Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

This is an ongoing endeavor to read the titles and authors, both loved and reviled, mentioned in Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels.

Each month we’ll choose 4 titles from 6 categories to read and discuss together. The categories include: Old Skool, New Skool, Romantic Suspense, Paranormal, Series, and Featured Author.

Also each month we’ll make a Bonus selection from one of two categories: Non-Fiction or Classics.

The choice is yours whether you read all of the titles selected, a few each month, one each month, or one every once in awhile. But we challenge you–don’t skip a title just because it looks terrible!

Where do the categories come from?


While reading Beyond Heaving Bosoms, we noted mention of several distinct changes in the popular style of romance novels. Here’s the general timeline:

Old Skool reigned during the early 70s and 80s.
New Skool made it’s appearance in the late 80s.
Romantic Suspense became popular in the 90s.
The Interconnected Series also made it’s appearance in the 90s and continued to gain popularity through the 2000s.
The 2000s were also the domain of the Paranormal.

Non-fiction and Classic titles are referenced often throughout BHB and many, many additional authors are mentioned without a particular title listed, they'll be featured often in a pick-your-own-title category.

Best recommendation I can give to start this folder -- begin by reading Beyond Heaving Bosoms. It think it will help with discussing the books for comparison/contrast :)

I've been seeing this book mentioned/quoted from so often - I just bought it on ebay and can't wait to read it

My copy is due on Wednesday. Can't wait to start reading it and joining in the fun.

Just bought a copy today for $1.00 at Borders- will start tonight!