What's Up with Maine

Suddenly it seems every contemporary I read these days is set in Maine.  The latest, Janet Chapman's Spellbound Falls, reviewed on AAR today, which I've put in my Desert Island Keeper pile, makes Maine seem a mystical place with delightful, down-home people.  While I only know one Maine couple, Jackie and John Tiere, Chapman would recognize them as typical Mainers (Maineites?).

I think of people in Maine akin to people from Nebraska where I grew up.  Nebraskans of my era are practical, hard-working folk.  But there is a streak of the other world in them, a streak of fantasy that helps pass the dull, cold winters--especially that stretch from the end of the football season (Go Huskers!) to the onset of spring in mid- to late May.

Since Spellbound takes place during that pseudo-springtime when the frozen lakes are starting to melt but no crocuses have hatched, the world is ripe for romance and surprises.

And isn't the cover of the book lovely?  I'd like to visit for that picture alone!

Off on a Tangent

One of the nice things (among many nice things) about reviewing for AAR is the ability to go off on a tangent now and again with the daily blog or the daily After Hours blog.  Today I roll with the lie I used to tell myself about what kind of romances I prefer.

I do read a lot of Western romances, both historical and contemporary, as well as series and contemporary romances.  On my personal Top 100 book list are a smattering of everything as the top 10 books illustrate:

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: classic
2. Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh: Regency
3. The Temporary Wife by Mary Balogh: Regency
4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: time-travel / fantasy
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: classic
6. Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas: Regency
7. The More I See You by Lynn Kurland: time-travel / Medieval
8. The Older Woman by Cheryl Reavis: contemporary
9. She's Got It Bad by Sarah Mayberry: contemporary
10. A Reason to Live by Maureen McKade: Post Civil War America

So no one type of romance really rules, which I hadn't realized until I sat down and looked at my list.