Meredith is a hot mess’s Comments (group member since Feb 04, 2019)

Meredith is a hot mess’s comments from the Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous group.

One thing I always do when I join a group is go ahead and click 'all topics within group' (I think) at least I know I click the option where I won't get any notifications. What I've found is if I click the option that gives me no notifications from the group, if I then comment on a thread, I'll still get notifications for that thread. That might be something to try.

I'm about to cook dinner, I'll be back later and send you the screenshots :)

I'll add Goodreads groups are notoriously glitchy. I know for some groups I'm still getting notifications I don't want and I always immediately uncheck the box for that thread when I get a notification.

One more thing:

You may have already seen this, but if you still get a notification for a thread you don't want to follow, you can go to your text box for that thread. Underneath it you'll see two check boxes: Add to my Update Feed and Notify me when people comment in this group.

Besides the check box for Notify me when people comment in this group you can uncheck the box and there's also an edit sign that allows you to get notifications but no emails.

This also exists for the comment section on other people's reviews. It's also a way to follow a comment section when you haven't commented yourself.

Nav wrote: "I had no idea that she had a pseud. Im going to add Summerstorm right now, and see what other ones I can add by Anastasia Cleaver
Thanks Meredith :)
Meredith wrote: "Love to hear more people are d..."

No problem! I'm such a fan, she's one of my favorite bodice ripper authors.

Nav wrote: "Can anyone tell me please how to bold my letters within a post. And can anyone tell me how to change my notifications, so that I only receive them for the topics I commented on in a group?"

I can :) Are you on a phone or computer/laptop? It may look different if you're on your phone. These directions are for the desktop version of Goodreads.

1. Go to the group's homepage: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

2. Underneath the group's description at the top you should see the words: You are a member: Edit Membership

3. Click 'Edit Membership'

4. Scroll to the very bottom of the page, you should see: 'edit group discussion updates' click on that

5. There you'll be able to choose what threads you get notifications for, there are a bunch of check boxes.

Let me know if this is clear or not! If not I can upload screenshots. The way Goodreads has set up groups makes everything complicated.

~~~

For bolding letters you type: < b > before and after your words, but take away the space between the less than and more than signs and the b.

Example: < b > written text < b >

I'm going to take away the extra spaces: written text

*The formatting instructions can be found on top right of your text box in blue (some html is ok). If you click on that you'll get the formatting for all the stuff like inserting pictures, doing italics, etc.

Love to hear more people are discovering Savage Surrender ❤️ I'm diving back into Summerstorm by Anastasia Cleaver, which was one of Natasha Peters' pseuds.

Btw I'm the only one who has voted on the list - if anyone is ever inclined to vote for their favorites, I'd be thrilled. Right now the list is in no particular order. Here's a link again just in case:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Lauren wrote: "The Bastrad by John Jake's is an excellent series"

Awesome, I've never heard of John Jakes. Just added :))

Nola wrote: "I loved reading these kind of books. Most recently I read:

The Ambassador’s Women by Catherine Gaskin
Charmed Circle by Catherine Gaskin
The Secrets of Ashmore Castle by Cynthia Harrod Eagles

Rea..."

Just added to the list, thanks!

I know if shows are made for something like cable tv they will censor the sex scenes (like Vikings that aired on History channel) while other places like HBO will go all out. I'm wondering how pg Appletv will make it, hopefully they go for it 🤞

Lauren wrote: "Thanks for the list, Meredith!"

It was fun to make! :)

I made a listopia list for family sagas. I went ahead and included the 90s. I meant to post this list here a long time ago - but thought I'd go ahead and post now just in case someone interested in family sagas stumbles upon this thread. There are a lot of listopia lists for family sagas already, to differentiate this one I made the focus on the lesser known sagas that often have cross-over with bodice rippers. I didn't put them in any particular order.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I like this idea and will definitely participate! (Except I can't truly right now, I'm going through a contemporary romance phase and haven't read a bodice ripper in a while).

I found Courtly Love at my house (I forgot I had purchased it! 😂) and can't wait to start it. You also have me excited about trying Silk and Steel by Cordia Byers, since I enjoyed Love Storm by her.

I remember someone complaining months ago when they switched to the beta about the 'additional images' missing. I can't see it anymore either :/

Same. I feel like I've aged reading This Splendid Earth, sprouted some gray hairs lol. The depiction of the triumphs and tragedies of the family is emotionally heavy.

Btw all the books in Ann's comment are available on Open Library, I just checked :)

I found a couple people with amazing family saga shelves. I'm stalking them now. I'll post the rest I've been able to find a bit later.

Ann wrote: "I'm not really into the Family Sagas these days. My attention span has grown shorter not longer as I've aged. These are the ones I remember off the top of my head. I know I must have dozens shelved..."

Thank you!! All of these are new to me. And that's too funny about The Young and the Restless!

Yeah, family sagas aren't something I can binge. They exhaust and take so much out of me I usually go long periods between reading them. I like the epic scope, so I inevitably return to the genre.

I'm looking for obscure, lesser known family sagas published in the 70s-80s.

I'm enjoying This Splendid Earth by Victor J. Banis, a family saga that chronicles the de Brussac family in 19th century France to their move to California and start of their family wine empire.

...I'm shocked there's only 1 review. I highly rec this to anyone who enjoyed the Eden family saga by Marilyn Harris. There's plenty of melodrama and the writing is lovely. It has many BR tropes like forced seduction, men who murder for their ladies, incestuous villains, political treachery, betrayal, rags to riches, riches to rags, om & ow drama and I'm only halfway through. It's available on Open Library: https://archive.org/details/splendede... & https://archive.org/details/thissplen...

When I went to the family saga listopia lists on Goodreads, I was disappointed to see them full of the well-known, best-selling sagas that everyone already knows about (Gone with the Wind, The Thorn Birds, The House of the Spirits).

I'm wanting to create a list of the lesser known family sagas published in the 70s-80s. At my local bookstore I've found some obscure ones like The Seadon Fortune & Omamori.


I was trying to come up with a definition for family sagas and so far a simple one that I think works is:

*A story written on an epic scale
*Tracks family members through several decades, their interconnected lives, and sometimes is written in a series
*It often crosses genres, including elements of historical fiction as well as more melodramatic tropes found in bodice rippers

So far the lesser known bodice rippers I've marked on my shelf include:

Dynasty of Desire by Elizabeth Zachary *Interestingly, this is marketed as "for fans of Dynasty." I think there has to be more soapy, melodramatic family sagas published for all the fans of Dynasty that was on air in the 80s.
Secrets by Sheila Holland
The Proud Breed by Celeste de Blasis
The Farthest Eden by Louise O'Flaherty
The Second Sunrise by Francesca Greer
The Camerons by Robert Crichton
High Dominion by Janis Flores
The Dark Side of the Dream by John Starr

If anyone knows of more of these types of family sagas in this vein I'm all ears 😊

Books with Peaky Blinders vibes:

The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly. I started this one and it definitely has similarities to Peaky Blinders.

I was also recced Luck Be a Lady by Meredith Duran, The Devil of Downtown by Joanna Shupe, and Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas but I haven't tried any of these.

I really like this thread. I have an underprivileged mmc shelf because I find those kind of heroes so refreshing from the billionaires in contemporary romance and dukes and aristocratic heirs in hr. I didn't realize The Tilthammer, The Flesh and the Devil, and Rangoon had underprivileged heroes, that's good to know :)

@Eliza, I remember marking the books when I was looking for HRs similar to Peaky Blinders. My tbr list is ridiculously long, when I find them I'll post them. I'm just putting off going through my shelves right now lmao.

To add to this, Wild Sweet Witch & Larissa had heroes that were simply captains of ships. To my memory, there was nothing necessarily privileged or aristocratic about them. I get that's not what you're necessarily looking for, but it does kind of fit outside the aristocratic/privileged mmc box.

I browsed my list of bodice rippers and the only thing that came close was pirates or I've read a couple books where the MMCs were simply captains of ships. If they had wealth it was gained through something like smuggling.

This question reminds me of Peaky Blinders, the MMC is a gang member in Birmingham. I found a few HRs that had a similar premise I want to try to read sometime. When I remember the titles I'll post them.

Vincent wrote: "Well I'm reading The Silver Devil aloud to my husband right now, and we're both *really* enjoying it, the gothic elements, the queerness, the fact that Felicia's genuinely really funny in moments where things are over the top, the way it reminds me of Belladonna of the Sadness."

I watched Belladonna of Sadness for the first time this past year! The entire aesthetic, music score, was *chef's kiss* I didn't put together the similarity to the Silver Devil, but see it. Both have a similar atmosphere, in a sense.