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Posts Tagged ‘Nora Roberts’

Day 28 of the 31 Days of Books Giveaway – Romance Heroines: The Good, The Bad and The TSTL

Tuesday, January 28th, 2014

Congratulations to bn100, who won yesterday’s drawing! I’ll be emailing bn100 to arrange delivery of her choice of book.

Let’s talk heroines: the good, the bad and the TSTL (Too Stupid To Live).

Heroines are hard for me. Even though I’m female, I identify more with the heroes in my books than the heroines. But there are a few heroines (in books, TV or movies) that I can always get behind. The ones who try hard to do the right thing.

Some of the good heroines:

  1. Eve Dallas from the J.D. Robb books
  2. Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the series, not the movie)
  3. Judith Hampton from Julie Garwood’s The Secret
  4. Maggie Concannon from Born In Fire by Nora Roberts
  5. Aislinn from The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

Good heroines do what needs to be done, no matter what it costs them. They are women you admire.

Bad heroines are the ones who are too concerned with themselves to truly share in the love story you’re reading. They are unsympathetic people who you actively dislike and would never hang out with if they were real, the ones who make you wonder what the hero sees in them. (No examples here because I’ve purged them from my memory. Bleh!)

And TSTL? There are dozens of those. These are the heroines whose decisions make no sense. They run out into gunfire after the hero tells them to stay put. They go down in the basement with no light on when they know a serial killer is on the loose. They think they can handle everything, only to fall on their butts (or trip over a tree root running through the forest in their nightclothes in the middle of the night). They’re the ones who believe the Jealous Other Woman’s lame story that the hero really loves her, at which point they run away to nurse their broken hearts. Or quit their jobs because the hero is the boss. Or shoot themselves in the foot in some other dramatic, emotional way. They’re the ones who make you throw the book against the wall.

What are your thoughts on romance heroines? Who are your favorites? Comment to be included in a drawing to win a paperback title from my backlist!



Day 8 of the 31 Days of Books Giveaway – Which Authors Are On Your Auto-buy List?

Wednesday, January 8th, 2014

Congratulations to Michele, who won yesterday’s drawing! I’ll be emailing Michele to arrange delivery of her choice of book.

Yesterday we were chatting about glomming books, so today it only seems natural that we segue into an easy topic for every reader: Who are your favorite authors?

I said easy, but as every reader knows, it’s hard to name only one! When I’m asked this question, I have to refer to my auto-buy list. Who are the authors whose books I buy without even reading the back cover? Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb is one, right off the bat. She has been one of my favorites since I read her first book back in the early 80’s. Nora was the first author who made me start noticing who actually wrote the book I had so enjoyed. I remember being confused once because I didn’t get the same feeling from a book I had just finished, and then I realized that what I had just read was by a different author with the same last name. Nora Roberts became the first author on my auto-buy list.

Since then she has been joined by Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle, Marjorie M. Liu, Robin D. Owens, Susan Squires, Cate Rowan, Susan Meier, Jenna Kernan, Beth Yarnall, Shannon Donnelly and Mercedes Lackey. There are more, but those are the top tiers.

What about you? Who are the favorite authors on your auto-buy list? Those who comment get entered in today’s drawing for a free paperback title from my backlist!