Title: The Selection Series
Author: Kiera Cass
Genre: Dystopian Young Adult

The Flavor: The Hunger Games meets The Bachelor 

The Short Version: With all the drama of an episode of The Bachelor and all the excitement of your typical YA dystopian, this series totally rocked my socks off. 

The Description: In a post-war-torn United States (now called Illea), America Singer reluctantly enters a contest to win the hand of Prince Maxon. Along with 35 other young ladies, America travels to the castle, where she must deal with cat fights, back stabbing, jealousy, and trust issues. If it sounds like an episode of The Bachelor, well then, good. I’m describing it correctly. As opposed to the simple YA love triangle, this series goes all out and gives us TWO love triangles. A bit of political intrigue and talk of revolution keep things exciting.  

This is the second installment of our ongoing series focusing on the various sub-genres of Romance. 

Historical romance is my jam. Georgette Heyer, queen and founding mother of the regency romance, was the first romance author I ever read with purpose (to this day, my bookshelves are stacked with Heyer paperbacks so worn they must be held together with rubber bands). Oh, I’ll flirt with other sub-genres—I have my favorite contemporary authors, and I did just go on that two-month-long paranormal binge, but I always come back to the historical. So I was surprised to discover, when I consulted the Seattle Public Library’s Romance Genre’s Checklist, how many of the sub-sub-genres I had somehow overlooked. For one thing, apparently approximately 85% of everything I read takes place in a twenty-year time span. For another, I really need to get off the island of Great Britain once in a while. 

The Checklist

Regency 
Rome 
Middle ages 
Victorian 
World War II 
1950’s 
Flappers 
Pioneer/ Cowboy/ 1800’s American West 
Men in Kilts 
Asian 

Because it turns out that historical romance really takes place over a much-larger-than-twenty-year time span, I’m splitting the historical post in half. This week I’ll be covering Regency, Middle Ages, World War Two, Men in Kilts, and Asian. Oh, and I’ve decided to change the format of these round-ups. Instead of finding any book that meets the criteria and reviewing it, the books you’ll find in this series from here on out are going to be ones I recommend. 

On to the books!

Title: Rogue With A Brogue
Author: Suzanne Enoch
Publication Info: St. Martin’s Press, July 29, 2014
ISBN: 1250041619
Genre: Romance, Historical

Overall Grade: A-

The Flavor: Georgette Heyer meets Diana Gabaldon

The Short Version: Sweet, romantic, and filled with spark and snap, Rogue With a Brogue is a very pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon.

Remember those book lists that schools send children home with at the end of the school year? There’s something about a summer reading list that still calls to me—so when Dear Author brought the Seattle Public Library’s Romance Genre Checklist to my attention, I was intrigued.

The list separates the genre into Contemporary, Historical, Paranormal, Inspirational, Romantic Suspense, Young Adult, New Adult, and “Other;” and then breaks the categories down even more. What, I wondered, are the characteristics of the Contemporary (Tattooed) sub-sub-genre? What about Romantic Suspense (Steampunk)? And finally, finally a chance to dig into Inspirational Romance (Amish). 

Alright, Seattle Public Library. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

So here’s how it’s going to work: every week, Common Novel will be running a new post on a romance sub-genre. In that post, I’ll be finding and discussing books that check off each sub-sub-genre on the list, all the way from Contemporary (Straight) to Other (Time Travel). And since I’ve been trying to get into Paranormal Romance for a while, I’m starting there.