Romance and Me: The Enemies to Lovers Trope

I thought we could once again talk about the frequently revisited tropes in romance stories.

If you remember I have already told you how much I love the Friends to Lovers trope in romance novels, today I would like to talk to you about another favourite trope of mine: the just as popular and beloved Enemies to Lovers one! 🙂

I think the reason for my enthusiasm and preference for this trope is quite obvious: when an author chooses to create an enemies-to-lovers story the hero and heroine are expected to have a lot of fights, banters, teasing, which are the perfect opportunity for the author to shine their writing talent and creativity and portray some interesting and vivid characters and the best sparkling and explosive dialogue there can be. I just love when the hero/heroine get in each other’s face and their discussion (=quarrel) becomes …

Review: "No Holds Barred" by Callie Croix

Format Read: e-ARC provided by NetGalley courtesy of the publisher
Length: Novella
Publisher: Carina Press
Genre: Erotic Romance Ménage
Release date: November 21, 2011
Formats Available: e-Book, Kindle, Nook
Purchase information: Author Website , Goodreads, Carina Press, Kindle, Nook, All Romance eBooks,
Book Blurb:

During a playful talk about fantasies, Caitlin’s fiancé offers to give her a threesome—with his best friend, Liam, who’s coming to spend the weekend. At first Cait is shocked that Nathan could entertain the thought of sharing her with another man, but once he’s planted the idea her imagination runs wild, leaving her deeply aroused—yet still unsure about what the implications could be for her and Nate’s relationship.

Nathan’s watched Cait struggle to hide her attraction to Liam for years. He knows she’s nervous, but he also knows that by making her most intimate fantasies come true …

Guest Post: Five Simons: The Many Faces of One Hero by Monique Martin + Giveaway

I am very happy to welcome to BLI and introduce to you today  Monique Martin, author of the Out of Time series: a highly original and fantastic series which combines time travel, romance, and even has paranormal elements. I loooved Out of Time, the first book in the series and am extremely excited that its sequel was released recently! So please give a warm welcome to Monique and read on to discover this amazing series!

(You can read my review of Out of Time here.)

When I started writing “Out of Time” I had a mishmoshed picture of what Simon Cross (the hero) looked like. He’s not the sort of romance hero you see on covers, shirtless and shiny. (And hooray for them because – hubba-hubba). He’s a forty-year old British professor of the occult who is …

Review: "Edge of Survival" by Toni Anderson

Format Read: e-ARC provided by NetGalley courtesy of the publisher
Length: Novel
Publisher: Carina Press
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release date: November 21, 2011
Formats Available: e-Book, Kindle, Nook
Purchase information:Author Website , Goodreads, Carina Press, Kindle, Nook, All Romance/OmniLit,
Book Blurb:

Dr. Cameran Young knew her assignment wouldn’t be easy. As lead biologist on the Environment Impact Assessment team, her findings would determine the future of a large mining project in the northern Canadian bush. She expected rough conditions and hostile miners—but she didn’t expect to find a dead body her first day on the job.

Former SAS Sergeant Daniel Fox forged a career as a helicopter pilot, working as far from the rest of the human race as possible. The thrill of flying makes his civilian life bearable, and he lives by his mantra: don’t get involved. But when he’s charged with transporting the biologist to her research …

New Releases: November 14 – 20

Pride & Passion by Charlotte Featherstone

Book blurb:
They each have their secrets but what they share is passion.

Lucy Ashton had long ago given up her quest for true love. In the rarified society of Victorian England, Lucy plays the game – flirting, dancing and dabbling in the newly fashionable spiritualism. Even marrying when – and who – she’s supposed to. If the stuffy Duke of Sussex cannot spark the passion she craves, he can as least give her a family, a home of her own, and a place to belong. When her polite marriage reveals a caring and sensual man, Lucy begins to wonder if she can indeed have it all.

But Lord Sussex is not the man the London ton has come to admire. And Lucy has some ghosts of her own, as well. Thus, when a …

Explore This! San Francisco (Past and Present)

 Today, we’re heading to San Francisco, California, but our route is a little different this time. We’re not only travelling the virtual distance to this lovely city, we’re also moving through time. Cool right?

I have to thank the awesome Stella for this idea. It was she who pointed me to When the Walls Fell by Monique Martin. From the Goodreads summary, this novel takes place during the time of the great earthquake that devastated the city. In searching for images of the time, there are many, but all show a dire state of the devastation. Rather than do an entire post of emotion inspiring pics, I decide we’d take a look at San Francisco through the years. So, put on your best time travelling outfit and let’s check it out:

This is the burgeoning …

Review: Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep

Format read: ebook
Series: Book #1 in the Bigtime series
Release Date: 1 May 2007 (reissued as ebook on 12 July 2011)
Number of pages: 360 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon

Blurb:

Bigtime, New York, is not big enough for both Carmen Cole and the superheroes and ubervillains who stalk its streets. An intrepid reporter, Carmen’s dedicated her life to unmasking the spandexwearers, all because her fiancé turned out to be a superhero, and a cheating one at that-sleeping with none other than his nubile nemesis.

Exposing the true identities of the nation’s caped crusaders and their archenemies has catapulted Carmen from her sleepy southern hometown to the front pages of the country’s biggest newspaper, The Exposé. Hobnobbing with millionaires and famished fashionistas is all in a day’s work for a woman on the trail of the Fearless Five and Terrible Triad. But when Carmen …

Guest Post: My Musings on How Vampires Went from Drooling Corpses to Hot Superheroes By Beth Kery + Giveaway

Please join us in giving a warm BLI welcome to National Bestselling Author Beth Kery today. Beth is a prolific author having penned numerous novels published by Samhain, Berkley, Ellora’s Cave and Harlequin. Beth is here to celebrate the release of Silken Rapture, Book II in her Princes of the Underground series which is coming from Samhain Publishing in digital format on November 22, 2011. 

Silken Rapture is an erotic paranormal romance and Beth is here to talk about a topic near and dear to us paranormal romance lovers….vampires! Take it away Beth!

With the second book in my Princes of the Underground series, Silken Rapture, releasing from Samhain on November 22nd, I got to thinking about the evolution of vampires. Actually, I was revisiting the hilarious tongue-in-cheek article from Cracked.com, called Six Mind Blowing Ways Zombies and Vampires Explain America—if you haven’t read it, I …

BLI Holiday Reading Challenge 2011: Holiday Read Recommendations

By now you have signed up for the Holiday Reading Challenge and are in the mood to start reading those holiday themed novels but you just realized that *gasp* you have no idea what to read as you don’t know any holiday themed books.

No need to worry, we are here to help you out with our selection post where we tried to list as many holiday themed books you could read for the challenge as we could think of.

Check them out, there are quite a lot I have on my TBR/wishlist, and if you know of more that should be added to the list please let me know in a comment.

So which ones will you be reading for the Holiday Challenge? 

Genre-specific recommendation lists:

Contemporary Romances
Historical Romances
Paranormal Romances
Free Kindle Reads

and some holiday novels we read in the past years (click on …

The Marathonian Winner Announcement Post

Hey Everyone!

Another week has whooshed by, and not only was it weird being back at the office after 5 weeks away from it but this week was so busy and hectic that it took me 1 whole day just to unwind. And you didn’t make my job easy either as so many giveaways ended this weekend, I have to take a seat just to read out all the winners’ names! *takes a deep breath*

So join me today in congratulating this week’s lucky winners who are none other than…

The lucky winners of a copy of The Academy by T.P. Boje are: 蓁子chingz – Marybelle

The lucky winner of a paperback copy of Tyger, Tyger by Kersten Hamilton is: Julie  

The lucky winner of an ebook copy of Seducing the Myth anthology edited by Lucy Felthouse is:  CelticAmazon

The lucky winner of an ebook copy of Brightest Kind of Darkness by P.T. Michelle is:  Fishgirl182

The lucky winner …