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I guess that means I'm living in a fantasy world all my own. However, I've never believed erotica is erotic romance, and despite the way the market has gone over the last ten years or so, I haven't changed my definition of erotic romance—although it seems like everyone else has.

The days of one-woman-one-man are long gone, and fun hot sexy romance novels have been replaced by stuff that's just too out there for me.

In the context of fantasy and sci-fi romance, I'm much more open to variety. But in the context of historical or contemporary romance, I tend to veer strongly toward real-world romance, albeit a lot spicier. Meaning I don't want weirder stuff, I just want more tension, more heat and just plain more of it!

It has me wondering if there's a place for my views or this site in the erotic romance market these days. Then it hit me that of course I'm not alone. I might not hold the majority opinion, but that doesn't mean my view has no value. And that, my friends, means I'm not compromising what I call erotic romance and conforming to the opinions of booksellers who've begun stamping the erotic romance label on any book with sex in it that they're trying to sell to romance readers! They don't fool me, and I don't care what the label says.

…but it sure was a great book!

Okay, so I spent some serious time reading over the past month, and I'm definitely not staying on top of writing reviews for those books. I thought I'd mention them here though, because I've read some fabulous books lately.

Hard and Fast by Erin McCarthy — It's not available yet, but when it becomes available, you should run out and buy it right away. It was a wonderful book, full of all kinds of goodness. I absolutely loved Imogen and Ty, and usually the female characters are not my favorites. I'm all for the guys and I adore it when I find a female character I really love. I loved Imogen. This book is a (very, very) highly recommended read.

Kiss of Fate by Deborah Cooke — Okay, this one isn't exactly erotic romance. But it was sexy. And exciting. And action-y. And FABULOUS. I hadn't realized how much I might like reading about Dragon heroes until I read this book. Now I'm on the lookout for dragon stories…and buying the other books in the series I think I'm going to be addicted to.

Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole — Finally! If you've been around this site very much, you'll probably realize I love, love, love the Immortals After Dark series. This is a wonderful addition to the series and Rydstrom and Sabine are now two of my favorite Immortals.

Raine by Elizabeth Amber — Oh, this one is hard to explain, but it was a great book. I loved Jordan and Raine. The only thing about the Lords of Satyr series is the darkness. I don't like to read too many dark stories in a row, so I wouldn't want to sit down and read all the stories at once, but I will definitely be reading the rest of the series. Definitely.

Oh, and right at this moment, I'm reading White Star, Never Been Witched, Everlasting Bad Boys, and a few others. I should really learn to focus on one book at a time…but then again, I might not enjoy reading so much if I had to follow rules about how I did it!

Goodness, there are still so many other books I've read lately, but many of them don't fit the site, and I'm out of time right now!

What good books have you read lately?

Mirror, Mirror (Spice Briefs) by Amanda McIntyre is a Recommended Read.  I love a good mystery and this short, erotic read delivers! Read my review

Would-Be Witch (Berkley Sensation) by Kimberly Frost is a Highly Recommended Read, but I have to warn you, there's not a lot of sex in this book. I couldn't stand not to recommend this book though—it really was that good. This book pulls off sexy without much sex and is the most fun I've had reading in ages!

Ravenous: The Dark Forgotten (Signet Eclipse) by Sharon Ashwood is a Highly Recommended Read. There's plenty of sexual tension in this vampire/witch romance, but it was light on the sex. Still, it's a sensually appealing romance that's great reading and I couldn't stand not to recommend it.

Pretty Poison (Luv Luv) by Yutta Narukami is a Recommended Read. This isn't my first erotic manga, but it was the first one I've been able to recommend without reservation. It's a surprisingly good “Ladies' Comic” of the erotic romance variety. If you enjoy comic books, graphic novels or the like, you really might like this one.

Really Unusual Bad Boys (Kensington Brava) by MaryJanice Davidson is a Recommended Read. This imaginative and fun book is an anthology of 3 connected short stories! I really enjoyed the dose of humor in this one.

I've got reviews in the hopper for each of these books. I just have to make the time to get them done! (Not so easy when I just want to be reading…)

Have you read anything great lately?

I started Would-Be Witch by Kimberly Frost the other night while in the bath, but for some odd reason, the book stayed behind when I left and I forgot to go back and get it until today. Which, thinking about it, is really odd, because I was really enjoying the story. I just made it to page 10 though so maybe the reason I didn't go back for it was because I wasn't that heavily invested in it yet.

That said, I loved the opening of this story.  Here's an itty-bitty sampling of what I found so delicious about this beginning—it's just a hint of the tone of the story, but it's why I'm about to engage in a reading binge that's sure to last me the rest of the evening.

“I'd never noticed before how small Jenna's eyes were. If she were a shape-shifter, she'd be some kind of were-rodent. Not that I'd seen any shape-shifters except in books, but I knew they were out there. Aunt Mel's favorite ex-husband had been eaten by one.”

I'm off to read…

Allison Brennan, who writes very intense romantic suspense (not of the erotic kind, but her books are good reading if you're interested in suspense novels), has written a great article about genre blending that got me to thinking about erotic romance.

Erotic Romance is one of those genres that's a distinct blend of romance with erotica, but often with lots of other genres thrown in there. I particularly think erotic romance has a large following of science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal readers and that's my own preference too.

I first noticed a mainstream trend toward the erotic in historical romance novels, but that quickly spread to science fiction and paranormal romance as many web based book sellers put out lots of hot romance to a market who'd never had the nerve to go into a brick and mortar bookstore and ask to have “those kinds” of books ordered. I went through this myself once, back when I first started this website. At the time, I couldn't even get the Secrets books without special ordering them in the bookstore, and when a few erotic romance novels did make it onto the shelves, there were put in the “sex” aisle.

These days, I can find a great many erotic romance novels in stores as common as Wal-Mart. The blending of romance and erotica has continued to flow through the romance genre, creating a deluge of hot and spicy reading for those of us who enjoy it, and we can find books of almost any genre within erotic romance.

What's your favorite blend of erotic romance? Romance/erotica/paranormal is mine, in just that order of importance!

My copy of Sea Witch arrived the day before yesterday, but I'm holding off reading it because I am currently reading a book by a favorite author that I somehow, someway, missed reading. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about when I say that books by favorite authors always come first. In case you're interested, the book is After Glow by Jayne Castle. Not an erotic romance, but a great read nonetheless. Emmet is very sexy.

My hope is that once I read Sea Witch I'll have found another fav to add to my list. I've already slipped and read the first few chapters, because I couldn't wait to get a taste of the book. This is my first reading of novel length fiction from Virginia Kantra. I enjoyed her story in Shifter, which was the very first Virginia Kantra fiction I'd read. This one, so far, has proven to be exceptionally intriguing and I want to read more!

Of course I'll post a review the minute I finish reading it. :-)

Okay, I don't usually do these kinds of posts. You know, the ones where we point our fingers and laugh at the horribleness of a book. (Pretend horribleness is a word…) However, I can't seem to help myself today. Read the rest of this entry »