My Favorite Storylines
Like so many diehard readers, I could nerd it up meandering through the bookshelves at a bookstore for hours. Barnes and Noble feeds my obsession. I get a cup of coffee (Café Mocha) and I start puttering. I hit most of the racks, though I admit that I mostly skim over the self-help and textbook sections. The fiction sections are more my cup of tea (or coffee as it were).
Inevitably I end up in the romance section, picking up book after book and reading the back.
There are certain plotlines that suck me in every time, that get me reading.
I love to read reunion stories. A story about a guy and girl, separated by circumstance, then brought back together - it gets me every time. Either they hate each other for some misunderstanding or something got between them, whatever it is they get another chance. I love second chances. Paradise by Judith McNaught is a great example of this because she even gives me their backstory.
I also adore a story where the plain Jane gets the hot guy. It’s the Cinderella story without the money. Though maybe there is money too, whatever. I just love reading about a normal girl who gets the dream, whose wish comes true. Perfect by Judith McNaught is a great example. Lover Eternal by JR Ward is another (I heart Rhage).
What storyline completely sucks you in? Why is it your favorite? What’s your favorite example of that storyline? Conversely, are there any storylines that you think are just played out?
Books by the Crew
83 comments:
Reunion stories are my very top-most favorites to read and to write. That’s one reason Persuasion is my favorite Austen. Almost all my favorite writers have written reunion stories. Mary Balogh must have written a dozen. One Night for Love and A Christmas Belle are my favorites. Mary Jo Putney is another who has used the theme several times. Shattered Rainbows and The Spiral Path are both near the top of my all-time favorites list. Kathleen Gilles Seidel and Deborah Smith have both written several as well; Till the Stars Fall (Seidel) and A Place to Call Home (Smith) are also two of my all-time favorite romances. And I love Carla Kelly’s Miss Chartley's Guided Tour, Christina Dodd’s Rules of Attraction, Eloisa James’s Your Wicked Ways, and Julia Quinn’s Everything and the Moon. More recent favorites include Sherry Thomas’s Private Arrangements, Susan Wiggs’s Summer at Willow Lake, and Lisa Kleypas’s Blue-Eyed Devil. LOL! Are you sorry you asked, Marn?
I’m not usually a fan of secret baby books, but then somebody like Jo Beverley gives the theme a twist, and I think the result is wonderful. I love Beauty and the Beast stories too, but I’ll spare you another endless list. :)
I love Plain Jane or bluestocking stories. Give me the mousy librarian who harbors a tigress within and I'm sold.
The same holds true for Beauty and the Beast stories. That's why Lord of Scoundrels is my all time favorite book.
I don't think I'll ever tire of a particular theme, so long as it's well written.
Ah, yes, the reunion story is also a keeper for me.
I'll try to check back later in the real hours of the morning!
I am fond of reunion stories as well. Like Janga I really enjoyed Balogh's 'Christmas Belle'.
I also like a story where the hero or heroine discover unsuspected resources when under pressure which bring the couple together. Thinking perhaps of Julia Quinn's Colin and Penelope in 'Romancing Mr Bridgerton'
Really though, I am always wanting to be surprised. I want the unexpected, the mind blowing fantasy, the impossible love, the totally unexpected. And I always want romance to provide the answers.
Marnee, I'm relying on you to surprise me.
I'm a Cinderella girl. My current WIP is a reunion though, as was the first of the trilogy. #2 is Cinderella-ish. My next (only a tentative couple hundred words) will also be Cinderella-ish, only the prince has been really bad.
I do love reunion stories. I write a few too many of them, too! LOL
Not sure about fairy tales faves. I don't purposefully seek them out.
By the by, pretty picture.
Over done plots...hmmmm hard to say. As long as here is a twist and I can't guess almost word for word was is going to happen on the next pages, I don't mind some stories being retold. But then, that doesn't answer your questions.
Wow, I love them all. I love reunion storylines (just cut and paste Janga's list here!! I've read them all and loved them. LOL) I love Cinderella storylines - Lisa Kleypas' Sugar Daddy, and Julia Quinn's An Offer From A Gentleman are two that come to mind. One that combines the reunion and Cinderella theme is a Balogh anthology called Playing House. It is short but so, so sweet!
I also absolutely love the plain Jane storylines. The ones where the mousey nerd gets the football hero! Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie is one of my all time favorites, as is Heaven Texas by SEP. The Viscount Who Loved Me and Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn would also fall into that category for me.
I also like the storylines where the H/H have known each other a long, long time and all of the sudden they see a different side that sparks a flame. I suppose you would call those the "friends to lovers" type of stories. They could be combined with a pygmalion aspect, I guess.
I'm with Santa on the fact that any storyline can be done over and over again and I'd read it as long as the author does it justice.
I suppose one that I have a really hard time getting into is the love triangle. I'm not too fond of those. As for the secret baby - I've read one that made me want to slam the book against the wall, but another that was very good and totally believable! So...never say never!
Oh, and Q, I'm doing my best to surprise. :) You're sweet.
Morning all!!
Janga - You picked some of my favorite reunion stories. I loved Everything and the Moon. I've also been meaning to read Sherry Thomas but I have strayed away from historicals recently. I will return I'm sure.
Santa - awh, the fiesty wallflower. I love it. I think that's why I loved Romancing Mr. Bridgerton. Penelope had that down.
Q - as above, I also loved Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, though I hadn't thought of it the way you described it.
You said: "I also like a story where the hero or heroine discover unsuspected resources when under pressure which bring the couple together." That's an interesting way to describe it. hmmm... I need to think on that more.
Maggie - Hmmm... a prince who has been very bad? SIGN ME UP!! :)
Tiff - Jinan is a bit of a reunion story, huh? The intensity wouldn't be there if they hadn't already met before, would it? Very well done.
I think I'm with you about reading any storyline. There are some I go back to time and again, but I'll pick up anything really.
Oh, and I am not a fan of the love triangle usually either, though I liked the Gardella series by Colleen Gleason. Maybe because the triangle happened over five books.
Irish - you and Janga give great book recommends. I'm going to remember to hit you both up when I'm stumped. :)
You said: "I also like the storylines where the H/H have known each other a long, long time and all of the sudden they see a different side that sparks a flame. I suppose you would call those the “friends to lovers” type of stories. "
I love those kinds of stories too! Though I can't think of one right now except for the movie "Definitely, Maybe" which I just watched the other night and thought was so cute. Ryan Reynolds is my new celebrity crush.
I'm a Cinderella girl, too. If I ever write a straight romance it will be Cinderella-ish. But books with the Cinderella tone are usually my favorite. Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas is a good example of it. Dream Castle by Andrea Kane. A lot of Andrea Kane's older books are like that. But I would suppose I like the Beauty and Beast arc too. Because Sebastian and Evie's story The Devil in Winter would be consider a beauty and beast story (sorta) and a cinderella story (sorta).
I'm racking my brain and I don't think I have a favorite story line. Not that I don't like the ones mentioned, I just can't pick a favorite. But this is a defect I have in all aspects. Can't pick a favorite color. A favorite movie. A favorite anything. I'm blocked that way. Very strange.
For the stories I have planned, one is a triangle, one is a calamity of sorts, one involves a ghost, and the current WIP is...I don't know what it is. I guess I don't do fairy tales. What is wrong with me? LOL!
Janga - You consider BED a reunion story? Really? I never thought of it that way.
Sin - I haven't read anything by Andrea Kane. Another TBR. I think the mix of Beauty and the Beast/Cinderella is cool too. Sort of the plain jane who teaches the hottie who's a mess how to be great again.
Ter - no favorite anything? A favorite kind of ice cream or chocolate? Come on now....
Well, chocolate and peanut together is the greatest food ever. And Gardners Meltaways are perfection.
My favorite ice cream says everything about me. Vanilla. LOL!
I *LOVE* Beauty and the Beast stories. Can't put them down, can't stop writing them either.
I never thought about Cinderella as the format for Bluestocking stories--which is my second favorite storyline of all time.
Third favorite is reunion stories...
If by some miracle you could have Cinderella fall in love with a Beast, and it's a reunion? I'd be in be hog heaven, I would.
I love this topic! I swear I could discuss this every week. (I could admittedly rhapsodize about alphas every week too. *LOL*)
I'm a sucker for a story where the heroine is on a quest of ruination. She is being forced into a loveless marriage with an old toad, and she wants the real deal. Therefore, she finds an unsuspecting rake to deflower her in a night of total debauchery. Then miraculously he can't do without her. She's fresh, young, and unjaded, he falls in love, and they live happily ever after:)
Marn: I *HAVE* such a crush on Ryan Reynolds. I've crushed on him since his days on Two Guys, a Girl & a Pizza Place--his personality is adorable. And his abs aren't bad to look at either. *LOL* I love Definitely, Maybe...though I thought it was SO clear that April was the girl for him. *LOL*
My favorite is forced marriage stories. If I pick up a Regency or western and the back says anything about a scandal or forced marriage, I'm sold. I think it's the potential for angst - the stakes are higher if you're already married and can't get back out.
I love reunion stories too, because the emotions can just run so much higher since there's already a history. Not a fan of love-triangle or secret baby stories, but I've never read a really well-done one, so I might be a fan and just not know it yet *g*
Okay, in BodyPump class last night, Jason (our token male) mentioned Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Popcorn. I can't find the company that makes it where I can buy some, but I found a recipe for Peanut Butter Covered Popcorn--and then you just put melted milk chocolate over it, I'm sure. No problem.
http://www.jif.com/Recipes/Details.aspx?recipeID=427
Doesn't that sound like an easy gift to make?
Oh, I'm with Hal--I liked forced marriages.
And I'm with everyone who isn't a fan of the secret baby. The only one I hate even more is the secret baby that belongs to the secretary mistress of the sheik millionaire.
I prefer if you don't jam all the cliches into one 250 page story. Commit to one, possibly two main conflicts at a time, please.
Terri, take another look at chapter one and chapter six of BED. It's not a conventional reunion story, but it is a reunion. In a way, so is Sugar Daddy. It's just that the reunited pair don't end up together. :)
I love stories that tweak the conventions. That's one of the reasons I'm such a fan of Loretta Chase and Eloisa James.
I have a friend who tried to come up with the most cliched category title ever, and it ended up something like "The Millionaire Cowboy with a Secret Baby Seduces His Mistress" lol
I love ugly duckling stories, as well as those already mentioned. Basically, I love a well written story that takes me away from dirty dishes and laundry.
Terri said "My favorite ice cream says everything about me. Vanilla."
That tells me that you are full of hidden depths that bring out the best of those around you.
Di
Someone give Di a giant Hooha! (I mean that much better than it sounds...)
SPOILERS FOR BLUE EYED DEVIL IN THE REST OF THIS COMMENT!!!!
Janga - I think of reunion stories as people who had a relationship in the past, be it friendship or romantic, who come back together many years later. I know it's a reunion of sorts for Hardy and Liberty, but that doesn't count for me. LOL! And I know she kissed Hardy before she married the moron, but I don't count that either.
Count me as a non-lover of the secret baby story. In fact, I was kind of annoyed when one of my favorites through that line into her most recent release. For me, it was unnecessary and slapped of "I can't figure out how to finish this off so let me cop out and use this old trick."
Terri, if you badmouth vanilla one more time, I'm going to throw a rum cask at you. Without vanilla, chocolate wouldn't taste as sweet--or delicious. Vanilla tastes good because it's vanilla, but chocolate without vanilla doesn't taste very good at all.
Okay, since it's Terri writing it, I'm gonna have to re-evaluate my stand on the love triangle thing!
Oh, and I definitely forgot the arranged marriage/marriage of convenience storyline! I LOVE those, especially when they're contemporary cause it's a really hard concept to pull off in a contemporary.
Absolutely nothing wrong with vanilla! You're talking to the girl who goes into Baker's Square and orders apple pie with vanilla ice cream (unless of course it's February)! I get ragged about it all the time! Just cause there's lots of choices doesn't mean the old standard isn't still the best!
Irish - The triangle is a girl and two brothers. Set on Ocracoke Island at the base of the Outer Banks. I'm looking forward to writing it, if I ever get moving on this first one. LOL!
Fine. Vanilla is awesome!
Hellion, like you, I could talk about this topic all day. And you and I are very similar in our likes and dislikes.
I love Beauty and the Beast storylines. My third book with the Irish rocker is Beauty and the Beast/Cinderella. (I knew you'd love that one, Hellion). *g*
I also love marriage of convenience stories. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to writing my next book because it features exactly that.
But one of my favorite plot devices (which is going to be the basis for the fourth book, featuring two comedians) is the Hate to Love plot device.
I'm not a fan of the secret baby plotline, and while I like reunion stories, I think they really have to be well done; otherwise, they're just like everything else. I've only done one reunion story of sorts in my writing. I'm more the type to be like screw me once, you're done, so that's usually not a plot device I go for. But I can see why it's a draw and like for others.
Ely, I tell people we're separated at birth like four years apart...
Hate to Love plot. That's what my WIP is! Thanks, Ely. LOL!
Sometimes...I wish I could remember what I've read...
In general, if I pick up a book with an adventure involved, I good to go. Mix in some romantic encounters, some voyage of discovery stuff and I'm really hoooked.
Vanilla is lovely. Especially covered with chocolate sauce and eaten with chocolate chip cookies. But it must retain it's vanillaness...
Not a fan of the secret baby stuff. Do like the undiscovered depths of a friendship.
I'm heading for the bookstore to look for Judi McCoy's new book... I love the mix of mystery and romance.
OK, Judi foxed me, the new book ain't out yet...
I don't know about any stock plots that get me all the time. . . . I'm with Tiffany; as long as it's not predictable, I'm okay. (Or if it's on TV and I call whodunnit in the first ten minutes. Because it's fun to be right and it only wastes an hour of my time.)
My current WIP is a reunion story, but I'm not 100% sure it works. I mean, most of it works, but I'm getting really worried that this is something they could/should just talk out. Which, of course, they will eventually. Sigh.
Is Judi's new book out? The Dog Walker one? I didn't know that. You know, she was in Arizona at that chocolate thing last weekend. Can you imagine? Warm AND surrounded by chocolate.
Sorry for the delay getting back. it's super windy here and I lost power for 2 hours. Ugh.
First of all, Ter, I love Gardners Meltaways. I don't know if they have them here though. I loved them when I lived in Western PA.
Hellie - I think that a Cinderella falling in love with a Beast in a reunion setting sounds like the perfect plot. Anyone doing that out there?
Hal - I love forced marriage stories too! I did that in HBG, sorta anyway. And I hate to point out to you that False Move is a secret baby story. (gasp!) But I think it's fantastic, totally different than every other secret baby story. :)
Though I don't know if it's really a secret baby, because he knows about the baby, just has been away for six years.... Hmmmm....
Di says of Ter: "Terri said “My favorite ice cream says everything about me. Vanilla.”
That tells me that you are full of hidden depths that bring out the best of those around you."
Awh, that's sweet.
LOL!
Ugly duckling story! That's the right word for the wallflower story. Thank you. Those are some of my favs. :)
Oh, and I think chocolate tastes just fine without vanilla. However, if we're talking about ice cream, I'm a non-descriminatory ice cream eater.
Except nuts. I can't stand ice cream with nuts.
Oh, I loved the forced marriage/marriage of convenience stories where the guy is damned or demmed (depending on the period) to be saddled at such a tender age to a completely un-notable woman only to fall madly in love with her. Le sigh.
BTW, chocolate ice cream rocks if for no other reason than its endless flavor possibilities.
I'm just sayin'.
Ely - I agree. Hate to love, what a cool way to say that. I think that's a little of what mine is. Sort of anyway. And I love all the ones you guys love too.
And I love all of your upcoming stuff, Ely. I can't wait to hear what you're doing with it.
Jordan - "It's fun to be right" LOL! This totally cracked me up. I do this too. I love to guess whodunit. Especially if there's a lot of red herrings and I still doubt myself to the end. Nicholas Sparks kills me because I think his endings are supposed to be a surprise and they just never ever are.
Oh, sorry Chance, I missed you first time around.
I love adventure stories too! Mix suspense and adventure into anything and I'm totally there. I haven't read Judi McCoy yet, so maybe I need to look into that author too!
Marn--Have you guessed whodunit in DotP?
I have a suspicion, but I've only read the first 30 ish pages.
My guess right now is the other priest, Fitzgerald. How'd I do?
Marn: I'm sorry, I'm going to have to argue about this. Because I'm right. Look at the back of your favorite chocolate bar and look at the ingredients. One of the key ingredients for any chocolate bar is vanilla. Vanilla brings out the flavor of chocolate. It's like...why you put a pinch of salt in a pudding or dessert because the salt accentuates the sweetness.
You can't have chocolate without vanilla. Period.
*ducking* I see what you're saying. So, not that vanilla ice cream makes chocolate ice cream better, just that vanilla (the flavor) makes chocolate better. That they're complimentary. Yes?
Terrio - No, her new book isn't out! She wrote me about a signing in Arizona and how all her books sold out and I got all excited and thought I'd go get it but it isn't out until next month. Tease.
She told me a wonderful story about meeting a pet psychic who let her know her recently departed Rudy is there with her and wishes she weren't so sad. About made me cry!
Hel - You're right. Salt and chocolate? Oh, Gods! Chocolate covered pretzels...want them, now!
Hubby does that know whodoneit right away. Drives me crazy! I don't really care, I just want to watch the show! It's the dialogue and the getting there that fascinates me...
Harking back to yesterday, wasn't it loverly when Tempe clocked the bi*ch in the chair? Love it when she lets her inner anger out like that! Why I watch Bones!
Yes, I was talking about chocolate-chocolate, not ice cream. They compliment each other. Or actually vanilla compliments chocolate. It brings out the best in chocolate. You know, like how women bring out the best in men.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
I do see that dark(er) chocolate may or may not have vanilla in it. Milk chocolate always does. I love dark chocolate, but milk chocolate is the sweetness of first love.
Dark chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and (sometimes) vanilla
Milk chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, milk or milk powder, and vanilla
White chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, milk or milk powder, and vanilla
In regards to ice cream, I prefer it all chocolate all the way (though even chocolate ice cream has vanilla flavoring in it to bring out the chocolate.)
Chocolate covered pretzels fulfills like three eating needs: salty, sweet and crunchy...and if you're focused, really, you might even noticed the smooth mouth feel of the milk chocolate--but I'm usually gobbling them too fast to notice.
Marn--read and find out. (What? I didn't say I'd tell you whodunit!)
I will never again bring up vanilla on this blog. LOL! But I now have a complete education on it.
Chance - She was so devastated when Rudy died. I felt horrible for her. I'm glad she got some kind of closure (maybe?) and knows he's still with her. And he really will live forever in the books. So that's cool too.
I knew I had to be the only person on earth who doesn't like chocolate covered pretzels. Sigh.
Jordan - I DO NOT like chocolate covered pretzels. We'll sit in the corner together.
Forgot to say I LOVED it when she decked that bitch, Chance. LOL! You don't kidnap her Booth and think she's not going to DECK you. Stupid.
Jordan - MEANIE!!
LOL!!
Hellie - I was just dissing vanilla ice cream, not vanilla in general. Plain vanilla ice cream, I'm not a fan. Now vanilla ice cream with chocolate on it, or anything on it, I'm cool with. (except nuts)
I in no way was downplaying the role of vanilla in all things sweet and good.
Yeah, it sucks when you lose a pet so fast and sudden. And on the eve of her new series featuring Rudy... Her new website features Rudy as the blogster... I don't know how she is going to sustain it, but I know she will...
Yes! Chocolate covered pretzels...divinity. Chocolate covered grahams come close, but the pretzels are best.
Jordon, I am sorry they aren't too your taste... Must be something else you like that is chocolate covered?
I also like books with recipes included. Not that I cook, but I like to look at them and use my imagination. India Ink put out a small series with herbal oil recipes, like for perfumes or mystical works. I like stuff like that.
Ter—Great! We can sit in the corner and discuss the greatest state in the Union and eat vanilla ice cream and NOT chocolate covered pretzels. I'm so there!
(Um, North Carolina, duh? Who has to ask?)
Jordan - I drive through NC several times a year and have come to really like it. It has Biltmore, so it's tops in my book. Except Hickory. DO NOT get off I-40 in Hickory. Impossible to get back on easily.
Chocolate covered oreos. Yum.
Chocolate covered strawberries. yum yum.
Chocolate covered chocolate. ah....
I vote for Chocolate covered vanilla ice cream and chocolate covered peanut butter.
And I second the chocolate covered chocolate. Which reminds me, I need to get rid of these Lindsor truffles on my desk.
Oh! Chocolate covered chocolate! You demon you!
Where did my shamwow go? I drooled on me keyboard!
Ahem! Greatest state in the union? I beg to differ. Just because we presently have a action hero as a governor...and no budget in place...and need more rain...our schools suck...ah...
Well. I like it! Go, California!
Marn—LOL. Not that I'm recommending you do this (though the mystery is all revealed in the . . . third to last? second to last? chapter), I wish I could flip to the end of my murder shows sometimes, just to see if I guessed right. I'd still watch and everything, since I also want to know why they did it, and I like the twists and turns. (On the other hand, I refuse to do this in books.)
I don't even know what it is, I just see a character on the screen and I'm all--he did it. (Don't even get me started on my theory about Burn Notice!)
DH & I went to one of those murder mystery parties for Christmas, though, and I totally didn't get the answer. However, my answer was waaaay more interesting (though, okay, I'll give them this—their solution wasn't bad ;) ).
(I like parentheses!)
Chance beat me. I'll third it then.
Shamwow. Too funny. LOL!
No! Jordon! Don't tease me with a Burn Notice theory and not share! I love that show... Fiona rocks. Considering the dog I will eventually have and naming her Fiona...
Chance—my theory in three words: Fi burned Michael.
I like chocolate on most things—peanut butter, raisins (how could you eat them without chocolate?), vanilla cream, caramel, nougat, marshmallow, and yeah, chocolate some more, um . . . brown sugar buttercream mmm.
Ter—I'm originally from Durham and I can't wait to go back to NC! I-40 feels like home to me. Though I don't think I've ever actually been to Hickory. If you need an NC consultant for your OBX and other NC facts, call on me!
I haven't watched Burn Notice.... I think I can't do another show. You all already got me hooked on Bones.
And I will definitely NOT cheat myself on the mystery. You want a fresh reader, don't you? I won't cheat you out. (Though I'm tempted.) (PS, I like parentheses too! We're made for each other. LOL)
Oh! That is wicked! Made me catch me breath! How...cool that might be...
I need a big servin' a rum. Me mind is spinning more than it usually does.
And remember the other day where she got "The one you love is closer than you think" in her fortune cookie and Michael wasn't paying attention to her, and so she read his and claimed it said "The one who burned you is closer than you think."
And remember how Carla said Fi was on the list of people who could have rigged his apartment? And now he's put Fi in charge of investigating who did that? And how bitter she was up until recently, and how even now she wants to be with him, but I don't think she dares to really trust him?
Yeah, I'm loving my theory. Can't wait for the bank robbery tonight!
Jordan - I go thru Durham all the time. I have to drive from Va Beach to Knoxville and I don't like going the other way (thru Bristol). I've considered living in the Raleigh/Durham area. They get rave reviews in those "best city to live in" articles. And I'm headed to the Outer Banks in May. Just a few hour drive for me. I love it down there. And I want one of those awesome hammocks.
http://images.netshops.com/mgen/master:OBH017.jpg
Jordon, ya have a wicked mind. I like that in a pirate! Have some rum...
Man, that would be the ultimate betrayal... I loved watching her with that little boy a few episodes back, playing soldier with him as she specifically named the weapons they held...
I just don't know if Michael could survive that...
Ter--if you do take the plunge, be sure to talk to someone about crime before you pick somewhere to live. IMO, most areas are safe, but you never know until you ask. (Or use the county crime mapper.)
Chance--LOL, I loved that part, too. "Short range grenade . . . so he'll need a really good hiding place."
I had never really considered that the person who burned him might be a character that we know until recently. I came across a thread on Facebook that said that this person thought his mom burned him.
That, now that...I could see. Mom is seriously twisted about her kids. But would she know how to set it up...
Interesting!
Jordan - I don't see it happening now. I've changed my focus to California. LOL! I figure I'll be living over there in 10 years or less.
Terrio -
What? You might want to come to me home? What can I tell you? Where are ya thinking? I lived up, down, inside...had family, friends...everywhere! Oooh! Let me lure you to the golden shores of California!
But, not right now. I'm going to lunch with me DH.
I do have to admit, California has a special albeit begrudged place in my heart—my dad is from Sacramento (though he calls it 'Sacto' from time to time, which I'm told means he isn't a true native. Born and raised there FTW) and DH is from San Diego (also born and raised).
I haven't begun the research to pinpoint where exactly I want to end up. I know I want moderate weather year round with an ocean very close by. I can take the occasion acting up of Mother Nature. She'll get you somehow be it hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, earthquakes, or a million other things.
RWA Nationals in San Fran last summer is the only time I've ever been to the west coast, but I know I liked it. Not San Fran perse, not to live there, but I'd love to see other parts up and down the coast.
*burp
Pardon me, good fish tacos for lunch. So, Terrio...
Moderate weather year round...well, that depends on your definition of moderate weather. Sounds like you might like the central coast and on down. San Luis Obispo is a gem, I was born there. No, wouldn't go back but that's just me! Santa Barbara is lovely. San Diego is fairly tropical with weather. North of San Fran is generally coldish in the winter. (To a fragile coastal flower like me... Minnesotta Jane would laugh hysterically at me calling it cold...)
Don't get hurricanes, tornadoes or blizzards generally. Volcanic eruptions are very few and far between. Earthquakes? Well...sure. But I've lived here 49 years and have never been where the largish ones have hit. Loma Prieta hit Santa Cruz hard, but I wasn't living here then... Northridge was rough on the San Fernando Valley, but I wasn't living in the southland at that point...
So, live near me and the quakes aren't bad...?
Guess I wasn't a native of Sacramento, as I call it Sacto all the time! Yup, lived there, too. Had a dear friend in San Diego, nice shopping there...
Chance - You've given me some great info. I'll do some research on these places. And some of my guys at work go out to San Luis Obispo a couple times a year, so I'll get their feedback as well. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say anything bad about San Diego. I think RWA is supposed to be there in three or four years too.
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