A few days ago I added the April 2009 and May 2009 Harlequin Blaze books to the site. Oh, and the latest Spice & Spice Briefs too. :) I know it wasn't anyone's intention that I do so, but every time I type Spice Briefs, I think of underwear instead of books…

I've read quite a few great books lately and have several reviews in the works. I hate that I'm so far behind with them, but I just can't seem to put down the books long enough to type out the reviews for the one's I've already read!

If you want a sneak peek at what I thought of some of them thought without having to wait for the reviews, just check out the ratings and the recommended reads. If I recommended it, I really liked it. :)

…but it sure was a great book!

Okay, so I spent some serious time reading over the past month, and I'm definitely not staying on top of writing reviews for those books. I thought I'd mention them here though, because I've read some fabulous books lately.

Hard and Fast by Erin McCarthy — It's not available yet, but when it becomes available, you should run out and buy it right away. It was a wonderful book, full of all kinds of goodness. I absolutely loved Imogen and Ty, and usually the female characters are not my favorites. I'm all for the guys and I adore it when I find a female character I really love. I loved Imogen. This book is a (very, very) highly recommended read.

Kiss of Fate by Deborah Cooke — Okay, this one isn't exactly erotic romance. But it was sexy. And exciting. And action-y. And FABULOUS. I hadn't realized how much I might like reading about Dragon heroes until I read this book. Now I'm on the lookout for dragon stories…and buying the other books in the series I think I'm going to be addicted to.

Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole — Finally! If you've been around this site very much, you'll probably realize I love, love, love the Immortals After Dark series. This is a wonderful addition to the series and Rydstrom and Sabine are now two of my favorite Immortals.

Raine by Elizabeth Amber — Oh, this one is hard to explain, but it was a great book. I loved Jordan and Raine. The only thing about the Lords of Satyr series is the darkness. I don't like to read too many dark stories in a row, so I wouldn't want to sit down and read all the stories at once, but I will definitely be reading the rest of the series. Definitely.

Oh, and right at this moment, I'm reading White Star, Never Been Witched, Everlasting Bad Boys, and a few others. I should really learn to focus on one book at a time…but then again, I might not enjoy reading so much if I had to follow rules about how I did it!

Goodness, there are still so many other books I've read lately, but many of them don't fit the site, and I'm out of time right now!

What good books have you read lately?

Heather at WeWriteRomance.com gave me the heads up that Leslie Kelly is writing on her blog today. Leslie Kelly is a popular Blaze author, who writes what she calls “funny, sexy contemporary romance.” She's also the author of the Blaze book that's being given away on the Harlequin Celebrates website as I mentioned in a previous post called Get your free ebooks from Harlequin Celebrates.

Read Leslie Kelly's post How Do You Wrap Up Your Love Scenes?

Portia Da Costa is posting on WeWriteRomance.com's blog. If you don't know who Portia Da Costa is, then you haven't spent much time at this website. Portia writes ultra-sexy stories for Black Lace and has recently begun writing books for Spice Briefs.

I've got to get those new books entered! I swear there's still so much I want to get done on this site.

Anyway, I love the part where she talks about how she got into writing erotica.

But then, fate took a hand, and I got shunted onto a slightly different writing track. A writers’ advisor took a look at one of my manuscripts, and amongst all the terrible plotting and the flimsy romantic conflict, she picked up on something I seemed to be pretty good at. Writing sex scenes. She advised me to try writing erotica, as that was an easier market to break into at the time. I took her advice, and with a speed that still surprises me today, I had a book accepted. And some stories. Pretty soon I started writing for Virgin’s famous Black Lace imprint, and I’ve been writing Black Lace novels ever since. My latest IN TOO DEEP, came out in November 2008, and KISS IT BETTER, my 15th title [including novellas] comes out in August 2009.

If you want to read more, the post is IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED… by Portia Da Costa

Mirror, Mirror (Spice Briefs) by Amanda McIntyre is a Recommended Read.  I love a good mystery and this short, erotic read delivers! Read my review

Would-Be Witch (Berkley Sensation) by Kimberly Frost is a Highly Recommended Read, but I have to warn you, there's not a lot of sex in this book. I couldn't stand not to recommend this book though—it really was that good. This book pulls off sexy without much sex and is the most fun I've had reading in ages!

Ravenous: The Dark Forgotten (Signet Eclipse) by Sharon Ashwood is a Highly Recommended Read. There's plenty of sexual tension in this vampire/witch romance, but it was light on the sex. Still, it's a sensually appealing romance that's great reading and I couldn't stand not to recommend it.

Pretty Poison (Luv Luv) by Yutta Narukami is a Recommended Read. This isn't my first erotic manga, but it was the first one I've been able to recommend without reservation. It's a surprisingly good “Ladies' Comic” of the erotic romance variety. If you enjoy comic books, graphic novels or the like, you really might like this one.

Really Unusual Bad Boys (Kensington Brava) by MaryJanice Davidson is a Recommended Read. This imaginative and fun book is an anthology of 3 connected short stories! I really enjoyed the dose of humor in this one.

I've got reviews in the hopper for each of these books. I just have to make the time to get them done! (Not so easy when I just want to be reading…)

Have you read anything great lately?

Saturday (or was it Friday?) I added the March 2009 Blaze books from Harlequin to the site.

I also recently added several books to the Berkley Sensation book list.

I've had several additions to the Recommended Reading list, and I've also updated my Current Reading list to pull together better info on what's on my to-be-read list and what is in the read-but-wating-to-be-reviewed queue. As you can see if you take a look at that page, I have several reviews to write and will hopefully be posting them soon!

I started Would-Be Witch by Kimberly Frost the other night while in the bath, but for some odd reason, the book stayed behind when I left and I forgot to go back and get it until today. Which, thinking about it, is really odd, because I was really enjoying the story. I just made it to page 10 though so maybe the reason I didn't go back for it was because I wasn't that heavily invested in it yet.

That said, I loved the opening of this story.  Here's an itty-bitty sampling of what I found so delicious about this beginning—it's just a hint of the tone of the story, but it's why I'm about to engage in a reading binge that's sure to last me the rest of the evening.

“I'd never noticed before how small Jenna's eyes were. If she were a shape-shifter, she'd be some kind of were-rodent. Not that I'd seen any shape-shifters except in books, but I knew they were out there. Aunt Mel's favorite ex-husband had been eaten by one.”

I'm off to read…

Right now on harlequincelebrates.com you can download 16 free ebooks to read and share. Of the 16, there's one Harlequin Blaze from June 2008. It's Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly which is Blaze #402. I've already downloaded my copy. :-)

If you've never had the chance to try out ebooks, this is a great opportunity to get some free romance ebooks to enjoy. You won't know until you try if you'll like reading them!

I recently upgraded from my PDA to a SmartPhone and I found that I loved having ebooks on my phone. I'll admit I don't have a lot of trouble reading small print, but it lets me make the text bigger if I want. I just don't need to.

You might want to pass on the info and the link to your friends so they don't miss out either. :-)

I was surfing around the eHarlequin.com website and saw that they're having an awesome ebook sale. I highlight the entire Blaze series on The Erotic Reader, so if you're wanting to catch up on any of the Blaze books that are available as ebooks, this is a great chance to get them at half off.

They're calling it their 12 Deals of Christmas sale. I'd say it qualifies quite nicely as a good deal. All ebooks are half off. That'll save me a TON of money on those sexy Christmas stories I've been looking at (). Oh, and the Spice Briefs ebooks are wonderful short and steamy reads if you're not too picky about the romance.

Go to eHarlequin.com now »

So, I'm just past 1/2 the way through this book. I can already tell you it will make the recommended reads list, because it's a simply captivating read. I skipped ahead and read the last two chapters, because I'm like that. When I get caught up in a book I want to know that what I'm reading is going to leave me a happy reader. ;-) I snuck my peek, and now I totally look forward to getting to the end.

Here's to Cozette.

Well, that was quick! I'm finishing up this post after having been unable to stop reading… :) I finished the book, and it was as good as I expected. I'll do my review later, but if you're looking for a captivating erotica read with a wonderful dash of romance thrown in, read The Diary of Cozette by Amanda McIntyre. I loved it!

The Diary of Cozette
by Amanda McIntyre