July GenreCat: Romance

Snak2021 Category Challenge

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July GenreCat: Romance

1DeltaQueen50
jun 13, 2021, 11:08 pm




During the month of July we are delving into the world of romance novels.

Although Samuel Richardson’s novel, Pamela, published in 1740 is considered the first “romance” novel, love stories have been around since the first author picked up a writing tool. While today, Romance is considered a genre of fiction, in truth, the majority of books have an element of romance to them.

From the older classics of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters to the slightly more modern ones of Gone With The Wind and Rebecca, it is obvious that romance is an important element of many stories. Today the romance lover has their pick of time periods and settings.

One author who was key in separating romance into a separate genre was Georgette Heyer. Many of her historical romances were set in the Regency period and have come to be classed as “Regency Romances”, which is now considered a subgenre of Romance. Over the years the genre of romance has branched out into many subgenres, with both historical and modern settings.

For those of you who don’t read “romance” as such, there are plenty of other choices as many mysteries, westerns, fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction and literary novels include a romance or two.

Enjoy your July genre reads and please don’t forget to let us know what you are going to be reading and when finished be sure to include your title on the GenreCat Wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/GenreCAT_2021

2DeltaQueen50
jun 13, 2021, 11:11 pm

I am planning on reading a couple for this theme.

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
The Secret of India Orchid by Nancy Campbell Allen

3Robertgreaves
Redigeret: jun 14, 2021, 12:22 am

I'm not sure if Villette by Charlotte Bronte (never having read it) is a romance but somebody has tagged it. The other book I'm thinking of for this genre is I'm Your Man by Timothy James Beck

4clue
jun 14, 2021, 1:00 pm

I'm reading The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary.

5whitewavedarling
jun 14, 2021, 1:01 pm

I'm ultra-picky about romance, but I've been looking forward to Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon, which fits into a number of my July categories!

6christina_reads
jun 14, 2021, 2:06 pm

I'm a sucker for a love story, so I'm pretty sure most of my July reads will work for this CAT! :) A few I'm considering are The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary (possibly women's fiction rather than romance, but there looks to be a prominent romantic plot), Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan (YA romance), and The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton (historical romance with some fantasy elements). And we'll see what else comes up! :)

>4 clue: I hope you enjoy The Flatshare! It's one of those books that just made me happy.

7Helenliz
jun 14, 2021, 2:41 pm

As I'm reading all Georgette Heyer's romances in order, I should imagine I'll get to one of those. >:-)

8LibraryCin
jun 14, 2021, 9:07 pm

Though romance isn't usually my "thing", I have a few options for this one:

Strange Bedpersons / Jennifer Crusie
Red Lily / Nora Roberts
A Knight in Shining Armour / Jude Deveraux

9Limelite
jun 14, 2021, 10:37 pm

Romantic variety:

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Bridget Jones' Diary, Helen Fielding
Chocolat, Joanne Harris
The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion (and sequels)
Under the Greenwood Tree, Thomas Hardy
Le Divorce, Diane Johnson
Spring Snow, Yukio Mishima
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I've got lots more out of the ordinary romance novels in my library. None of them of the Harlequin school, however.

10thornton37814
jun 15, 2021, 9:38 am

I have a few Amish romances on hand and will probably select one of those.

11fuzzi
jun 20, 2021, 7:38 am

>7 Helenliz: ha! I just finished Venetia, am sure I can find another Heyer...

12Robertgreaves
jun 22, 2021, 7:49 pm

I received my copy of State of the Thing, the LibraryThing email newsletter today. It announced a new feature called GenreThing. Here is the page for Romance

13DeltaQueen50
jun 23, 2021, 4:11 pm

>12 Robertgreaves: Thanks for posting that link, Robert.

14Helenliz
jul 4, 2021, 7:39 am

I finished Mr Loverman which I'd not planned to use for this category, but I think it fits. Not a conventional romance, but it certainly has a romantic streak.

15lowelibrary
jul 4, 2021, 12:14 pm

I am currently reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon for this challenge.

16DeltaQueen50
jul 4, 2021, 12:28 pm

I have completed my first read for this month's Romance genre. The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory. This was an ok read but I think I was expecting more from this story about a bi-racial couple.

17beebeereads
jul 4, 2021, 7:53 pm

I just finished People We Meet on Vacation which I read for an online bookclub. Not my usual genre, but it worked out for this challenge as well!

18christina_reads
jul 5, 2021, 3:37 pm

I finished Beth O'Leary's The Road Trip, and I would definitely categorize it as a romance. I found it a very compelling read, though The Flatshare is still my favorite of O'Leary's books.

19LadyoftheLodge
jul 5, 2021, 3:48 pm

I finished The Amish Secret Wish and posted my review on NetGalley and on the book page here on LT.

20VioletBramble
jul 7, 2021, 12:45 pm

Romance is a genre that I usually avoid. A lot of people I know really loved Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. I decided to give that book a try. It's an LGBTQIA romance between the son of the POTUS and the Prince of England. I listened to the audiobook. I loved it. It was funny, romantic, and bawdy. I'm actually planning to read McQuiston's newest book One Last Stop which appears to be a time traveling lesbian romance.

21clue
Redigeret: jul 8, 2021, 10:00 am

I have reread Frederica by Georgette Heyer. This is the original 1965 book, third printing, given to me by a friend of my mother's years ago. I haven't reread it in several years and enjoyed again so much.

22christina_reads
jul 8, 2021, 10:09 am

I just finished The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, which is a historical fantasy novel with lady pirates...it's absolutely bananas and I really enjoyed it! There's also a romance between one of the aforementioned lady pirates and a roguish assassin who's more than he seems.

23fuzzi
jul 11, 2021, 12:22 pm

>21 clue: I think that was my first Heyer, and I enjoyed it as well.

24LibraryCin
jul 11, 2021, 6:21 pm

Strange Bedpersons / Jennifer Crusie
3 stars

Tess and Nick broke up a while back. When Nick shows up at Tess’s door, he needs a favour. In order for a big promotion at his work (he’s a lawyer and his work (and money) has always been his priority), he needs someone to pose as his fiancee for a weekend event and he’s hoping Tess will help him out. They never had much in common beyond a wild attraction, and although Tess hesitates, she agrees. Not only that, she convinces her best friend to accompany Nick’s friend/fellow lawyer (Park) to the same weekend gathering, although she really can’t stand Park.

This was ok. Romance is not usually my “thing”, but sometimes the chick lit has enough other in it that it can be fun and light and enjoyable to me. There were attempts at humour that didn’t really make me laugh in this one, and I’m not sure I really liked any of the characters. There was a secondary plotline that was kind of interesting with a bit of a twist in it, which I liked. This was short and will be forgotten fairly soon, I’m sure.

25Robertgreaves
jul 13, 2021, 1:36 am

COMPLETED, a series of two books Man & Beast and Man & Monster, both by Michael Jensen, featuring adventures in western Pennsylvania in the 1790s with a strong gay romance element.

26VivienneR
jul 13, 2021, 1:45 pm

Romance isn't my usual reading material so I had trouble this month. I read The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner.

For a Jane Austen fan this was hard to resist even though I predicted it might prove too sweet for my taste, as indeed it was. Although I didn't learn anything new about Austen it was a nice romantic story set soon after WWII with the bonus of the Jane Austen connection. It was OK but did not earn my devotion as it did for others.

27Tanya-dogearedcopy
Redigeret: jul 16, 2021, 7:19 pm

So far I've read two "trashy" romances for the month of July! I usually pick up a cheap ebook read for the weekend and romances top the list. They check off all the boxes in the way that fairy tales did when I was little and have gotten me out of more than one reading slump over the years! I've been reading romance novels since I was 15-yo and my friends and I would find and read the juicy bits :-D

Wild Night (Wilder Irish #10; by Mari Carr) A M/F contemporary romance set in Baltimore, MD, this is about two lifelong frenemies who manage to sleep with each other without realizing it! The incident came across as somewhat credible, but the whole setting of seemed oddly contrived: adult siblings living together in a dorm-like apartment, heavily planned monthly events, an Irish-Catholic working-class family that seems okay with some unusual partnerships... There's a parade of past novels 'ships but the novel stands well enough on its own. A couple of graphic sex scenes, but nothing kinky.

Property of the Mountain Men (Montana Mountain Men #1; by Gemma Weir) - This is an utterly ridiculous, over-the-top contemporary M/F romance set in a small town. Seven bachelor brothers live together in the same house (Hunh. See above.) and, the oldest, a 43-yo logger falls for a 21-yo barista. Her naiveté was problematic as well as his overbearing Alpha behavior. Graphic sex scenes, but again nothing kinky. While I was reading the book, I was laughing at the absurdity of it all, but now that I've had a little time and distance away from the book, I'm finding the imbalance between the two protags disturbing. Really wish she had been a little smarter and stronger.

28MissWatson
jul 17, 2021, 7:47 am

Georgette Heyer and Marlitt apart, I don't really read romance. But Summer is a lovely love story, so I'm using it here.

29LadyoftheLodge
jul 17, 2021, 3:32 pm

>27 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I liked your intro! My friends and I did the same as you when I was in high school. We read a lot of gothic romance novels. I went through a period of time when all I read was Regencies and historical romances--this was when I first started teaching as a middle school classroom teacher. I read several books a day in the summer, and regularly visited a bookstore that only dealt in used books on a trade-in basis. I still enjoy romance novels sometimes.

30Tanya-dogearedcopy
jul 17, 2021, 8:15 pm

>29 LadyoftheLodge: LOL, We used to see where the spine was broken in the most and, sure enough, that would be where the the taboo passages were!

I too, pretty much read Regency Romances initially— Joanna Lindsey, Amanda Quick, Stephanie Laurens, and Julia Quinn come to mind immediately though I know there were scores of others. I dip into Regencies sparingly now: I enjoyed Eloisa James’ Fairy Tales series and Mary Balogh’s Slightly Wicked on my e-reader at the moment; but generally I’ve been favoring contemporary romances lately— though that too has been waning a little bit. I’m always looking for something outside the box of tropes so many writers use these days…

I haven’t thought of them in years but just checking now, Smart Bitches Trashy Books— a website and podcast about romance novels of all stripes is still running!

31MissWatson
jul 18, 2021, 11:48 am

Der tote Rittmeister is a historical mystery set on Norderney, and the main characters who solve the case are also romantically involved.

32LadyoftheLodge
jul 18, 2021, 12:26 pm

>30 Tanya-dogearedcopy: The problem I find with some "current" Regencies is that they do not stick with the original formulas and include racy and detailed sexual scenes. Not that I doubt those kinds of things happened, but they are not the usual formula for Regencies, at least in the past. I am more interested in the interplay of people and conversations, the conniving behind the scenes, and the manners and social mores of the times.

33NinieB
jul 18, 2021, 2:02 pm

I read one of those traditional Regencies for this category, Friday's Child, by Georgette Heyer, and enjoyed it very much indeed.

34Limelite
jul 18, 2021, 5:32 pm

Anyone in this thread read voting activist Stacey Abrams' romance novels (IIRC, she's written 8), or her latest, While Justice Sleeps?

35pamelad
jul 18, 2021, 6:23 pm

>32 LadyoftheLodge: You might like Jane Ashford, Joan Smith and Mimi Matthews. I've read too many historical romances to remember the details but as far as I can recall these authors don't go in for graphic sex scenes.

>30 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Will give Amanda Quick and Joanna Lindsey a try.

36LadyoftheLodge
jul 19, 2021, 3:51 pm

>35 pamelad: Thanks, I will check them out. I think I read some Joan Smith novels in the past.

37Robertgreaves
jul 27, 2021, 9:46 pm

38dudes22
jul 28, 2021, 3:18 pm

I've finished The Seal Wife by Kathryn Harrison which was tagged as romance, but I'm not so sure.

39MissWatson
jul 29, 2021, 3:05 am

I have finished Die Tote in der Sommerfrische where Viktoria Berg meets Christian Hansen over the dead body of her former maid. The murder investigation is the backdrop for a shy romance.

40christina_reads
jul 30, 2021, 9:20 am

I read Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan, a cute YA romance, and am now reading A Viscount's Proposal by Melanie Dickerson, an OK Regency.

41Kristelh
aug 1, 2021, 7:35 am

I read Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer, one of my oldest TBR books and it works for romance and mystery.

42LibraryCin
sep 14, 2021, 9:13 pm

Looks like I accidentally posted this review in the GenreCAT discussion thread, but it was meant to go here!!

The Midnight Bargain / C.L. Polk
3.5 stars

Beatrice wants to spend her life learning magic, doing magic, and becoming a mage. With this, she wants to help her merchant father. Unfortunately, society (and her father) have other plans for her: marriage and children. And as soon as a woman is married, on goes the collar to stifle all magic because it might hurt any forthcoming children. So, women don’t get to do magic (only men) until they are beyond childbearing years.

In a bookstore, as Beatrice hunts for grimoires (textbooks) to help her learn magic, she runs into a brother and sister from a wealthy family who could have an influence on her father’s business. The sister, Ysbeta, wants the same grimoire Beatirce has her hands on. Playing peacemaker, Ysbeta’s brother suggests Beatrice and Ysbeta learn together, but Ysbeta buys the book and walks out without providing an invitation/calling card for Beatrice to meet her to study. In the meantime, it is bargaining season when the eligible men come to woo the eligible daughters and/or bargain with their fathers.

This was good. Fantasy can be hit or miss for me, depending on the type of fantasy. This was urban fantasy, so more my “thing”. There is also a romance mixed in, but not too much romance for my liking, either. Overall, I liked it.