Justin did not expect any answers to the advert he - or rather one of his friends - put out to find a wife. He has enough money to live comfortably but he isn’t really rich, his home - Greyfriar’s Abbey - is far away from any big cities where anybody might find entertainment and he has no title to make up for these failings. When someone does reply he expects an elderly spinster who bolts when she sees his face that has been scarred in the war. But when he meets Helena Reynolds in person she’s young, beautiful…and tells him she can’t get married quickly enough.
More than half of us here at Love in Panels read audiobooks, and it occurred to me the other day that perhaps we're doing our readers a disservice by recommending a book on audio without sharing the resources that we use to access them. So here's a list of sources through which audiobooks can be accessed in the US, as well as their relative costs and ways to save $.
Erotic historical romance isn't exactly rare, but in my reading experience, it's harder to execute well than contemporary erotic romance. Writers have to consider things like the social and physical repercussions of sex for women, for example, and make all of it sexy. In all historical romance, I like to put on my rosy book goggles and pretend that sexually transmitted diseases don't exist in sex clubs in a time without antibiotics. And that a pregnancy wouldn't spell the end of a woman's career, marital, and social prospects. Y'know, all the things that no one wants to think about while reading a story in which sex drives the romantic plot.
I feel oddly spoiled that I have had a really good streak with books so far this year. And Tempest just continued the pattern with its beautifully strong and complicated main characters and heartfelt love story. And now, I'm suffering from a good book hangover and off to read a mystery just so that I don’t lose that good romance buzz.
This edition will be short and not all that comprehensive because a really terrible thing happened this week and honestly, it's hard to talk romance when white supremacy and nationalism are rising on a global scale. Still, here are a few things from this week.
One of the very first ways I connected to Romancelandia was through romance podcasts. I was an avid podcast listener in those days, so it was natural to look for a romance podcast to listen to. I listened to dozens of episodes of Sarah Wendell & Jane Litte’s DBSA podcast, when I was a baby romance reader, hearing about new books, learning about publishing and being introduced to romance fandom.
Although I’ve filled up a lot of free time I used to listen to podcasts with audiobooks since then, my interest in romance podcasts has not diminished. It has been fabulous to see the number of romance related podcasts grow, almost exponentially over the past few years, even if I can’t keep up with all them anymore.
Tally Adam’s first book in the Immortal Romance series has a lot going on. It wears its influences on its sleeve - Underworld, Supernatural, and many other vampire and werewolf movies and shows of the 90s and 00s. Shadow Pact follows William, a half werewolf half vampire who is the official executioner of the Coven, a shadowy organization that rules the immortals of the world. He and his surrogate father figure and friend, Paoli, act as the Coven’s hand to kill any who disobey their laws. When they go to a werewolf pack to exterminate a new target, they meet Emily, a human who is trying to save her estranged sister from the pack. Surprise, surprise, William and Paoli’s target is Emily’s sister. William attraction to Emily is immediate, and together he and Paoli discover that Emily must be his mate. But a werewolf has never had a mate that’s been human before!
If Virginia is for lovers, then Romancelandia is for dreamers. We live in a world that’s uncertain and often unfair and while a lot of us are putting in the work the change the things we can no longer accept, sometimes we need to rest and reset. And in those times we dream of escaping to a place where we know, in the end, love really will conquer all. Romancelandia is that place. It’s a place where good always (eventually) triumphs over evil, everyone finds their soulmate(s), and “they lived happily ever after” isn’t an ending— it’s a promise.
Dakota Gray (AKA Melissa Blue) writes some truly excellent filth. In fact, that's the name of the series in which her latest release (out TODAY!) exists. The Filth series started with Perv, which is about a man who lives to go down. The heroes are also pretty darn anti-hero-y, so Dakota Gray wrote a thread about the genesis of this latest book, Adonis Line, and how she wrote it while reading all the #metoo news. We also interviewed her a while back, if you want to read more about her other books!
