Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Romance High.... Romance Readers Rock!

DearAuthor.com just posted this little tidbit about romance sales:

Romance sales accounted for $1.37 billion or 21% of the overall sales just behind religious/inspirational sales which accounted for $1.68 billion.

Other genre sales figures include:
Science fiction/fantasy $495 million
Classic literary fiction $448 million
Mystery $422 million
Graphic novels $128 million

And to be even more childish- NAH NAH POO POO.

Overall this was a good week in romance. From the top 100 poll to the outstanding numbers about the romance genre, it is good to be a romance addict, like myself. And when you also have an awesome book to recomment, it makes it all the more fulfilling.


I finally read Mine Till Midnight by Lisa Kleypas and this book shows how much Lisa is on her game. I put my hat in the ring as this book being the best historical romance of 2007 and in my top ten of the year. Even though you may be on Team Derek or on Team Sebastian, there is no doubt in my mind that Cam will rank as a new Kleypas hero favorite. This book is funny, smart, sweet and the romance between the gypsy Cam and his love for Amelia and her ragtag family is wonderful! And it is not only the love story I am recommending, but the new set of characters that Lisa has come up with. The Hathaways are so adorable! Amelia's family is wonderful and neighbors I would love to have. I was smiling through each chapter and couldn't believe how real the relationships Amelia had with her siblings.
And of course the sex between Cam and Amelia is HAWT!! Gypsy love is very yummy if I do say so myself.
And for you Sebastian fans, he is in there, but alas he has a new woman in his life other than Evie, and that is his little baby girl.
THANK YOU LISA for another incredible story and romance in a genre that should be respected by all.

Katiebabs

6 comments:

Jodi_Lee said...

Okay, I am going to Amazon RIGHT NOW and ordering this!

Kristie (J) said...

I wonder why it is that considering the large number of sales, that romance is treated like the poor cousin? I wonder sometimes if it's because it's written mostly by women for women and somehow those "intellectual" types think it's beneath them? Well - d'uh of course they do - but you would think with the second highest sales, they might open their minds a bit.
And I really enjoyed Mine 'Til Midnight. To me more than any of her other books this one had a "To Be Continued" feel to it. I liked that feeling although the "To Be Continued" is like watching Lost. We have to wait So Long for the new season to begin. But I'm not going to wish for faster writing - nope. I'm content to wait.

Anonymous said...

I've been hearing such good things about Lisa Kleypas and I never read anything by her. Is this a good book to start with? Or should I go to an earlier book?

PS: love the blog!

Anonymous said...

Carolyn Jean: Welcome !!!! And thanks for the compliment - it's my own little space on the World Wide Web that I now share with Katiebabs,a younger and hipper blogger - she has a MySpace page so she's obviously hipper as I can't quite figure out how to master that.

And as for which Kleypas to read - I'm glad you asked that (and probably many bloggers are laughing right about now) You see, I got a bit 'encouraging' last year urging readers to read Dreaming of You. Some called it stalking but I preferred to think of it as gentle persuasion. But anyway - it was a rousing success and many a reader/blogger read this incredible book and enjoyed it.
All of her books are great and you'll find a wide variety of favourites - but for my money - Dreaming of You is the piece de resistance - so far.
Then again, Katiebabs, the author of this particular post would probably say Suddenly You. Since that's right up there with my favourites - you can't go wrong with either.

Then - I could give you the short answer - which isn't quite as much fun - yes, this is a good one to start with as it's the first in a new series ;-)

Anonymous said...

Oh Carolyn, welcome to the world of Lisa Kleypas!
I personally have about 8 or so titles on my bookshelf of Kleypas alone.
Of course these are my personal favorites, but to get a taste of where to start, these are the books I recommend:
1. Then Came You- When Derek is first introduced. But it is all about a wonderful heroine named Lily.
2. Dreaming of You- You will now why Derek is on the minds of so many people and why there is not other hero like him in the world
3. Suddenly You- My favorite of hers ever!! Jack and his peaches, Amanda. Plus he has a thing for *cough* rasberries.
4. Lady Sophia's Lover- Ross! thump
5. Worth Any Price- Nick double cna go for hours thump
6. Where Dreams Being- Zachary, has a thing for love in the outdoors
7. Secrets of a Summer Night- Starts the seasons series!
8. It Happened One Autumn- Marcus and Lillian
9. Devil in Winter- eh Sebastian a long ways away from the awesome sexiness of what is Derek
10. Scandal in Spring- Daisy finds her man
11. Mine Till Midnight- Cam sigh

Anonymous said...

Now - see - you've scarred (or is that scared) her off with such a long list. We could probably illiminate a couple there. I'd be all for voting of Lady Sophia's Lover off my DIK island. I really didn't care for Sophia.

And I think we could hold off on the Wallflower books (the ones with the four seasons) to see if Carolyn Jean likes her or not. So then we are left with:
Then Came You
Dreaming of You
Suddenly You
Worth Any Price
Where Dreams Begin
Mine' til Midnight
There - not nearly so scary now :-)
And is this where I should mention I have ALL her books with the excpetion of 2 or 3 of her Onyx books?