In an effort to expand my literary horizons, I decided to start reading romances. I can't really explain why I chose this particular genre, since they generally are not my cup of tea - I prefer explosions and well-crafted fight scenes - but it's been ... entertaining? Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has actually kind of been my savior here, and not just for the hilarious book rants that actually make me want to go read the horrible novels that send these women into seething rages*.

Well, actually, I take it back. I do kind of know one of the reasons I've chosen romances over the plethora of other genres that I might enjoy more: the pricing on Kindle. We're not necessarily broke, but the funds aren't exactly rolling in, leaving us wondering what to do with them, and playing videos games or watching TV when I'm not working can only pass the time for so long before I start going crazy. It's also been nice enough the past week that I can actually go sit out on our front porch, and well, the Xbox isn't coming out there with me. I looked through my bookshelf and was kind of upset that I couldn't find anything I wanted to read, despite the fact that I have about a bazillion books, many of which I have always intended to read but just didn't because ... I have no real answer there. I grabbed my Kindle to see what books I'd purchased when I first got it - my habit of buying books and not reading them does not limit itself to only hard copy books, I'm afraid - and found a romance novella a friend of mine wrote that I had intended to review for her. Only I didn't because 1) I am a bad friend and 2) I'd forgotten about it. Which I guess kind of goes with No. 1.

Anyway.

It was a quick read and, for the most part, quite enjoyable. I liked the main character, even with her Mary Sue-style characteristics, and even the love interest dude didn't completely make my eyeballs turn over in my head. For a romance novel, that's actually pretty good, at least for me. I'm the annoying person watching a rom-com (or ahem "Titanic") who's like, "Wait, what? They just met. How can they be madly in love??" (even though I met and married my husband over the course of three months), but I didn't really do that with this book. Well, I did initially but then told myself what I tell my husband when he gets annoyed with sci-fi movies that take liberties with science: "It's fantasy."

Surprisingly, it worked.

Once I finished the book, I was kind of intrigued because I wasn't annoyed like I usually am when I'm done with a romance novel - which to be fair I haven't done in years. I ended up on amazon.com, looking at more romance novels, just to see what my options were, and I found that, well, there are a looooooooot of free ones that vary between supposedly five star and one star. I think I downloaded about twenty, and yeah, I'm planning on reading them all. Well, after I finish The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which I bought and started to read, oh, a year ago.

Like I said, I'm horrible about this sort of thing.

And if I run across anything so ridiculous that it makes me nearly throw my Kindle across the room, believe you me, I'll be writing about it here. Wish me luck, guys, because I'm kinda scared.

* And seriously, go read those reviews. I've nearly peed my pants with laughter each time I've done so.