Halloween Contest Winners
Halloween is now over. The piles of candy sitting in the middle of your kitchen tables should be a clue. That means it's time to put the skeletons, fake graveyard markers and orange decorations away for another year. It's also time to announce our Halloween contest winners.
Thanks to all who entered and supplied such great titles. You have us wondering exactly which ones to review here at PBR over the next few months. In the meantime...Congrats to RandomRanter and Nathalie!!!! Both of you win a stack of paranormal titles. Email us at pbr@paperbackreader.net so we can get those prizes out to you.
For everyone else, we have more contests coming up before the end of the year. That means more books for you. Stay tuned...
The appeal of the western romance is often attributed to the rugged cowboy hero. I’ll admit he certainly doesn’t hurt matters. However the real reason this reader keeps praying for a resurgence in the sub genre is because of the heroines. Simply put, I’m less likely to get stuck with a bubble-headed heroine in a western. Their main concerns in life have nothing to do with attending some society soiree, or the fact that they spied Lord Sin at Almack’s. No, the western heroine is often concerned with such mundane matters as living in a lawless land, often miles from civilization, surviving the bitter winter months, and scratching out enough food so she and her family don’t starve to death.
When we ran our guest review contest, we knew there was a chance one of the winners would end up getting a book she did not like. That meant writing a not-so-favorable review. It's one thing for us here at PBR not to like a book and say it. We have a mission statement that promises honest reviews. Along with that, we have a deeply ingrained view that open discourse about books and craft is good for the romance genre. To ask a guest revier to abide by those parameters seemed a bit, well, harsh. After all, it was supposed to be a fun contest. We did not want or intend to put anyone in an awkward position.
There is a lot of talk in the romance world about TSTL (too stupid to live) heroines being unbearable. These are the horror movie equivalents of the woman who runs upstairs rather an outside when the serial killer with the hatchet starts a chase. If message boards and reader sites are to be believed, the new breed of heroines-with-attitude-for-no-reason are equally annoying . These women are angry and on edge – ie, the bitches. Of course, heroines that land somewhere in the middle do not fare well with some readers either. The bottom line: It’s hard to be a romance heroine today.
While I thought the idea of the “Bombshell” imprint was a bad idea on the part of Harlequin/Silhouette, I thought the idea of the Bombshell novels were great. This is not a contradiction. I suspected that the entire line – as presented in concept to me – was not sustainable. Sort of like a steady diet of Cheesy Poofs.