I have recently been reading a book where it came to my attention that lately in new adult books or adult books that women might be losing their edge.

There was once a time where every female was ready to show the world she could rule, she could do anything she wanted. I feel like there are great strong heroines in the young adult genre. Girls who literally stand up in their books ready to battle the queen of the Everneath, ready to take on Warner’s father, ready to become the best queen for her people. There are so many strong heroines in young adult and I love reading about those girls because they show strength.

So if young adult books are currently giving the world strong female leading ladies then why is the same not true for new adult and adult.
I was just reading a book where the heroine in a new adult book was a smart girl who was a little confused about romantic relationships but she was happy with what she was working towards in school. Sure she wanted to date a nice guy and experience her first time but she also knew those things could always happen when she found the right guy. Then part of the way through the book she spends more time around a tattooed bad boy and seems to lose herself and all she wants is to be his and to have her first time with said bad boy. As if that wasn’t bad enough she then goes from being a virgin to a girl who is trying to be a sexual kitten in order to turn the bad boy on more often…

(Slams head on desk!)

I’m sorry but are women suppose to always be virgins lately that fall for the bad boy who can please her like no other man. I’m all for pleasure and women getting some but why do they have to be weak females while doing it. Why do they have to be virgins and be with a dominant man who needs them to sign a damn contract before sex can happen. Where the hell are the female characters that dominate their men while still being sexy and free at the same time? Why can’t there be a female who can wield a knife at one point and be a deviant sexual vixen the next? Are women not suppose to be both?

I’m all for a dominant man in a book but his leading lady needs to do her part as well instead of just always letting him get his way. A woman is powerful in her own right when it comes to sexual things and it is about time we start seeing that again in books.

So this topic is pretty boring as I’m really just using this as a way to tell you all what is going on with me.

Some of you might have noticed that I haven’t been commenting on blogs lately and I seem to be missing around here.

This is due to the fact that I had finals at school just last week and so I was studying like a crazy person for the many finals I had. On top of that I’m in a medical program (I’m sure if you read the blog regularly you already know this) and we just started our clinical hours this week. Meaning on top of my online and in person class times I have to go do 40+ hours a week at a hospital to gain clinical experience in my medical field. This means most days I come home, make dinner, do homework, talk to Johnny, then go to bed. Rinse, Wash, and Repeat.

I have only managed to finish one or maybe two books in the last 3+ weeks so please just try to stick around if you can so that I can get things back to where they need to be. I’m trying to figure out how to get blogging done with my busy school schedule so now I think I have it figured out so hopefully you will all see my face around more.

If you would like to know what I have been reading here is a little snippet…

Recently Finished:

I found this to be a great read. I still am in love with Cole and I can’t wait to see where the series is going in the third book!

Currently Reading:

I’m almost done with this one. I have to say this has had a lot of ups and downs for me. I like the vibe they have as a couple and the sexual scenes are real to life but I don’t like how the characters go back and forth so much.

This is a really great fantasy book that I’m really enjoying so far. I can’t wait to see where it is going to go because so many people rave about this series. It has been a long time since I have found a fantasy this great in the teen book world.

 I’m still reading this one from when it was released. I keep putting it down because there is just so much going on in this book that I don’t really care about. Normally I love watching all of the multiple storylines going on at the same time in this series but I was really hoping for more time with Qhuinn and Blay and their time together so far has been very limited. I’m about half way though this one and I just wish there was more time with them since they are suppose to be the main couple.

Up Next:

I can’t wait to dive into this one since I really liked the first book a lot more than I thought I was going to.

Over at the blog The Broke and the Bookish they run a great feature called Top Ten Tuesdays. They always host great topics but the best one that I’ve seen so far would be the one they recently did on Top Ten Books You Had to Have but Still Haven’t Read! I wish I was capable of keeping up with memes but alas I’m not good with them. Every meme that I’ve started such as In My Mailbox, Waiting on Wednesday and so many others tend to go out the window because they take a lot of time for a simple post. I’m more of a review girl so I tend to post mostly reviews and leave the memes to Bianca who does them far more regularly than I do. So since I don’t join in on the Top Ten Tuesdays I’m going to use their topic here on the blog for my Girl Behind the Blog post. I promise all credit goes to The Broke and the Bookish for the meme and the idea.

Top Ten:

I bought Wither the week it came out because I loved the idea of the story. So many people were raving about the arc copies they were reading that I knew this was a book I had to have.

I know I know! Trust me when I say you do not have to tell me how awesome this book is. I’ve read so many rave reviews and I kept meaning to get around to reading it. With this one the hype was out of control so I just didn’t want to read it and be disappointed. I do need to give it a fair chance though.

I read the first book in this series so many years ago and I liked it so I went out to buy the second book. Obviously the second book is still sitting on my shelf along with books 3, 4, and even 5! I need to catch up on this series because I think it is already up to book 12 or something like that.

The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by Ward is one of the few series I am up to date on so I can’t believe I’ve had this book since it released years ago. Now there are four books in this series so I know I can get a Ward fix. I’m just not sure this would compare well to BDB so I’ve put it off for so long. I started it once and then put it back down. I need to get over being scared to try something “new” by Ward.

I love Tamora Pierce’s books! Each smaller series that makes up the large world of Tortall has been so special for me to read. I read all of them before I started this blog though. This is the second book in the Beka Cooper series and even after reading the second book twice to prepare myself for this two separate times I still have yet to dive in. I don’t know what is wrong with me that I’ve put off another favorite author for so long.

I loved A Northern Light by this author, it is one of my favorite books to this day and a story I’ve read over and over. So why I decided after that I didn’t want to read this I have no idea. This book isn’t related to A Northern Light but I love the this author’s writing so I need to read more by her.

Perfect Chemistry is another favorite of mine and yet I never wrapped up this series. I guess I just didn’t want to lose the Fuentes brothers so I never finished because I never want to leave them behind, especially Alex. I might just decide to re-read the first two books again to get ready for this one, even though I know they all stand alone.

This is the third book in the Elite Ops series. I loved the first two books in this series and the series that this was a spinoff of was Tempting SEALS, which I also really liked. For some reason I stopped with this book even though Lora Leigh’s books introduced me to the adult romance world. Lately they have been rereleasing this series in trade paperback with those object covers (you know the tie, mask, blindfold, martini glass instead of people on the cover) so I must read this now that these books are trending again.

I’ve been dying to make time for this series lately and just haven’t for one reason or another. I really need to start is soon since everyone seems to love it. I guess this is just another one where the hype got to me so I never picked up the book, afraid to be disappointed.

I love Lori Foster, she is another author that I started reading back when I first started reading adult romance. I was on pins and needles waiting for the release of this book and got it right around the time it came out…yep been sitting on my shelf for almost two years now…it is really sad.

* This is an irregular feature that Alexa does when her mind is on something that she wishes to share with the blogging world. I have done a few of these posts in the past but this is the first one I’ve done in a while.*

The Love Triangle:

So lately I have been reading so many books that have love triangles in them and I have started to notice that there was one type of boy that I kept falling for. You see in love triangles there is always the good boy, the one who is sweet and really loves the heroine but refuses to be with her because some rule says they can not fall in love. Don’t get me wrong the good guy is always a nice character who has good looks, a good personality and a bit of romance is normally shown by him and his words to win over the heroine at one point. However, the good boy always screws up because just as the heroine falls for him he will push her away because of the moral code thing and then who does she always run to…you guessed it THE BAD BOY! To me the bad boy is far more interesting than the good boy. I mean come on the bad boy is normally for the dark angel side or the side of the government reestablishment. The bad boy has charm, isn’t afraid to fall for the heroine and show his feelings, he normally is a tortured hero and has the best lines in the entire series. The choice is clear that the good boy will always win out in these series because that is the one the heroine pines for but I just put my foot down and say no more. I love the bad boy! The bad boys are my favorite lately and even though I doubt they will win because as I just said the heroine will always keep her sweet and comfy relationship with the good boy come the end of the series, I wish secretly every single time that the bad boy won out. I mean what is wrong with falling in love with the bad boy…let us take a look at some of the bad boys I love and why the heroine should pick him over her goody two shoes good guy boyfriend.

The Bad Boys:

 Warner from the Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi

Warner is strong, silent, commanding, unforgiving, and utterly destroyed. He is the best of the tortured hero world of bad boys. His past has left him with scars and has shaped him into a man who abuses power, a man who will stop at nothing to have Juliette in his grasp.

“I want so many things,” he whispers. “I want your mind. Your strength. I want to be worth your time.” His fingers graze the hem of my top and he says “I want this up.” He tugs on the waist of my pants and says “I want these down.” He touches the tips of his fingers to the sides of my body and says, “I want to feel your skin on fire. I want to feel your heart racing next to mine and I want to know it’s racing because of me, because you want me. Because you never,” he says, he breathes, “never want me to stop. I want every second. Every inch of you. I want all of it.”

Phoenix from the Embrace Series by Jessica Shirvington

Phoenix is sarcastic, funny, dark, mysterious, loving, and dark. He is everything a girl should look for in a bad boy. He isn’t afraid of doing what he wants with Vi, he isn’t afraid to be close to her, to wrap her emotions to his very will.

“It’s too late!” I cried
“I thought that once, too. But it’s never too late. You taught me that. Love can make us eternal.”

Cadan from the Angelfire Series by Courtney Allison Moulton

Cadan is sarcastic, a goof, loving, and slightly mysterious. He has a big personality that he only shows a little of to Ellie and he knows how to be around for her when he needs to be, even if he is working for the evil side of the story.

“Imagine what would have happened if you hadn’t heard her coming.”
“Screw you,” I growled, and grabbed his collar to drag him out of the stall.
“In a public restroom, Ellie? Really? Didn’t think you were that kind of girl.”

Cole from the Everneath Series by Brodi Ashton

Cole is twisted, dark, a taker, cunning, and yet lovable. He used the heroine in the first book for his own personal gain but he still cares no matter what he says.

“Tell me why you care,” I said.
He put his hands on the windowsill. “Because it’s you. Despite what you think of me, your pain will always be my pain.”

Well it certainly has been a long time since I did one of these posts. I did get a pretty button done for it when I got my blog design done but never bothered to use this post since months ago.

So what is making me pull this older post that I once did out of the closet?

Well I’m here today to apologize for being missing for the past 6ish weeks. The reason for this is that I was having to work a lot of extra hours at my job because one girl quit. So I went from being a part time person to a full time person. This was also during the time where I was gone for my vacation to ALA. So things at my work were bad when I left to go away to Cali for a few days and when I got back I almost quit right there on the spot. I learned that the job I had given three years of my life to really didn’t care about me. I was putting in full time hours for them and helping them at every turn yet they didn’t really appreciate any of it. So I sat back and thought about my job for a week and if I wanted to keep it. I made the decision two and a half weeks ago to give my two week notice!

This lead to me wondering for two weeks if my company wanted to keep me or if they were going to say anything about me quitting. Well as I said in the paragraph before they didn’t give a shit about keeping me so I have officially be unemployed for the past three days. Luckily for me I think I have a new job lined up I’m just waiting for a call back from my second interview at a swim school. I think this will be a great chance for me to change it up. While looking for a new job I’m also getting read to go back to taking in person classes for the first time in two years. I was taking online classes for the past two years for school so going in person is going to take some getting use to again.

Basically this post isn’t to whine about my life, this post is here to inform all of you that while I have been MIA for the past six weeks that I am hoping to change that. Now that I feel better about where I am going with my life and schooling I feel better emotionally which will help me to finally get into the pattern of getting stuff done on the blog and in my personal life.

I want to thank everyone for sticking around Pages of Forbidden Love! I also want to send a shout out to Johnny and Bianca, my co-bloggers, for helping me out lately by covering my missing posts with reviews and posts of their very own. I owe both of them so much for helping me keep the blog running while I was trying to fix my personal life.

I also want to apologize once more for anyone who has looked to me lately to help them and I haven’t gotten something done for them. In particular Liz from Planet Print, she asked me to write a post for her Contemporary Event and I never got around to writing it and helping her out. I pride myself on being there when people need me and lately I have dropped the ball but I’m hoping to fix that in the coming weeks.

So blogging world be ready for me because Alexa is back!

So back in January, I believe, I did a post about The Girl Behind the Blog: Burn Out in which I expressed my feelings about how stressful blogging can become. Back then I said I might do more posts like this if the mood struck. Well I have decided I wanted to share more with you so here I am again to ramble on, this time my topic is My Love of Adult Romance Books!

Alexa

Unless you are new to my blog, you know that I review mostly YA books. Sure I like to read all sorts of genres in YA but I orginally started Pages of Forbidden Love thinking I would review YA and Adult Romance equally. Well I did have several adult reviews when I first started to blog but over time my adult romance books have been sitting on my shelf collecting dust while I tried to keep up with all of the newest young adult books.

Well let me tell you, other than the two adult urban fantasy books I read last month, the last time before that was about seven months ago that I was actually reading an adult romance book! This scares me, it frustrates me, and it makes me pretty darn sad that I haven’t had time for it. I miss great characters such as Cat and Bones from the Night Huntress series, Kitty and Martini from Touched by an Alien series, the tall dark males in the Dark Hunter series, etc. I miss reading something that didn’t have all of the darn drama that you get in YA. I’m ready to put on my big girl pants and go back to a genre that I love.

So pretty soon I’m going to be putting YA books on hold for a little bit while I catch up on all those steamy adult romances I’ve been missing out on. This means that hopefully come May I will be reviewing more adult books. Sure I still love YA so there will be reviews on those, like there has always been, but I need to stop getting so trapped into reading just one area of my bookshelf.

I hope that you are all excited about seeing some different reviews on this blog. Plus now that I have Bianca, Johnny, and Lindsay posting reviews on mainly YA books I feel they are going to take care of some of the YA side of the blog while I explore my old love for deep, steamy romance. I need more than just the simple kisses that teenager characters have in YA, I need more passion and depth to the relationships.

Certainly feel free to let me know your thoughts on this and The Girl Behind the Blog posts themselves!

Thanks for listening to me ramble on about something that I felt I needed to address.

Hello Everyone!
Sometimes it is easy to forget that there is a live person behind running a blog and making everything happen. I just thought I would take this time to let people into my world a little bit. For right now this is just one post but who knows it might turn into a type of journal that I do every so often. Yes, I blog because I love books, but I’m more than just a book lover.
 

Alexa

Lately, I have been feeling like a slave to my blog instead of the fun loving blogger running the blog. Basically my blog has been running all over me.

I recently moved from Blogger to WordPress and this was a very difficult move but it needed to be done. I am happy that I have moved but there are still some kinks to figure out and get squared away. Thank you to a couple of people who kept me sane and helped me with this process! I still have to update my review page and my blogroll so please try to stay patient with that because it will be fixed with time. I am trying to work on a new feature for showcasing new bloggers while keeping up with Google +, blog commenting, review books, tbr piles, and Twitter. This is just the blog work that I handle on a daily basis.

Apart from the blog I am going to school to get my degree in Nuclear Medicine, fancy way of saying I’m going to be a tech who runs the MRI, CT and PET scans.  I’m finally getting into my medical program in August 2012 so I’m excited to move forward with the last major step to finishing my education and degree. This as you can imagine takes up a great deal of my time.

I also happen to work part time at a Real Estate School where I’m there from 25-40 hours per week.
Lastly, I have a boyfriend, as you should all know since he is my Co-blogger after all. He lives a little ways from me so it is hard to make time for him inbetween the crazy schedule that is my life.

As if all that wasn’t enough, I like to tell people that I try to conquer the world on the sidelines. lol 

Basically, I’m a busy person between everything that I try to do.

I understand all bloggers must find this balance, heck we are all busy with our lives, our loves, and our book passions.

So next time you see a book blogger in a negative light or are demanding that we all present ourselves in certain fashions, please remember, we are people. We love blogging but we have to continue to love doing it and sometimes that is a struggle, even for the best blogger out there.