Romantic Wednesdays

  • Romantic Wednesdays: The Romance of Military Science Fiction

    There are two definitions of the word “romance”: 1) a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love, and 2) a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life. In fiction, we talk so much about the first definition that we sometimes lose track of the second. Military science fiction is all… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Romance In Death

    There’s a recognized trope in romance that people want to, let’s say, celebrate life after a funeral. Or any kind of “near death” experience. That’s not what this post is about. Ahem. The “In Death” series, by J.D. Robb, is a genre bending mash up of romance, surprisingly classic police procedural mystery, and just a… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Romancing the Ghost

    Tomorrow is Halloween, which makes this the perfect time to talk about the spookier side of romance. Halloween is the perfect time to fall in love with a ghost! Or for your romance to get a little ghostly assistance. Or, sad but oh, so romantic, to get that one last chance to say goodbye, with… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Riding Off Into the Sunset

    There’s just something romantic about the idea of riding off into the sunset, isn’t there? Maybe that’s part of the reason why romances set in the contemporary west are still just as popular as stories of how the west was won (or lost). Or maybe it’s all about the cowboys… Linda Lael Miller is one… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Paranormal New Orleans

    If you’ve ever walked the streets of New Orleans, you recognize that there is something beautiful and decadent and just plain eerie about the place. New Orleans is a city where you can feel the past walk beside you; its history creeps in between the cracks of its sidewalks and seeps along the alleyways of… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Geeks in Love, or, Talk Nerdy to Me

    We all have an image in our minds when someone mentions the words “geek” or “nerd”. Someone socially awkward, but technically adept, someone who knows a lot about something very obscure, and possibly even science fictional, but is clueless about the social niceties. Usually a hero with a difficult time reaching a happy ever after… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Fall for a New Author

    Another summer has ended in Seattle, and soon the rain, early sunsets and colder temperatures will keep many of us indoors. It may sound grim, but it’s perfect weather for discovering new authors! Though they are relatively new, each of the following authors has written several books to date, with more on the way in… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Firefighters are HOT!

    They say that everybody loves a man (or a woman) in uniform. Combine that with the heart-stopping heroism of people who put their lives on the line to fight fires and you have the recipe for either heartwarming or incredibly hot romance, and sometimes both at once! The Fireman Who Loved Me by Jennifer Bernard… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: I Love New York

    In a dynamic city of over eight million people, you’re bound to find some romance! Here are some noteworthy reads that will stir up love for the Big Apple. Love the One You’re With by Emily Giffin Ellen is a successful New York photographer, living in a great apartment with her adoring husband, Andy. Life seems… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Gay Romance

    by Tracy Timmons Gray The library is a wonderful place to find love stories, and now more than ever, you can find romance titles that are representative of the many different relationships you see in real life, including LGBT romance. The Seattle Library has a growing collection of gay romance (also known as male/male romance… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Paperbacks to go!

    When we started this weekly romance post several months ago, our goal was to highlight the extensive collection of romance titles available for checkout from The Seattle Public Library. But did you know that the Library also has a significant number of paperbacks that don’t appear in our catalog? We order these books in addition… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Sports Romance

    We all know that there are seasons for every sport, even if they have started to blur a bit (I swear that basketball and hockey seasons used to be over by April, once upon a time). But with sports-themed romances, the season never ends! In Jaci Burton’s Play-by-Play series she manages to make every single… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Love and Mummies

    Amelia Peabody Emerson liked nothing better than to camp for a season in a nice dry tomb while her husband excavated a nearby site. After all, that was how she met him! Crocodile on the Sandbank introduces us to Amelia Peabody, a Victorian bluestocking who is roughly 30 years old, and who absolutely refuses to live the… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: 2013 RITA Award Winners

    On July 20th, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) announced the winners of the 2013 RITA Awards, which honor excellence in romantic fiction. From supernatural mysteries, to teen dystopian fiction, to fresh contemporary love stories, these books represent the diversity and breadth of the romance genre. The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James Equal… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Real-Life Historical Romance

    Whether meeting (or creating) the perfect mate, experiencing a marriage gone wrong or finding lifelong love, romance is a main theme in much of life. Here are a few historical accounts of real-life relationships: How to Create the Perfect Wife: Britain’s Most Ineligible Bachelor and His Enlightened Quest to Train the Ideal Mate by Wendy… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Putting the Steam in Steampunk

    First of all, what is this steampunk, anyway? Think of it this way. If the kind of technology in Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth or Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea actually worked, if all those marvelous Victorian steam-powered machines, and we used airships like the Hindenburg instead of airplanes, well,… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Bluestockings in Romance

    Not all the heroines in historical romances love going to balls and attending soirees. There are some that prefer the quieter things in life; like reading a book. There have always been women (at least in the pages of romances) who would rather be reading! Bluestockings were educated, intellectual women. Romances featuring bluestockings as heroines are… Continue reading

  • Romantic Wednesdays: Ex-Box

    Now it’s not a gaming console, it’s that little box in the back of your closet or in the storage unit at your apartment, that little box of doom and gloom. I’ve come to believe that most of us have a Pandora’s box of heartbreak. It has the power, once opened, to bring back all… Continue reading