Saturday, July 09, 2005

Desperately Seeking...

Who knew that romance exists outside the UK/US/France?? Not I. Until yesterday that is. Hunting desperately through Mt. TBR looking for a book to read while waiting to pick up my younger children, I came across a gem of a book (which I don't remember buying, natch) set in- get ready - Zurich, Switzerland & Vienna, Austria among other exotic locales. I'm impressed.

The US/UK/France/exotic island requirement is very careworn & cliche ridden, as far as I'm concerned. You know, the whole damned planet is swarming with people. There must be romance elsewhere besides the English & French speaking nations. Maybe?? What about Canada? They're our biggest neighbors, they speak English AND French plus having a whole delicious history of trappers, traders, Indians & the Mounties. Yet, there are few romances set there.

Are romance readers that set in their outlook? Are publishers that unwilling to push the boundaries of what might sell? Do we really care where a book is set as long as the HEA is there & the sex is hot? Is research really that hard? Ok, don't answer that last, as I've learned the hard way that history is apparently quite a)hard b) boring c)time consuming & d) a waste, because who will notice or care really?
ME damnit. I care. And I'm getting bored.

So this little book I found buried in my own house is A Sister's Quest by Jo Ann ferguson. Book three in the Shadows of the Bastille series.Website for Ms. Ferguson here. Better still, there's a teeny blurb in the front advertising next month's releases (this was 2000) saying that author Kathryn Fox would have the first in a series featuring the Mounties. I couldn't find a website for Ms. Fox, so I presume this might be hard to locate, but I may just have to try, although the blurbs I could find were rather dry.

2 comments:

Tara Marie said...

I'm reading the new Betina Krahn, the tilte is long and it's escaping me, it's also downstairs so I don't feel like going to get it.

It is set in Morocco.

So far it's pretty good. The h/h remind me of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiss in "The Mummy" movies. The time period is late Victorian. It's slows down somewhat in the middle, but has picked up again.

Bob & Muffintop said...

Anne- I'll have to check my library for some of these. I've not read much chick lit. I did come across a mystery/chick lit set in India & enjoyed it. Now I'm waiting for the next one in the series. The Biblical series sounds good too. Please review one when you're done.

Tara- I generally like Betina Krahn. I saw this in the store & wasnn't sure it'd be my cuppa tea, maybe I'll have to go look for it.