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Sunday, March 18, 2007

A Pleasant Surprise

Recently, Amy Knupp was a guest blogger at Magical Musings and she asked when was the last time anyone had read category romance. I'll admit, it had been many, many years for me with the exception of one that had been written by a friend.

So, when I noticed the other day that the little lending library in the lobby of our condo building had a Signet Regency on the shelf, I picked it up. I hadn't read one of those since I was in the sixth grade, swooning on the swingsets with my neighborhood friends as we exchanged Barbara Cartlands.

The one I found was written in 2000 by Laura Matthews, called "A Prudent Match." I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it. There were a few anachronisms that annoyed me (I find it hard to believe a well-brought up young lady of that time would lightly say "God," "Lord" and certainly not "More power to her"); nevertheless, it was an enjoyable light read. I liked the way she jumped right into the story and the way she maintained the sexual tension.

I'm definitely going to read Amy's books, and maybe take another look at category romance. Maybe it's time to become reacquainted with an old friend.

11 comments:

  1. I don't think I've read category romance in a long time either. I remember one time, my mom came home with six boxes of romance novels that someone had given her. We picked through it because we both like the Scottish stories the best. That was over eight years ago, so it's been a while.

    I wish we had a library in our lobby. I'm just glad our library isn't very far from our apartment.

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  2. I used to read the Intrigues religiously. We still get them in the mail, but I haven't read them for about eight months.

    I love them best because they're short! I can get through one in a single soak in the tub. :-)

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  3. Thanks for stopping by, Christina. :) When you mentioned your mother's box of books, it reminded of a time when I was 18 and an elderly lady gave my mom and me a big box of Harlequins. I'd forgotten about that.

    Spy, that's part of what I liked about the book I picked up. It was short and sweet. By the way, I noticed you're up a few hundred in your word count - good luck! :)

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  4. I haven't read any category romance, but your swingset comment reminded me of being ten and sneaking downstairs to my mom's 'off-limits shelf' and flipping through her copy of "Flowers in the Attic." Talk about early education.

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  5. Oh, the good old "off limits" books. I read Fanny Hill when I was 11 or 12 for just that reason.

    Really, what are they thinking, to say it's "off limits"? They might as well just hand it to kids and say, "here, read this," in which case, they might not. :)

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  6. The problem is, my mom doesn't know what to do with them now. We've picked out the ones we will read, which are the 14th Century ideas, which leaves tons and tons of books that we aren't going to crack the cover. We need to find another avid reader to hand them off too. I hate the fact that the books are just sitting in her garage collecting dust.

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  7. And in the basement, of all places. Who's NOT going to go down where no one else ever goes and have at it?

    She also had a collection of morbid nursing books and I'd surreptitiously leaf through the pictures of kids with birth defects.

    I think I was a little odd...

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  8. Kate, you'll enjoy Amy's book. She's a very good writer. At least, I hope you do. Writing is so subjective.

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  9. Christina - maybe donate them to a senior citizen's home or a homeless shelter? I know around here they love those.

    Avery - you remind me of my brother a little... he used to go into the basement to look at a book about Nazi atrocities - yikes! (Only the nursing book isn't quite as bad) :)

    Thanks, Edie. You never know with books, do you? It's like "beauty in the eye of the beholder."

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  10. LOL. I'm actually positive you'll enjoy Amy's books. She's an excellent writer.

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  11. Morbidly curious, I guess. At least it prepared me not to be grossed out when I found myself working as an assistant in a dermatologic surgery practice.

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