The Book Reading Gals

We are four women that love to read romance books. Between the four of us we read everything. We love nothing better than to curl up and read one of our favorite books and then to make others sit down and listen to us tell them why they need to read the books.

 Heather – I don’t remember exactly what the very first romance books I read was but I know I was 13 and it was a Harlequin Romance, I can even still tell the entire plot of the very first two books that I read. I then devoured every single HQN that my little library had. When I was 14-15 I discovered Johanna Lindsey and her book Brave the Wild Winds, and that was that. From then on I read the bodice ripper romances with Fabian on most of the covers (not that I cared who was on the cover it was all about the story). I will read just about anything now, if you were to look at my bookshelves you would see a very eclectic mix of romance books. I read them all contemporary, historical, paranormal, urban fantasy.  Nora Roberts, Julie Garwood, Nalini Singh, Alyssa Day, Erin Kellison, Jessa Slade, Delilah Marvell, Lauren Dane, Stephanie Laurens, Melissa Schroeder, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kerrylnn Sparks, and of course Johanna Lindsey are just a few of the many books on my bookshelf.

 Melanie –  My love of books started at an early age; in fact I can’t remember a time when I was not surrounded by books.  It was probably around the age of thirteen when went to the library and discovered the romance section, the library quickly learned who I was and would groan whenever they saw me coming, it never failed I would check so many books in and out that their computers would freeze up.  I don’t remember the first romance I picked up but I do know I was transported to another world.  I was able to escape for a few hours and visit other times and countries.  I could learn about our history, other cultures, solve a mystery, or get a little scared by some paranormal activity, all with a happy ending.  That is the key, a happy ending, because really who does not want one of those.  As I got older I tended to gravitate towards the historicals and contemporaries more than anything else and pretty much stuck with that for a few a while.  Now I am venturing out a little, I love to find debut authors and I am not quite as picky about the genre, in fact if I were to look at my favorite books from this year they would be paranormals: Here are some of my faves: Virna de Paul, Erin Kellison, Erin Quinn, Leslie Parrish, Jude Devereaux, Lisa Kleypas, Johanna Lindsey, Brenda Joyce, Melissa Mayhue, Carly Phillips, Kristin Higgins, Catherine Coulter, to just name a few.  I guess to sum it up I love romance and I am grateful for the chance to read as much as I possibly can.

 Janon – My first and true love in reading is Historical Romance.  It’s hard to pick a favorite author in this one but I’ve loved all books that I’ve read by Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas and Lorraine Heath.  My favorite all time historical romance book is The Game by Brenda Joyce – it’s a total bodice ripper romance written in the late 1980’s.  really enjoy Urban Fantasy and Paranormals. Karen Marie Moning is one of my favorites, I took the day off from work when the last book in her Fever Series came out. Kim Harrison and Jeaniene Frost are also favorite reads. Sherrilyn Kenyon is one my favorite authors, I have Acheron’s symbol tattooed on my back. Jennifer Ashley and JR Ward are favorite reads as well. I love to read Contemporary’s that have a sports theme, and count Jill Shalvis, Robyn Carr and Kate Angells as top picks.  I’m a big Janet Evanovich fan.  The Stephanie Plum series is my guilty pleasure.  Whenever I need a good laugh I go back and reread Chapter 13 from Hard Eight.  It cracks me up so much that it makes me cry.

Angela - I’ve been reading romance novels since I was about thirteen.  My mom let me borrow some of her books and I started reading Harlequin’s and Gothic Romance books. You know the ones… on the cover is a huge house with a light on in one window and a girl running for her life away from it in the dark.  I still remember some of the plots from those books <sigh with nostalgia>.  As I got older I discovered other genre’s and my favorite is Sci-Fi/Fantasy, with Piers Anthony, Douglas Addams and Mercedes Lackey leading the way as my favorite authors.  Then I discovered Jacqueline Carey and Anne Bishop and found a new love, Fantasy Romance.  I never forgot my love of Romance and I would borrow the new Nora Roberts books from Melanie when I was between series.  I love Paranormal Romances and I’m glad that my favorite genre’s have collided!