Read a Romance Blog: Lisa Loves Literature

Happy Wednesday, Wormies! Welcome to another Read a Romance Blog feature! Today, we’re featuring Lisa @ Lisa Loves Literature!

Read a Romance Blog series is a feature on this blog showcasing book bloggers that primarily review romance.

About the Romance Blogger

I’ve been blogging for 10 years now, well a little more, but 10 years on my current blog. I’ve worked as a part-time bookseller since 2000, and that is where my inspiration to become a book blogger came from, a fellow bookseller who had her own blog. I taught science for 17 years before becoming a high school librarian about 7 years ago. This is a job I love, and what I now know I was meant to do. I have two miniature dachshunds that you can see in the header of my blog. I’m still single, maybe because I can’t find a man who even partially lives up to my book boyfriends? I also dabble in writing myself, and actually it seems like I mostly have romance stories waiting to get out on paper.

My Blog

http://misclisa.blogspot.com/

Where You Can Find Me

First Romance Book I Read

It’s hard to know what the first romance book I ever read was. I know in middle school I was reading the Sweet Valley High books and also the Harlequin Teen books that were out. Otherwise, it was probably one of my stepmom’s Amanda Quick books, or maybe Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt.

Ezrah: I also used to read Sweet Valley! I was reading Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley University in elementary school! I quickly outgrew SVH and SVU, though. But Sweet Valley was part of my childhood!

Favorite Romance Genre/s

I think my favorite romance genre would be romantic comedy. I love to laugh, so those are what I gravitate towards.

Ezrah: I have to admit that rom-com is becoming so popular in the last year or so. I do love a good rom-com!

Favorite Romance Trope/s

I usually read just about any trope. Probably enemies to lovers or friends to lovers would be top of my list because there is usually such a good chance for the humor in those.

Ezrah: Yes! Enemies-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes! 

Top Auto-buy Authors

Only 3-5 auto-buy authors? Well, these are the ones that have yet to disappoint me: Amy Daws, Meghan Quinn, Penny Reid, Sara Ney, and Emma Hart. But Helena Hunting is really close!

Top Romance Books You Highly Recommend

• Heidi’s Guide to Four-Letter Words by Tara Sivec and Andi Arndt
• 20 Times a Lady by Karyn Bosnak
• Smut by Karina Halle
• Drumline by Stacy Kestwick
• Road-Tripped by Nicole Archer

Ezrah: Ohhh! More books to add to my TBR!

Top Romance Series You Recommend

• Pucked series by Helena Hunting – adult sports romantic comedy, 6 in the series with a lot of short stories, my favorite is either the first one Pucked, or the third one Pucked Over.
• Driven series by K. Bromberg – contemporary romance with some dark moments, there are really 4 in the main series, with 4 extra books about other characters from the original 4. Hard to pick a favorite, they all have such major cliffhangers in the first few. I’d have to pick books 2 and 3 as my favorites – Fueled and Crashed.
• The Hudson Valley series by Alice Clayton, an adult romantic comedy, there are three books, and I loved the second one, Cream of the Crop best.
• Stage Dive series by Kylie Scott. Adult rock star romance. There are 4 in this series, and the second one, Play, has one of my top three all-time book boyfriends, Mal Ericson. Don’t even try, he’s all mine!
• On Dublin Street series by Samantha Young. Adult contemporary romance. This one has I think 6 official books in the series, with some branch-off stories and also several short stories/novellas that go with it. My favorite book in the series contains one of my other top three book boyfriends. It’s Before Jamaica Lane, and it’s good old Nate Sawyer.

Ezrah: I just read Samantha Young last year and I absolutely loved On Dublin Street! I can’t wait to read more of her books!

Favorite Quote from a Romance Book

I’m not great about always picking out quotes, but the latest one that I found and liked and remembered was from Dating-ish by Penny Reid:

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink the water that will allow it to enter into a happy, fulfilling relationship. Maybe the horse likes being dehydrated. Or maybe you weren’t that horse’s type. Step back from the stupid dehydrated horse.”

~ Dating-ish by Penny Reid

Favorite Thing About the Romance Community

My favorite thing about the romance community has to be the authors and all fellow fans. A lot of the authors are just as much fans of the other authors as we are of them. To hear them gushing over their favorite authors, or to hang out with the fans at conventions and just gush over our love of the books and our book boyfriends, that is the best!

As much as I love my YA books, there is often so much competition with getting ARCs and meeting authors out there with them. With romance, I’ve not really experienced that!

Ezrah: I agree with you here! I think YA has too much fangirling involved. I’ve been to both romance and YA book signings and I think romance signings are a little tamer in comparison! LOL

Romance Myth That You Hate

The romance myth that I hate is that it all has to do with a woman being saved by Prince Charming. Yeah, sure there are those books, and they are good a lot of the time. But some of my favorites include women who are the strong ones and in the end, kind of end up saving the man, or the two save each other. A good story can still have a Prince Charming, but a strong woman who doesn’t need to be saved.

Ezrah: I really do love an amazing kick-ass heroine!

Are you a romance book blogger? Do you want to be featured? Please, sign-up here!