I Feel I Owe Lisa Kleypas An Apology
by ksbowner - January 8th, 2011.Filed under: Uncategorized.
As a reader, I freely admit that I have some preferences that can be irrational. It is after all mostly a matter of taste. But in the interest of saving time and dollars, all of us do develop some “rules” about the books we choose to buy/read.
A few of mine:
Only buy fiction in kindle/ebook format. (Hey, after moving myself from VA to FL, I am so over hauling boxes and boxes of books.)
Don’t buy fiction in kindle/ebook format if it is priced over $9.99. (I broke this rule once for a Nora Roberts and felt like an idiot when they lowered the price a couple months later.)
Don’t buy fiction allegedly written by a celebrity not known for her ability to spell much less write. (Yes, Snooki I do mean you.)
Those are pretty firm. Others have been more like “guidelines” as they said in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
For a long time, I was so done with any more versions of King Arthur. I really meant it too, I was tired of them, no one was coming up with anything new to say, same old same old. No more! And then I stumbled on Angela Knight’s Mageverse series. Well… maybe I spoke too soon. She’s got a new one out this month. Happy Sigh.
And then there was the beware of recent subgenre hoppers rule. This may seem unfair but in my experience, when an author has written several books in only one particular subgenre and then suddenly switches to another, the results are often not so good. I think it usually has to do with the author’s voice. Some authors’ styles need to be tweaked a bit to adapt to the new subgenre. Unfortunately, they don’t always seem to get that switch right.
So when one of my favorite historical authors, Lisa Kleypas came out with a contemporary, I was not happy. I refused to read it. Not going to bother. Nope, nope, nope. She published three books and I still wasn’t going there. I finally caved last month and read Sugar Daddy, Blue-Eyed Devil and Smooth Talking Stranger back to back……
(sound of crickets chirping)
Ok, so I was wrong. REALLY WRONG. This time.
I’m still keeping the rule. I’m just willing to make exceptions. Every once in a while. Maybe.
Guidelines.