The Misconceptions Of the Romance Genre

We all have our own interests when it comes to what we read. Some enjoy true crime, science fiction or mystery. Each genre has its own draw that can engage and captivate its reader. Recently, there has been some debate about whether the romance genre is equivalent to female pornography. This is bullshit. I could look up porn on the internet the same as any man, however, as women it would be seen as unacceptable behaviour to admit sexual desires. Somehow the genre of love has been misconstrued as a lady’s version of porn.

Reading has always been a passion of mine and originally my genre of choice was true crime and mystery. I often felt embarrassed to even look at the romance section of the local bookstore. But what I have come to find is that romanced is not the same as porn ! In a romance novel there may not be any descriptive language related to intercourse. We love romance because it makes us feel a connection to characters and gives us hope. Hope that love can find anyone of any gender, race, or sexual identity. 

The writers and readers of romance are hopeful for a society where love is what others see in the genre. If this lady wanted to read or watch porn.. well guess what.. it’s 2019 and I have the ability to access the internet the same as any man. If I wanted porn I would have got porn. But I choose romance because it relays to us that love and romance are possible. I understood the concerns that were brought to surface by Fifty Shades of Grey; however I don’t feel confident making any comments given that I had not read the book. This type of romance has never been what I enjoyed reading. Give me a broody cowboy or a troubled firefighter any day but Christian Grey did not sound like my cup of tea. 

I’m proud to say that I read romance. Despite the misconception that I’m reading “naughty books”, I find that the genre has great authors, complex plots and overall great writing. I pity those who haven’t read something from the genre due to the inaccurate analysis. 

Go! Challenge yourself! Broaden your horizons! Don’t be close minded! Find a romance novel and read it! We have plenty of recommendations on our blog! You owe it to yourself to not miss out on a great read because of what others think. So just do it already! 

Our Love For Katie Ruggle Just Keeps Gettin' Bigger.. (Search & Rescue Series Review)

Book One “Hold Your Breath”: 

This is the first in the series and it sets the tone for the remainder of the series. Lou and Callum have already met at the start of the book as Lou is the only female member of the Dive Rescue Team. Lou fled a life from her family and other complications to demonstrate her own independence and self sufficiency. Eventually, Lou suspects that someone has been stalking her. Which, causes Callum to become involved and eventually because the two are present in ever aspect of each others’ lives they become romantically involved. It's spicy that for sure and the chemistry between the two characters is off the charts. 

At the end of the book, there is someone closure for Lou in regards to her relationship with her family and her stalker. But the discovery she made of a homicide victim while on a training dive has now become an obsession. One that she ultimately drags Callum into. We have a stalker, an arsonist, a drugged Lou and some very cold water, which all make for a page turning novel that you won’t want to tear your eyes away from. This book ends on a cliff hanger, which leaves you guessing until you read the next book. We have a lot of unanswered questions about the victim of a recent homicide and who is responsible. 

Book Two “Fan The Flames”: 

Rory and Ian also have chemistry that is sizzling. Rory owns a gun store and has illegally provided guns to the local MC in the past. This is how her path with Ian crosses. Eventually, things start to go downhill, when Ian causes trouble in the club and he has to choose between the devil or the angel on his shoulder. Unfortunately, Rory gets tangled up in all of the tension because she refuses to sell a gun to a dumbass who just happened to be the presidents’ son. Things kind of escalate from there. 

Rory and Ian eventually connect as they are forced into tight quarters after some concerns rise with someone lurking around her property at night. Between the hot chemistry, the explosions, the gun fights and someone getting crushed by a snow plow, this book is action packed and a definite page turner. 

Book Three “Gone Too Deep”: 

Book three is centered on George and Ellie and I’ll be honest that I struggled to understand the chemistry between the two. George says minimal and Ellie seems to over think everything. But in desperation to find her father who is suffering from mental illness, Ellie begs George to escort her to his grandfather’s old cabin. 

George agrees via grunting, which seems to be his only form of communication at times. So the duo end up hiking for three days in icy temperatures. The adventure involved a badass moose, a shoot out, an explosion and someone also dies. Once everything concludes and there is a HEA for George and Ellie, Ruggle gives us the identity of the murderer. It leaves us hanging on the seat of our pants. 

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Book Four “In Safe Hands”:

In the final book of this series, we learn about Chris Jennings and Daisy who have been forever bonded by the death of Daisy’s mother when she was sixteen years old. As a result of this incident, Daisy suffers from agoraphobia and has not left her home for eight years. In that period the only people who have visited with her have been Chris and her father. Her father, Gabe, doesn’t seem to be winning any father of the year awards when it comes to understanding Daisy’s illness. 

Throughout the jigs and the reels, Daisy and Chris end up training with the whole search and rescue gang (Rory, Ian, George, Ellie, Lou and Callum). They become good friends who are all curious as to the recent pattern of intentional fires and homicides. Eventually, Daisy and Chris are able to make some conclusions from the evidence they collected and Daisy starts to make some progress in her illness. Their relationship also grows into a romantic relationship and Chris divulges his guilt around Daisy’s mother’s death. Throughout the book, we are aware of who the arsonist/murderer is as it was previously identified in the end of the last book. 

At the end of this book, we can see the mystery come to a close. Someone dies, someone gets engaged and someone reconnects with long lost family. Overall, another grade A book from Katie. Check it out for yourself.  Please note that I have not read the Free Novellas "On His Watch" and "After The End". My opinions are my own and have not been influenced. 

Check Out Some Of Katie's Other Books Here!

Serial Killer, Sexy Detective, Nerdy Anthropologist, What's Not To Love?

“Stone Cold Heart” by Laura Griffin (A Tracers Novel)

I have not read any other titles by Laura and reserve all opinions expressed in this blog post to be my unbiased and my own.  I purchased a physical book copy from my local bookstore. The book presents well and I found that it captured my attention. So often when we are going through the physical books in a store we see a lot of half naked dudes on the cover, but this cover is reserved and I felt comfortable physically purchasing. Not that a half naked dude on a cover ever prevented me from buying something.. But to each their own. 

I used prescription glasses to read so often I examine the font and whether the spacing of the books narrative is good for me. The font is small in the book I purchased but it wasn’t too trying to read. Overall, it was physically a pleasant book. 

On to the content, plot and characters. First of all, I always appreciate spilt perspectives in a novel such as this one. We get to see into the mind of several characters, which includes, Grace (kidnappee), Dr. Sara Lockhart (forensic guru), Nolan Hess (local hottie and Detective), and Natalia Vazques (Hess’ recruit). All these perspectives lend to the over dynamics and suspense in the storyline. I would have liked to have seen the thoughts of the killer, but I also understand that in not doing so, Laura allowed for the suspense to build and when the killer is revealed it is more dramatic. 

Without going into specifics because I don’t want to provide spoilers, this book was amazing. It was well written and it is standard of what all Romance Suspense books should thrive to aim for. There was equal romance to the suspense aspects of the book and I didn’t feel like one outweighed the other within the plot. The characters were well defined and were interesting. I never felt like I was bored and I was always left on the edge of my seat. 

I love that Sara is a bit of a badass despite wearing a lab coat and that Nolan seems to respect this, but also sees her limitations. I would have enjoyed an epilogue to this book as I was left with some lingering questions about Sara and Nolan’s future and what happened to Grace once she was found. I think an epilogue would have helped us tie some of those lingering piece of the plot into a nice little bow. 

Overall, I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I really hate when I finish a book with lingering questions and I would have wanted to see that clued up a bit in an epilogue. That being said, it comes as no surprise to me that Laura is a New York Times Bestseller. This is first of the Tracer Series for me, and I’ll probably move on to “Touch of Red” which, appears to be the next! 

You can your copy at Amazon.ca or on Laura's website (https://lauragriffin.com/)

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