Okay folks, I get very enthusiastic about things sometimes and I want to share them with the world; hence, I will be starting a “Why I Love…” series about these things. I have my favorite authors in pretty much any genre: Classics – Jane Austen, Fantasy – George RR Martin, Mystery – Agatha Christie, Supernatural – tie between Christine Feehan and Sherrilyn Kenyon, Historical Fiction – Alison Weir, and of course J.K. Rowling, who is in a genre all her own. I could go into great detail, and often do, about why I love these particular authors and I think it’s only right that I start this blog with a post about the author that inspired me (in part) to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November, Sabrina Jeffries.
Sabrina Jeffries is a romance novelist. That would be an easy way to categorize her, but it’s a little narrow. Romance has gotten a bad rap, especially lately with articles about how women have unrealistic ideas about love due to romance novels. I’d like to think that’s not really true. I know they are my guilty pleasure and I don’t think some superhot bad boy is going to swoop in and save me from my life of drudgery and become the world’s most devoted husband. But I sure like to read about it. Romance novels are for escapists. We all need those moments of imagining a different world. I’ve liked many romance novelists over the years, but Sabrina has become my favorite over the past few years.
So why do I love her? Two reasons. A) Her writing and B) The way she interacts with her fans. Let’s start with A. The first book I read by her was The Pirate Lord. It was great fun, a pirate captain and his crew courting a ship full of women…a good adventure. I read the rest of The Lord Trilogy and moved on to the School for Heiresses series, which intrigued me as I started to notice a pattern with the book heroines…they were intelligent! Many romance novels focus on the men, and while Sabrina’s men are very well written, it’s the women that shine. They are smart and they don’t take crap from their “heroes.” What really sealed the deal for me was her Hellions of Halstead Hall series. It’s a series about five siblings who are essentially blackmailed into getting married in the next year by their grandmother, who wants them to settle down and stop living so scandalously. What seems like a completely insane concept actually works out so naturally that you actually believe these five men and women could really have met their spouses in the various ways described. And the best part is that there is an overarching mystery going on as a subplot: what really happened to their parents? They died under scandalous and somewhat mysterious circumstances many years prior and the mystery starts to unravel as the books progress. It’s something that most romance novels don’t have. Even series usually just share some characters in common, but there’s no continuing storyline to bind them. I eagerly await her new releases because I want to know what happens next. I have my theories about what happened, and then they all get shredded in the next book and then I have to reformulate my theories. I LOVE IT!
Perhaps just as much as I love her unusual romance novel style, I love her interaction with her fans. Sabrina is easily accessible; she tweets, blogs, posts on Facebook, sends email newsletters, and even actual physical mail – which often includes treats like bookmarks! I have emailed her or commented on her Facebook and have always gotten a personal response. Her readers come to know her family, including her autistic son, Nick, her husband, and her parents. We hear about her travels, her deadlines, her encounters with fans. We giggle over her reoccurring comic strip about the Jane Austen and William Shakespeare dolls that live on her desk and have very definite opinions on things. In short, she feels like an old friend and it just makes her work all that much more entertaining.
Sabrina just released the penultimate book in the Hellions series, To Wed a Wild Lord. I can’t wait to get a copy of it so I can see if some of my suspicions are correct! Although I must admit that I am probably most looking forward to Celia and Pinter’s story coming out in January, A Lady Never Surrenders. Pinter has been a character throughout the series that I have to really enjoy, and I look forward to seeing him spar with the feisty Celia. Alas, budget doesn’t really support my book habit, so I have to wait, but I am patient! Sort of. Often the library feeds my book habit, but I own all the other Hellions books and I’m not going to break the mold with this one. I like to re-read them! Not to mention the waiting list for her books takes months! I feel the same way about the Song of Ice and Fire books. I refuse to get them on my e-reader because as epic as they are, it just seems wrong somehow not to have them physically in my hand when I’m reading.
So, if you stuck with my post this long and you like living vicariously through some really great romantic stories, I hope you decide to give Sabrina Jeffries a try. One day when I *hopefully* get something published, I’ll keep in mind her example when it comes to connecting with readers.
I love the Pirate Lord. When I threw out about half my romance novels, I kept that one. I think you'd love Galen Foley as well. Her men tend to be very damaged but in the one series, they're all brothers (and their youngest sister) and there's no overarching mystery but there are plots that span books.
ReplyDeleteI've read Gaelen Foley as well. The Ascension Trilogy is one of my favorites, particularly Princess. It always reminds me of the Within Temptation song "Hand of Sorrow."
ReplyDeleteI also love that Sabrina doesn't pull a Coulter and have her men forcing her women who then turn around and worship them. We've talked about that before, I think. Bugs the crap out of me.
I didn't know it was a Trilogy. I'm missing one of the books.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the day I realized ninety percent of Coulter's books had some sort of forced/rape scene, I stopped reading her stuff.
Yes, the Ascension trilogy is The Pirate Prince, Princess and Prince Charming.
ReplyDeleteDevil's Embrace annoyed the crap out of me. He kidnaps her right before her wedding to another man, rapes her and keeps her captive for ages, and she falls in love with him. That's Stockholm Syndrome, not romance. I would have been fine if he kidnapped her and then romanced her over the course of weeks or months before she voluntarily sealed the deal.