Kathryn's Inbox

The difference between romance, erotica and erotic literature is something that has been bugging me for a while now. Most of the time, the lines are blurred and thanks to Fifty Shades of Grey the whole bloody lot--the good, the bad and the downright ugly (many might argue Fifty Shades is the downright ugly,) are lumped together on the same shelves at the bookstore, regardless of the content or quality of such. For the first time in my life, I'm seeing Anne Rice and Anais Nin on the same shelves as Abbi Glines and I'm wondering what the difference is. And so, I've decided to choose one book from each and see if I can work out for myself what the difference is ... Romance - The Marriage Mistake by Jennifer Probst The Marriage Mistake is probably one of the gentler romances to hit the supermarket/department store shelves in the wake of the Fifty-Shades era. The plot plays out much like an extended Mills & Boon romance. The characters are all wealthy--the heroi...

Shout out to the Reading Room for my review copy of this novel. Tea comes in a variety of flavours and to some extent, colours. There is Peppermint, Camomile or Green Tea for example. Even the humble black tea comes in a number of varieties--English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Ceylon. All tea is different and tea drinkers will usually favour one variety over another. This is where the expression, "Not my cup of tea," originates from. It's a way of explaining that the same thing can come in many varieties and some varieties are going to be preferable to others. You can use the expression on a number of things which are by means bad or terrible, but just not for you. And so, consequently, I will start my review by saying this. Eighty Days Yellow was not my cup of tea. It is not technically a bad book--it was written by a pair of English authors, one of them quite established. The characters are well rounded and interesting. The writing isn't bad. It is certainly d...