Romance Marathon

I got a Kindle for Christmas! I love paper books and I never thought I'd go for electronic, but I have to admit it has made my reading habit easier. I no longer have to go to the library to pick up books or remember to return them... well, unless I pick a book that isn't available digitally.

At any rate, the first digital books that were recommended to me by the library website were holiday romances. Thus began a long list of romance books... a genre I haven't read in a long time.

First I read "Mischief & Mistletoe" By Tanya Anne Crosby. It was a decent book, but it wasn't so good that I wanted to read another of hers right away. It was fairly short, well written and entertaining.

Next, I read a slew of Carolyn Brown's books (in order of how I read them, but not in order of the story line): "Honky Tonk Christmas", "Darn Good Cowboy Christmas", "Billion Dollar Cowboy",  and "My Give-A-Damn's Busted". You'll notice they started with a Christmas theme, but then just stuck to a Cowboy theme. Rather than tell you about each of them, I can say I enjoyed each one enough to read another of her books right away. There is a bit of repetition in the books which isn't needed... I'm talking about a character repeats the same information about themselves over and over in each book. Like, in "Honky Tonk Christmas", the main character has nightmares and they seem to be the same and they become repetitive. There was a different repetitive thing/character for each book. Otherwise, the author does a great job at making the characters and scenarios different. I will say though, that a lot of the characters seem to have large amounts of money which doesn't seem too realistic. I guess we read books to escape reality though.

If you're thinking of reading one of Carolyn Brown's steamy novels, I'd say to do it in a different order than I did. All of the books I've read thus far were part of a different series. I think it'd be best to read these in order, though you don't have to. Here are the 4 series I've dabbled in (highlighted in gray the books I have read) and the books are listed in order... I think... I pulled the list from the author's website. (I have to say that I'm impressed with the sheer number of series and books by this author – this isn't the entire list by any means!)

Honky Tonk Series
"I Love This Bar"
"Hell, Yeah"
"My Give-A-Damn's Busted"
"Honky Tonk Christmas"

Spikes & Spurs Series
"Love Drunk Cowboy"
"Red's Hot Cowboy"
"Darn Good Cowboy Christmas"
"One Hot Cowboy Wedding"
"Mistletoe Cowboy"
"Just a Cowboy"
"Cowboy Seeks Bride"

Cowboys & Brides Series
"The Billion Dollar Cowboy"
"The Cowboy's Christmas Baby"
"The Cowboy's Mail Order Bride"
"How to Marry a Cowboy"

UPDATES: I finished the "Honky Tonk" series and I have to say that "Hell, Yeah" really broke out of the slight formula I was starting to feel after reading so many of these books back to back. "I Love This Bar" was good too. I'll read more of this author's books someday, but for now, I'm moving on. :)

UPDATES AGAIN: I thought I'd read an easy, relaxing read after getting through some more thought-provoking novels. I found myself back in Texas. "Red's Hot Cowboy" was a fun read. I won't say unpredictable, but I enjoyed it. I'm going to try another Carolyn Brown next, but it isn't part of any of the series above. 

UPDATES AGAIN: Decided I needed to try to finish another series I guess. "One Hot Cowboy Wedding" was pretty steaming and also broke from the formula. I really liked having the characters from the other books interacting with each other in this book. It'd be even better if I read these in order I bet. ;) Just finished "Love Drunk Cowboy" and "Mistletoe Cowboy" and enjoyed both. 2 more to read in this series!

"The Cowboy's Mail Order Bride"... I think this was my favorite book by this author thus far. The older lady's in the book have their own agenda that makes for humor and I actually cried at one point. A+