What are you reading?

Lately I've been on a Regency kick with my reading habits. Currently, I'm enjoying Julia Quinn's Smyth-Smith romances. Honoria and Daniel have both found their mates...who will be next? I'll soon find out in the next book in the series, I'm sure!

My husband asked me why I read these books when I know how they're going to end. I told him that's exactly why I like them. There aren't any worries, no concerns that the hero and heroine won't make it through the conflict and end up together, because that's not the trope of a Regency romance. I read these BECAUSE I know the ending. If I want stress and real-life, I'll watch the news.

And I do. Watch the news, that is. But when I pick up a book to read, I don't want reality. I want to escape into a different world or a different time where everything's always going to work out in the end.

I also told him, there is an art to creating those stories. When the plot is tried and true, the characters have to pick up the reins and drive the story. If they don't, it IS boring and dull and repetitive. Julia Quinn writes fun characters I enjoy getting to know. So far, I've read Just Like Heaven and A Night Like This in this particular series of hers (disclaimer: series that play on characters from one book to the next are among my favorites. Nora Roberts does that a lot as well and I like those books better than her stand-alones. It's one of the reasons I wrote Phillip and Sarah Townshend into Services Rendered, even though the book isn't about them. And Will shows up in all four books of the Journey to Submission series. One of these days maybe he'll get a book of his own!).

Next up is The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy. I expect the hero and the heroine will end up together at the end and I've no doubt Ms. Quinn will deliver that...along with intriguing characters and great conflicts!

So tell me, what kind of a a reading kick are you currently on?

Play safe,
Diana