#believingfairytales

[pollyssecretlibrary]

I’m having a stressful week. I come home feeling so exhausted each day that I end up going to bed with my laptop straight after lunch. It is such a relief to log on to tumblr and seeing my favourite blogs’ updates and reblogs and little conversations. I feel grateful for having them around. These are only 9 of them, there are more ❤️

My Tumblr Crushes:

romancypants

romancingthebookworm

notsomolly

diehard-fangirl

mariaslozak

ameliafeministpeabody

rivetedbyromance

seashells-and-bookshelves

believingfairytales

[romtasticbookclub]

THE ROMTASTIC BOOKCLUB IS A THANG!!!

Alrighty, peeps. This bookclub is TOTES GONNA EXIST!

I’ve had enough people express interest that they’re down for a video/text romance bookclub, so here’s the deets!

1. GROUP BLOG I’ve just created our Romtastic Bookclub group blog and you should be getting an invite to join soon. If I’ve overlooked your name, or you’d like to join, please message me so I can add ya to the fun! This is our landing spot where we can post thoughts, quotes, reactions, etc. while we read the month’s pick. No one is obligated to post, it’s just for us peeps who wanna chat throughout the month before the club meets.)

2. CLUB MEETING: WHEN The Romtastic Bookclub will meet on the first Saturday of the month at 6 pm Central time...? This is negotiable and open to discussion because we all have different schedules. I’d like to pick a time and date that works well for most of us, so PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR FEEDBACK! :)

3. CLUB MEETING: WHERE The Romtastic Bookclub is going to be a Google Hangout. Up to 10 people can video chat at a time and so far we have 33 people who are interested. Each month I’ll rotate the 9 other video chatters, so everyone will have a chance to video if they want. Everybody else can chat along in the Hangout’s text chat. If you don’t want to video chat that month, or only want to participate via the text chat, that is totally ok. Just let me know.

4. CLUB MEETING: HOW You will need a Google account in order to participate in the Hangout. As a result I will need your Google name or email attached to your account so I can add you to the Hangout conversation. Please message me with this information either on my @diehard-fangirl​ blog or on the group blog. (Also hug yourself every time I said “Google,” “Hangout,” or “blog,” lol.)

5. CLUB MEETING: WHAT Every month I’d like to rotate through different subgenres. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll choose our first Romtastic Bookclub pick. I do want to open this up for voting so everyone in the club can have a voice in what we read. I just gotta figure out the best way to do this. DECISIONS WILL BE MADE SOON!

6. NO PRESSURE! Being a member of the Romtastic Bookclub in NO WAY obligates you to participate every month. If you can’t make it to the Hangout or you’re not interested in that month’s book pick, or life gets too busy, NO WORRIES! This is just supposed to be fun, so no stress!

7. I’M A NEWBIE IDIOT! I have NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE OH MY GERD!! Hosting a bookclub, doing a Google Hangout- this is all new for me, so I’m nervous am probably gonna screw up. Please be patient with me as I fake my way through our first few months of the club. I suck, but yall don’t, so IMMA GET THROUGH DIS WITH YA!

8. Das it.

I’ve tried to think of everything that anyone could ask, but I suck. If I left out anything or you have any questions, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO MESSAGE ME! You can also post questions on the group blog. I’ll be posting this on both my diehard-fangirl & on Romtastic Bookclub.

Here’s a cute puppy GIF for reading through this wall of text!

Tagged peeps:

@nitelotus​ @sallux​ @kellyneedscoffee​ @msfehrwight​ @mariaslozak​ @skyewardswan​ @ameliafeministpeabody​ @romancypants​ @psychoblk​ @gallaxiard​ @puncturedbeauty​ @galatea-wannabe​ @thebooklrandtheduke​ @unhappy-mordred @lettingthewaterholdmedown @j9moore @stormy-reads @believingfairytales @not-your-average-romance @prettyharam @angelicsweetiew @youtransfixmequite @romcomkdramafan @thecrankyagnes @brenda-is-reading @blueangel91​ @mfred​

For some reason I can’t tag @thebabeontheback @tess-etc @Honeybeeshepherd @princessnerf-herder @unfriendly-black-hijabi so I’m going to tag them specifically in the tags. 

ETA: I’ve tagged everyone within the actual Tags of this post to hopefully make sure everyone sees it.

[ardentaislinn]

Tag game

Tagged by @swallowedsong to answer some book questions literally a million years ago, so let’s do it! I’m mostly going to be talking ebooks, because then Goodreads can help me. All my physical books are in storage.

Which book has been on your shelves the longest? Apparently it’s The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simmons

What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next? Current read is Stealing Mr Right by Tamara Morgan in ebook, and in audio it’s The Dollmaker by Mary Burton

Which book does everyone like and you hated? Oh, so much. The one that gives me twitches is Magic Slays and Magic Rises by Illona Andrews. People rave about that series, but I thought it utterly stripped the heroine of her agency in Slays and then stomped on her in Rises and it was gross. I don’t get why people still like it after that.

Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t? Oh, a lot. I’ll never get through my TBR pile as it is! But maybe something like Beyond Shame by Kit Rocha? I’m not into menage stuff and it seems like that’s a lot of that series. But loads of people love it so idk.

Which books are you saving for “retirement?” Probably some of the big classics. I have David Copperfield in audio and it’s 36 hours long. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Last page: read it first or wait till the end? I skip to the end if it’s a non-romance. But since I usually read romance, I trust the process and know it’ll be a happy ending. (So don’t mess with that by having an unhappy ending, or I’ll destroy you!)

Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside? I don’t read them and I don’t tend to write them. I ran out of people I wanted to dedicate books to! Hahaha.

Which book character would you switch places with? Nah, I’m pretty happy where I am. Though I’d love to be in Meljean Brooks’ Iron Seas books for a day. It’s a cool world.

Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)? I read Daughter of the Forest when I travelled to London to visit my dad when I was 12, and I always think of that time when I think about the book.

Name a book you acquired in some interesting way. Oh no, physical books. My poor memory. Um, I have a lot of non-fiction (and fiction, honestly) that I got from the secondhand bookstore I used to work at. I loved that job. Unfortunately, my former boss passed away a few months ago, and so I miss him a lot. Those books mean even more to me, now.

Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person? I’ve given books to friends if I think they’d like the book more than I did. I don’t often give away books, though. Particularly not now when I can’t even really access them!

Which book has been with you to the most places? Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahearn has been to Qatar and back, as well as France, Italy, and Spain as an emergency backup in case my ereader died. (I still haven’t read it)

Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later? I probably hate the required readings more now than I did then, mostly because I’m sick of boring white dudes, tbh.

What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book? Not an item, but there were adorable cat paw prints in a book we sold at the bookstore.

Used or brand new? Used. Who can afford $25 per book? But mostly I buy ebooks (on sale) which helps.

Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses? Never read him, but he’s probably good. I like genre fiction and won’t denigrate someone because they are popular. He got that way for a reason.

Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book? PRACTICAL MAGIC. I love that movie as being about sisterhood and feminism and had an adorable love interest. The book is gross and chock full of internalised misogyny. The love interest literally thinks “I wish I could rape her” about the heroine. Like WTF??? And the little girls get threatened with rape more than once, and then keep it to themselves out of shame??? I get angry every time I think about it.

Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid? Eh, I’m not a purist. Different mediums. Some films are more successful than others, but I don’t think that means they shouldn’t have been made.

Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question? Yeah, some have. Delicious by Sherry Thomas comes to mind

Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take? I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who is my book twin, but I’ll trust most people in romancelandia to give me honest answers and reviews, which is great.

I tag: @romancingthebookworm ,  @unbreakablejemmasimmons ,  @whisperofgrace  , @bloomingromance , @librarianlirael , @believingfairytales , @lucyreadsromance , @respectingromance , @ramblingromance but only if you want to do it!

[librarianlirael]

Love by Numbers Trilogy By Sarah MacLean

These have been on my TBR for a while. If you follow me on my romance blog (@believingfairytales) you’ll know I absolutely love Sarah MacLean. I picked these for the Goatathon because I was trying to cram as many books onto it as possible (to cut down my colossal TBR) and romances are light enough that they don’t bog me down too badly. 

I didn’t think about the logistics of putting three books in a single post, so instead of summarizing the books for you I’m just going to link to their Goodreads. :)

Nine Rules

Ten Ways

Eleven Scandals

[diehard-fangirl]

Hey can you recommend any good romance bloggers to follow... especially if they lean towards contemporary?

Hmmmm. Well I can’t name anybody that is subgenre exclusive, but the following are my Romance Tumblr Squad that I follow and adore! They post romtastic content so FOLLOW! FOLLOW! FOLLOW!

pollyssecretlibrary 

romancypants 

brenda-is-reading

romancepodden

thebooklrandtheduke

believingfairytales

romancingthebookworm

romancetherapy

sunnysaysbookreviews

respectingromance

mariaslozak

[diehard-fangirl]

librarianlirael replied to your post “DOWN & DIRTY QUICKIE REVIEW!”

Oh good!! I usually am a bit weird about paranormal romances too, so it's good to hear from someone who feels similarly. I'll definitely check and see if the library has it!! -believingfairytales

SAME, HON! It is really hard for me to find good paranormal romances. A lot of what gets recommended to me I try, then dislike. But Bec fits firmly in the good! If you do get a chance to read it PLEASE hit me up with what you thought about it because I’m a nosy butt! lol

[diehard-fangirl]

librarianlirael replied to your quote “You’re not going to fit.”

Lol I feel like almost every romance novel I’ve read uses some variant of this line. I’m not complaining, it makes me laugh every time, but… -believingfairytales

(I...don’t know what Tumblr just did with this reply. It’s cut off but also has 2 bloggers in it? TUMBLR WHAT IS YOU DOING!?)

Yes yes yes a thousand times yes! It’s like a romance cliche at this point, and I almost always eye-roll laugh, ya know?

[librarianlirael]

What led me to romance tag

sI was tagged by @seashells-and-bookshelves​. She made me cry a lot and she’s just the actual best please go give her some love. 

If I had to give my romance or romance-adjacent books that led me to romance novels, they would be…

Okay so my journey began so long ago that I’m not quite where to start. I’ve always loved the romantic elements of stories (probably a result of growing up on Disney movies but who knows). It would be hard to pinpoint the exact books, so I’m going to list some that were turning points.

1: The Mystery Kiss by Elaine Harper: I stole it and a few others from my oldest sister Kelli because I was staying the night at her house and I was bored and couldn’t sleep. I was probably about 9ish. These were 80s teen serial romances published by Harlequin, I think. They’re about 150 pages each, and kind of silly. I LOVED them. 

2: The Road to Paradise Island by Victoria Holt: When I was about 12 my aunt dropped off a box of about 50 books she’d gotten for $5 at a garage sale. They were for my mom but I immediately just attacked the box and made off with my loot. Among these were a huge amount of Victoria Holt books (and Phyllis A. Whitney). I was obsessed. I went to the library and checked out every single Victoria Holt they had. If you’re not familiar with these, they’re (non-sexual) gothic romance with all these crazy storylines about revenge and feuds and crazy shit. They’re amazing. 

3: Like No Other by Melanie George: This was my first grown-up romance novel with actual sex scenes, I stole it from my mom’s bathroom when I was about 16. It’s about a girl pickpocket who gets picked up by a member of the aristocracy after she fails to pick his pocket, he realizes she’s a girl and tries to My Fair Lady her but ends up falling for her. It was SUPER unrealistic but really cute and funny in places. 

4: Ravished by Virginia Henley: So this one was another stolen from Kelli, when I was about 17. There is a LOT OF HISTORICAL BACKSTORY to any of VH’s romances and I LOVED that. Who doesn’t like to learn about actual historical events while also having betrothed couple who loathes each other from childhood fall in love? Not me that’s who! All of VH’s romances are like that (well all of the 12 or so that I’ve read anyway). They’re slowburn and let romances develop pretty naturally, and I like that. Also history.

5: Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas: this one is the one I count as my first romance novel. Mostly it’s just my first “modern” romance novel. Kelli  “accidentally-on-purpose” left it behind when she came to visit for my high school graduation. I devoured it. I then moved to Kansas to live with my other sister for a while ( to look for a job and learn to drive and just learn in general to be an adult). There was a Borders within walking distance of my sister’s house (and I had no friends), so I went there and ashamedly bought the next three books in the series. Before these books I hadn’t realized that romances could be so lighthearted and hilarious. I’d been thriving on the drama, but now I felt whole and clean and happy once I’d finished. My fate was sealed. 

It took a long time for me to stop stealing other people’s romance novels and just get up the courage to like what I like and not be ashamed of it. Why should you put down something that brings you genuine enjoyment? I now buy my romance novels at the store and snapchat/ instagram what I’m reading to everyone I know. Also now I have a fallback subject to discuss with Kelli whenever I feel the need for sisterly connection. <3 IF YOU LIKE ROMANCE NOVELS TOO YOU SHOULD FOLLOW ME AT @believingfairytales because I like talking about them.  I tag: @angelacolsin , @romancetherapy , @all-the-kissing-books , @pollyssecretlibrary @thestarfishdancer @msisoverthegardenwall, @mtr-amg and anyone who wants to do this! A lot of you it wouldn’t let me tag for some reason. <3 also @avonromance because why not! <3