I moved interstate. It played havoc on my blogging.Buthere are the books I’ve read that I need to talk about, and will be blogging about soon!

• Joan Kilby,Gentlemen Prefer Nerds
• Nicola Marsh,Busted in Bollywood
• Rachel Bailey,What Happens in Charleston
• MJ Scott,Blood Kin
• ylie Griffin,Vengeance Born
• Kristin Higgans, Somebody to Love
• Julia Quinn,About Last Night
• Karina Cooper,Tarnished
• Sarah Mayberry, Her Best Worst Mistake
• Sylvia Day,Bared to You
• Rachael Johns,Jilted
• Shannon Curtis, Guarding Jess
• Fiona Palmer,The Road Home

Some books I read, but don’t really feel the need to elaborate on:

• Charlaine Harris,Deadlocked

Want to know what books we talked in our category romance vodcast? Kat from Bookthingo and I can tell you:

Kelly Hunter 

• Sleeping Partner (recommended by Kate) (goodreads)
• Red-Hot Renegade/Her Singapore Fling (recommended by Kat) (goodreads/booktopia)
• Untameable Rogue (recommended by Kat) (goodreads/Harlequin e-book)

Fiona McArthur

• Midwife In A Milion (goodreads/booktopia)

Fiona Lowe

• Career Girl In The Country (goodreads/booktopia)

Amy Andrews

• Alessandro And The Cheery Nanny (goodreads/booktopia)

Carol Marinelli

• Heart Of The Desert (recommended by Kat) (goodreads/booktopia)

Leah Ashton

• Secrets and Speed Dating (goodreads/booktopia)

Sarah Mayberry

• Burning Up (goodreads/Mills&Boon e-book)

Guys, I just really love Fiona Lowe. I’m putting that out there, so you can take this review with the necessary fangirl grain of salt.

So, Career Girl in the Country is not breaking any new ground. In fact, it’s going over already well-tilled ground. Poppy is the titular career girl, who has daddy issues, and control issues, and workaholic issues, all of which have affected her relationships which naturally give her relationship issues. She’s all porcupine-y, and a very bad marriage has driven her into an intense focus on her career to the exclusion of everyone else.

Matt, on the other hand, is a grieving widow who lost his perfect wife and child in a horrific way, and he’s all wounded and damaged and feels like he has nothing to give. Also, even looking at another woman drowns him in guilt because he should only ever be thinking about his dead wife.

Okay? Yeah we’ve seen this before. And naturally Poppy and Matt (they’re colleagues, by the way, when Poppy is forced into a tree change for a couple of months) ignite sparks off each other like nobody’s business, but they can’t possibly do anything about it, etc etc.

It’s all been done before. But guys, this book is just sodamnedenjoyable, that really, you should all get over it. The story isn’t going to surprise you, but it’s going to entertain you, and give you all those warm fuzzy feelings that a good author can evoke. Even the final complication, inevitably career vs relationship, which should be aggravatingly obvious, makes so much sense for the characters that, as a reader, you won’t even notice. Trust me. You’ll just be racing to the end so that you can see Poppy and Matt all gooey again. You’ll crave it like chocolate sauce on ice cream. Sure you’ve had it before - but it never ever gets old.

At least, not in the talented hands of an author like Fiona Lowe.

</fangirl>

Overarching thought: are category romances more issues-based than single title?

Most of my review work - scratch that, allof my review work is in single title novels, so I love things like Aussie Author Month, because it’s a great excuse to delve back into the category romance where I cut my romance reading teeth. Like with Barbara Hannay’s Rancher’s Twins: Mom Needed, a Harlequin Romance that’s nominated for a RITA award this year.

So, Gray was married to this woman, and they had twins together, but she couldn’t hack the Outback life, so she took the kids and moved back to NYC. Then she had a brain aneurysm and died - in front of her kids. Anyways, they go and live with their cousin Holly who agrees to take care of them until Gray can get from his ranch to New York. It takes a bit longer than expected as Gray attempts to ford a flooded stream and ends up breaking his ankle.

Fast forward three months, and Holly is doing pretty well. The kids’ PTSD is getting more manageable, and she loves having them around. So when Gray arrives, she’s got all these feelings and emotions and stuff all churning around, plus, you know, he’s totally hot, so that doesn’t help.

Long story short: she ends up going back to Australia with everyone on a very short-term basis to help the kids settle. Also Gray has a big secret he’s not sharing and Holly is determined to niggle it out of him.

Then: it’s time for her to leave, but he doesn’t want her to, but he can’t possibly ask her to stay ‘cause it’s really selfish, and she doesn’t want to go, but she wont’ stay unless he offers her more than just a nanny position with his kids, and…

Well, I won’t spoil the ending, but you can probably guess where it goes.

The bottom line is this is a very sweet little story, and to be honest, it’s utterly innocuous as well. I can’t imagine anyone not liking it, because there is absolutely nothing not to like.

However, what was more interesting to me is Gray’s great problem. Readers get an insight pretty early on that Gray is functionally illiterate, and has managed for a long time to not only successfully manage his business, but fool everyone around him. Holly eventually finds out, and one of their greatest bonds is created as she helps him to learn.

When I was telling my husband about this story, he asked, ‘why would she fall in love with an illiterate hero?’, which is a non-romance reading point of view, but it did highlight that category romances often feature ‘issues’ as part of their overarching story in a way that single titles often don’t. In fact, in my experience, many category romances have external barriers to the HEA, as opposed to internal, which is more common with single titles.

But I’m not nearly as well-versed in category romance as I am in single title, and this is an impression rather than a solid conclusion. So tell me, those of you who are more involved with category romances: do I have the right end of the stick here?

So what I thought was book one was actually book two, and then what I thought was book one again was actually book three, so I haven’t actually read the first one of this trilogy from Kathleen O’Reilly. I’ll get to it.

Book 10: Sex, Straight Up. The cover, title, and blurb on this book are so way far off that I considered that they may have been mixed up, but it’s probably the marketing team trying to minimise any potential angst. Which sucks, because

1. the angst is already considerably minimised, especially given the guy’s wife died in 9/11 which is pretty gosh-darned angsty
2. he tells her that he can’t ever get over his wife, because love is forever
3. she agrees and falls in love with him anyways

So, you know, scope for angst galore, right? Except I totally don’t remember any angst in the story. I mean, it’s there, but mostly I was caught up in the characters and their path and the other relationships and our heroine coming in to her own. Tortured? Dark? yeah, but so much more. So so much more. I loved it.

Also he’s an accountant (and loves it) and she’s an art appraiser (and loves everything but the public face of it). How cool is that?

Book 11: Nightcap. So after Sex, Straight Up any book was going to come short, but this one held it’s own, mainly because the characters are just so good. Cleo is a New York deputy  mayor, Sean is a high-priced, high-powered lawyer. They’re both very busy and important, but see a kindred spirit (at least, unconsciously) when first they meet, and so they make time for each other, even if it’s only leaving completely inappropriate voicemail messages at completely inappropriate times. (Actually, those messages are the absolute best part of the novel).

There’s angst here too, in the form of Cleo’s mother, which adds depth.

My only complaint is that this novel had to tie up any loose ends from the other two Sexy O’Sullivans; I would have preferred more time with Sean and Cleo. That being said, this novel has the only epilogue that hasn’t felt silly and superfluous in a very very very very very long time. I hate epilogues. This one made me laugh.

Title: The Millionaire’s Makeover

Author: Lilian Darcy (website)

But is she Australian?: She’s lived all over the world, but still calls Australia home (and dragged her American husband back here to prove it)

Line: Harlequin Mills&Boon Special Edition

Sub-series?: No

Release date: June 2008

Still available: Yes, in eformat from the UK

Book setting: Manor-style house not far from San Francisco

Okay, got a synopsis? Ben’s going through a messy divorce, so he throws all his efforts into doing up his heritage home. The gardens require an expert, and that’s where Rowena comes in. An expert in historically accurate (and geographically appropriate) landscaping, she would love to get her hands into Ben’s dirt. Oh yeah, I just went there.

What makes it worth reading? Rowena has an anxiety disorder and it is so well described in this book - not only the way she goes about dealing with it (including sessions with her therapist, which is a huge risk in romance novels - I mean, who wants to risk having their character written off as crazy?), but also the way other characters deal with it, especially Ben. I loved the way Ben dealt with Rowena’s disorder, including the way he would find it frustrating, which is just so realistic and honest. Huge kudos to Darcy for that. Also, I have never heard of a PhD in landscape stuff, so that was kind of cool.

Any quibbles? Though the author tackles some pretty heavy stuff in this novel, I just didn’t feel emotionally involved in the story. I can’t pinpoint why, but the characters never lifted off the pages for me, and I didn’t get that emotional payoff at the end. This is definitely a ‘this is what happened for me’ quibble, though, because I couldn’t tell you why. 

Recommended? For an excellent way to deal with real life problems.

Anything else? It’s not too late to support The Indigenous Literacy Project!