Romance novelsFollow

I know there are a lot of supernatural/paranormal romances out there these days, but honestly, I haven't really been reading new romance for some time.

In another thread asking for fantasy book recommendations, I pimped a series of trilogies by Jacqueline Carey that starts with the novel Kushiel's Dart. It's not a romance, per se, but there is romance in it, and no matter what genre you're seeking, it's a DAMN GOOD SERIES.

Check out this post for more information. Then read the books, because they're truly, truly excellent and if at least the first novel can't keep your interest, then your interest simply cannot be held by anything. Seriously. I loved these books so much my son was almost named Joscelin after one of the characters.

If you want something that is actually found in the romance aisle among the bodice-rippers, check out the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. It's got time travel, and it's pretty epic. I personally have found my attention wandering with the last couple books in the series, but other people I know can't put them down, so that could just be my ADD at work.

Now, to dig into some older stuff, check out the following novels by Jude Devereux: Wishes, A Knight in Shining Armor, and Remembrance. The first two are very light, fluffy reading, just about the perfect size for a cozy evening in, nothing too hefty. The last one is a bit weightier and actually packs a little bit of an emotional punch toward the end.

I also recommend Sweet Liar by Jude Devereux as well, but I can't truthfully claim it has any sort of supernatural stuff going on. It's just a good read. Devereux has some other stuff with a supernatural flavor, but I'm not as familiar with her more recent work. Her non-supernatural novels are fun as well. If you enjoy Wishes (and if you have any sense of humor whatsoever, you really can't help but enjoy it) also check out Mountain Laurel and Eternity for more of the same brand of light-hearted hilarity.

For straight-up well-written romance without any supernatural stuff, read some Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, particularly Ashes in the Wind. The book is 30 years old, but it still holds up. There's a reason Woodiwiss (R.I.P.) was hailed as the "queen of historical romance." Some of her more recent stuff doesn't live up to the epic quality of her earlier works, but up through So Worthy My Love, which was published in 1989, they're all worth reading. The list, then, would be:

The Flame and the Flower
The Wolf and the Dove
Shanna
Ashes in the Wind
A Rose In Winter
Come Love a Stranger
So Worthy My Love
Petals on the River(not as good as the rest of the list, but still enjoyable.)

Her VERY early works (up through Ashes in the Wind, I believe) employ the "heroine is raped/seduced but ends up falling in love anyway" device that was common in most historical romances written in the 70s and early 80s, before someone in the publishing industry decided it would be all right for a woman to have sex without having to be raped the first time. See, there's a reason they're called "bodice rippers," yo. Read at your own risk.

And now to take you out of the realm of romance, I know you've said you've exhausted other genres, but have you yet read the Honor Harrington series by David Weber? If not, you may want to consider checking it out. Usually military sci-fi isn't my cup of tea, because it tends to be mostly boyfic and frequently misogynistic, but Honor Harrington is different. It features a strong female protagonist and is written by a man who actually does respect women and isn't afraid to explore the softer side of his characters once in a while, in between the epic space battles.

Good luck and enjoy!

Nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks that. I though I was alone in that opinion.

My favorite fantasy/sci-fi romance authors are Teresa Medeiros, Susan Kearney, and Jayne Castle (who is another pen name for Amanda Quick.)

I look for authors that invested in world building, and didn't just have hunky space barbarians come to Earth for sex (a major issue I had with Johanna Lindsey's scifi attempts.)

Teresa Medeiros - Her primary genre is comedic romance, but many of those dip into fantasy. She tends to do oneshots or two book pairs. Her best work is probably Breath of Magic, in which a time traveling Salem witch ends up with a more handsome Bill Gates clone.

Susan Kearney - Does action Sci Fi. Look for The Challenge, The Dare, and The Quest for a very nice trilogy set in the not so distant future. The Dare is probably the best of the three, in which a sentient computer falls in love and builds herself a body based on his fantasies (which she had access to. Ahahah.) Sort of like The Ship Who Sang only with more sex.

Jayne Castle has some books even I need to catch up on(she's a pen name of a pen name and stupidly prolific), but she has an interesting trilogy out there called Amaryllis, Zinnia, and Orchid. It's set on a parallel earth that was colonized when "the curtain" opened up between dimensions, and after hundreds of years has more or less turned into modern day Washington and Oregon, only with everyone having some form of psychic talent.

My good real life friend Rachel Bach is supposed to have her first books coming out this fall, but I don't know what her pen name is >_>; I need to bug her on livejournal about that.

Edited, Nov 17th 2009 11:23am by catwho

Yeah, I read the other two in that trilogy half heartedly, then rotated them out on the romance book shelf. They were not keepers, nor were they re-readables.

I can see why some people like Lindey's stuff, but I've never been too fond of her. Nor Nora Roberts or Danielle Steele for that matter. I prefer comedy, not melodrama.



Edited, Nov 17th 2009 2:05pm by catwho

Yep, it was daughter and son of sexy space hunk from the first book that got their turn.

In the second book of that trilogy, the hero doesn't take no for an answer and nearly rapes her, which is the Biggest No No in romance novel writing you can do. And she "comes around" later and realizes he didn't meant to hurt her, etc etc etc. WRONG. Bzzztzzz.

I gave up on Lindsey after that myself.

Yeah, unfortunately that was pretty much the standard recipe for most of the genre (especially the Indian romances) for a couple decades. It was expected, because how else was the hot-yet-good-girl heroine supposed to be overcome by her passion for the hero? This WAS the era of Luke and Laura, mind you.

If the first book in the Lindsey trilogy came out in 1990, though, then the age where that was de rigueur for the genre was long past, and most of the decent writers--such as Woodiwiss--had done away with such devices. In Remembrance, Devereux's quasi-autobiographical heroine says that her first novel was rejected because the editor told her that if the hero doesn't rape the heroine, no one will think he's masculine, but that she took the book to another publisher and it became a best seller and now that editor edits for Penthouse.

I like Ann Rice's Beauty series quite a bit too. It's nowhere near as awesome as the Kushiel's Dart series, but it's still interesting and entertaining.