Sipping Tea -- Georgian Style

Is there no Latin word for Tea?  Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone.
        Hilaire Belloc

No Latin for tea because tea didn't travel the silk roads all the way to the west.  In Roman times, tea was an entirely Chinese secret.  Tea only made it to Europe about 1600, the Dutch and the Portuguese carrying it home along with the other spoils of oriental trade.
 
It was the Age of Enlightenment. 
The Age of Exploration.  
The Age of Discovery. 
Europeans needed more than ale to fortify them for these earthshaking events.  They took to tea, coffee and chocolate like ducks to watercress.  
More at Word Wenches, here.

Library Journal. Oh My.

Library Journal has listed Forbidden Rose as one of its Best Genre Books of 2010.  Here.

I am delighted and very, very honored.  

 I don't even know what to say.

Kristin Ramsdell, who works with Romance genre for Library Journal, puts Forbidden Rose in the most wonderful company.  Lookit:

 

(me) Bourne, Joanna. The Forbidden Rose. Berkley Sensation: Penguin Group (USA). ISBN 9780425235614. pap. $7.99.

From a burned-out chateau in the French countryside to the treacherous, violent streets of revolutionary Paris, this superbly plotted adventure pairs up an English spy and a French aristocrat. (LJ 6/15/10)  Here.

Brockway, Connie. The Golden Season. Onyx: Penguin Group (USA). ISBN 9780451412836. pap. $7.99.

A peerless lady of the ton learns she is almost penniless and surreptitiously sets out to find a wealthy suitor during her last "Golden Season." This delightfully witty, deliciously sensual romance is peppered with humor and enhanced by memorable characters. (LJ 2/15/10)  Here.

Dreyer, Eileen. Barely a Lady. Forever: Grand Central. (Drake's Rakes, Bk. 1). ISBN 9780446542081. pap. $6.99.

A woman whose life was devastated five years earlier by deceit, betrayal, and divorce has her peace shattered once more when her ex-husband is found at Waterloo, wounded, suspected of treason, suffering from selective amnesia, and convinced that they are still happily married. An emotionally compelling, flawlessly crafted gem. (LJ 6/15/10) Here.

Kinsale, Laura. Lessons in French. Sourcebooks Casablanca. ISBN 9781402237010. pap. $7.99.

An aristocratic, bull-breeding heroine and a charming French émigré hero reclaim their love in this funny, whimsical, clever, and thoroughly rewarding sensual romance that is Kinsale's first appearance in the market in several years. (LJ 2/15/10) Here.

 McDonald, L.J. The Battle Sylph. Leisure: Dorchester. ISBN 9780843963007. pap. $7.99.

This stunningly creative and riveting debut novel of a young woman who escaped sacrificial murder to become the adored queen of her remarkable battle sylph is a mental and emotional delight for both fantasy and romance readers. (LJ 2/15/10) Here.

 

I've read the Kinsale, of course.  Wonderful, wonderful book.  I have already resolved to put Eileen Dreyer's on my TBR shelf.  The Brockway book sounds fabulous,  Another one I must buy. 

I wonder what the MacDonald book will be like.  It doesn't necessarily sound like a Romance, but I'll check it out.

AAR Anual Reader's Poll

Reminding everybody that the ballot for the AAR Annual Reader's Poll closes on November 15.  That's only 2 days from now.

It's here.



This is where you tell the world what Romance books you love.  This is our chance, as readers, to bring our favorites to the attention of others.


While I'm talking about AAR polls -- you might drop by the 2009 Best Book winners,  Here,  just to kind of refresh your memory. 

The 2009 overall winners were:

Best Romance

The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, Jennifer Ashley

Honorable Mentions for Best Romance 
Not Quite a Husband, Sherry Thomas
Bound by Your Touch, Meredith Duran

You should go buy those three if for some inexplicable reason you have not.  The Best of 2009 selections continue unabated down the page.

Publisher's Weekly 'Best Books of 2010'

Publisher's Weekly gives us a list of The 100 Best Books of 2010.  Here.  As they put it:

This year we took our annual slugfest to the pub underneath our new office and came up with a list of the year's top 100 books.

Courtney Milan 'tagged' me this morning in a Facebook post saying congratulations.
I'm on that list.
With FORBIDDEN ROSE.  Here.

That's saying it's one of the 100 best books of all kinds of books.
I cannot tell you how puzzled, dazzled, and delighted I am.

Every once in a while I'll climb on my hobby horse and complain about how Romance genre gets no respect from reviewers.  I will have to eat a number of those ill-considered words.
Romance genre has FIVE books on that list.

(Two of those five Romances are from Berkley.  They're doing something right at Berkley.)

The five Romance genre books listed among the 100 Best Books of 2010 by Publisher's Weekly are:
 

The Forbidden Rose
Joanna Bourne (Berkley Sensation)
In mid-revolution France, a noblewoman and a spy are torn between wartime practicality and headstrong passion. The gripping espionage story and wry voiceovers from the heroine will win hearts.

The Iron Duke
Meljean Brook (Berkley)
Brook's fabulous steampunk tale has an iron-boned war hero and a half-Asian detective inspector matching wits and wills on airships and battleships and in smoke-choked London as England recovers from 200 years of Mongol rule.

The Heir
Grace Burrowes (Sourcebooks Casablanca)
Burrowes pulls off an improbable Regency affair between a spoiled ducal heir and a housekeeper with a secret.

Barely a Lady
Eileen Dreyer (Grand Central/Forever)
The wartime amnesia romance is as old as the hills, but RWA Hall of Famer Dreyer (aka Kathleen Korbel) makes this one work.

Trial by Desire
Courtney Milan (HQN)
Modern readers will be as intrigued by the Victorian-era political issues as they are by the central story of a man trying to reconnect with the wife he abandoned.

from Publisher's Weekly, quoted under Fair Use.


Two of those are already set aside in my mammoth TBR pile, waiting till I finish the manuscript.  I will zip out and buy the other two.



ETA:

Rose Fox, over at PW's Genreville, gives us an insider look at the process of selection and reveals the books that nearly edged out the five 'listees'.   

More great books, says jo, rubbing her hands gleefully.

Rose Fox's comments on these other great books are:


Proof by Seduction,
Courtney Milan
A stunning debut Victorian that very nearly made the top list, outclassed only by its sequel. 

Whisper of Scandal,
Nicola Cornick
An adventure story wrapped around a heartbreaking tale of a woman rendered barren by her husband’s beatings. 

Last Night’s Scandal,
Loretta Chase:

The hilarious and adorable story of two rapscallions renovating a haunted Scottish castle. 

Marry Me,
Jo Goodman:
A moving 19th century American romance with tons of interesting period medical detail.


Warrior/Scoundrel/Rebel
Zoë Archer’s
Cranks up the Indiana Jones–style adventure to 11 and then piles on the sexy heat.

Welcome to Harmony
Jodi Thomas
Contemporary Western, is a really lovely meditation on what it means to be family.

No Chance,
Christy Reece
series kickoff  is an exemplary romantic suspense novel with a fabulous self-saving heroine.

Dragged in from Facebook

Me, (on Facebook) :  My computer is sick.  Sick.  Sick.  Sick.

If desperation were a cup, mine would be full up to the top and brimming over.

You know how writers go into a quiet room and create stuff and maybe put their feet up and consider plotting over a cup of strong tea. . . .
 

Me.  Not so much.
I just think about the damned nightmare computer.

I will limp it along till January when the deadline and the editor changes will be done.

In January I am going to give serious thought to getting a Mac. I am weary beyond words of every chapter feeling like a sandcastle built below the tideline

Romantic Times 2010 Reviewer's Choice Contest

Madly beating my own drum --

My novel, Forbidden Rose, has been nommed by RT in the 2010 Annual Reviewer's Choice Contest, 'Historical Romantic Adventure' category.

Fellow WordWench Jo Beverly, (The Secret Duke,) is nominated for Best British Isle and WordWench Pat Rice, (The Wicked Wyckerly,) under Historical Love and Laughter.


I cannot begin to list the wonderful books nominated.  I'd link to the noms -- it's just a shopping list of what to buy -- but I don't know where to find it on the net.