Earl Grey Books

With February almost over, I thought it would be the perfect time to slip in a few more romance-based posts and today we’re doing the Get to Know the Romance Reader tag. This tag was originally created by Bree Hill, and you can see her original post here. I wasn’t tagged by anyone, I just wanted to have an excuse to talk about more romance books so here we are.

What is your romance origin story? (How you came to read your first romance novel):   

My first foray into straight-up romance was through new adult. In 2015 I read a couple of them, the first being (as far as I can tell) Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover, which is kind of ironic considering I’d never touch Hoover with a ten-foot pole now. My first historical romance was Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore.

If you could be the heroine in a romance novel, who would be the author and what’s one trope you’d insist be in the story?: 

Choosing an author is a hard one because most of my favourite authors write historical, but if I had to go contemporary it’d probably be Chloe Liese because she has the best disability representation and that’s a huge factor in my life. As for one trope, I love a good friends to lovers story.

What is a romance you’ve read this year, that you want more people to read?:   

With it still being so early in the year I don’t really have an answer to this, so instead I’m going to include the last few months and mention Chloe Liese again. People really need to read more disability representation and like CHLOE LIESE IS RIGHT HERE, MY FRIENDS.

What is your favorite romance subgenre? What subgenre have you not read much from?: 

Obviously historical romance is my favourite. I very, very rarely venture into anything else, but I’d be willing to give paranormal romance a chance after reading Laura Thalassa.

Who is one of your auto-buy romance authors?: 

Sabrina Jeffries. You may have heard me talk about how she’s my favourite romance author. I technically don’t have any auto-buys because I’m still pretty new to collecting them, but one day it will be Sabrina Jeffries once I’m caught up!

How do you typically find romance recommendations? (Goodreads, Youtube, Podcasts, Instagram..): 

Usually Angel, though sometimes Goodreads and YouTube. But also, the bargain box on Better World Books…oh the books I have discovered on there.

What is an upcoming romance release you’re excited for?: 

I wrote a whole post about this here, so rather than sound like a broken record, you can just check those out!

What is one misconception about romance you would like to lay to rest?: 

That it’s not a worthwhile genre. Sure, there are a few exceptions but on the whole, romance is one of the best escapist genres. You don’t have to understand some huge magical system or world-building, you can just escape into a world where happily ever afters actually exist.

Who is the most recent romance reading content creator you came across that you’d like to shoutout?: 

My favourite person to watch right now is Dana Cuadrado—her videos always make me happy and she’s just a genuinely sweet person.

If someone had never read a romance before and asked you to recommend the first 3 romances that come to mind as places to start, what would those recommendations be?: 

This is so hard! So I’m going to narrow it down to just historical romance, in which case I’d say; The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare, Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas and Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore.

I’m pretty sure Angel is already planning to do this tag, but if anyone else is interested, then I’m also tagging you!