Top Five BDSM Romance Books

Hey everyone,

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’re probably aware that I like a little bit of kink in my romances, especially of the BDSM variety. Luckily for me since the phenomena of Fifty Shades these book abound, yet this abundance of BDSM romance books has caused another problem... The blight of the bad, ill-informed and frankly mundane BDSM romance book. So to help out my fellow kink lovers I’ve decided to compile of list of my Top Five BDSM romance books. Enjoy!

Axel’s Pup by Kim Dare

My Top Five Political Romances

Hey everyone,

As you may know, last night was the 2015 General Election in the UK and yes I was one of those sad people who stayed up all night to watch the results roll-in. Therefore at the moment my mind is a little worst for wear due to lack of sleep and politically focused. So I thought it would be fun to compile a list of my favourite romances that feature politics or have a political figure as the hero or heroine.

Despite being inspired by the UK Election all the books on my list are actually set in the USA, I was a little disappointed to discover I had never read a UK set Political Romance, or even a non-USA set Political Romance, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles my friends. Now on with the list!

5. Night Swimming by Laura Moore

Childhood enemies Lily and Sean are reunited in their home-town over its coral reef. Lily, a marine biologist, is on a mission to preserve the reefs. Sean is the local mayor determined to protect the town’s natural beauty. Forced to work closely together for the good of the town sparks soon start to fly, but will Lily stick around once her mission is complete?

Top 5 M/M Romance books

Hey everyone,

In my recent March Wrap Up it became clear that I read a lot of M/M. Seriously, it made up around 50% of the books I read this month! Therefore I thought it was about time I did a post about one of my favourite Romance sub-genres. After all I’ve been reading and loving M/M for about five years now and over that time I’ve sample the great, the good, the bad and the down-right kinky this sub-genre has to offer.

I found it extremely difficult narrowing down this list to just five books, and clearly this is all personal preference, but below are my Top 5 M/M Romance book recommendations. Whether your new to the genre, and old veteran or an up-and-coming connoisseur I hope this list has a little something for everyone.

Stuff by Josephine Myles

Tobias “Mas” Maslin doesn’t need much. A place of his own, weekends of clubbing, a rich boyfriend for love and support. Too bad his latest sugar daddy candidate turns out to be married with kids. Mas wants to be special, not someone’s dirty little secret.

When he loses his job and his flat on the same day, his worlds starts unraveling…until he stumbles across a vintage clothing shop. Now to convince the reclusive, eccentric owner he’s in dire need of a salesman.

Perry Cavendish-Fiennes set up Cabbages and Kinks solely to annoy his controlling father. Truth be told, he’d rather spend every spare moment on his true passion, art. When Mas comes flaming into his life talking nineteen to the dozen, he finds himself offering him a job and a place to live.

He should have listened to his instincts. The shop is already financially on the brink, and Mas’s flirting makes him feel things he’s never felt for a man. Yet Mas seems convinced they can make a go of it—in the shop, and together.

If you love quirky characters, charming Britishisms and general mayhem then Stuff is the M/M for you! An opposites attract story, with a slight GFY Stuff is full of Josephine Myles usual combination of heartfelt emotion, witty dialogue and sweet yet sexy romance. Perry and Tobias personalities although so different work so well together; Tobias brings Perry out of his self-imbosed hermit lifestyle and Perry provides Tobias with stability and self-believe.

My Top Eight Period Dramas!

Hey everyone,

Over the last week I’ve been watching a lot more movies than I’ve been reading books. In part this is because I’ve just got a Netflix accounts but also because I’ve been on way too many long haul flights.  There is only so many times a person is meant to cross the Atlantic Ocean in one month. Therefore rather than reviewing a book I thought it would be interesting to tell you about my favourite Period Dramas that feature a strong romantic element.

Since the popularity of Downtown Abbey the amount of people producing, writing and watching Period Dramas has increased and below is just a small selection of my favourite Period Drama movies with a strong romantic element. Also because I found it impossible to rate by favourite I decided to order them chronologically based on the time they are set, starting with the oldest.

Tristan & Isolde (2006)

Set in Britain and Ireland during the Dark Ages this movie is based on the medieval legend of Tristan & Isolde. In my opinion they are the original Romeo and Juliet as these star-crossed lovers are separated by feuding nations instead of feuding families. Tristan played by James Franco is a ‘British’ warrior who is extremely loyal to his Lord Marke, who is attempting to unify the various clans that rule Britain in this period.

The Male ‘Mistress’ in Romance Books

Hello everyone,

On Saturday one of my favourite romance blogs, or is more of a site? I’m not sure but it’s amazing and if you haven’t heard of Heroes and Heartbreakers before a) where have you been? b) You should definitely go check them out asap! Anyway back to my original point, earlier this week Heroes and Heartbreakers published a post on Mistresses and Courtesans as part of their Trope of the Month series. Its true the figure of the mistress or courtesan has been a prevalent trope in the romance novel, particularly historical romances. In fact some of my favourite novels of all time feature heroine who have been ether a mistress, or a courtesan, or a prostitute at some point in the novel. As pointed out by the Heroes and Heartbreakers team, when money and love mix everything gets more complicated.

However, their article and the comments people left got me thinking. Why do the only books being mentioned feature the women as the mistresses or courtesans?* Why should this trope be limited to the heroes being the only one who are paying for sex and/or companionship? Now I’ll admit novels featuring male courtesans, prostitutes, escorts, gigolos, rent boys (or whatever you want to call them) aren’t as prolific. They are out there, however, I personally really enjoy reading this trope with the typical roles reversed. In fact I enjoy it so much I have a whole shelve on Goodreads dedicated to this trope; so I decided to share some of my favourites with you! Also a slight warning given the nature of this trope all these books have a high level of sexual content.

Historical romances:

Master of Sin by Maggie Robinson

Dystopian Romance Books

Hello readers,

Now if you’ve been reading romance for a while you’ve probably noticed that there are defined tropes or themes that authors and readers return to again and again. Now although this sounds like a bad thing it really isn’t and in fact one of my favourite things to do is binge on a trope. At the moment I’m obsessed with dystopian, apocalypse, zombie style romances, basically anything were society, as we know it has crumbled or broken down. Obviously this is an extremely popular style of book at the moment, particularly within the young adult genre. I blame the Hunger Games trilogy.

In this post I’m going to talk about my favourite romance novels that incorporate this theme, some of them are quite well known and if you’ve read them I loved to hear your thoughts. This is not, of course an exhaustive list as that would take forever, but instead a small selection that show the diversity of this trope. I hope that you will like the following post and now let’s get started.

I’m going to begin with the most well known book on my list, which is The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook.

Now I know some of you would be reluctant to call The Iron Duke a dystopian romance and while I agree that it does sit more comfortably in the world of steampunk, I still believe that this is a story about a society in crisis, or at least one recovering from crisis. The first novel in the extremely popular Iron Seas Series The Iron Duke introduces the reader into an England that has been destroyed by Horde control, the majority of people were enslaved and could be turned into mindless drones with little or no free-thought due to the use of nanobots. Not only is this a country recovering from Horde control it is also part of a world that is suffering from zombie infestation with most of Africa and Europe being a dangerous wasteland.