Kristen Ashley's Blog - Posts Tagged "jeffe-kennedy"
Kit's Recommended Reads Part 3
This is part three of my blog series in answer to all the questions I get about what I would recommend for folks to read.
The last two blogs I wrote were about vintage books I fell in love with back in the day (Johanna Lindsey’s WARRIOR’S WOMAN and Judith McNaught’s ALMOST HEAVEN, and everything else she’s written).
This time, I’m going to share something contemporary. Something I discovered not too long ago that I fell into and adored.
You see, until I started publishing, I’d never heard of the novella concept. And short stories weren’t something I dove into very often either (that said, another quick recommendation, COWBOYS ARE MY WEAKNESS by Pam Houston is superb).
But now my life has changed. I don’t have time to read a lot and I’m one of those obsessive readers. If I find I’m going to like a book, unless I know I can put my life on hold for that book for the day or two (or whatever) it takes to consume it, I put it down. And often, sadly, don’t find time to pick it back up again. This, I’m determined to change because I miss reading like the dickens.
However, recently, when I became aware of the brilliance of the 1,001 Dark Nights concept, and agreed to do a story for them, I started to check out this novella idea more thoroughly.
So when I saw a recommendation on Twitter for Megan Hart’s story in an anthology called THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL, I bought it. I’d been wanting to read something of Megan’s for some time, and when I saw she’d written a novella for this anthology, I thought it was just the ticket.
I devoured Megan’s story first, DROWNING ON DRY LAND. And yes, “devoured” is the word. It’s dark. It’s edgy. It’s sexy as hell. And it ain’t your momma’s romance novella.
I loved it. Every word. The chances Megan took with this story. The honesty she shares with us through it.
But I was terrified of trying the other stories in THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL because, once you get something that good, how can the others measure up?
I took a shot and read Anne Calhoun’s IN THE GARDEN. Definitely sweeter, no less sexy, decadent, but also promising and beautiful. The feel of the story was so exquisitely different than DROWNING ON DRY LAND, I was suddenly voracious for all the different experiences this anthology would give me. Not just different stories and different voices – because you’re going to get that in an anthology no matter what – EXPERIENCES. Falling into these beautifully-crafted tales and allowing them to take over my world for perfect snippets of time.
So I then read EXACT WARM UNHOLY by Jeffe Kennedy. And I was again stunned. Stunned by the originality of the concept of this story. Stunned by the emotions it made me experience in such a short expanse of time. Stunned by the beauty of the romance in it that ran parallel to the overwhelming sadness throughout. I mean, seriously. If you don’t fall in love with Peter, you have a heart of stone.
There was no stopping me then (though, sadly, life was such that I had to put it down and come back to it, but the minute I could, I did) and with no further hesitation happily guzzled up Delphine Dryden’s RED LEATHER (a short story, not a novella), DEVIL IN THE DARK by Christine d’Abo (another short story, illicit, steamy, and [spoiler!] I hope to God Shona went back and got more of Kevin), Megan Mulry’s LONDON CALLING (my first f/f, and the perfect introduction to this, I loved Lana, I loved her humor, and as someone who lived in England, I loved the feel of again being an American in that different land, but I have to say of all this goodness, Cybelle was DIVINE) and last WE ARE ALL FOUND THINGS by M. O’Keefe.
Although all the stories deserve many, many words in this blog, hell, they each deserve their own blog, because they were wonderful, well-written, beautifully-conceived, intensely gratifying, I’ll share a few more words about WE ARE ALL FOUND THINGS because I fell so deeply in love with Luka. In fact, I started reading this at the tail end of a plane ride, and after the first chapter, I put it down and said to my sister, “Nope. Not gonna finish that until I’m alone with a glass of wine in my reading chair and I have all my attention devoted to it.”
I wasn’t wrong to make this decision. It was worth all my attention (and just saying, man oh man, I wish I’d come up with the gorgeous concept of “found things”).
Like all of them, in its unique way, it was a beautiful story that was a gift to read.
Now, I’ll make an important note here that this anthology wasn’t just about reading really good stories. The underlying theme (outside, what, precisely, “the devil’s doorbell relates to) is all about the heroines. In each story, it isn’t about a woman finding something because she found a man. In each story, it’s about a woman finding something in herself, giving herself something she needs, finding her way past a stumble in life that gives you way more than skinned knees. These women are powerful, even if they discover that power during the story, and reading these women’s stories, being along for the ride at that part of their journeys, well…wow. Just that.
Wow.
I could make particular note of this facet of all of them, but for sake of time, I’ll just wax poetic about what Delphine Dryden was able to do in one chapter in RED LEATHER. We women have so many expectations. So many things other people expect of us that hold us back from buying those garnet leather boots. It was a shock to the system (in a GOOD way) that Delphine was able to share so fully how Maggie shirked off those expectations and decided to start expecting things FOR HERSELF, all in one chapter. I adored it.
Now, I had someone say to me once they didn’t do novellas or short stories because they don’t like the short length.
However, as a reader and a writer, there’s something extraordinary about an artist’s ability to give us something so completely satisfying as these stories in the expanse of only a few chapters (and in two cases, RED LEATHER and DEVIL IN THE DARK, only one chapter). It’s a challenge for a writer for certain. But as a new reader of this type of tale, knowing I have the choice to partake in something that I can take in in a short span of time, experience it in its flawless entirety and come away with that gorged feeling of contentment normally a full-length novel would give me is a godsend.
Because sometimes, as a romance reader, but in the instance of this anthology, a sister rooting for the sisterhood, I need that quick injection of loveliness delivered by a talented hand.
Then again, don’t we all?
The last two blogs I wrote were about vintage books I fell in love with back in the day (Johanna Lindsey’s WARRIOR’S WOMAN and Judith McNaught’s ALMOST HEAVEN, and everything else she’s written).
This time, I’m going to share something contemporary. Something I discovered not too long ago that I fell into and adored.
You see, until I started publishing, I’d never heard of the novella concept. And short stories weren’t something I dove into very often either (that said, another quick recommendation, COWBOYS ARE MY WEAKNESS by Pam Houston is superb).
But now my life has changed. I don’t have time to read a lot and I’m one of those obsessive readers. If I find I’m going to like a book, unless I know I can put my life on hold for that book for the day or two (or whatever) it takes to consume it, I put it down. And often, sadly, don’t find time to pick it back up again. This, I’m determined to change because I miss reading like the dickens.
However, recently, when I became aware of the brilliance of the 1,001 Dark Nights concept, and agreed to do a story for them, I started to check out this novella idea more thoroughly.
So when I saw a recommendation on Twitter for Megan Hart’s story in an anthology called THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL, I bought it. I’d been wanting to read something of Megan’s for some time, and when I saw she’d written a novella for this anthology, I thought it was just the ticket.
I devoured Megan’s story first, DROWNING ON DRY LAND. And yes, “devoured” is the word. It’s dark. It’s edgy. It’s sexy as hell. And it ain’t your momma’s romance novella.
I loved it. Every word. The chances Megan took with this story. The honesty she shares with us through it.
But I was terrified of trying the other stories in THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL because, once you get something that good, how can the others measure up?
I took a shot and read Anne Calhoun’s IN THE GARDEN. Definitely sweeter, no less sexy, decadent, but also promising and beautiful. The feel of the story was so exquisitely different than DROWNING ON DRY LAND, I was suddenly voracious for all the different experiences this anthology would give me. Not just different stories and different voices – because you’re going to get that in an anthology no matter what – EXPERIENCES. Falling into these beautifully-crafted tales and allowing them to take over my world for perfect snippets of time.
So I then read EXACT WARM UNHOLY by Jeffe Kennedy. And I was again stunned. Stunned by the originality of the concept of this story. Stunned by the emotions it made me experience in such a short expanse of time. Stunned by the beauty of the romance in it that ran parallel to the overwhelming sadness throughout. I mean, seriously. If you don’t fall in love with Peter, you have a heart of stone.
There was no stopping me then (though, sadly, life was such that I had to put it down and come back to it, but the minute I could, I did) and with no further hesitation happily guzzled up Delphine Dryden’s RED LEATHER (a short story, not a novella), DEVIL IN THE DARK by Christine d’Abo (another short story, illicit, steamy, and [spoiler!] I hope to God Shona went back and got more of Kevin), Megan Mulry’s LONDON CALLING (my first f/f, and the perfect introduction to this, I loved Lana, I loved her humor, and as someone who lived in England, I loved the feel of again being an American in that different land, but I have to say of all this goodness, Cybelle was DIVINE) and last WE ARE ALL FOUND THINGS by M. O’Keefe.
Although all the stories deserve many, many words in this blog, hell, they each deserve their own blog, because they were wonderful, well-written, beautifully-conceived, intensely gratifying, I’ll share a few more words about WE ARE ALL FOUND THINGS because I fell so deeply in love with Luka. In fact, I started reading this at the tail end of a plane ride, and after the first chapter, I put it down and said to my sister, “Nope. Not gonna finish that until I’m alone with a glass of wine in my reading chair and I have all my attention devoted to it.”
I wasn’t wrong to make this decision. It was worth all my attention (and just saying, man oh man, I wish I’d come up with the gorgeous concept of “found things”).
Like all of them, in its unique way, it was a beautiful story that was a gift to read.
Now, I’ll make an important note here that this anthology wasn’t just about reading really good stories. The underlying theme (outside, what, precisely, “the devil’s doorbell relates to) is all about the heroines. In each story, it isn’t about a woman finding something because she found a man. In each story, it’s about a woman finding something in herself, giving herself something she needs, finding her way past a stumble in life that gives you way more than skinned knees. These women are powerful, even if they discover that power during the story, and reading these women’s stories, being along for the ride at that part of their journeys, well…wow. Just that.
Wow.
I could make particular note of this facet of all of them, but for sake of time, I’ll just wax poetic about what Delphine Dryden was able to do in one chapter in RED LEATHER. We women have so many expectations. So many things other people expect of us that hold us back from buying those garnet leather boots. It was a shock to the system (in a GOOD way) that Delphine was able to share so fully how Maggie shirked off those expectations and decided to start expecting things FOR HERSELF, all in one chapter. I adored it.
Now, I had someone say to me once they didn’t do novellas or short stories because they don’t like the short length.
However, as a reader and a writer, there’s something extraordinary about an artist’s ability to give us something so completely satisfying as these stories in the expanse of only a few chapters (and in two cases, RED LEATHER and DEVIL IN THE DARK, only one chapter). It’s a challenge for a writer for certain. But as a new reader of this type of tale, knowing I have the choice to partake in something that I can take in in a short span of time, experience it in its flawless entirety and come away with that gorged feeling of contentment normally a full-length novel would give me is a godsend.
Because sometimes, as a romance reader, but in the instance of this anthology, a sister rooting for the sisterhood, I need that quick injection of loveliness delivered by a talented hand.
Then again, don’t we all?
