Christina Baker Kline, who has, among her other credentials, Writer-in-Residence at Fordham Uni on her bio
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Oh my.
Romance is everywhere. I mean, Patricia Gaffney went to "women's fiction," and they're still romances. They just don't "say" so. (Okay, The Saving Graces wasn't as much, but Flight Lessons? Totally a romance.)
Okay, I need something somewhat mindless -- but not *dumb* -- to read. Trashy and fun, but well-written.
Recommendations?
I wouldn't call them trashy, but you might like Holly Black's faerie books, Steph.
I always go for whatever Nora Roberts trilogy is out when I'm in that mood.
Any Georgette Heyer, but you might especially like These Old Shades or The Talsiman Ring.
I've been reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's "Dark Hunter" series lately for my mindless fun. They're mostly set in New Orleans, she has women of larger size getting busy with hot men who think said women are the most gorgeous creatures ever, and her vampire/werewolf history is a bit different than the usual. I've only read 4 or 5 of the books, and I suspect that the 12-20 that she wrote sort of fade into a sameness. But it's a pro-women's sexuality sameness, by and large, so I'm giving it a Trashy Books Yay thumbs up.
They are a tad overly-heterocentric, though. I've been going online to read SGA slash fic as a palate cleanser.
Anna McPartlin- Pack Up the Moon. It wasn't trashy and it actually starts out with a fair amount of pathos, but it wound up being a very fun read.
Oh, and if you want a historical, Victoria Dahl's A Rake's Guide to Pleasure
For "chick lit," I like Marian Keyes a lot, but many of her books have a pretty dark center to them, so maybe not "trashy and fun" enough.
The first few of Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld books (werewolves at first, mostly) were good fun.
I'm about halfway through the first book in Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series, Moon Called and am enjoying it. Definitely pretty mindless, but an interesting universe. If you're into lycanthropes.