and personal sacrifice.

Here's the thing though - this genre has existed for years never making "excuses" for why heroines are virgins, so the fact we feel like we need an "excuse" for why the hero is one kind of bugs me.  OK, it bugs me a lot.  This is why, I think, it's harder to find Virgin Heroes in contemporary romances than say, historicals or paranormals.  It's easier to accept right out of the gate in 1817 or on the planet Alltran that's ruled by the oppressive Zootron alien race.  I do think we're finally getting to the point in contemporary romances where we no longer have to make "excuses" for the heroine's sexual experience (although there's still a ways to go...) - I just wish we'd start thinking about the hero with the same sort of mindset.

Despite me overthinking the Virgin Hero in a contemporary romance thing - I liked this story a lot.  It started out a little uneven for me - mostly because the heroine does come off as a spoiled brat, and the hero does come off like an emotional brick wall - but as it progresses, as the author develops her characters and the romance, I really fell into this one.  One afternoon, lying in bed reading, don't bother me unless your hair is on fire, fell into it.

Final Grade = B

#TBRChallenge 2016: A Little Bit Country

The Book: Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

The Particulars: Young Adult Contemporary Romance, MTV Books, 2013, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Back in 2013 I judged a local RWA chapter contest.  My job was to read all the first place winners in the categories and pick the overall winner.  Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols won the YA category and while I really, really liked it - it ultimately was my runner-up to Sea Change by Karen White.  At the chapter meeting where I announced the winner, Victoria Dahl was the guest speaker.  Dahl and Echols are critique partners.  Apparently Dahl went home and told Echols all the nice things I said about her book because shortly thereafter she sent me a nice note and a couple of books (this being one of them) in the mail.

The Review:

I slapped my hands over my ears and yelled, "I would like out of this country song now.  I want out of this country song right now!"

I wasn't sure who I was praying to.  The ghost of Johnny Cash, maybe.  But nothing changed.

Bailey Wright Mayfield grew up traveling the bluegrass circuit with her parents and younger sister, Julie.  Her and Julie were the act - you know, cute kids singing harmonies wearing matching outfits while Bailey rocked out on her fiddle.  But in the past year it's all gone to hell.  A record company has come calling - interested in Julie sans Bailey.  And the record company doesn't want Bailey's existence to get out because it could "screw up" their PR machine.  The parents go along with this and basically tell Bailey to shuttle herself off to the side, which means no social media, no playing music on her own, just sit in the corner and breath quietly.  Bailey handles this as well as you'd expect an 18-year-old girl who has just been told to smile while hacking off her right arm - she rebels.  And when her rebellion goes too far?  She's sent to live with her grandfather while the parents and Julie hit the road to drum up excitement for her forthcoming debut single.

Her granddad feels sorry for her and lands her a job playing her fiddle with cheesy tribute acts at the local mall.  One day she's backing Dolly Parton, the next she's thinking of filing a sexual harassment claim against Elvis.  That's where she meets Sam, who is playing with his father, Johnny Cash.  Sam loves that Bailey has perfect pitch, the way she handles her fiddle, and asks her to join his band.  Joining a band most certainly would set her parents off, who have already threatened to not pay for her college tuition in the fall if she screws up.  But we all know where this going, right?  Of course she plays in Sam's band and that's when things get really complicated.

There's plenty of conflict and drama to go around and it keeps this YA novel humming along.  Bailey is supposed to be staying "low key" so she's not upfront with Sam about who her sister is.  Sam is ambitious, looking at every angle to achieve a music career to the point of using people.  Needless to say the band's drummer, Charlotte, is not terribly pleased to have Bailey arrive on the scene - what with her being one of Sam's many (many...) ex-girlfriends.  There's also bassist, Ace, who looks to keep everyone on an even keel.

There was a lot of good in this story.  I loved (LOVED!) the world-building, the Nashville setting, and even though I'm not big into country music, I feel hook, line and sinker into this world.  I also loved Bailey.  The girl that nobody seems to want and only notices when she acts like a typical teenager and starts rebelling.  Given how her parents steamroll over her the minute a record company blows sunshine up their butts over Julie - well let's just say I thought Bailey's reasons for acting out were fairly compelling.

What didn't work for me was the romance, specifically Sam.  Granted Sam is 18 and therefore acts how one might expect an 18-year-old guy to act.  Namely, he's selfish.  For a good long while I had a hard time believing he "cared" about Bailey.  Too often it's "what can you do for me and how can you get me what I want in the end," which needless to say once he finds out that her sister has a Big Ol' Record Contract.....I wanted to slap this boy into next Tuesday.  Is Bailey blameless?  Well, no.  She's running and hiding, licking her wounds in the corner instead of fighting.  But Sam was beyond the pale for me for a good long while and I felt strongly that he was using her.

The author starts to turn it around at the very end though.  It takes Bailey blowing up.  I mean, really blowing up.  At Sam, then her parents, and finally that spurs Sam on to declare his undying love and how he truly cares about her and yada yada yada.  It does helps, but I can't quite forget the vibe I got from him throughout the rest of the story.  That he's a user.  That he only wants what he wants and he'll use anybody he can to get what he wants. This is also the moment when Echols discloses Sam's Tragic Back-Story which smacked to me of Hey Look, I'm a Tragic 18-Year-Old Boy So It's OK To Overlook the Fact That I'm Using the Heroine for Most of the Book.  However, while Sam is a jerk, we're currently living in a genre world where authors are trying to convince readers that hardened criminals and abusers are "heroes" - so really Sam acting like a selfish 18-year-old kid is, perhaps, nit-picky of me.

So it's truly a mixed bag here.  I enjoyed it.  It's a book that will stick with me for a while.  But as a romance I found it problematic.  As an 18-year-old girl finding her voice?  It worked better.

Final Grade = C+

#TBRChallenge 2016: Everybody's Talkin' All This Stuff About Me

The Book: My Prerogative by Sasha White

The Particulars: Contemporary Erotic Romance, Book 4 in series, 2008, Berkley, Out of Print, No Digital Edition.  (Note: Series not listed in the Bookshelf section of author web site and all books in series are currently out of print with no digital editions - so possibly the author is working to get rights back from Berkley?)

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: No clue.  Seriously, no clue whatsoever.  I can tell that I didn't buy it new but there are no used bookstore stamps on it - so I might have picked this up at a SoCal Bloggers book swap?  I mean, look at that cover.  I kinda dig it.

The Review: I pretty much want to shrug my shoulders, say "Meh" and just be done with it.  But for you all I'll try to expound, stating up front this review might be contradictory at times.  Honestly, I probably should have DNF'ed it because I found it all so Meh, but I was at RT last week which meant it was either this book or no book at all (and the hostess not meeting her own challenge just seems sad), but I'll admit upfront I skimmed a good chunk of the final 1/3.

Kelsey Howard is a mid-30s bartender who is out there living life - which by her definition is to have lots of flings, lots of inconsequential hook-ups, plenty of booze, and a job that keeps her up all night and sleeping all day.  She does what she wants, with whomever she wants (although she keeps her hook-ups strictly hetero).  She's out there "living life."  So why does she feel so lost sometimes.

One night, instead of hooking up with a regular bar customer (a definite no-no in her book), she goes home to her supply of toys.  She has a good time...with the curtains open.  Watching her the whole time?  Hunky artist Harlan who lives across the street.

So we all know where this is going, right?  And I wanted to love this book.  I subscribe to the school of thought that women should be allowed to love sex and be unapologetic about it.  And for the most part that's Kelsey.  The downside to storytelling that is it's kind of boring.  I know erotic romance has been overrun with Angst-O-Rama-Jama lately, but there needs to be some sort of conflict to keep the proceedings interesting outside of the Boink-Fest and everything felt superficially on-the-surface here.  To make it more problematic?  The author hints that Kelsey has "issues" and baggage, but keeps it skin deep.  So on one hand I loved that this book lacks over the top angst, but on the other hand I'm disappointed when angst is hinted at but never really delivered on.  See?  Contradictory.

Harlan is basically an OK guy but firmly in the Too Good To Be True category.  A perfect example?  Kelsey finally agrees to go out with him, like normal dating people do, for a drink.  Before Harlan gets there she decides to have some fun since he likes to watch.  She propositions a guy, sits him down in a booth, and proceeds to get him off.  Right there.  In the bar.  Harlan shows up and there's the girl he's meeting for a drink pleasuring another dude.  Afterward he says this to Kelsey:

I'm not disappointed because of what you did.  I'm not that man.  I'm confident in myself and not threatened by watching a woman I find attractive with another man.  What I'm disappointed in is the fact that you'd rather play games than get to know each other.

I can read erotic romance as fantasy with the best of them (in fact a lot of erotic romance and erotica occupies the "fantasy reading" part of my brain) but this strained the seams considerably for me. You show up for a date with a girl and you arrive to find her doing Naughty Things with some strange dude.  In public? And he doesn't freak out?  Or get upset?  Or whatever?  Surely I can't be the only person to find this odd?

Characters from previous books in the series do show up (mostly in the second half) but this book stands alone reasonably well.  In the end Kelsey still hasn't explored any of her hinted at baggage or past behavior but seems so much "happier" to her family and friends which is attributed to her falling in lurve.  It's just so uninspired.  The whole never dives below the surface.  We skate along the edge, there are some hot encounters, but the characters remain strictly superficial.  It's not bad it's just....meh.  It's also the kind of story that I'll have trouble recalling anything about next week.

On the bright side?  That's one less print trade paperback off the TBR Mountain Range and that feels pretty awesome.

Final Grade = C-

#TBRChallenge 2016: The Way Home

Pretty cover, but doesn't fit story

The Book: The Way Home by Megan Chance

The Particulars: Historical western romance, Harper, 1997, Out of print, Available digitally (self-published)

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  It's a western and the beta hero is a virgin.  So yes, of course it's in Wendy's TBR (how could it not be?!), where it has been for more years than I care to admit.  Also, for the purposes of this month's Challenge theme (Recommended Read) - it's a KristieJ favorite.

The Review: OMG, this book! It's no secret that I've been in a reading slump that's dated back to last year.  This slump has mostly been related to my general lack of focus and attention when it comes to reading.  Good books have been slog to get through.  But this book, which clocks in at 447 pages?  I didn't read it so much as devour it.  Which goes to show that when Wendy finds the right book and her reading mood aligns (I really wanted to read a western when I picked this up!), she laughs in the face of The Slump!

Eliza Beaudry is desperate to get the heck out of Richmond, Texas.  Away from people who look down on her because her Daddy is a poor sharecropper and her Mama is half-Comanche.  And how exactly do pretty young girls get out of Dodge in 1876?  Yep, a man.  Eliza has already been pretty free with her kisses, but when Cole Wallace, a smooth-talkin' gambler strolls into town she just knows he's the one who will make all her dreams of leaving Richmond behind come true.

We know where this is going right?  Eliza ends up pregnant.  Cole, naturally, shows his true colors and Eliza's in a real sorry state now.  Poor, penniless, with not even a sliver of decent reputation left - she takes the only thing Cole does offer her.  She can marry his younger brother, Aaron.

Aaron is nothing like Cole.  He's working the family farm, taking care of their disagreeable invalid father (bedridden from a stroke), and he's painfully, awkwardly shy.  Eliza is so pretty she makes his eyes hurt, he's half in love with her before he can even stutter out a hello and she scares him so much he can barely spit.  She's also pregnant with his brother's baby and Aaron knows he cannot compete - but he marries her all the same.

You can tell this book was published 20 years ago because there isn't an editor alive who would publish it as is today.  First, it's 447 pages long.  Second, it opens with Eliza meeting Cole.  Third, we get a sex scene between Eliza and Cole (who is NOT the hero), and finally?  Eliza and Aaron (remember, the hero) don't even meet until after page 150.  We also get to spend more time with Cole after he leaves Eliza on Aaron's doorstep.  There are several reasons Cole dumps Eliza off on his brother, the biggest one being that Cole has bigger fish to fry.

The writing flows and the characters are so richly drawn.  Eliza is the kind of heroine you want to smack early (and often) because she's so young and so naive in the beginning.  You see disaster looming the moment she's introduced.  However it's how she grows as a character after she marries Aaron that's most intriguing.  Other reviews I've since read have expressed dissatisfaction over her lack of denying feelings for Cole - but by the end of this story I was convinced without the author resorting to Eliza's grandstanding or denouncing Cole in some Big Ol' Grand Gesture.  How she falls in love with Aaron is done gradually, over time and I believed every moment of it.

Original cover (much better!)

Misunderstandings and lack of communication do abound here.  Aaron is so painfully shy, belittled by his father (for Reasons), dismissed by Cole (because, well, Cole is kind of a jackass), and shunned in town (again, for Reasons).  Eliza is really hung up on the fact that she's Poor White Trash and not "a lady."  She thinks that's a big deal for Aaron (which, it's not) and Aaron thinks that she's in love with Cole and he's a bumbling idiot that she could never be attracted to.

If this book had been published today it would be 200 pages shorter and we'd start the story with Cole dumping Eliza into his brother's lap.  And the story would be much the poorer for it.  As it's written, Chance has done something remarkable.  None of these are bad people.  Cole, Daddy Wallace, these aren't cookie cutter villains.  There are times they are not nice men, but they're not caricatures - and it adds a richness to the story's conflict.

This started out as a strong B+ for me and got pushed into A territory when I had to fight back tears while reading the final chapters on my lunch break at work (only slightly embarrassing).  When Eliza realizes she loves Aaron and that he's not ashamed of her and she goes to him?  O.M.G.  I'm a mess just thinking about it.  It's wonderful.  It's amazing.  Read it now.

Final Grade = A

#TBRChallenge 2016: A Man Worth Keeping

The Book: A Man Worth Keeping by Molly O'Keefe

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin SuperRomance #1486, 2008, Out of print - available digitally, The Mitchells of Riverview Inn #2.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  After discovering her through her SuperRomances, I glommed O'Keefe's entire backlist.

The Review:  My original plan for this month's TBR Challenge was to read a historical romance.  But after it failed to grab me within the first 50 pages - I decided to pull out the big guns.  O'Keefe rarely lets me down and I read the first book in this series as part of the 2014 TBR Challenge.  So it certainly qualifies for this month's Series Catch-Up theme.

Delia Dupuis and her eight-year-old daughter, Josie, are on the run.  Delia's ex-husband, a cop, is a Very Bad Man.  Delia finds out just how bad and he almost kills her.  As if this weren't complicated enough?  Josie doesn't know the whole story.  All she knows is that her mother "abandoned" her for months to go to France (in reality, Delia's mother was dying of cancer) and that Daddy Dearest dotes on her like she's a princess.  So this "vacation" her Mom keeps trying to sell her on is a little hard to swallow.  Their latest landing spot?  Riverview Inn, where Delia gets a job running the newly completed spa facilities.  The plan is to lay low, make a little money, and then take off again.  Standing in her way?  Max Mitchell.  The owner's brother, resident handyman, and a guy with enough scars (physical and emotional) to clue her in that he's Trouble with a Capital T.

Max is a former cop and he can smell a lie like a fart in a car.  He knows there is more to Delia than meets the eye.  The trick is finding out what that is before she scurries off like a jack-rabbit and/or he totally loses his carefully guarded heart to her.

As emotionally hefty and draining as the first book in this series was, this story suffers from a classic case of the Middle Book Blahs.  I get it.  Delia has to lie.  But because she's lying, because she's so skittish around Max, this doesn't exactly translate into 1) trust and 2) them spending a lot of time on page together.  When they are on page together?  She's too busy being freaked out that he'll discover her secrets.  It's hard to build a romance on that, even in a "longer" category book like a SuperRomance.

The other problem?  I think this book was published right around the time that Harlequin lost it's mind and shortened the word count on the Supers.  This story clocks in at 240 pages.  Supers, generally speaking, land around 280 pages.  40 pages might not seem like a lot - but trust me - it is.  Especially when you're cooking up a family drama plot like O'Keefe has with this series.  Besides Delia and her kid, Max has a long lost mother who comes back into the picture and a father who hasn't been totally honest with his two boys.  It's a lot to cram into a 240 page book (Secretive heroine, ticked off eight-year-old, hero's Mommy Issues, hero's baggage from being a cop, Psycho Cop Ex Husband and....oh yeah!  A romance!).

The romance just never comes together and I kept thinking of ways this story could have been rewritten to make it work better (for example: no Josie - but then you don't get the juxtaposition of ticked off eight-year-old and Max's own childhood baggage so....what does Wendy know?).  I mostly kept reading because, having already read the first book in the series, I wanted more of the Mitchell Family Drama to spin out...which it does.

So what am I left with here?  A classic case of Meh, It Was OK.  If you're new to O'Keefe's work, this is not a book I'd recommend starting with.  In fact, I think I'd only recommend it if you've already read the first book in this particular trilogy as it sorta, kinda stands alone but...not really.  A diversion that kept me flipping the pages, but nothing I'm going to crow about.

Final Grade = C+

#TBRChallenge 2016: Curveball

The Book: Curveball by Charlotte Stein

The Particulars: Contemporary erotic romance novella, digital-only, 2013 w/ Xcite (edition I have), 2015 Self-Published

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: At some point this was a freebie, and having just discovered Charlotte Stein, I immediately snapped it up.  These days, Stein is now an autobuy.

The Review: One of my personal goals for the TBR Challenge is to focus on my print TBR.  So much so that when I was traveling last weekend I actually packed a print book to read.  I got 100 pages into that book before admitting I was bored out of my skull and DNF'ed it. I wasn't home, so the print TBR was off limits which meant it was the Kindle or nothing.  So I went scouring through my non-review pile and found this short (roughly 80 pages) by Stein. And I loved every single word of it.

Judy has just split from her boyfriend so when her brother offers her a vacation aboard his "yacht" (OK, small boat), she says yes - expecting it just to be her brother and his wife and a nice chance to get away.  She did not expect Steven Stark, her brother's BFF to also be on board.  Judy and Steven grew up together.  He was always around dragging her brother into various scraps and was there to tease her and give her noogies.  Judy is...well let's call her festively plump and Steven is also a big guy, with a body builder-like physique.  He's also a playboy, jumping from one girl to the next, skipping over Judy who nursed a serious crush on him back in the day.  But something inside her snaps on this trip.  It's probably the "funny" story that Steven tells about falling into bed with a "big girl," while Judy's brother and sister-in-law laugh uproariously.  That story, Judy's reaction to it, set off a chain of events that, naturally, lead to something more between Judy and Steven.

I am convinced that Stein is almost single-handedly saving erotic romance from its trend-chasing self.  I know this is only a short story (which will likely be the biggest gripe for most readers), but the tension in this book!  The steamy sexual tension!  It's the kind of book where I was gripping my Kindle saying to myself, "Dear Lord when are they going to kiss already?!?!?!"  And when we finally get to the first actual sexual shenanigans scene?  Skinny-dipping in the Antarctic would have been welcomed.  Literally that's why you should read this story.  Yes, I know it's first person, present tense, we don't get the hero's point-of-view and it's a 80-page novella but DEAR LORD THE TENSION!!!!!!!

Minor quibbles come in at the end.  The I-love-yous may have been a touch fast, but at least these two people have a shared history.  Although there is no marriage proposal - so it's not like the author completely lost her mind.  The hero is - well, still slightly problematic.  He's kind of a jerk at times, but in the grand scheme of Romance Novel Jerk "Heroes," I'm not sure he'd even register on the scale in the genre world we're currently residing in.  He's more of a jerk from the "doesn't always think things through before he says them out loud" school.

Did this change my life?  OK, probably not.  But it's so well done.  It's textbook on what erotic romance really should be but sadly isn't always.  In fact I think it needs to be downloaded immediately and put in a "Break Glass In Case of Emergency" folder.  Read it after you slog through another book that confuses kink for tension or one that tries to convince you that the wannabe Dom "hero" isn't really a psycho stalker.

Final Grade = A-

Sign-Up Now: #TBRChallenge 2016

Sign-up now for your chance to participate in the 2016 TBR Challenge! 

What is the TBR Challenge?  Once a month participants pulls a long-neglected book out of their TBR (To-Be-Read) piles, read it, and provide "commentary" on that book on the 3rd Wednesday of the month.

Commentary on your chosen read can happen anywhere online: your blog, Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads etc.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1) Dear Lord, you're going to make us do homework?  Yes.  Honestly, it's fun.  For participants of the challenge (and those who just follow along), the 3rd Wednesday of the month is a guarantee day of "book talk."  And, you know, older books - not the latest, greatest thing that's been promo'd half to death the past several weeks.

2) Dear Lord, you have themes?!  Yes.  I took over hosting this challenge in 2011 and the idea of themes came with it.  Some participants like the themes (which I try to keep broad) to help them focus when faced with the insurmountable crush of their TBRs.  However, the themes are optional!  The goal of this challenge is to read something (anything!) out of your TBR.  If you don't like the theme(s) - don't follow it.

3) So do I win anything if I complete the challenge?  Yes. Personal satisfaction.  I like to keep this challenge stress-free, so if you skip a month, post your commentary late (or early), go off theme etc. - the TBR Police will not be showing up at your door.

Great!  How do I sign up?

1) Leave a comment on this blog post, e-mail me or hit me up on Twitter.  I need whatever name you post under and a link to where you'll be posting your commentary.  So, for example: Wendy, The Misadventures of Super Librarian.  There will be a dedicated page on this blog (see sidebar) where I will post your links so interested observers can follow along.

Commentary "due dates" and themes for next year are below.

January 20 - We Love Short Shorts! (category romance, short stories, novella etc.)
February 17 - Series Catch-Up (a book from a series you are behind on)
March 16 - Recommended Read (a book that was recommended to you)
April 20 - Contemporary
May 18 - Something Different (outside your comfort zone, unusual setting, non-romance etc.)
June 15 - Favorite Trope (a favorite theme - amnesia? secret baby? fairy tale? friends-to-lovers? etc.)
July 20 - Award Nominee or Winner (links to past RITA finalists and winners TBA)
August 17 - Kicking It Old School (publication date 10 years or older)
September 21 - Random Pick (a built-in off-theme month - go where your mood takes you!)
October 19 - Paranormal or Romantic Suspense
November 16 - Historical
December 21 - Holiday Themes

I hope to see a lot of returning folks for next year's challenge.  If you're a newbie and still contemplating, here's a link to all of my commentary from 2015 to help give you a general idea.

#TBRChallenge 2016: Suggestions Welcome!

October is almost over, which means November is around the corner, ergo - Wendy needs to start thinking about the TBR Challenge for next year.  Even as busy as my Real Life seems to be these days, yes - I'll host a TBR Challenge in 2016.  It's the only way I know to force myself to dig around in my giant pile of books and I love reading everyone's commentary on their own TBR reads every month.

I'll once again do themes.  Some of you really seem to like them, and those of you who don't happily go "off-theme" and that's fine too.  Over the years of my hosting, I've kept a lot of the same themes year-to-year, but also changed up a few.  I've also tried to keep the themes fairly broad to give participants some wiggle room.

Thinking ahead to 2016 means I'm open for suggestions on potential themes.  Do you have one that you think would be a great idea?  A theme I used to do that I dropped that you really miss?  Themes you're less than wild about? (I suspect I'm the only who like the RITA theme - but hey, that one was a suggestion one year!).  Hit me up with your suggestion(s) either in the comments section, on Twitter, or hey - you can always e-mail me.