Ah, that new blog smell.

I have been a romance reader since I was about 15 years old. I began with Gone with the Wind, moved on to “borrowing” my mom’s romance books (which consisted primarily of 1970s bodice rippers) and then began checking out dozens of books from the library in my last years in high school.  I was weaned on Jayne Ann Krentz (writing as Stephanie James), Johanna Lindsey, Nora Roberts, Iris Johansen, Judith McNaught, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Elizabeth Lowell and Diana Palmer.

During my college and post-graduate education, I hid my reading preferences because smart women aren’t supposed to like “trashy books”. That was the status quo while building my career and family.

One of the benefits of turning 40 was a decision to stop caring about what other people think of my reading preferences.  I make no judgments about what you read, and I don’t care what you think about what I read.

I began reviewing the books I read with a vision toward just recording my thoughts and feelings about the books I read. Just about every book is liked by someone.  I believe that a book has an audience. It might not be me, but I don’t particularly like the dismissive, snotty attitudes that often permeate reviews.  I do not insult books or those who like that book.  I will tell you if I don’t like a book and I will tell you why, but I always try respect the book and readers who do like it.

I regularly review books on Amazon and Goodreads.  I also started a blog several years ago just to archieve my reviews. After more than two years of blogging my reviews of romance books at my old site, I purchased this site a year ago and mirrored the content with an eye toward creating a more vibrant blogging space.

Finally, I have jumped into a whole new vision of what I want to do with this site.  Thus, a new Top 10 Romance Books is born.

My focus will always be on reviewing romance books, but I would like to add some additional content including some favorites lists, tales of attending romance related events and hopefully one day interviews.

I’m not sure where this will go…but we are going.