Recommendations from Maia for July 2014.

In order to bring some more variety to my blog, I have asked some of my bookish friends to tell about the books they have in the past month, and to give us a recommendation. Today’s post is made by Maia from Holland.

Maia:

Last month I've read six books. They were five category romances and one reread of Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh

My top three of this month is:

Annie West - Captive in the spotlight



Jayne Castle - The desperate game



(You can read my review here: http://boeklogboek.blogspot.nl/2014/06/jayne-castle-desperate-game.html)

Jayne Castle - The chilling deception




It has been a while since I’ve been reading category romances by the bushel, like I used to do. When I started reading romance, I bought the Harlequin presents, Candlelight and other series. They were the only kind of romance that was ready available and reasonably priced.

I loved reading them on the train ride from Utrecht, where I was at university to the little town my parents lived. The ride took me about two hours, just enough to read one.

When I started reading in English, I stopped reading most categories, except written by Nora Roberts and Jayne Ann Krentz, because I’m collecting their entire backlist. I started reading them again because of the LoveLetter Conventions. There are category writers present there and I always try to read one or more of the books the LLC authors have written.



That’s how I came to read the books by Annie West. She is an Australian writer, and came to the LLC 2014. I read her book “An enticing debt to pay” and loved it (except for a minor plot point at the end), so I bought more books. She doesn’t have many solo books, a lot of her books are in multi-author series, but I saw a duology and bought it.

“Captive in the spotlight/ Blackmailed bride, Innocent wife” are two great examples of Annie’s writing style. She takes familiar tropes and turns them around. Having read a lot of presents, you got to know how they were constructed. Annie turns that around. You don’t know what will happen. Added to that is a smooth writing style and some humor. You get the POV of the male protagonist and there is character development. All these were things that were mostly lacking in earlier categories I’ve read.

Adding to that, I’ve met her in Berlin and she’s super nice. So I’ll be buying her books now and reading some more category romances. Do you have recommendations for me about what I should read?

Aurian: Thanks for the recommendation Maia! I have read an Annie West book this week as well, and enjoyed it. From the Berlin authors we met, so far I have read a Nancy Warren book, and I really like her writing style as well, so I do recommend those to you.

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian