The Romance List

[harmony_bites]

I've been reading off this list from The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List--specifically the Fantasy List and the Literary Fiction List. I was finding I enjoyed the recommended books so much, I decided to tackle the Romance List, since I've never had much success with that genre.

My impression honestly is almost all much of the

Comments

[harmony_bites]

Kleypas was one of my favorites on the list--especially after reading the ones up higher on the alphabet, I was just so happy to see her break romance conventions left and right--and I found the hero among the most appealing on the list. Heyer I almost stopped reading and thought I'd give it a two--but then the heroine shoots the hero. LOL. Like Dominic, I found myself impressed ;-) And the dialogue is often so witty so...

I can almost understand liking The Smoke Thief--there were aspects of the book I liked a lot. I thought the whole dragon shapeshifter thing was really imaginative in a lot of ways--and I rather liked Rue. But I hated the hero and when I hit that line...

Whitney My Love is one I never read, but I get the creeps from the fact that the hero and heroine were named after her son and daughter. Try writing THAT sex, Mom. Ick.

Ugh. Ick. What shocked me so much about that book is once upon a time I remembered loving it--it's one of the few on the list I'd read before. I'm a bit shocked my reaction is so different now...

[harmony_bites]

Whitney My Love is one I never read, but I get the creeps from the fact that the hero and heroine were named after her son and daughter. Try writing THAT sex, Mom. Ick.

I read it on silburygirl's rec as an anti-Twilight. I think one thing I loved about it was that Aislinn doesn't go for the gorgeous glamorous immortal fae prince, but an ordinary boy. Also--fae, elves, etc--I usually find them staid, boring--I was impressed with the danger Marr imbued them with--and I remember liking the style--these books--almost every single one of them the style was utterly wretched.

Thoroughly agree about DuMaurier and Mary Stewart, though. My favorite of Stewart's is probably The Ivy Tree.

I haven't read that one--though I can tell you know I will. I'd read and loved Stewart's Arthurian books, but somehow had never gotten around to her gothic romances. I was startled just how good the style was--the prose was freakin' gorgeous--and so vivid in giving you a sense of place.

I remember reading my way through Victoria Holt in my teens and still sell bits of

[harmony_bites]

I've never read Stiefvater or Black. Most fae I've read are the kinds that make you think they fart rainbows--Tolkien fey that speak in near Elizabethian language. So Marr was refreshing that way. I rather wish I could read more takes on fae--I've begun to feel so burned out on Vampires I may plunge a stake into the next book I see--yet I like urban fantasy--just sick of the fanged ones...

Some of Stewart's books are better than others. I prefer the ones set in England to the ones set in Greece, for example, but I always liked her prose and her somewhat unusual heroines. Books grounded in reality, I thought. And at the time I wasn't finding a lot of romantic suspense that wasn't historical. She was one of the few first-person authors I didn't mind reading.

What? You too? My friend Renita is one of those--in fact she flat out refuses to read in that point of view. I love it--both as a reader and writer--it comes naturally to me and in fact all the first person books on this list were my top-rated. Du Maurier was first person too.

[pennswoods]

It's fun reading your perspective on the novels I'm familiar with. A few of these I've got on my shelf as keepers, and there are a several others by some of the same authors that I like so much better and that didn't make the list. However, my reason for liking them tends to be the narrative, the twists, certain sex scenes that hit my kinks and not necessarily the author's writing ability and adeptness at maintaining consistent POV, so I don't know that you'll find them as worthwhile.

I really like the primary and secondary romances in Brockmann's Over the Edge, which is a part of the same sharp-shooter series. She begins to flesh out a secondary gay character who appears across several of her subsequent books and whose romance is explored prominently. There are bits and pieces of other novels in this same series that have resulted in my hanging on to them, but I think this one overall is my favorite.

I also completely agree with you on Whitney, My Love, and almost feel I am reading two separate books with that one. I really don't

[harmony_bites]

there are a several others by some of the same authors that I like so much better and that didn't make the list.

Do tell--particularly if I didn't like the one I reviewed of theirs.

See, I'm not exactly impressed with the romance genre--but I do adore love stories--so I'm not adverse to trying, and I figure every genre must have good books--I just haven't found many in the romance aisle I ever liked.

However, my reason for liking them tends to be the narrative, the twists, certain sex scenes that hit my kinks and not necessarily the author's writing ability and adeptness at maintaining consistent POV, so I don't know that you'll find them as worthwhile.

It depends just how bad it is--and often I can forgive style issues if certain aspects of a book are really, really strong--like witty dialogue, memorable characters, great world-building, etc.

I really like the primary and secondary romances in Brockmann's Over the Edge, which is a part of the same sharp-shooter series. She begins to flesh out a secondary gay character who

[annietalbot]

Interesting list. You have some of my favorites here. And some of my not-so-favorites, as well. *grins

[harmony_bites]

Definitely read more Brockmann. She has some amazing characters, and she doesn't let such issues as race and sexuality get in her way. Also, she has become a mistress of POV; there is a scene in one of her later novels in which the POV character is one who is facing away from someone else, but empathizing with him, and it is just amazing.

I'll definitely do that then. She's one of the few on this list I was considering reading more of--especially considering that Unsung Hero was her first in the series so I thought that maybe she might improve. And I noted that about a presence of characters not just White--one thing that was striking to me reading through was that it was rare to see characters not White and not heterosexual--or that were set anywhere but America or Britain. David being Asian stuck out to me given that.

And she was even in Unsung Heroes a bit more adventuresome in style than most--that book involved 3 different narrative strands, one dating from the World War II era (all of which was put in italics, one stylistic

[shiv5468]

I back buttoned out of outlander within0the first twenty pages because I thought she was hugely historically inaccurate. Couldn't get past it.

Mary Stewart is very talented. And heyer. Though she's not to be blamed for chit so much as the third and fourthhand copyists who think that using that word is all that's required to establish setting. She also wrote a civil contract about a marriage of convenience that's deeply unromantic but emotionally real.

Jr ward is pish but crack. I keepreading to see if it gets better knowing it doesn't but somehow powerless to stop.

[harmony_bites]

I back buttoned out of outlander within0the first twenty pages because I thought she was hugely historically inaccurate. Couldn't get past it.

The wealth of historical detail impressed me and seemed plausible--it seems I was lucky not to know enough to find it inaccurate :-)

It is often squicky btw--which is why I find myself a bit amused and bemused by her HORROR and SHOCK that anyone could "rape" her characters by writing fanfic about them. What could anyone possibly do to her characters she hasn't done already?

Mary Stewart is very talented. And heyer.

Agreed.

Though she's not to be blamed for chit so much as the third and fourthhand copyists who think that using that word is all that's required to establish setting.

Regency setting at that. I've seen it all over SSHG fic which of course is in the 20th--but I seem to recall native Brits mentioning "chit" isn't something a Brit would use today.

She also wrote a civil contract about a marriage of convenience that's deeply unromantic but emotionally realI might try that next