How it Started

How it Started

So, like I said in the last post, it all began on December 22, 2020, when I cracked open (well, technically, I booted it up, since I bought it on my Kindle), Bridgerton: The Duke and I. What happened? The heavens parted and the angels sang, and four days later, I was reading The Viscount Who Loved Me, which I liked even better. I don't think I slept, because two days later, I was devouring An Offer From a Gentleman. TWO. DAYS. 

I could go through the entire series (8 books and at least 2 novellas), but you get my point. Nine days after I started the first book, I was reading the eighth book and had embarked on the Bevelstoke series! 

You could say I was hooked. I don't think anyone heard from me once I started my Julia Quinn journey. Biggest tell: I stopped playing Animal Crossing obsessively. (Off topic, but Nintendo just told me that I played 969 hours of Animal Crossing in 6 months of 2020. I don't sleep much. But my island is fantastic 🏆)

I still love Animal Crossing. Yeah, I have Raymond. The November update is bomb! Thank goodness for the extra storage, since I am a virtual hoarder. (You expected me to focus? Don't you know me by now?)

Bridgerton and Bevelstoke are two of my favorite series, but thank you, Amazon, for your suggestions of similar authors. Because, suddenly, IT. WAS. ON. (I do that weird period thing, too.)

I plan to do a quick post on my favorite series authors, and I do plan to review books here, because I want you to love them as much as I do.

So here's the part that makes me think I need to put a content warning on this blog. SEX IN ROMANCE NOVELS. I was not ready. Granted, I was 49 years old when I read my first Bridgerton book. Remember how I read those Harlequin Romances back when I was younger? Back then, I thought I was being sneaky, but I now realize that my mother and grandmother knew I was reading them. And they didn't mind. Because they were PG-13 (remember, at the same time in my life, I was watching R-rated movies like Cat People and Porky's--ahhhh, video stores, plus no parental warning websites, meant the 80s were eye opening, haha). But back to the topic at hand--the books I was reading back then alluded to sex in ways such as, "rejoicing in her heaving bosoms, his manhood delved into her womanly heat." (Yawn.)

Now, if you've read The Duke and I, you'll know the entire book is basically revolves around sex. And compared to some of the books I will talk about here (Kate Pearce's House of Pleasure/Simply series, for example), the sex was pretty tame . . . maybe? But man, when JQ writes a scene, YOU FEEL IT. 

I thought I was hooked before? Whoo boy! 

These books ain't for kids. NOT AT ALL. And that freedom makes it so the authors can go wild. Perfect fantasy.

And we all need somewhere to escape to (yep, that preposition is at the end of the sentence and I don't care. Take that, grammar rules! That being said, plain language writing allows for that dangling preposition, but I know my elementary school English teacher would flip). 

I have so much more to share, but I also want to introduce you to the authors/series that have kept me sane for the last year. So let me hop on that!