June 4th, 2009 | by KateDouglas |
I’ve had a really stressful few weeks—finished up my first draft of DemonFire, the first book in my new Demon Slayers series from Kensington Zebra, then had to do some revisions on it. Not that big a deal except the book is almost 120,000 words, which means revisions required a bit more time. It’s the longest book I’ve written and I must admit that making a little change in the beginning and then dealing with the ripple effect was pretty daunting!
Once I got that done, it was back to Wolf Tales 10, the newest in my series. This one started off with a regular character dying in the first few pages, which really screws things up if you don’t get it right, so I’ve been working on that aspect of the story, and I do think readers are going to love it! (I hope…) but the point of this blog isn’t about the books—at least not about the ones I’m writing. No, it’s about the ones I’m reading. When I’m stressed out, I go for the tried and true method of stress relief—and no, we’re not talking sex. (That’s a given, but sometimes even that’s not enough!)
We’re talking books. Lots of books, because when I’m overwhelmed in MY world, I love to lose myself in someone else’s. If my picture shows up, it’s a shot of just one of the walls of books in my office…and I’ve got a big office, and these are just my KEEPERS! 
Just looking at the stories that have saved what sanity I’ve got left over the past couple of weeks makes me want to read them all over again. There’s JR Ward’s LOVER AVENGED, Ann Roth’s MY SISTERS (for the third time!) Lori Handeland’s DOOMSDAY CAN WAIT, Susan Elizabeth Phillips re-release of GLITTER BABY, Lisa Kleypas’s BLUE EYED DEVIL (second time) Christine Feehan’s BURNING WILD, Virginia Kantra’s SEA LORD (I think I’ve read it four times in the past month and I may read it again!), Angela Knight’s GUARDIAN, Jayne Ann Krentz’s THE PERFECT POISON, Elizabeth Lowell’s BLUE SMOKE AND MURDER, Susan Andersen’s HOT & BOTHERED and tonight I’m reading Camille Anthony’s 5th book in her Werewulf Journals, HUNTING CHASE…every one of these, new or old, is a comfort read. They make me smile, take me out of the real world and plant me smack-dab in a fictional one that makes everything right with a perfectly happy ending. And they are a reminder why, in this horrible economy, romances are booming.
I’m not the only one looking for a happy ending, but I’m always looking for another good book to read. What titles do you grab when the days are a bit on the dark side? What are you reading now, and what book do you pick up to reread when things get you down? C’mon now…I’m adding to my shopping list! I just ordered Tails of Love, by Lori Foster, Stella Cameron, et al, Atlantis Unleashed by Alyssa Day and Demon Mistress by Yasmine Galenorn, but I want more! Suggestions, please?
Hi Kate,
I am a big fan of Lorelei James, and you definitely get immersed in the world she creates. Lori Foster and Erin McCarthy are two others that I reread when I need a dependable comfort read (Mouth to Mouth & Pregnancy Test from Erin, and Temptation series by Lori)
I hope you get some good suggestions and enjoy your reading time before you start your next book.
by Booklover1335 · June 4th, 2009 at 7:47 amI absolutely LOVE Lori’s Temptation series but haven’t read the others you mentioned. Thank you!
by KateDouglas · June 4th, 2009 at 10:25 amMy book shelves look about like yours. I have 3 5 shelf book shelves in my living room that hold my books. I probably have enough books to fill up 2 more and I just keep buying. I have all of your Wolf Tales books and I’m trying to get all of the Sexy beasts books.
My husband just looks at me when I come in with new books.
Some of my favorite reads are Lora Leigh’s books and JR Wards. I also like Christine Warren’s other’s series, Elizabeth Ambers Lords of Satyr, oh there are so many!!!
by heather Brewer · June 4th, 2009 at 2:16 pmJR Ward and Elizabeth Amber are favorites of mine, but I’ve not read Christine Warren. Also like Lora Leigh…so many wonderful books out there! Thanks!
And yeah, my husband doesn’t even look when I come in with books anymore. I think he’s afraid to…and when I tell him I need more shelves, he just comes up here and builds them!
by Kate Douglas · June 4th, 2009 at 8:11 pmI just got Sexy Beast V today and I have Sexy Beast I are all the stories in these connected and do they need to be read in order?
I’m one of the winners of Elizabeth Ambers current contest to have the book dedicated to her fans. I was the 1st name they drew. I was so excited. She is very nice and has talked with me and my book club members several times.
You are also a favorite in our book club.
Christine Warren writes the “others” series and it has vamps, werewolves and witches. Her first 6 books were ebooks before the mass market ones came out. They are now releasing the 1st 6 books revamped in mass market. The 1st one is alreay out and the 2nd one comes out soon.
by Heather Brewer · June 4th, 2009 at 8:23 pmThe whole series, Wolf Tales and the novellas in the Sexy Beast books, are like a soap opera–they’re connected. In fact, the first SB is actually the final chapter of the very first Wolf Tales book. The only one that isn’t as connected is the story Camille’s Dawn in the Wild Nights anthology, which is about Ulrich crossing over the veil between life and death to spend a night with his dead wife, Tia’s mother Camille. It helps him resolve issues with her and frees him to move on and eventually find another love. All the rest of the Sexy Beast books are tightly connected to the series, and it’s best if you can read them in order. I reread the entire series myself this past winter and they definitely segue, one into the other.
I’m so glad your book club likes the stories! Thank you. If you’d like any bookmarks for the members, write to me off list at kate@katedouglas.com so I know how many to send to you.
by Kate Douglas · June 4th, 2009 at 10:49 pmAloha Kate!
Well, let’s see, you must pick up Christine Warren books, Kate. Of course, yours, Elizabeth’s, Lora’s, Lori Foster’s, Lori Wilde’s, Angela Knight’s, Nalini Singh’s have been instant pick up books too. Emma Holly, Bella Andre, Jasmine Haynes are some of my latest finds. For sci-fi romance, I go to Susan Grant , Jayne Castle, Susan Kearney. For mystery/ suspense, I always pick up Jayne Ann Krentz, Allison Brennan, J.D. Robb, Sharon Sala and Karen Rose. My “old” favorites whose covers are falling apart would be Kay Hooper, Elizabeth Lowell, Johanna Lindsey, Karen Robards, and Linda Howard. If I really listed all the authors I do read, they would number well over a hundred. By bookcase of keepers could rival yours but I’ve had to revert to putting them in plastic containers and plastic drawers or I wouldn’t be able to move around my room.
And let me say that we romance readers are crowing now because our genre is finally being recognized as a powerful force in the book selling community.
WHOO HOO!
Mahalo for your Wolf Tales and Sexy Beast stories! They’ve help keep alot of us sane through some very rough times.
by Jan · June 5th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Your list of books looks suspiciously like mine…wonder if that means something? Thanks so much, and yeah, I’m beginning to think of plastic tubs, but then I wouldn’t be able to find my books when I want to reread…such a conundrum…
by Kate Douglas · June 5th, 2009 at 12:46 pmIt means that we have wonderful taste in books and authors!
And I know, but I just don’t have enough wall space. The plastic drawers with the wheels work better because then you can position the titles so you can pull out the drawer and can see what you’ve got.
by Jan · June 5th, 2009 at 7:24 pm“Dune,” by Frank Herbert. Takes me far, faaaarrr away.
by Christina Crooks · June 5th, 2009 at 8:30 pmJan, I have to admit that if I didn’t have an unusually large office in this house, I’d be in real trouble trying to store all my books, so guess the bins are the next best thing to shelves. Plus, they probably don’t get dusty like mine do! (or, since you’re on Oahu, get gecko poop on them…)
Christina, I haven’t read Dune in ages, but it’s on my shelf! Hard to get much farther away!!!
by Kate Douglas · June 6th, 2009 at 9:56 amAnd since I live in the valley, dust is ever present. Sigh.
My dream would be to have a home…
Just for my books!
by Jan · June 6th, 2009 at 1:08 pmI love your shelves Kate! I love re-reading too! But so love to read new to me authors and I’ve found some keepers that way too! I’m thinking you probably read alot of the Aphrodisia books like Sharon Page’s vamps and anyone here!
Jeaniene Frost – HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE is the first in her series. Bones (thats the hero’s name) and Cat are so hot together! One’s a vamp and another is a vamp hunter! Go for these!
Lorie O’Clare – TALL, DARK AND DEADLY. First in her sizzling RS
Shannon McKenna – all hers are a go! Start with BEHIND CLOSED DOORS for the first in the McCloud Brothers. Sizzling RS too
Deborah Cooke – KISS OF FIRE, first in Pyr Shape-shifting Dragon series! Yum!
Lyndsay Sands – A QUICK BITE is first in the Argeneau and Rogue Series
Carolyn Jewel – MY WICKED ENEMY – First in a series with a witch and a demon!
I could recommend lots of historicals but do you read them? I wasn’t sure by what I read here if you read that genre?
by Caffey · June 6th, 2009 at 10:08 pmJan–I SAW a Hawaiian cockroach–it was scary! The thing was as big as a hummingbird…nasty creature. I usually don’t have a problem with bugs, but they’re just gross!!!
Caffey, I read some historicals, but it depends on the author. Amanda Quick and Sharon Page come to mind, but generally I either like paranormals or contemporary romance. Just picked up Susan Wiggs JUST BREATHE and going to read it tonight. I’ve never read anything of hers that I can think of, so I’m really looking forward to it.
I actually don’t read a lot of Aphrodisia titles–Sharon’s, obviously, and Devyn Quinn and Elizabeth Amber, and the other authors in anthologies with me, but I try not to read too much within the genre I write so I don’t pick up on another author’s voice.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
by Kate Douglas · June 6th, 2009 at 10:55 pmkate
I see that many titles and authors I enjoy have already been listed. Some of my comfort reads that are not from Aphrodisia and I don’t think have been mentioned (in no particular order):
Escapade by Joan Smith
by Little Lamb Lost · June 8th, 2009 at 3:19 amCrocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
CL Wilson
Louisa Burton
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper
Shannon Greenland (romances, have not tried her YA)
Sherry Thomas (for the elegance of her writing, though must be in the mood for emotional roller coaster)
Shana Abe’s Drakon books
Denise Rossetti’s Phoenix Rising series
Wow, none of those are on my shelves!
Maybe I need to expand my horizons a bit! Thank you, and thanks for coming by.
by Kate Douglas · June 8th, 2009 at 8:31 pmI love Lauren Dane, Megan Hart, Maya Banks and a bunch of others. Of Lauren’s books I loved the Chase Books. They were great. Get them all at the same time and read one right after another. The other great books to read in order are from Sahsa White. I’m not sure of the order but the books are My Prerogative, Wicked, Bound and Trouble. I know she is part of this group with you, so I’m sure if you asked her she could tell you the proper reading order.
by Gina · June 10th, 2009 at 1:26 amHey Kate, don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have the escape of checking out the fascinating minds of the authors and their books that I have read. I have ones that I go back to over and over again and series that I just have to continue reading and so on. I love everything that Jory Strong writes, Her Angelini, Fallon Mates, Supernatural series and others are something you can’t put down. J.L. Langley’s With/Without Series (she has others I’ve got but that series is my favorite, Shelly Laurenston’s Mane Series & Pack series. Almost Human by Cat Marsters. Lorelei James’ Cowboy Series is great for a wonderful change. Some of the books that I read over and over are, your Wolf Tales, Elizabeth Amber’s Nicholas, J.L.’s With Caution and Camille’s books (which you’ve read already) to name a few.
Hope that helps. I looked on the sidebar of the many authors of this blog site and noted how many of these books I have already and know that I am in good company. ;> D Mo
by Mo · June 10th, 2009 at 12:58 pmThanks, Gina! My list is growing, and Mo, I know that you and I read a lot of the same authors, but you’ve also listed some I haven’t read. I need to expand my reading more!!!
by Kate Douglas · June 10th, 2009 at 11:48 pm