DIK's

So, what do a group of bloggers do when they have a group chat?

They talk books of course. And if they are Really Smart bloggers, they come up with interesting ideas.

Which is what some of us did last night. We started talking books and our favourite books and we all came up with a list of six books we would take with us if we were stranded on a desert island.
Then we decided to make it a round robin kind of thing. I volunteered to go first since I seem to be the earliest riser of the group. In order to find out who all was in on it, and what our choices were, you have to follow the links.

There is quite an interesting selection here and someone mentioned it was like trading baseball cards - only with romance readers and romance books it was more fun!!! And since six of us were talking, we naturally decided that since we would all be together on this island we can share the books around. Which doing quick math would make 36 books altogether! No it wouldn't - it would be..... no wait - I was right the first time - 36 (and I have an accountant son - scary that - for him that is)

It took a bit to come up with the ground rules. We couldn't duplicate any book - since we would be passing them around and they had to be books that were out now - no future releases. So that eliminated any ARC's. But we were all remarkably agreeable.

So, as the first one to go, here is my list of books I would take with me.

I know this first one will come as a big surprise to many of you, but my first pick was

• Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas

And what would a DIK list be without this next author

• After the Night by Linda Howard

This next one - and oldie but a goodie and one I'm not sure that many have read,

• One Summer by Karen Robards

And another one I'm not sure has been widely read......yet. But it should be as it's wonderful

• Whispers of Heaven by Candice Proctor

And again this next one may not shock that many people who have read this blog for any length of time

• Ride the Fire by Pamela Clare

And last - but certainly not least, is a recent book I read, I loved and now I'm reading for the second time

• Driven by Eve Kenin

Now what makes me pick the above books surprisingly enough, is the strength of all the heroines.

With Dreaming of You I know you all know how much I adore Derek - my number one hero of all time, being played in my mind by Richard Armitage, but it's Sarah who is really the strong one. Some may disagree with me, but here she is, this little country miss, and she writes a what we could call today a best seller about a prostitute. She has the guts to stand up to a very virile and compelling Derek and then after that stands up to crazy Joyce and save herself

Grey in After the Night is another hero who makes my knees weak, but it is Faith who makes the book for me. She rises about her white trash roots and really makes something of herself. Again she stands up to a very determined Grey and gets her way.

Rachel of One Summer has a quiet strength about her. She stands up against a whole town in defending Johnny when she offers him a job and a place to stay. Then she does it again when she declares their pairing in a very public way.

For those who have read Whispers of Heaven, this book is really about Jess. Lucas is good - very good - but this is Jessie's story and the choice she makes at the end makes me want to stand up and cheer

In Ride the Fire once again, Nicholas is a fabulous hero - just fabulous, but Bethie has remarkable strength. She lives alone and is the kind of heroine who helped build a country.

Raina is the strongest outwardly of all my listed heroines. She is fantastic. With a life of abuse by her father behind her, she is her own person, strong and brave. I love Wizard - but I equally love Raina!!!

And so I come to the end of my six books. In this round robin DIK list, the next blogger to visit is our recording secretary Sula. Then follow the link from Sula's blog to see who comes after her! And so on and so on and so on.

So - what about you? What books would you bring? Keep in mind you have to wait until the end and no repeats allowed - since we will be sharing and all. Feel free to post here or any of the participants or on your own blog if you have one - just drop us a comment letting us know.

(and a special salute to Laurie of AAR who coined the phrase that once we explained to those who weren't sure what DIK meant, immediately understood when we explained it)