New MRBC December 2021 nominations (Romance)

[hildea]

The book club has gone into hibernation, I'll try to wake it up for December, with a genre I like which I haven't seen much of in book clubs here: Romance. If anyone else want to do the planned genre as well, they are free to do so, of course.

Each poster can nominate up to three books, and can support as many nominations as they want. A book needs one supporting voice to get to the vote. I'm planning to start the vote some time on Sunday 21.November (unless real life gets in the way, if so it may be later), and will keep the vote up for a week or so. If there's a tie I'll roll a die.

There's no expectation to read the chosen book if you don't like the final pick.

---

We're using the industry standard to define romance: A story with a central romance and a happy ever after or happy for now ending. (In other words, "Romeo and Juliet" doesn't fit this definition.) This doesn't mean that people should only recommend books where they've read the ending. We should be able to trust that books marketed as romance are what they say. But please don't nominate books where you know there's no happy ending.

More about this: Do Not Mess with the Happy Ever After: defining the romance novel

[hildea]

Nominated:

Lord of the Last Heartbeat by May Peterson (2019) (hildea)
The Duke who Didn't by Courtney Milan (2020) (hildea)
The Beast by J.R. Ward (2016) (booklover6)
A Little Village Blend by Nathan Burgoine (2021) (hildea)

Seconded (and off to vote):

Venetia by Georgette Heyer (1958) (pdurrant, issybird)
Night Game by Christine Feehan (2005) (booklover6, hildea)
Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart (1959) (issybird, catlady)
Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt (1960) (Catlady, issybird)
Lost Island by Phyllis A. Whitney (1970) (Catlady, issybird)
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn (2000) (John F, hildea)
The Red Cockade by Stanley Weyman (1895) (issybird, John F))

[hildea]

I nominate Lord of the Last Heartbeat by May Peterson

Stop me. Please.

Three words scrawled in bloodred wine. A note furtively passed into the hand of a handsome stranger. Only death can free Mio from his mother’s political schemes. He’s put his trust in the enigmatic Rhodry—an immortal moon soul with the power of the bear spirit—to put an end to it all.

But Rhodry cannot bring himself to kill Mio, whose spellbinding voice has the power to expose secrets from the darkest recesses of the heart and mind. Nor can he deny his attraction to the fair young sorcerer. So he spirits Mio away to his home, the only place he can keep him safe—if the curse that besieges the estate doesn’t destroy them both first.

In a world teeming with mages, ghosts and dark secrets, love blooms between the unlikely pair. But if they are to be strong enough to overcome the evil that draws ever nearer, Mio and Rhodry must first accept a happiness neither ever expected to find.

[hildea]

I nominate The Duke who Didn't by Courtney Milan.

Miss Chloe Fong has plans for her life, lists for her days, and absolutely no time for nonsense. Three years ago, she told her childhood sweetheart that he could talk to her once he planned to be serious. He disappeared that very night.

Except now he’s back. Jeremy Wentworth, the Duke of Lansing, has returned to the tiny village he once visited with the hope of wooing Chloe. In his defense, it took him years of attempting to be serious to realize that the endeavor was incompatible with his personality.

All he has to do is convince Chloe to make room for a mischievous trickster in her life, then disclose that in all the years they’ve known each other, he’s failed to mention his real name, his title… and the minor fact that he owns her entire village.

Only one thing can go wrong: Everything.

[pdurrant]

Since it's the next book in my read-through of Heyer's romances, I nominate Venetia:

"Venetia features a remarkably independent heroine who falls deeply in love with the wrong man. Venetia Lanyon lives a quiet life until she meets her notorious neighbor Jasper, Lord Damerel, who would marry her in a heartbeat if he didn't think it would ruin her. Then she discovers a shocking family secret that changes everything... "

[booklover6]

My nominations, which are next to read for me in these series, but I've been putting off all year:

The Beast by J.R. Ward

Night Game by Christine Feehan

Removing my nomination for Shadow's Seduction by Kresley Cole. I didn't realize it's a novella, nor did I realize it ends on a kind of cliff hanger for a book that hasn't been written yet and may never be.

[issybird]

I second Venetia.

[John F]

I'll nominate The Duke and I by Julia Quinn.

From Amazon (possible spoilers):

Spoiler:

Can there be any greater challenge to London's Ambitious Mamas than an unmarried duke?—Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, April 1813

By all accounts, Simon Basset is on the verge of proposing to his best friend's sister—the lovely and almost-on-the-shelf—Daphne Bridgerton. But the two of them know the truth—it's all an elaborate ruse to keep Simon free from marriage-minded society mothers. And as for Daphne, surely she will attract some worthy suitors now that it seems a duke has declared her desirable.

But as Daphne waltzes across ballroom after ballroom with Simon, it's hard to remember that their courtship is a sham. Maybe it's his devilish smile, certainly it's the way his eyes seem to burn every time he looks at her . . . but somehow Daphne is falling for the dashing duke . . . for real! And now she must do the impossible and convince the handsome rogue that their clever little scheme deserves a slight alteration, and that nothing makes quite as much sense as falling in love.

You've watched Bridgerton on Netflix, now read the book!

Available at libraries everywhere (except where it isn't).

[drofgnal]

Hildea, thanks for resurrecting the Book Club. This month's category is not my cup of tea, so I'll not participate this month, but thanks.

[hildea]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

Hildea, thanks for resurrecting the Book Club. This month's category is not my cup of tea, so I'll not participate this month, but thanks.

My pleasure

I think it makes sense to have this as a distributed effort: Anyone who wants to can take up the flag when they feel like it, choose the next genre or theme, and start nominations and voting however they want.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by hildea

My pleasure

I think it makes sense to have this as a distributed effort: Anyone who wants to can take up the flag when they feel like it, choose the next genre or theme, and start nominations and voting however they want.

I may do that. Historical fiction is my favorite Genre and I've been waiting for tht one to come up.

[hildea]

Since romance is dominated by women I wanted my third nomination to be a book written by a man. I've been waffling between Alexis Hall and Nathan Burgoine a while, but I guess I'll just have to make a choice.

I nominate the novella A Little Village Blend by Nathan Burgoine.

According to Ivan’s sister Anya, Ivan’s tea leaves promise his perfect match is out there somewhere, just waiting to be swept off their feet. Ivan knows Anya’s always right—an annoying trait for a sister if ever there was one.

Ivan’s own knack with tea might not deal with the future, but it’s pretty good at helping with the here and now. When Walt, a tall, dark, and grumpy soldier shows up at his store, NiceTeas, in obvious need of a hand—and a dog-sitter—Ivan rises to the challenge and offers blends to make Walt’s life a little easier. There’s just no way he can help falling for the guy. But Anya says Walt’s not the one for Ivan, and the tea leaves don’t lie.

Is it worth steeping a here-and-now while waiting for the one-and-only? Ivan’s not sure, but everything tells him it’s all just a matter of finding the right blend.

[hildea]

I second Night Game.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by hildea

Since romance is dominated by women I wanted my third nomination to be a book written by a man.

I was struck by this since my favorite period for romance novels is the turn of the last century, when standout authors included Anthony Hope, George Barr McCutcheon and Stanley Weyman. So with that in mind, I’ll nominate:

The Red Cockade by Stanley Weyman. A romance set during the French Revolution, it was published in 1895. Obviously free to download.

And among the books I loved when I was a young adolescent were the gothic novels of Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt. I haven’t read any of them since and I wonder what I’d think now. So I’ll nominate one of my favorites:

Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart. It’s set among crumbling French aristocrats and the heroine is an English governess.

And speaking of Anthony Hope, there’s a slight irony in that his greatest novel and one of the greatest romance novels of all time, The Prisoner of Zelda, also the work on which KJ Charles based her delightful The Henchmen of Zenda, would not qualify as a romance under the rule she set out!

[Catlady]

I second Mary Stewart's Nine Coaches Waiting. I had been thinking of nominating Airs Above the Ground or The Ivy Tree, but instead of another Stewart novel, I'll nominate Victoria Holt's Mistress of Mellyn.

Mount Mellyn stood as proud and magnificent as she had envisioned...But what bout its master--Connan TreMellyn? Was Martha Leigh's new employer as romantic as his name sounded? As she approached the sprawling mansion towering above the cliffs of Cornwall, an odd chill of apprehension overcame her.

TreMellyn's young daugher, Alvean, proved as spoiled and difficult as the three governesses before Martha had discovered. But it was the girl's father whose cool, arrogant demeanor unleashed unfimiliar sensations and turmoil--even as whispers of past tragedy and present danger begin to insinuate themselves into Martha's life.

Powerless against her growing desire for the enigmatic Connan, she is drawn deeper into family secrets--as passion overpowers reason, sending her head and heart spinning. But though evil lurks in the shadows, so does love--and the freedom to find a golden promise forever...

And because I can't possibly leave out the third of the big three, I also nominate Lost Island by Phyllis A. Whitney.

From a New York Times–bestselling author: An island off the Georgia coast holds the memory of a broken heart and the secrets of a woman’s past.

It’s been years since Lacey Ames last saw Hampton Island, where she grew up amid the sandy marshes with her childhood sweetheart, Giles Severn, and her cousin Elise—and where Elise had stolen the man Lacey loved. Lacey never forgot the hurt and betrayal she once suffered at Giles’s grand family home of Sea Oaks, but a curious and compelling summons from Elise prompts her return.

Once Lacey arrives, she realizes how little has changed. Giles is still the handsome charmer she fell in love with, and Elise is still the wily seductress whose succession of lovers has risked a family scandal. But when a series of anonymous harmless pranks turns threatening, Lacey must finally confront the past—and a decade-old secret from one haunting summer at Sea Oaks.