#Category Romance
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it’s here!! the rana look with the mclean stevenson and sandra brown cover! after the initial betrayal of receiving the 2003 edition instead of the 1986 edition in the mail! probably there really isn’t a story here, but I’m so curious about why this exists & how it happened… in the fated mates podcast interview with sandra brown, sarah maclean asks her, and she’s basically like, oh yeah, that. I don’t remember. 🤷🏻♀️ !!! !!
also. I must say. truly wild choice to select mclean stevenson in ‘86 as the cover model for this book. fully assumed that the rana look is about, like, a silver fox widowed ranch owner falling for a world-weary model looking to get away from the industry and city life. however. the hero is actually a buff built star quarterback in his early 30s with curly dark hair and an irresistible charm. I had to read sexy football star trent gamble as henry blake’s fantasy of himself as leading man lol.
#the rana look#mclean stevenson#sandra brown#mashposting#mashblr#category romance#having a super normal time watching season 3#and certainly not projecting a bunch of midlife crisis feels onto henry blake and mclean stevenson’s regrets about leaving mash#nothing to see here !!!#🫠
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Add That Harlequin Feeling to Your Video Calls With These 5 Backgrounds - Harlequin Ever After
#books#book covers#cover art#category romance#romance books#romance novels#wallpapers#cover image#harlequin books#mills and boon#mills & boon#readers
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The Trailblazers conversations continue this week with historical romance juggernaut Mary Balogh, whose decades-long career has shaped the Regency romance in both category and single title. We talk about historical accuracy, about research, about love, about staying true to your voice and your purpose, and about who Mary Balogh thinks is writing at the top of the game (spoiler: we agree).
We are so grateful to Mary Balogh for making time for us, and for her beautiful books.
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Throwback Category Romance ❤️
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Quickie Post: Harlequin Desire Line Ends
The Harlequin Desire line, a staple in the category romance genre, is ending and will be replaced by a new line called “Afterglow.” The closure signifies the end of an era.
The End of Desire
The Harlequin (formerly Sihouette) Desire line is coming to an end. This is sad news for fans of category romances. I read this on X (Twitter) as posted by @robimes.
The end of an era: Harlequin Desire is…
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#book blog#breaking news#Category romance#old school romance#retro romance#romance blog#romance books
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It's been a minute since I reviewed a romance novel, but I recently moved, and the process of packing, sorting, and culling my books made me think I should take a break from Destiel and read some of my books, perhaps in order to cull them further.
I won't be culling this one.
This week I read Miranda's Viking by Maggie Shayne. It is Silhouette Intimate Moments #568, from May, 1994.
I haven't had a lot of luck with rereading category romances. They don't hold up well. But this one was a true gem.
The story is about Miranda, an archeologist, who discovers a frozen, 900 year old frozen viking in a cave. He is accidentally defrosted and comes alive.
Rolf is shocked to find himself in the 20th century but adapts quickly. Like.... freakishly quickly, becoming fluent in English literally overnight.
Miranda, of course, is a "modern" woman and the book makes great pains to make sure that's clear, highlighting her intelligence and career focus.
There is a mystery too, as some shady folks in the scientific community are intent on taking claim of Miranda's discovery.
The book is a little unrealistic, especially in terms of Rolf's character, and some of the scientific and historical stuff is sketchy, but that's all fine.
The 90s style feminism is kind of jarring, juxtaposing Miranda's theoretical independence with her need to be rescued by Rolf, her lack of sexual confidence, and Rolf's bodice-rippy behavior early on. The book attempts to address this by making consent be a major plot point, but I think her general "purity" vibe and Rolf's posessiveness kind of undermines the message. But, it was the 90s, so points for trying, I guess.
There are two sex scenes in the book, both of which were surprisingly spicy for what I've come to anticipate in rereading these old books. They were pretty graphic, if flowery, and they went on long enough to not feel rushed. They were very enjoyable.
Maggie Shayne went on to write dozens of romances, and won several awards. This book won the 1993 New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf Award for Best Long Contemporary. It is available as an ebook (link at the end of the post) as well as through various online sellers in numerous print versions ranging from about $5 to $70, although I didn't find one with this exact cover in my brief search.
Overall, I would recommend this book. It's a quick, fun read, and much better than several other category romances I have reviewed.
7/10 Tess Recommends.
#romance novels#tess reviews#tess recommends#maggie shayne#m/f#silhouette intimate moments#category romance#90s romance
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Rocky Mountain Rivals is a Top Pick at Harlequin Junkie! "Joanne Rock has used her superb storytelling skills to craft the perfect enemies to lovers tale. Since Rocky Mountain Rivals is part of Harlequin Desire line the reader knows there will be a sizzling storyline and Ms. Rock truly delivers." - Wow! Read the full review at Harlequin Junkie.
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I saw this video where a used book shopkeeper bashed category romances and said quite derisively "would you buy them?" (And no hate to them because they're trying to run a small business in a bad economy.) But yes. I would and I do. I love going to my used book store that has a huge selection of paperback romances and at least one full bookshelf of categories to add to my collection.
These books are largely devalued for two reasons. The main one being sexism around a product marketed towards woman. The other is their price point is really low and people wrongly equate cheap material quality to low enjoyment value?
There is a false supply demand curve. Every month Harlequin releases about 70+ new paperbacks. My series of choice is historical. And that's 6 books a month. That's a lot of books flooding the market. So you'd think the supply is high right? A lot of people see similar covers and similar titles and think they're all the same or similar. That translates to a lower demand overall. But if you look at each book individually, each of those books has a limited printing run of about 6 months. And then they become a lot more difficult to find. Any unsold in stores are trashed. If it weren't for companies now releasing e-book editions, a lot of these books would turn into lost media. Because that's happened to the earliest categories prior to e-readers.
This is good for me as a collector because I value these books but I don't have to spend a lot of money to collect them. I once accidentally bought a copy of Butterfly Swords that arrived in perfect condition and had been signed by Jeannie Lin for maybe $5. I didn't know I was receiving such a wonderful copy until it arrived.
But it's a double edge sword. Because they're so undervalued, a lot don't make it back onto the second hand market. Selling through ebay requires patience. Used book shops often turn them away. Maybe they get donated to a thrift store if there is one close by. But just as likely, they get trashed. Because they are "trashy" romance novels after all. I wonder if there is a word in any language that describes that longing for lost media.
I buy the new books directly. But there's something so wonderfully cozy about wandering a used book store and picking up a vintage category romance that you know you might never find again.
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“Rather than seeing it as a floating prison that her powerfully wealthy husband used to separate himself from the world and the hazards it sometimes possessed, Yusra saw it as a place of refuge for him in the eye of the storm. And now it’s mine too. That ship connected them, just as much as their marriage did. It had been where Bashir had proposed to her the first time. And it was where their family lived whenever they weren’t on dry land.”
— The Baby Swap That Bound Them by Hana Sheikh
Categories are short short short. Far too short to completely redeem a traumatized, stubborn, isolationist billionaire who lives on board a mega yacht. The genius of Hana Sheikh’s category is she doesn’t try to do something that takes up that much runway. Instead, she reframes things so that all those obstacles — Bashir’s wealth, his toys, his stubbornness, his trauma — become Yusra’s. She lays claim to all his messiness along with all his property. We start this passage with a “floating prison” and end it with “where their family lived.” Remarkably efficient, and effortless.
#romance novels#category romance#Hana Sheik#The Baby Swap That Bound Them#Muslim characters in romance#African characters in romance#romance novels set in Africa#Harlequin romance#romance hors d’oeuvres
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homestuck was so perfect for autistic teenagers bc it took characters being sorted into categories and having Attributes to its absolute extreme. forget four hogwarts houses, every character has their associated colour their zodiac sign their associated animal their dream planet their god tier class and aspect their typing quirk their pesterchum handle their weapon their planet of x and y, as well as each of them having a handful of other very quantifiable Personality Traits and Interests (e.g. this one is a clown this one is angry this one likes fashion this one is just rufio from hook for some reason) and THEN they all also have their respective ancestors and dancestors(?)(plucked that word from my memory) who have all of those things as WELL
and god not to mention the fucking quadrant system
as a 13-15 year old autistic kid i didnt even need homestuck to have a plot i just happily made a big big spreadsheet of character attributes in my brain
#just endless endless personality quiz opportunities#and remember those big big shipping grids of all the characters where u could fill in what type of romance u shipped them as…..#i can feel the cogs whirring in my brain even now#categories!!!!! love them#homestuck#had to go back and add even more categories after i checked homestuck wiki#there were so many#and like. each name having the exact same amount of letters? the pesterchum handles all being some combo of GCAT??#413 and 612 working their way into fucking everything????#unfortunately i think andrew hussie won autism
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Review: Rodeo Rebel by Joanne Rock
RODEO REBEL
WELCOME TO KINGSLAND RANCH
Rodeo Rebel by Joanne Rock is the first book in the author’s Kingsland Ranch series with Harlequin Desire. It features ex-bull-rider Gavin Kingsley, who is angry and reeling from being disinherited from his late father’s will, and Lauren Hamilton, the owner of an equine-therapy center who is depending on Gavin to help her secure some much needed funding…
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We have Harlequin Afterglow news, shared with us by Harlequin Editor, John Jacobson. Find out all about Harlequin’s upcoming sexy contemporary line 🩵
#romance books#category romance#read category romance#romance editor#romance novels#mills and boon#romance reader#read romance#booktok
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Flashback Friday: Class of 1973
Let’s take a trip back in time to the year 1973, a time when romance novels were innovative fantasy escapades. And what other notable events took place around 50 years ago? As we are all about retro here at Sweet Savage Flame, we look at what made this year memorable.
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Sweet Savage Flame earns a small percentage from qualifying…
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just saw the hunger games on a "fake dating booktok books" list alongside romance novels.... I am begging people to start categorising books by genre or mood again
#how are you putting a book about children being forced to murder each other in the same category as the star wars fanfiction romance 😭#talking
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this is not a comprehensive list
#in order from left to right (with explanations):#k on#(self explanatory. definition of moe.)#a place further than the universe#(theyre at least a little insane for going all the way to antarctica for funsies)#bocchi the rock#(good mix of insane and sweet. most of the insane parts come from bocchi herself)#nichijou#(literally so much happened all the time)#and asobi asobase#(they did do arson)#i haven't seen azumanga daioh or yuru camp and i never finished lucky star#but based on what i know abt the first two id put it... azumanga between bocchi and nichijou. and yuru camp with or after k on#and from what i remember abt lucky star its also just after k on#a bit quirkier but nothing ever really happens in it. as far as i watched. which is why i stopped watching LOL#but thats all assumptions and second hand knowledge so i figured i shouldnt actually include them unless i was SURE#i also thought abt putting asteroid in love in here too but that one is a bit more niche so i left it out#i also excluded any idol shows bc that feels like a different category. and would make this too long#sorry zombieland saga and love live....#i also excluded straight up yuri. this is more abt Hanging Out than romance. but some is allowed as long as its not the focal point#like kita in btr. shes very yuri but the show isnt about that#you could probably also put is the order a rabbit on here but idr much from that. i think i watched like 3 episodes umm 100 years ago#i also thought abt putting the highschool girls segments from daily lives of highschool boys here. but they arent in most of the show#tho theyd probably go between nichijou and asobi asobase. or maybe on par w nichijou#that one girl did almost kill the other two with a rock as im sure youve all seen
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i love u Destroya moans i love u Vampire Money ad libs i love u whispers at the end of Vampires i love u full 1:30 of silence before Blood i love u flies buzzing in Foundations i love u little giggle at the end of Prison
#these are all a Category of Things yeah#i love u fucking my chemical romance#mcr#my chemical romance
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