LGBT Day 11 : Why I read LGBT books by Nix (Incl. Grand Prize Giveaway)

 

I am a straight woman.  I am a straight woman who happens to be a voracious romance reader that enjoys LGBT romance. Although people have no issues with the fact that I will read any type of romance, some just don’t understand why.

Now, I’m making generalizations here but, please remember, I’m only mentioning the reasons why I read in this post as I’m sure I could drone on about different people’s motivations for reading.

When some people read, they want to imagine that the romance in the book could be theirs. They want to read about these grumpy alphas that soften only for their heroines and imagine themselves in those character’s shoes. I’ll admit that, occasionally that is me.  Some people want to read about the sex, immersing themselves within the passion and dirty words. Often, that’s me too. Some people want to escape reality and immerse themselves within the characters world, lose themselves for hours in an adventure that thrills, excites and warms the cockles of their soul. The majority of the time, this is me.

 

My main motivation for reading romance is that I believe in happy endings and love in all it’s forms. When I read LGBT romance, I read it for the characters and their love story. In a well written book, it doesn’t matter about the gender, sexual orientation or physical appearance of the protagonists; it matters only about how well they are written. In a good book there are characters that I adore, that I want to see happy and fulfilled.  I will relate to aspects of their lives, laugh and cry along with them, and be so engrossed in their story that time fades into the background. Does it matter to me that I could never be a particular character because their partner doesn’t swing my way? Hell no. I just want them to be happy.  It doesn’t matter to me that it’s an LGBT book. Do I skip over the sex scenes? Hell no, I want to read every part of these characters lives, including the bits where they get down and dirty. Some of the best sex scenes I’ve read are in LGBT fiction 😀

When JR Ward announced that the Qhuinn and Blay book of the BDB series could be a novella because she didn’t want to upset the fans, I was an upset fan. Why were they to be resigned to 100 pages just because of their sexual orientation? I was pissed. Over the course of that series, their story was unfolding and I grew to adore them. They both caused me (and each other) more heart-ache and pain than most of the other couples in that series did and I wanted a HEA for them. I didn’t want them to get a side story; I wanted them to be treated with the same respect as all the other characters and not get a rushed job. I was more than happy when she finally decided they would get a full-length story; I can only hope she does the same for Saxon.

When I say that I don’t care that I am reading an LGBT book, there have been a few occasions when I have picked it up because it was an LGBT book. When I want to read the angst of two Alphas trying to navigate a relationship? I’ll pick up a MM. When I want to read about an Alpha male sub, I’ll often pick up a MM as they tend to feature more. When I want to read a ménage, I will ALWAYS pick up a LGBT book as I hate to read about awkward sex where two people in it aren’t screwing. Nothing pulls me out of a scene more (heh heh heh) than reading about two men more concerned about crossing swords than enjoying themselves (another reason I don’t read ménages with twins, but that is for another post). I’m starting to read more FF at the moment and I am particularly enjoying the strong female characters that appear. There is also an amazing amount of angst in LGBT fiction and we all know I love that 🙂

 So, there we have it. Yes, I read LGBT books and I’ll pick them up for a variety of reasons. Do you read it? Why/why not?

For the Grand Prize Giveaway, I (Nix) will be giving away ten of my top LGBT books. These books will be gifted via All Romance as the books are available to readers on all the types of eReaders (you just need to sign up for a free account to access the books and you can send them directly). If you have any of the books and you win the prize, speak to me and I’ll see what else I can do.

The books are (and there are substitutions available for people who have copies)…

• With a Kiss by Kim Dare (MM)
• Hot Head by Damien Suede (MM)
• By the Book by Scarlett Parrish (MM)
• The Dom With a Safeword by Cari Silverwood (FFM)
• Starfish and Coffee by Kele Moon (MM)
• How Sweet it is – Melissa Brayden (FF)
• Fatal Shadows – Josh Lanyon (MM)
• Faith and Fidelity – Tere Michaels (MM)
• How to Love – Kelly Jamieson (FMM)
• Cut and Run – Abigail Roux (MM)

Recently added

• Paperback Tread Marks & Trademarks by SA McAuley

a Rafflecopter giveaway