Cerise DeLand reads When She’s In The Mood!

Buy BE MINE here!

I’m a mood reader.  Are you?

Looking back over the decades, I find that at different periods in my life I was devoted to certain types of books—and I wonder why that is.

When I was a teenager, I was devoted to historical novels that included Anya Seton’s Katherine, anything that spoke of English or French kings and queens, Egypt or medieval-period pieces like Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe.

During summer breaks from college, I read what was then called pop fiction. Oh, I tried the works on the NYT list that one was supposed to read. But couldn’t!

Later, after I married and hubbie and I lived in Japan for a few years, I used the Post library and the university library where I taught Chinese History.  What did I read? Non-fiction!  Biographies and histories. I remember re-reading the Tale of Genji, which I had read a few years earilier when taking a Japanese history course. The second time I loved it!

Then as a young mother, I got hooked on historical romances. The new new wave of Katherine Woodiwiss and the throng that came behind her. For decades, I read nothing but romances—and then when I began to write them, I read my friends’ works. Here I think began my branching out because I went with my friends and colleagues as they began to write suspense, mystery and mainstream.

Today, I am an eclectic reader of anything that strikes my fancy. I get a kick out of drama and the subtle phrasing that revs my imagination. I like mystery writers Donna Leon, Elizabeth George and Minette Walters, historical writer Elizabeth Chadwick, comedy writer and good pal, Janet Evanovich. I dig Daniel Silva and Michael Connelly.  I adore a good Regency, well-plotted with aggressive heroines. No wimps or drawing room divas for me!

I recently finished A Reliable Wife, a chilling but gratifying tale, by Robert Goolrick. Truly, a new gothic romance for realists. Around the holidays this past year, I was engrossed in Tracy Shiff’s biography of that femme fatale Cleopatra. This was a fabulously written book, combining the sparse facts of her life with other references. Shiff should be applauded moreover for how suspenseful she made the “plot,” thrilling this writer and reader to no end.  Soon after, I delved into a history of one of my favorite cities, Venice by Peter Ackroyd.

But in erotica, oh, be still my heart! I have many favorites. Two good friends of mine whose works I adore are Desiree Holt (her recent Downstroke is a winner) and Delilah Devlin (anything cowboy!). I cannot get enough of Debra Glass’s historical eroticas and I am a raving fan of almost anyone writing cowboys or Italian men.

I know my own tastes show up in what I write. I write the plots and the people that strike me including Texas Rangers, medieval knights, Regency lords and ladies, Italian entrepreneurs and military types!

I would love to learn if others have phases to what they read and if they have any thoughts on the causes of that.

Come visit me whenever you are in the mood for great romantic erotica at http://www.cerisedeland.com

Be Mine blurb:

Why shouldn’t an eligible man like Jason Sherwood plan a Valentine’s Day merger with a woman whose elegant body melted at his touch last year on February fourteenth? A mysterious woman who disappeared like a wraith. A vibrant creature who came apart in his arms like only the right woman does for the right man.

But Mara Richardson left Jason for a good reason…and after a year of looking for her, he still doesn’t know why. But he has to learn. Has to get her naked, wild for him again. Give her those little sugary candies that say, Be Mine, and show her that, despite only hours with her last year, he needs her to be his. Forever.