And in the spirit of fairness

Well, since I shared the historical authors who don’t do it for me anymore, I suppose it’s only fair to do the same thing with the other genres. Keep in mind, just because I say they don’t do anything for me anymore doesn’t mean I still don’t think they are excellent authors. They have all been autobuys and since I have excellent taste, they have to be good.

Nora Roberts. Now Nora and I have an odd relationship although I doubt she is aware of it. I stopped reading her books smack dab in the middle of one of her trilogies. When I think of why I stopped reading her, I think of deep rich chocolate I just overdosed on one day. I think she is a great writer and have no problem recommending her books. But I think up until I quit reading her, I had read every book she had written with the exception of about 3 Harlequins. Trilogies, stand-alone books, harlequin books, and hard cover – I read them all. And then one day, halfway through I just had one too many chocolates. That was it. Couldn’t read/eat another one. I own more books of hers by a long shot that any other author. But even though I gave her up, I’m consoled by the fact that I still love her incarnation as JD Robb. So I still get my chocolate fix, just another type.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips is another excellent writer I gave up on. I can point to the exact scene where she jumped my own personal shark. I had been wavering on her for a while. I really didn’t care for This Heart of Mine. I had issues with the heroine. Things didn’t improve with First Lady. But it was the scene in Breathing Room where the heroine made the hero put on not one but two condoms. “Oh give me a break,” I thought. Although I limped through the rest of that book SEP and I were through as a couple. Haven’t read one since and even though her latest one is getting rave reviews, once an author is off my list, it’s hard for them to make it back on. Most especially is it difficult if they are off because something in a book really pissed me off.

The giving up of Jayne Anne Krentz is very similar to Nora Roberts. I gobbled up everything she wrote whether it was JAK, Amanda Quick or Jayne Castle. I loved all three genres she wrote in. But I was in the middle of the Eclipse Bay Trilogy when I just couldn’t read another one. I love her previous books and I’m enjoying BAM’s recent reviews. Sadly about the same time as I stopped reading JAK, I also stopped reading Amanda Quick. I had noticed that she seemed to be leaving the romance side further behind to focus on the suspense. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but with so many other books out there to read and since I take romance over suspense – sigh. She hasn’t had a Jayne Castle futuristic book published for a while but if she ever does, I’m still on for those ones.

I jumped off the Suzanne Brockman bandwagon before she took a huge leap in popularity. I loved, adored, couldn’t get enough of her books until The Defiant Hero. I ‘discovered’ her when Prince Joe was first published and except for the hesitation when Get Lucky came out (due entirely to the absolutely dreadful cover) I couldn’t get her books fast enough. But Meg scarred me and scarred me good. To this day, this remains the only book I have actually physically thrown against a wall. I read the excerpts for the next book once I picked it up off the floor and it just jumped here there and everywhere, even in the excerpt and I knew I wouldn’t have the energy to try and keep up. I still bought the next two in the series Out of Control and Over the Edge but couldn’t bring myself to read them. Yes, I’ve heard they are supposed to be her best, but again, too many books, too little time. Also I prefer books with one major storyline and I don’t think she writes that way anymore. Then I read her Harelequin Taylor’s Temptation and really did not like it so I gave up on those too although she isn’t writing very much for Harlequin these days.

Elizabeth Lowell. To be honest I’m not quite sure why I quit reading her books. I did read one and the angst of the hero got to me and then I noticed this was the case in a few of her books. And I think I found some of her heroes just a little bit too controlling for what I was comfortable with at the time. But I’m willing to revisit her. So if anyone has any recent books of hers to recommend, she is an author that can make it back on my list.

'til later