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WT Sharpe 01-20-2014 02:02 AM
February 2014 Book Club Nominations
 
MobileRead Book Club
February 2014 Nominations

Help us select the book that the MobileRead Book Club will read for February, 2014.

The nominations will run through midnight EST January 31 or until 10 books have made the list. The poll will then be posted and will remain open for five days.

Book selection category for February is:

Romance

In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).

How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.

How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a poll at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.

How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.

How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.

How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.

When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the initial poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.

The floor is open to nominations. Please comment if you discover a nomination is not available as an ebook in your area.


Official choices with three nominations each:

(1) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Amazon (US)
Spoiler:
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an "outlander"—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.


(2) Dirty Little Secrets (Romantic Mystery) by Liliana Hartk
Amazon US
Spoiler:
Book Description from Amazon:
Publication Date: December 29, 2013
DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS: A J.J. GRAVES MYSTERY

J.J. Graves has seen a lot of dead bodies in her line of work...

She's not only in the mortuary business, but she's also the coroner for King George County, Virginia. When a grisly murder is discovered in the small town of Bloody Mary, it's up to J.J. and her best friend, Detective Jack Lawson, to bring the victim justice.

The murders are piling up...

When a popular mystery writer shows up on J.J.'s doorstep with plans of writing his new book about the Bloody Mary Serial Killer, J.J. has to decide if he might be going above and beyond the call of duty to create the spine tinglers he's so well known for.

Passions are rising...

J.J and Jack discover each victim had a shocking secret, and the very foundation of J.J.'s life is in danger of crumbling when it turns out she’s harboring secrets of her own—secrets that make her a perfect target in a deadly game.


(3) The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Amazon Au - Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
Book Description from Amazon:
Publication Date: January 3, 2011

The final curtain is closing on the Second World War, and Hana, a nurse, stays behind in an abandoned Italian villa to tend to her only remaining patient. Rescued by Bedouins from a burning plane, he is English, anonymous, damaged beyond recognition and haunted by his memories of passion and betrayal.

The only clue Hana has to his past is the one thing he clung on to through the fire - a copy of The Histories by Herodotus, covered with hand-written notes describing a painful and ultimately tragic love affair.


(4) Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan
Amazon UK - Amazon US
Spoiler:
It's a gentle, beautiful, and moving time-slip romance between two people living in different eras.

The film with Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones is justly famous, but the book is even more engaging.


(5) Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
From Amazon:

In one of the most acclaimed and strange novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, Never Let Me Go hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.


(6) Behold, Here's Poison by Georgette Heyer
Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
Though a mystery, it apparently has romance as well and is sometimes referred to as a romance in disguise or a romance for people who don't normally like romance.

From Amazon:

It's no ordinary morning at the Poplars - the master is found dead in his bed and it turns out that his high blood pressure was not the cause of death. Heyer uses her attention to detail and brilliant characterizations to concoct a baffling crime for which every single member of the quarrelsome family has a motive, and none, of course, has an alibi. Heyer's sparkling dialogue is a master class in British wit, sarcasm and the intricacies of life above and below stairs.


(7) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Zola (Exclusive)
Spoiler:
Full Description (from Zola):

The Time Traveler’s Wife, one of the best romance books of all time, is now available as an eBook!

Audrey Niffenegger's dazzling debut is the story of Clare, a beautiful, strong-minded art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: his genetic clock randomly resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous and unpredictable, and lend a spectacular urgency to Clare and Henry's unconventional love story. That their attempt to live normal lives together is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control makes their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

Plus, the long-awaited sequel to Audrey Niffenegger’s time-traveling love story is finally here!

The ebook includes the first 25 pages of Niffeneger’s sequel featuring Henry and Clare’s daughter, Alba. Gifted with Clare’s beauty and Henry’s unique abilities, Alba finds herself caught between her real-time husband, Zach, and her other husband, Oliver, a fellow time-traveler and musician.

Get your ebook today and dive into this classic romance novel. Find the rest of Audrey Niffenegger’s books here and more of the best love story books. Shop eBooks today!


(8) I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
From Amazon:

I Capture the Castle has inspired writers as diverse as Armistead Maupin and Joanna Trollope and remains a classic tale of the triumph of youthful naivety over middle-aged cynicism.

'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink' is the first line of this timeless, witty and enchanting novel about growing up. Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fadingly glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer's block. However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time.


(9) Local Custom by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
the omnibus from Baen
Spoiler:
Master Trader Er Thom yos'Galan knows that Liaden custom is to be matched with a proper bride and provide his clan, Korval, with an heir. Yet his heart is immersed in another universe, influenced by another culture, and lost to a woman not of his world. And to take a Terran wife such as scholar Anne Davis is to risk both his honor and reputation—not to mention the lives of loved ones.


The nominations for February are now closed.

WT Sharpe 01-20-2014 02:03 AM
Second post:

Wondering if a particular book is available in your country? The following spoiler contains a list of bookstores outside the United States you can search. If you don't see a bookstore on this list for your country, find one that is, send me the link via PM, and I'll add it to the list. In addition, if members let me know that an ebook is unavailable in a particular geographic location, I'll note it in this post, right beside the Inkmesh search for that particular book.

Spoiler:
Australian
Angus Robertson
Booktopia
Borders
Dymocks
Fishpond
Google

Canada
Amazon. Make sure you are logged out. Then go to the Kindle Store. Search for a book. After the search results come up, in the upper right corner of the screen, change the country to Canada and search away.
Google
Sony eBookstore (Upper right corner switch to/from US/CA)

UK
BooksOnBoard (In the upper right corner is a way to switch to the UK store)
Amazon
Foyle's
Google
Penguin
Random House
Waterstones
WH Smith


Placeholder for nominations.

*** Outlander by Diana Gabaldon [John F, BelleZora, WT Sharpe]
Amazon (US)
Spoiler:
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an "outlander"—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.


*** Local Custom by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller [BaenSidhe, ccowie, Dazrin]
the omnibus from Baen
Spoiler:
Master Trader Er Thom yos'Galan knows that Liaden custom is to be matched with a proper bride and provide his clan, Korval, with an heir. Yet his heart is immersed in another universe, influenced by another culture, and lost to a woman not of his world. And to take a Terran wife such as scholar Anne Davis is to risk both his honor and reputation—not to mention the lives of loved ones.


*** I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith [sun surfer, issybird, sqdancer]
Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
From Amazon:

I Capture the Castle has inspired writers as diverse as Armistead Maupin and Joanna Trollope and remains a classic tale of the triumph of youthful naivety over middle-aged cynicism.

'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink' is the first line of this timeless, witty and enchanting novel about growing up. Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fadingly glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer's block. However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time.


*** Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro [sun surfer, Brownskins, SeaWolf]
Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
From Amazon:

In one of the most acclaimed and strange novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, Never Let Me Go hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.


*** Behold, Here's Poison by Georgette Heyer [sun surfer, BelleZora, Synamon]
Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
Though a mystery, it apparently has romance as well and is sometimes referred to as a romance in disguise or a romance for people who don't normally like romance.

From Amazon:

It's no ordinary morning at the Poplars - the master is found dead in his bed and it turns out that his high blood pressure was not the cause of death. Heyer uses her attention to detail and brilliant characterizations to concoct a baffling crime for which every single member of the quarrelsome family has a motive, and none, of course, has an alibi. Heyer's sparkling dialogue is a master class in British wit, sarcasm and the intricacies of life above and below stairs.


*** Dirty Little Secrets (Romantic Mystery) by Liliana Hartk [WT Sharpe, BelleZora, John F]
Amazon US
Spoiler:
Book Description from Amazon:
Publication Date: December 29, 2013
DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS: A J.J. GRAVES MYSTERY

J.J. Graves has seen a lot of dead bodies in her line of work...

She's not only in the mortuary business, but she's also the coroner for King George County, Virginia. When a grisly murder is discovered in the small town of Bloody Mary, it's up to J.J. and her best friend, Detective Jack Lawson, to bring the victim justice.

The murders are piling up...

When a popular mystery writer shows up on J.J.'s doorstep with plans of writing his new book about the Bloody Mary Serial Killer, J.J. has to decide if he might be going above and beyond the call of duty to create the spine tinglers he's so well known for.

Passions are rising...

J.J and Jack discover each victim had a shocking secret, and the very foundation of J.J.'s life is in danger of crumbling when it turns out she’s harboring secrets of her own—secrets that make her a perfect target in a deadly game.


*** The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje [WT Sharpe, John F, Synamon]
Amazon Au - Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
Book Description from Amazon:
Publication Date: January 3, 2011

The final curtain is closing on the Second World War, and Hana, a nurse, stays behind in an abandoned Italian villa to tend to her only remaining patient. Rescued by Bedouins from a burning plane, he is English, anonymous, damaged beyond recognition and haunted by his memories of passion and betrayal.

The only clue Hana has to his past is the one thing he clung on to through the fire - a copy of The Histories by Herodotus, covered with hand-written notes describing a painful and ultimately tragic love affair.


* The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith [treadlightly]
No links given. Available at Amazon, B&N and blushingbooks.com.
Spoiler:
It was her last chance:

Amber Bierce had nothing left except her sister and two tickets on Earth’s first colony-ship. She entered her Sleeper with a five-year contract and the promise of a better life, but awakened in wreckage on an unknown world. For the survivors, there is no rescue, no way home and no hope until they are found by Meoraq—a holy warrior more deadly than any hungering beast on this hostile new world…but whose eyes show a different sort of hunger when he looks at her.

It was his last year of freedom:

Uyane Meoraq is a Sword of Sheul, God’s own instrument of judgment, victor of hundreds of trials, with a conqueror’s rights over all men. Or at least he was until his father’s death. Now, without divine intervention, he will be forced to assume stewardship over House Uyane and lose the life he has always known. At the legendary temple of Xi’Matezh, Meoraq hopes to find the deliverance he seeks, but the humans he encounters on his pilgrimage may prove too great a test even for him…especially the one called Amber, behind whose monstrous appearance burns a woman’s heart unlike any he has ever known.


*** Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan [fantasyfan, jj2me, issybird]
Amazon UK - Amazon US
Spoiler:
It's a gentle, beautiful, and moving time-slip romance between two people living in different eras.

The film with Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones is justly famous, but the book is even more engaging.


* Latakia by JF Smith [SeaWolf]
Amazon AU / SmashWords
Spoiler:
Matthew likes his life in Richmond. He has his friends and his softball and his volunteer work. And he has a very good-looking boyfriend, Brian, who he’s been happily dating for over a year now. So what if his friends tend to question just how good his boyfriend is, and so what if Brian tends to have inexplicable mood swings. And so what if Brian seems to invite Matt’s suspicions on occasion. If he just shows a little faith and trust, he’ll appreciate what he has with Brian the way he should. Right?

But suddenly, Matt finds himself in a desperate life-or-death situation on a trip overseas, and he realizes just how much he misses home, and Brian. He’s luckily rescued by a team of US Spec-Ops Forces, only to find out they’re a bunch of bigoted jerks. Worse, a quirk of his situation forces him to spend time with them that he’d rather not. And that’s when he finds out that first impressions can be misleading. When called upon, he steps up when every fiber of his being tells him not to, and discovers something deep inside himself that he didn’t realize was even there. And his life will never be the same. He finds that he can, after all, make some very overdue changes in his own life.

What Matt doesn’t realize is that the bond of brotherhood runs both ways. And he winds up changing the lives of several of the men on that Spec-Ops team as much as they changed his.

All it takes is faith and trust.


* Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy [SeaWolf]
Amazon AU
Spoiler:
The most important things in Simon Murray’s life are football, friends, and film—in that order. His friends despair of him ever meeting someone, but despite his loneliness, Simon is cautious about looking for more. Then his best friends drag him to a party, where he barges into a football conversation and ends up defending the honour of star forward Declan Tyler—unaware that the athlete is present. In that first awkward meeting, neither man has any idea they will change each other's lives forever.

Like his entire family, Simon revels in living in Melbourne, the home of Australian Rules football and mecca for serious fans. There, players are treated like gods—until they do something to fall out of public favour. This year, the public is taking Declan to task for suffering injuries outside his control, so Simon's support is a bright spot.

But as Simon and Declan fumble toward a relationship, keeping Declan's homosexuality a secret from well-meaning friends and an increasingly suspicious media becomes difficult. Nothing can stay hidden forever. Soon Declan will have to choose between the career he loves and the man he wants, and Simon has never been known to make things easy—for himself or for others.


*** The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger [Synamon, issybird, yekim54]
Zola (Exclusive)
Spoiler:
Full Description (from Zola):

The Time Traveler’s Wife, one of the best romance books of all time, is now available as an eBook!

Audrey Niffenegger's dazzling debut is the story of Clare, a beautiful, strong-minded art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: his genetic clock randomly resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous and unpredictable, and lend a spectacular urgency to Clare and Henry's unconventional love story. That their attempt to live normal lives together is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control makes their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

Plus, the long-awaited sequel to Audrey Niffenegger’s time-traveling love story is finally here!

The ebook includes the first 25 pages of Niffeneger’s sequel featuring Henry and Clare’s daughter, Alba. Gifted with Clare’s beauty and Henry’s unique abilities, Alba finds herself caught between her real-time husband, Zach, and her other husband, Oliver, a fellow time-traveler and musician.

Get your ebook today and dive into this classic romance novel. Find the rest of Audrey Niffenegger’s books here and more of the best love story books. Shop eBooks today!


* The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman [drofgnal]
No vendor links provided.
Spoiler:
"This title is an extraordinary debut novel in which the author's childhood trips visiting family in Germany impart a heartbreaking realism. A Holocaust story told from the unlikely perspective of a German teenage girl in love with a Jewish boy, it explores the horrors and fears of innocent citizens on the homefront, as well as the risks they were willing to take to do the right thing. Ultimately a story of human survival and enduring love despite insurmountable odds, it's an original and important addition to the World War II canon."- RT Book Reviews, 4.5 stars, TOP PICK!


** Blind Trust by Nancy Kopp [crich70, fantasyfan]
No vendor links provided.
Spoiler:
No spoiler provided.


The nominations for February are now closed.

John F 01-20-2014 07:13 AM
I'll nominate Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

Blurb from Amazon:

Spoiler:
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an "outlander"—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.


Available at libraries everywhere*.

BaenSidhe 01-20-2014 03:08 PM
Local Custom by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Spoiler:
Master Trader Er Thom yos'Galan knows that Liaden custom is to be matched with a proper bride and provide his clan, Korval, with an heir. Yet his heart is immersed in another universe, influenced by another culture, and lost to a woman not of his world. And to take a Terran wife such as scholar Anne Davis is to risk both his honor and reputation—not to mention the lives of loved ones.


You should be able to get this from Amazon, etc. and possibly as a single title, but I'm just going to link the omnibus from Baen.

http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1188-the...variation.aspx

BelleZora 01-21-2014 06:28 PM
Second Outlander

sun surfer 01-21-2014 07:23 PM
I'm going to kickstart the nominations (or, at least add to them) by nominating three books:


I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
From Amazon:

I Capture the Castle has inspired writers as diverse as Armistead Maupin and Joanna Trollope and remains a classic tale of the triumph of youthful naivety over middle-aged cynicism.

'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink' is the first line of this timeless, witty and enchanting novel about growing up. Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fadingly glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer's block. However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time.


Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
From Amazon:

In one of the most acclaimed and strange novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewered version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, Never Let Me Go hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.


Behold, Here's Poison by Georgette Heyer
Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.
Spoiler:
Though a mystery, it apparently has romance as well and is sometimes referred to as a romance in disguise or a romance for people who don't normally like romance.

From Amazon:

It's no ordinary morning at the Poplars - the master is found dead in his bed and it turns out that his high blood pressure was not the cause of death. Heyer uses her attention to detail and brilliant characterizations to concoct a baffling crime for which every single member of the quarrelsome family has a motive, and none, of course, has an alibi. Heyer's sparkling dialogue is a master class in British wit, sarcasm and the intricacies of life above and below stairs.

WT Sharpe 01-21-2014 10:55 PM
(1) I don't know what makes this book about a young female mortician a "romantic mystery", but it sounds interesting, so I'm nominating Dirty Little Secrets (Romantic Mystery) by Liliana Hartk

Amazon US

Spoiler:
Book Description from Amazon:
Publication Date: December 29, 2013
DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS: A J.J. GRAVES MYSTERY

J.J. Graves has seen a lot of dead bodies in her line of work...

She's not only in the mortuary business, but she's also the coroner for King George County, Virginia. When a grisly murder is discovered in the small town of Bloody Mary, it's up to J.J. and her best friend, Detective Jack Lawson, to bring the victim justice.

The murders are piling up...

When a popular mystery writer shows up on J.J.'s doorstep with plans of writing his new book about the Bloody Mary Serial Killer, J.J. has to decide if he might be going above and beyond the call of duty to create the spine tinglers he's so well known for.

Passions are rising...

J.J and Jack discover each victim had a shocking secret, and the very foundation of J.J.'s life is in danger of crumbling when it turns out she’s harboring secrets of her own—secrets that make her a perfect target in a deadly game.



(2) And I'll third Outlander.

BelleZora 01-22-2014 12:03 AM
Second Dirty Little Secrets.

Second Behold, Here's Poison, which is couponable at Kobo.

John F 01-22-2014 07:24 AM
I'll third Dirty Little Secrets.

FYI, Dirty Little Secrets appears to be free (on Amazon and Kobo U.S.).

WT Sharpe 01-22-2014 11:31 AM
Here's one that looks interesting. We've all heard of the movie. Now let's read the book.

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

Amazon Au - Amazon U.K. - Amazon U.S.

Spoiler:
Book Description from Amazon:
Publication Date: January 3, 2011

The final curtain is closing on the Second World War, and Hana, a nurse, stays behind in an abandoned Italian villa to tend to her only remaining patient. Rescued by Bedouins from a burning plane, he is English, anonymous, damaged beyond recognition and haunted by his memories of passion and betrayal.

The only clue Hana has to his past is the one thing he clung on to through the fire - a copy of The Histories by Herodotus, covered with hand-written notes describing a painful and ultimately tragic love affair.

John F 01-22-2014 12:36 PM
I'll second The English Patient.

Brownskins 01-22-2014 12:43 PM
I'll vote for Never Let Me Go...

treadlightly 01-22-2014 02:22 PM
I wanted to nominate one of the books listed in the 2014 Romance Recommendations thread, but which one? Without looking, I decided to select the one with the highest Goodreads rating that I haven't read. It is The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith, a sci-fi romance, with a Goodreads rating of 4.35 and recommended multiple times in the Romance discussion thread. Available at Amazon, B&N and blushingbooks.com.

Spoiler:

It was her last chance:

Amber Bierce had nothing left except her sister and two tickets on Earth’s first colony-ship. She entered her Sleeper with a five-year contract and the promise of a better life, but awakened in wreckage on an unknown world. For the survivors, there is no rescue, no way home and no hope until they are found by Meoraq—a holy warrior more deadly than any hungering beast on this hostile new world…but whose eyes show a different sort of hunger when he looks at her.

It was his last year of freedom:

Uyane Meoraq is a Sword of Sheul, God’s own instrument of judgment, victor of hundreds of trials, with a conqueror’s rights over all men. Or at least he was until his father’s death. Now, without divine intervention, he will be forced to assume stewardship over House Uyane and lose the life he has always known. At the legendary temple of Xi’Matezh, Meoraq hopes to find the deliverance he seeks, but the humans he encounters on his pilgrimage may prove too great a test even for him…especially the one called Amber, behind whose monstrous appearance burns a woman’s heart unlike any he has ever known.

Synamon 01-22-2014 02:51 PM
I'll third The English Patient.

fantasyfan 01-24-2014 01:45 PM
I'll nominate Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan.

It's a gentle, beautiful, and moving time-slip romance between two people living in different eras.

The film with Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones is justly famous, but the book is even more engaging.

I nominated this once before but I believe it was more than 6 months ago.


It's available at Amazon UK here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...rait+of+Jennie

and for Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Portrait-Jenni...rait+of+Jennie

SeaWolf 01-25-2014 02:56 AM
I've seen the film of Never Let Me Go but not read the book yet, so I'll third that one.

Also, two new nominations. To add some variety I've nominated two books about same-sex romances. :)

Latakia by JF Smith
Amazon AU SmashWords
Spoiler:
Matthew likes his life in Richmond. He has his friends and his softball and his volunteer work. And he has a very good-looking boyfriend, Brian, who he’s been happily dating for over a year now. So what if his friends tend to question just how good his boyfriend is, and so what if Brian tends to have inexplicable mood swings. And so what if Brian seems to invite Matt’s suspicions on occasion. If he just shows a little faith and trust, he’ll appreciate what he has with Brian the way he should. Right?

But suddenly, Matt finds himself in a desperate life-or-death situation on a trip overseas, and he realizes just how much he misses home, and Brian. He’s luckily rescued by a team of US Spec-Ops Forces, only to find out they’re a bunch of bigoted jerks. Worse, a quirk of his situation forces him to spend time with them that he’d rather not. And that’s when he finds out that first impressions can be misleading. When called upon, he steps up when every fiber of his being tells him not to, and discovers something deep inside himself that he didn’t realize was even there. And his life will never be the same. He finds that he can, after all, make some very overdue changes in his own life.

What Matt doesn’t realize is that the bond of brotherhood runs both ways. And he winds up changing the lives of several of the men on that Spec-Ops team as much as they changed his.

All it takes is faith and trust.


Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy
Amazon AU
Spoiler:
The most important things in Simon Murray’s life are football, friends, and film—in that order. His friends despair of him ever meeting someone, but despite his loneliness, Simon is cautious about looking for more. Then his best friends drag him to a party, where he barges into a football conversation and ends up defending the honour of star forward Declan Tyler—unaware that the athlete is present. In that first awkward meeting, neither man has any idea they will change each other's lives forever.

Like his entire family, Simon revels in living in Melbourne, the home of Australian Rules football and mecca for serious fans. There, players are treated like gods—until they do something to fall out of public favour. This year, the public is taking Declan to task for suffering injuries outside his control, so Simon's support is a bright spot.

But as Simon and Declan fumble toward a relationship, keeping Declan's homosexuality a secret from well-meaning friends and an increasingly suspicious media becomes difficult. Nothing can stay hidden forever. Soon Declan will have to choose between the career he loves and the man he wants, and Simon has never been known to make things easy—for himself or for others.

jj2me 01-26-2014 03:44 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by fantasyfan (Post 2747090)
I'll nominate Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan.

It's a gentle, beautiful, and moving time-slip romance between two people living in different eras.

The film with Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones is justly famous, but the book is even more engaging.

I nominated this once before but I believe it was more than 6 months ago.


It's available at Amazon UK here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...rait+of+Jennie

and for Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Portrait-Jenni...rait+of+Jennie
Seconded. Short month, short book. 4.8 stars(!) on Amazon U.S., nothing less than a 4-star review.

(Besides, my favorite all-time movie is "Somewhere in Time.")

issybird 01-26-2014 03:51 PM
Third Portrait of Jennie.

Second I Capture the Castle.

ccowie 01-29-2014 11:15 AM
I'm new to book club, but I'm looking forward to participating. I've not read much romance - never been interested. But, having read through the spoilers I'm surprised by the range of material there. I've read The English Patient, but none of the others.

I'd like to second Local Custom.

Synamon 01-29-2014 08:09 PM
I'll third Behold, Here's Poison.

This has been nominated before for Romance month, but never won. I enjoyed it tremendously, so I'll nominate The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Goodreads
Audrey Niffenegger's dazzling debut is the story of Clare, a beautiful, strong-minded art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: his genetic clock randomly resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous and unpredictable, and lend a spectacular urgency to Clare and Henry's unconventional love story. That their attempt to live normal lives together is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control makes their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

issybird 01-29-2014 09:37 PM
Second The Time Traveler's Wife.

yekim54 01-30-2014 01:17 AM
Third The Time Traveler's Wife

sqdancer 01-30-2014 02:47 AM
Third I Capture the Castle

Dazrin 01-30-2014 03:33 AM
I will third Local Custom. I am not a big fan of romances, but I did like the first Liaden book, so this one is worth a try.

Rizla 01-30-2014 09:15 AM
In the Skin of a Lion and Coming through Slaughter are superior to The English Patient.

Never Let Me Go is a good book though. I'll nominate it.

WT Sharpe 01-30-2014 09:56 AM
The Time Traveler's Wife is still not available as an e-book, due to the fact that the author, Audrey Niffenegger, hates e-books and steadfastly refuses to go along with the program.

EDIT: Scratch that. It appears that there is one source now:

https://zolabooks.com/book/the-time-...-wife/overview

sun surfer 01-30-2014 10:21 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ccowie (Post 2750787)
I'm new to book club, but I'm looking forward to participating. I've not read much romance - never been interested. But, having read through the spoilers I'm surprised by the range of material there...
That's an interesting thing about this club - basically every month the nominations are so diverse within whatever the monthly category is, so it's always fun to see what everyone comes up with.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SeaWolf (Post 2747545)
Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy
Amazon AU
Spoiler:
The most important things in Simon Murray’s life are football, friends, and film—in that order. His friends despair of him ever meeting someone, but despite his loneliness, Simon is cautious about looking for more. Then his best friends drag him to a party, where he barges into a football conversation and ends up defending the honour of star forward Declan Tyler—unaware that the athlete is present. In that first awkward meeting, neither man has any idea they will change each other's lives forever.

Like his entire family, Simon revels in living in Melbourne, the home of Australian Rules football and mecca for serious fans. There, players are treated like gods—until they do something to fall out of public favour. This year, the public is taking Declan to task for suffering injuries outside his control, so Simon's support is a bright spot.

But as Simon and Declan fumble toward a relationship, keeping Declan's homosexuality a secret from well-meaning friends and an increasingly suspicious media becomes difficult. Nothing can stay hidden forever. Soon Declan will have to choose between the career he loves and the man he wants, and Simon has never been known to make things easy—for himself or for others.
This looks interesting but I'm out of votes. I don't think I've ever read a straight romance book (and by straight I mean fits squarely into the contemporary romance genre, though the pun/double entendre is intended :D), and I've definitely never read a gay purely romance book, and I like the Australian setting and the football theme, so I'd give it a go.

WT Sharpe 01-30-2014 10:42 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizla (Post 2751526)
In the Skin of a Lion and Coming through Slaughter are superior to The English Patient.

Never Let Me Go is a good book though. I'll nominate it.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro has already been fully nominated, unless you're speaking of another book of the same name by a different author.

Hamlet53 01-30-2014 11:39 AM
Sitting this one out. Romances are not my thing and any input from me would serve to shift it from the intended sort of book.

drofgnal 01-31-2014 06:35 AM
I'm a little late to this but I'll put this forward anyway as it's a fantastic book. The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman, her debut novel.

Spoiler:
"This title is an extraordinary debut novel in which the author's childhood trips visiting family in Germany impart a heartbreaking realism. A Holocaust story told from the unlikely perspective of a German teenage girl in love with a Jewish boy, it explores the horrors and fears of innocent citizens on the homefront, as well as the risks they were willing to take to do the right thing. Ultimately a story of human survival and enduring love despite insurmountable odds, it's an original and important addition to the World War II canon."- RT Book Reviews, 4.5 stars, TOP PICK!

WT Sharpe 01-31-2014 10:48 AM
I'm glad The Time Traveler's Wife made the list. I thought about nominating that one myself, but when I saw it still wasn't available at Amazon, I erroneously assumed it wasn't available anywhere. For those of you who may not know, Audrey Niffenegger despises e-books, and has written some very unkind words about them. She's was the roadblock for so long to her book being made available in an electronic format.

crich70 01-31-2014 12:32 PM
If it's still possible to nominate a 10th book I'd like to put forth "Blind Trust" by Nancy Kopp. It has a mystery and some romance as well. Blind Trust It's available via Amazon.

fantasyfan 01-31-2014 02:31 PM
I'll second Blind Trust..

Dazrin 01-31-2014 03:40 PM
So far, 8 of the 9 nominated titles are available through Overdrive. Three are audio only though.

Behold, Here's Poison
Dirty Little Secrets (not available yet at my library though)
The English Patient
I Capture the Castle (audio only) (not at my library though)
Never Let Me Go
Outlander (long wait list for me, 59+ people)
Portrait of Jennie (audio only) (not at my library though)
The Time Traveler's Wife (audio only)

The only one not available in any form at Overdrive appears to be Local Custom.

crich70 01-31-2014 04:21 PM
Blind trust, (which needs a 3rd nomination) is an ebook. I don't know if it's on overdrive, but it's only $2.99 for a copy over at Amazon.

Synamon 01-31-2014 06:59 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe (Post 2752489)
I'm glad The Time Traveler's Wife made the list. I thought about nominating that one myself, but when I saw it still wasn't available at Amazon, I erroneously assumed it wasn't available anywhere. For those of you who may not know, Audrey Niffenegger despises e-books, and has written some very unkind words about them. She's was the roadblock for so long to her book being made available in an electronic format.

I listened to it as an audiobook, so I was unaware of the ebook issues. Thanks for finding a source.

Rizla 01-31-2014 10:40 PM
Oh what the Hell. I nominate The English Patient. It's not it's best but it's still very good. A lot better than the melodramatic movie adaption...

WT Sharpe 02-01-2014 12:12 AM
The English Patient is already fully nominated.

WT Sharpe 02-01-2014 01:28 AM
The nominations for February are now closed. Poll coming soon.

WT Sharpe 02-01-2014 02:12 AM
The poll has been posted. :)


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