Thursday, August 18, 2005

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

5 comments:

ReneeW said...

I agree with you about Nora, JAK, and Lowell (Eden Burning did it for me ::shudder:: - and it was a re-write!). I recently finished Brockmann's Out of Control and I'm still basking in the glow of a terrific book. It was a solid A. If you have it in your TBR, read it! If you don't like it...well...you can verbally abuse me later. SEP has been hit or miss, but I'm going to try Match Me If You Can.

Tara Marie said...

I actually agree with you about all of these writers, but I still read Nora Roberts (comfort reads--I know they're rather predictable--not as bad as JAK though.) And I still read SEP, but I wont buy her in hard cover and only pick up what interests me.

Anonymous said...

I've never read any of the authors you've listed. Okay wait, that's not true. I read Public Secrets by Nora Roberts and I dont remember liking it that much. I also read Midnight in Rudy Bayou by Elizabeth Lowell which I did like, but apparently not enough to pick up another one. Oops, thats not true either. I picked up Beautiful Dreamer but couldnt get into it.

CindyS said...

Would you believe I stopped reading Roberts because I got burned on reissues one two many times. I completely lost track of what I had read by her so I gave up. I bought her Fire, Ice trilogy a while back but have not picked them up yet.

SEP has always been hit or miss, okay I only ever loved one book - the circus and since I don't love sports or athletes I gave up on her.

JAK/Quick - exactly and I think it's funny that you quit JAK when I did. I picked up some book with water in the title and I couldn't even get 30 pages in. Haven't bothered since. Castle - I did enjoy

Ah, Brockmann - I think I am done buying her in hardcover. I was hanging on for Max and Gina (you never met them) and I don't think any author can live up to expectations that grow with each book. I waited 4 years for their book and I was sad (meanwhile the book before this one earned keeper status). Now I don't want to be strung along anymore.

Lowell - I have much to look forward too because sometimes I like mean heroes. I have read maybe 3 books by her and I want to read more, just like you said, too many other books in the line before them ;)

CindyS

Anonymous said...

Wonderful and informative web site. I used information from that site its great. » »