trueromance

My Borders Romance Group

I am very lucky that the Borders I shop at has a wonderful Romance Reader Group. This is a group of about 20 ladies and we are growing. I have been a part of this group for over 8 years. We meet once a month and just talk romance books. When we talk book, we talk books. We talk about what we liked, what we didn’t like. Why did the author do that and what really turns us off of a book. We even went to San Francisco when RWA was there. A whole bus load of us went up and came back with a bus loadof autographed books.

We all have a few pet peeves that we don’t like. Some of them are, if the hero is unfaithful to the heroine after they met. He can do anything he wants before they get together, but once they meet. He better stay faithful to her. Then you have the heroine that is just to stupid to live. You just want to shot her and it can really ruin a book for you. The other biggie is modern language in a historical. I know that one really upsets people. Or the cover does not match the hero or heroine. Here you are reading a book and the cover shows a blond with flowing hair, but in the book she has flowing black hair.

Another big plus in our group is we get ARC’s to read. That is Advanced Reader Copy. This has opened my eyes up to so many new authors and genres. I never read shifter books until I got a ARC for one. After that I was hooked. I love Lora Leigh, Shelly Laurenston, Terry Spear, Nalini Singh. I have found new authors this way. Authors I never would of picked up if I hadn’t gotten the ARC, Anna Campbell, Deb Stover, Nina Bruhns just to name a few. Well also get ARC”S of up coming releases. Brenda Novak, Robyn Carr, Madeline Hunter, you can’t miss her new series, they are outstanding! An ARC is great because it can really open up your eyes to new and old authors.

We are even lucky to have a few authors in our group. Bella Andre, Jasmine Haynes, Mardi Ballou, and Shelly, who has three pen names, Shelly Bates/Shelly Adina/Shannon Hollis . It’s fun to have them because they do tell us some interesting things. It is also nice to know what some of them go through with there books. It’s nice to hear what makes them write, where they get there ideas, and all important when the next book is out.

We have had authors that will come and talk about their new books and then sign them for us. Brenda Novak came and talked about her Last Stand series and the new series that will be out this year. Veronica Wolff and Monica McCarty have come by. Jenny Anderson, who is a member of the group just had her first book published. We have also had Jami Alden, Anne Mallory, Crystal Jordan and others come by.

Because of this group I have met some wonderful ladies, I have read some great books. I have gotten others to read good books, like The Madness Of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley. They have gotten me to read books out of my comfort zone like Immortal Sins by Amanda Ashley, I don’t really like vampire books, but this one was Ok.

If you are not lucky and don’t have a group like this around. The next best thing I found has been the Romantic Times web site. It has a wonderful message board and we talk books all day long. It has a bunch of different boards that you can go to. You have a board for your favorites, readers roundtable, book sleuth, a general board and you also have a spoiler one. If you have a question about any book you can post it here and it will be answered. I have met allot of nice ladies here also. Mater of fact I have one lady that we will send books back and forth to each other, thanks Danielle!

Last I would like to wish my mom a Happy belated Birthday. When I first did this post it was to run on her Birthday, but we got bumped!!

Do any of you have a Romance group in your area? What are some of your pet peeves in a book? Do you have someone who encouraged you to read?