Sunday Salon: Reading Cravings

Before I get to my post proper today, just wanted to mention a couple of things. Firstly, I am still reading for a good cause! Thanks to my blogging friends who have sponsored me to read for The Novel Readathon, raising money for the MS Society. Going to have to put the hard word on some of my non blogging friends I think!

Secondly, I was invited to contribute to a new blog ezine this week and my post is now up! A String of Pearls is run by 5 women and they are blogging about all sorts of different topics. I was invited to contribute, and when I finally thought about what I wanted to say, it was all about reading (of course) or more precisely about not reading.  Read my guest post here.

Today I want to talk about reading cravings.

Normally when I finish a book I look at what is due back next at the library, or what is due for review in order to decide exactly which book it is that I am going to read next. Given that the books that are on my list are varied that means I could pick up some historical fiction or a mystery or fantasy or whatever, just whatever is due next.

For the last month or so though, I have been craving one particular type of read - romance. Now nothing has changed in my life as to why I would be craving romance. My single status has been the same for nearly 9 years now and I just don't see it changing any time soon so it isn't anything to do with that. The fact remains that for the time being I just can't get enough and I am ignoring what is due next on my list in order to read them. It also doesn't matter what sub genre - contemporary, historical and also a little bit of erotic romance. The only sub genre that I haven't been reading that I normally do is paranormal romance, but who knows, that could change soon. I certainly have a few unread paranormal romances sitting on the bookshelf.

It also could be old favourite authors, or new to me authors - I have tried seven new authors to me in the last month.

Some months I read a couple of  romances in amongst the other novels, but so far in July in particular it is the other way around - I have read two non romances, and everything else has been romance.

Back in the beginning of June I read Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by new to me author Sarah Maclean. I think though the book that really started this bout of romance craving for me was Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn. I bought the book when I was in the city meeting up with some fellow romance readers and I read it that day. As soon as I read that book I was scanning my shelves looking for the two other Julia Quinn books I knew I had there that I hadn't yet read which were The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever and Mr Cavendish, I Presume, both of which had been languishing on my shelves unread for a couple of years. I also read What Happens in London and now have to wait for the next book to come in from the library.

Things got a little bit steamier when I read two erotic romances, The Relic by Maggie Nash and Friendly Fire by Megan Hart, and then back to historical romances when I read How to Woo a Reluctant Lady by Sabrina Jeffries. I am really looking forward to the next book in the series that book is part of!

A couple of months ago I posted about The Virgin River series where I talked about the fact that I don't read books in a series back to back and I don't really read contemporary romance. It seems that those things are no longer really true!

The next books I read were Exclusively Yours, Undeniably Yours and Yours to Keep by Shannon Stacey.  Sometimes the premise may be a bit thin but the books themselves were so good! For example, one of the premises is a fake engagement, and at the time I read it I thought surely that doesn't happen in this day and age. Having said that, all the news outlets are suggesting that the recent marriage of Prince Albert of Monaco is a marriage of convenience, so who knows, maybe it does still happen. Maybe I should try and find a fake boyfriend to try and fix my non-existent love life? If there were more books in this series I would quite happily have kept on reading them.

Next up were Goddess of the Hunt and Surrender of a Siren by Tessa Dare. When these books came out a couple of years ago there was such a buzz about them I ended up buying them. Normally I try new to me authors from the library. I do think that maybe I should have read them when I bought them instead of two years later!

Finally, two more new to me contemporary authors - Simply Irrestistible by Jill Shalvis and Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James. I think I have decided that I like the whole small town contemporary romance thoroughly enjoying Simply Irresistible in particular, and I have the next book on request from the library already!

So these are the books that have been keeping me up late at night for the last month or so.

Do you ever find yourself craving a particular type of book? Do you indulge that craving?