Today’s prompt via Book Blogger Appreciation Week:
Book bloggers can be some of the most influential people around! Today we invite you to share with us a book or genre you tried due to the influence of another blogger. What made you cave in to try something new and what was the experience like?
Prior to book blogging, you could not get me to touch a romance novel with a ten foot pole. I’d always felt there were better books to spend my time reading. I mean for serious, why would I read a book with Fabio on the cover when I could instead read a book with a gorgeous cover? My mind slowly began to change as I started reading Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I think I read either on their page or in the comments about how romance readers face a lot of discrimination or disdain or whatever among more serious readers. They then wrote about how the romance industry is actually very financially empowering to women, and how romance is one of the highly grossing genres. I won’t lie here, I do think a lot of the time the masses are asses. However, this put romance on my radar. What really kicked it off though, was when Gail of Ticket To Anywhere and Alea of Pop Culture Junkie were tweeting back and forth about some romance books. Then Gail was tweeting very excitedly about The Stud Club Trilogy by Tessa Dare. SO of course I was like, Gail and Alea are good, honest bloggers, I trust what they have to say. I then went out and bought a whole pile of romance books based upon their recommendation of Tessa Dare AND Sarah McLean, the rest were based on how pretty the dress on the cover was. I throughly enjoyed One Dance With A Duke by Tessa Dare. Then I went on to start Nine Rules To Break When Romancing A Rake by Sarah McLean, although I never did finish it — I am still working on it, got a bit caught up with review books and YA books. I am glad I gave the romance genre a chance, because it’s actually pretty fun and enjoyable, for the most part.
This post was written by...
April (Books&Wine) – who has written 1074 posts on Good Books And Good Wine.
April is 24 years old. She is an educator. In her free time she can be found reading, working out, or eating junk food. She often wears her sunglasses at night.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I know I've felt the same way about the books that really go over the line into SERIOUS romance…I've usually kept mine to those women's books that have romance as an aspect of the story, but not bodice-ripping romance.
Okay…maybe I will have to explore that area, as well as vampires and shapeshifters. EWWW…
But it's fun to consider the possibilities.
Here's what I wrote:
Click my name!
I don't read a lot of romance either but when any book comes highly recommended, I'm tempted to give it a try regardless of the genre. I've read a couple of romance books because of this and I've enjoyed them.
This is funny because I don't really care for the paranormal stuff, as a general rule, but when something gets multiple recommendations, I try to listen! Maybe you just need more offbeat romance novel selections, such as "Soul Mate." It celebrates a relationship that would typically be frowned upon, as it involves a 26-year-old teacher and her 18-year-old student. Yuck, you may say, but somehow it works and it's off-putting. In fact, they find a purpose in their unusual union.
Romance novels are a genre I loved way back when. They are a lot of fun to read and I'm thinking I need to revisit them sometime …
Oh I love the SBTB site too – even though I'm not really a 'romance' reader either. But I love all their awesome posts and hilarious thoughts.
I'm not yet convinced to try one myself… but good for you!
My mother got me into reading Laveryle Spencer novels. I think she has since retired but I find some of her novels worth the read.
You should check out Julie Garwood's historical romance books. She's awesome! Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series is also great. They both have a wonderful sense of humor.