Thanks, Maria. I’m so glad you enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha. I couldn’t put it down either (until probably the last 50 pages where it seemed to force an ending). But all the early stuff about her training and the cultural details like the kimonos, wow, utterly mesmerising. I didn’t see the movie. Imagined it would concentrate on the stuff I found less interesting.

Thanks for the congrats, Heidenkind. A huge thrill! Sounds like I was right about the movie of MOAG. I love books that take me into a different world that I don’t know much about and this one certainly did that – and I enjoyed reading about it in contrast to the world of Regency courtesans as I’d started work on CTC by then. There were some strong similarities, for all the superficial differences.

No, I haven’t read Memoirs of a Geisha. Actually, I had the book, but then I saw the movie and it was so ridiculous I decided I was never going to read it. :/ Maybe I’ll give it another go, though.

And – I also recommend Memoirs of a Geisha – it was a book I couldn’t stop reading. The film did the book NO justice.

The heroes are seriously smart and lethal. I mean, really, really lethal. Like, they’d just as soon kill you than f*ck you.

… but after reading your review (and Kati’s comment on the heroes I think I should rectify that ASAP….I like lethal heroes

Hey, romance and Japan? It’s hard to get the two together, you should definitely recommend these books. Although the Japanese connection doesn’t really start until book 3. Still, the first couple of books are a real suspense rollercoaster so she shouldn’t mind too much getting up to that stage!