It’s that time of year again, a time to look back at the books we reviewed here at KRL over the past year and share with you some of our favorites! We reviewed a LOT of books last year. All of our main reviewers share in this post their top 5-10ish favorite books they reviewed in 2023, except for me. To find my list click here and you can also enter to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
Hi, I’m Kelsey White, the co-protagonist in Karen Randau’s newest book, From Chaos. The seed for me got planted in Karen’s brain when she was thinking about the first novel in her Peach Blossom Romantic Suspense Series, Into the Fog. I was the victim in that story, and Karen didn’t say much about me then, so she gave me an entire book to peel back the layers of my persona.
Time has an interesting way of blending the present with a bit of lingering tastes from the past. Some days when I look back and remember falling in love with my husband, it doesn’t feel like it was all that long ago. But over four decades later my feelings for him are still strong, and though it would be hard to have realized back then, my love for him has only grown stronger.
Megan stopped on the trail, set her backpack on a stump, and untied her poncho. It wasn’t raining yet, but the sound of thunder and the smell of rain were in the air.
Comfort reads are always a necessity, and mine currently are romantic thrillers I read or meant to read some time ago (with the occasional sci-fi or fantasy novel thrown in for variety) and I do find them all most comforting. The world of the thrillers is something I recognize from my early years of getting lost in fiction and, as ever, with genre reading we recognize where we are and we like it or go home. Mary Stewart’s novels were my favorites, and I’ve read them all so I decided to explore others in the same vein.
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling stressed. The uncertainty of the quarantine, worrying about doing a good job homeschooling my daughter who is in first grade, and wondering how I should dress to buy food has put me in such a tizzy that it’s become nearly impossible for me to write. And writing is not only my full-time job, it’s my vocation.
“What if…?” is an intriguing question posed by authors of historical fiction, and more than just “changing names to protect the innocent” or avoiding libel claims, it is a way of enhancing true events and real people by providing realistic and plausible connections, interactions…love affairs? Henry VIII’s court, the Black Ladies’ Priory, Thomas Giffard, and Isabella Launder are real, but in the Roses in the Tempest the author envelopes a fictional story around them to bring to us a wonderful tale of Tudor England. “But, in the end, it is only a pleasing story.”
Recently we chatted with Fresno romance author and local actor, Gabriela Lawson, about her writing and her new book A Count’s Caress. Details on how to enter to win an ebook copy of A Count's Caress at the end of this interview, along with a link to purchase the book.
We were able to catch Kate Noble after her talk for the Yosemite Romance Writers in Fresno and do a video interview. She chats with us about her latest book, here work on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and future book and web series projects. Check out a more in depth print interview with her and a review of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries here in KRL.
Romance and web series writer Kate Noble will be speaking at the next Yosemite Romance Writers Meeting in Fresno on April 20. Kate Noble is the author of “deeply romantic historicals” and collaborator on the awesome Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a modern version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. She is the national bestselling author of the acclaimed Blue Raven Series, earning starred reviews from Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly for Follow My Lead, a spot on the Best Romance List from Kirkus Reviews for The Summer of You, and a RITA nomination for best Regency Historical Romance for Revealed. Her April 2013 release, Let It Be Me, has already been chosen as a Romantic Times Top Pick.
