GUEST AUTHOR:

Lisa Kleypas’s

You Question….

She’ll Answer

Why don’t you ever update your website?

I’m trying to get better about that. Really, I am. But I have two very good reasons, and their ages are 11 and 6. I know that sounds like a convenient excuse, but here’s how I look at it . . . someday they’ll get old enough to rebel and leave the house and go out into the world armed only with whatever I’ve managed to teach them . . . so anytime I have an hour to spare, I can either:

A. Write more

B. Exercise

C. Catch up on bills

D. Clean the trash pit known as my office

E. Spend time with the children.

F. Pay attention to husband

G. Update website

E usually wins. I hardly ever do B or D, and C only when something is about to be turned off. I do A when I’m under a tight deadline, and I do F when my husband and I have a moment alone. Or should I say, “we” do F. Heh heh. And after F, I just never make it to G.

Which of your heroes would you choose for yourself?

That is a difficult question. I love them all. I will always have a special place in my heart for Derek Craven, the hero of “Dreaming Of You,” because he opened the door for me to write more non-aristocratic heroes. Probably the best husband material is Zachary Bronson from “Where Dreams Begin,” and the best guys for a wild and wicked night would either be St. Vincent from Devil in Winter, or Nick Gentry from “Worth Any Price.”

Why don’t you have your first four NAL books reprinted someday?

They’re so different from the books that I’m doing now . . . remember, I started in the days of the bodice-rippers, and I was also too young to approach the subject of relationships with any kind of sophistication. I don’t regret writing those books, because I did my best at the time, and they were steps along the way to where I’ve gotten now. But I would feel terrible if anyone paid her hard-earned money for a book and was disappointed.

Who are your favorite authors?

I try to read a huge variety of books in many genres, not only because I enjoy that, but it also teaches me about writing. But in romance, aside from my brilliant friends the Squawk Radio chicks, I love SEP, JR Ward, Laura Kinsale, the two Judiths (Ivory and McNaught), the two Karens (Hawkins and Moning) and JD Robb.

What’s next?

Mine Till Midnight is my next historical romance, out in October 2007. The tone of it is hard to describe, because it’s dark and sexy but it also has a lot of humor and charm, if I do say so myself.

It features Cam Rohan, the Gypsy character who appears in Devil in Winter- I brought him with me when I came to St Martins *g*. I originally planned my historical books with St Martins to be a continuation of the Wallflower series, but after finishing Cam’s book, I realized it had to be the first of a connected-but-new series.

It has its own kind of energy and quirkiness. Cam falls in love with the oldest sister of the Hathaway family, a group of eccentric siblings.(The brother is an alcoholic, one of the sisters is a kleptomaniac, another is an invalid, and so forth.) It was a lot of fun to see Cam trying to deal with this bunch of crazies!

Not tis your turn… ask anything… well I don’t know about ANYTHING… but hey it is worth a shot

Which means I spent the weekend rereading book… two I didn’t even remember reading. And that sort of spilled over to the week. 

Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas was my first reread last Friday. Derek and Sarah… what more do you have to say. I love this book. It is just wonderful.

Which lead me to read Tiger’s Eye by Karen Robards since people tend to say it is like DoY. I must have skimmed it the first time I read it because I didn’t remember reading it until the very end with the bathtub scene, which that scene still annoys me.

Go figure… I can see how it gets compared to DoY but DoY blows it away. A good read I would rate about a C.

I then moved onto Forbidden Love by Karen Robards and poof read that too. And sorry maili, I liked it. I would rate it about a C-, it is way flawed but a nifty guilty pleasure read.

The next on the hit list aka randomly picked off the shelf was The Seducer and The Sinner by Madeline Hunter.

I still love both of these books. Madeline Hunter is one of my favorites and she has a way with an old plot. She can take it and make it new, fresh, fun and exciting. I wish we could get another Medieval out of her but I am still in love with this series and so need to read LoS. I dont think I ever really read it, more like skimmed and marked it as a want to read later.

Beauty Like the Night and The Devil You Know by Liz Carlyle came next.

I adore Liz Carlyle and am looking forward to her new series. The funny thing is The Devil You Know is the first book by her I read and I hated it. I didn’t pick up another one of her books until AWoV was recently rereleased and after falling in love with her short story in Big Guns Out of Uniform Let’s Talk About Sex.

Now I have no idea if it has to do with reading BLtN first and having read AWoV so I understood Bentley more than I did the first time but I just fell in love with this story. Rosario has a great review for the story and it pretty much sums up what I love about it. I would say to enjoy Carlyle you need to read her earlier works. So it is a good thing she is having them reprinted and at GREAT prices. What a great way to get new fans.

So what is my point in all this? I have been reading, just not the 10+ books I am suppose to read for AAR reviews. But I think I have found my groove again. So off I go to try my hand at new books. I also have company this weekend, so I really need to kick my ass into gear.

Dreaming of You is one of the first, if not the first, historical romance I have read where the main characters aren’t aristocratic tonish omgbutheisaduke/sheisaladyIamnogoodforhim/her people.

Of course he still isn’t good enough for her .

I really enjoyed this book, the hero still had a ton of money because really we can’t get too normal everyday people in a historical romance. And I am ok with that, if I want that I will go read The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber and be depressed.

Sara Fielding and Derek Craven are two of my favorite characters. Even though Derek does get a touch, oh, possessive but you can understand it. He grew up with nothing and fought for every little thing he has. And there is a deep down terror you can feel in him and in his shock that he has been given a chance at happiness with Sara. You can believe he is just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Sara was great, loving, patient and all round perfect for Derek. I found it amusing, she asks herself at one point could she live the rest of her life with constantly running into people her husband had sex with. (or something like that) Because honestly that is something I think I couldn’t deal with every time I read the rakish, slept with half the ton, being tamed man. I mean really, could you do it? Every ball or party you walk into there will be at least one person that has screwed your hubby.

Cuz really how many people ARE there in the ton? Then again I seem to over think on odd things. Go figure…

I must go get Then Came You because I adored Lilly. I haven’t read too many LK books but after this one I think I am going to.