Ever. Not ever. Some of the BEST romances (and I would say even books in general) were given HORRIBLE covers simply because they were “romances”. Yikes! The stigma of those covers. The ones you can’t let your children see. Even if the book is G or PG sometimes the book ends up with a cover that isn’t. The opposite can be true as well. Simple, elegant covers hide horribly written books with absolutely no plot or redeeming qualities at all. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t like wasting my time, even if I get it at the library. So how to know ahead of time?
You could go to places like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble and read the reviews. But they don’t really tell you just how steamy the book is. If you just want to know if people enjoyed the book, that works. I like a little more. And around 12 years ago I discovered just what the doctor ordered.
At The Romance Reader they review romances then rate them from 1 – 5 hearts (and they don’t all get 5 hearts). They also give you enough info about the book that you can tell if even if it’s a 5 heart read if you’ll enjoy the plot so that YOU would think it was a 5 heart read. AND they give them a rating of G, PG, all the way to NC-17 (Whew!).
You’ll know ahead of time what your getting into. If you want a sweet romance, you can find a sweet romance. And there are so many authors listed there that you can’t possibly EVER run out of books to read. Really talented authors. Even if you just read the 3-5 hearts (3 being good). I never caught up.
Spring is here and summer is just around the corner. Go find a good book!
Filed under: Bookshelf, Tips & Tools
