Reasons I love reading romance set in France:

1) revolution and beheadings, frequently spies

2) the extravagances of Versailles and The Sun King--everyone is terrible!

3) fashion and food, regardless of time period

4) in modern France, the magic of Paris, sans dog feces all over the streets

And since we give nearly all of our historical romance discussion time to books set in England, I'd like to talk about books set across the Channel for a change. With some contemporaries thrown in for funzies. This list will mostly focus on books I've actually read, but I'll be clear when I haven't.

If you've ever watched one of those Hallmark movies and wished it was not quite as saccharine, had more kissing, and was generally... better? This is for you.

Dear Romancelandia, was it just last month that I was wishing for blue skies ahead? Here we are, not four weeks into 2020 and already this year has felt like it’s been six months long.  Between what’s been going on with RWA, coupled with world events, the start of my reading year hasn’t been all that great.  But it’s too soon to throw in the towel on 2020 yet and what better way to head off a potential reading slump than book browsing?

Here are some new Unusual Historicals catching my eye:

This post contains affiliate links.

In the words of a friend, "so now werewolf PNR is getting illustrated covers too?"

Mini-reviews of American Witch, Grim Shadows, Advanced Physical Chemistry, and Tell Me Something Good, which means an two contemporary romances, one 1920's paranormal, and an urban fantasy romance.

Please note that all of these were read as audiobooks.

In Lucky Caller, Emma Mills pairs a friends-to-lovers relationship arc with the story of a complicated family on the brink of change. Nina and Jamie, her childhood friend and neighbor, are both taking a radio class in their senior year of high school. Jamie and Nina were best friends until middle school, when *spoiler* happened and now they're 2 members of a 4 person team working on a show together. Nina's father is a famous radio show host who moved out to LA a few years earlier, but she'd rather be producing than hosting so another member of the team, Joydeep is the voice of the show-- together with Sasha, a bit later. The show is off to a rocky start until they play a couple of songs by a cult favorite grunge band, Existential Dead. Improbably, they attract a small following of Existential Dead fans and when they announce a special guest (Nina's dad) without saying his name? Those fans think the reclusive lead singer of the band is the special guest and hijinks ensue.

Today we're excited to share the cover of Stephanie Burgis's new historical fantasy romance, Moontangled! Below you'll find not only the cover and some info about the book, but also a behind the scenes look at how the author and cover designer worked together to create the final product. Enjoy!

Sometimes the urge to do something is so strong you just have to go with it. I’ve been reading romance for close to a decade and as we close this decade I felt a great necessity to look back at the Romance novels that marked me as a reader. Although I only started reading romance seriously during 2010, I started with what my library collection had, so my first romance novels were really books that had been out for years (Balogh, Kleypas, Quinn, Garwood, Dodd, Krentz and Chase). They were an excellent crash course on romance, if Romance is only for white, cis, straight historical ladies. I don’t regret reading them, I just regret thinking they were the only things out there.

Woohoo! We hit 2,000 followers on Twitter and now it's 2020, so we're using these milestones as an opportunity to give away a giant stack of print books!
All of the books--except ARCs--are in new, unread condition and some are signed. They are from a variety of sources: a couple were purchase by Suzanne and she never read them (don't judge), most are from the RWA Conference in NYC in July, and the ARCs (Advance Review Copy) are from Suzanne's other reviewing gig.

Here's how all of this will work:
- Giveaway runs from 1/3/20 - 1/16/20 (Two weeks)
- At 11:00 am EST on 1/17, we'll download the responses. Anything after that won't be counted.
- 1 entry per person, don't cheat please.
- It would be really cool if you were following us on one of our platforms. We're not going to check, but it's a good thing to do. (We're @LoveinPanels on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram)
- Open in the United States only. Books will be sent via USPS Media Mail.
- Void where prohibited, must be 18 to enter, no purchase necessary etc.
- We will not do anything with your mailing addresses, and email signups are opt-in (there's a checkbox in this form).
- Winners will be notified by email on 1/17.

We're able to afford the postage for this giveaway because of our wonderful Patreon supporters. More info on that here: www.patreon.com/loveinpanels