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Who are your favorite romance authors??

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LCW
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Who are your favorite romance authors??

Post by LCW » Tue August 26th, 2008, 5:32 pm

I haven't really read enough to have firm favorites but so far Penelope Williamson is high up there as is Lisa Kleypas and Loretta Chase. What about you all?

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Tue August 26th, 2008, 6:05 pm

You know if you'd asked me this five years ago I would have said Garwood and McNaught but I've found my tastes have changed and I'm having trouble finding romances that fit for me. I do like Roberta Gellis, even though some get a bit silly (god, one recent read she used "nether lips" :eek :) , but she's got a good enough sense of the medieval period and custom that you're not cringing like I end up doing with some.

A recent discovery for me is Celeste de Blasis, and I recomment checking her out for those who love big bold meaty historical sagas. She wrote in the 80's and although classified as HR they are a definite step up from that towards HF. I've already read Wild Swan (review posted) the first of three books on a family that leaves England and emigrates to Maryland and starts up raising/racing horses. It was quite good.

Another of hers is The Proud Breed which a multi-generational story set in Old California and the last I started yesterday is called The Tiger's Woman. 1870's with a girl on the run from a very mysterious past and takes place in Washington Territory, Seattle and the San Juan Islands. I'm 100 pages into it and loving it.

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LCW
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Post by LCW » Tue August 26th, 2008, 6:08 pm

The Tiger's Woman sounds really good!

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Tue August 26th, 2008, 6:25 pm

I'm just dying to get home from work so I can read so more. There is just so little HF/HR set in the Pacific Northwest. I really recommend you give this author a whirl. Thriftbooks has it listed cheaper than the Amazon sellers.
Last edited by Misfit on Tue August 26th, 2008, 6:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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diamondlil
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Post by diamondlil » Tue August 26th, 2008, 8:30 pm

My favourites are Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn, Liz Carlyle (particularly her older books), Elizabeth Hoyt and a few others.

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Ariadne
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Post by Ariadne » Tue August 26th, 2008, 9:42 pm

I enjoyed Janice Kay Johnson's Winter of the Raven when I read it a while back - it's set on the Queen Charlotte Islands in the Pacific Northwest and has a strong romantic thread. I'd call it a romantic historical.

Favorite romance authors include Roberta Gellis, Madeline Hunter, Mary Lide though she's not writing anymore... also thought Meredith Duran's The Duke of Shadows was excellent.

Lately, I haven't been reading any romance writers very consistently - I tend to pick and choose.

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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Wed August 27th, 2008, 12:27 am

Misfit, so glad you are enjoying The Tiger's Woman. I really, really loved that one. I wouldn't quite call it it a historical romance. I'd say it straddled the line between romance and historical fiction. Another line straddler I enjoyed some time ago was Paint The Wind by Cathy Cash Spellman. It's what's called an 'epic' novel about the Old West. I love a lot of Gellis' material. I can even forgive her the 'nether lips'. It's one of those phrases like SKP's 'certes' that is kind of an author brand phrase :) Patricia Ryan's Silken Threads is excellent, but some of her other medievals are a bit OTT. Grace Ingram's Red Adam's Lady is wonderful. No sex (or only one discreet scene) and a lovely mystery. It's one of my all time favourite romance/mystery/story medievals. Mary Balogh is good re the Regency period, but I've not been reading much recently in the romance genre.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

Norma H
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Bertrice Smalls books

Post by Norma H » Wed August 27th, 2008, 12:31 am

My Personal favorite historical fiction writer is Bertrice Small. I love all of her books, there basicly set around the 15th and 16th century England/Scotland area and are asscociate with Royalty there.

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Wed August 27th, 2008, 12:39 am

EC, there you go again screwing up my TBR pile and just before the most important month of October :) :o :p I love tales of the old west, and this is one book the library has :) (I am so fortunate to have a county with a well funded library system).

I agree about The Tiger's Woman and the other books by this author, she really seems to take her historical research seriously -- even this Washington State native hasn't spotted any major gaffes so far. I hate it when something is classified in a particular genre when there's so much more than just a plain old romance.

I really enjoyed Red Adam's Lady but it was a bit too fast paced and I lost the story a couple of times (really could have used a who's who list) - I knocked it down to four stars for that, but I suspect the second read will improve. Spendy little bugger, glad I got a copy at the library

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Leyland
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Post by Leyland » Wed August 27th, 2008, 2:44 am

One of my favorite romance authors who has been published since the 60's is Jane Aiken Hodge. My top picks are The Winding Stair, Watch the Wall My Darling, Greek Wedding, The Adventurers, Wide is the Water, Marry in Haste, and Escapade.

Hodge has also written nonfiction about Georgette Heyer, considered a classic biography, and Jane Austen. She is a daughter of Conrad Aiken and read English at Oxford then becoming a journalist, reviewer and publisher's reader. She is particularly talented at blending historical detail with adventure, often set against the backdrop of military or civil conflict.

If you've never read her, please give her a try sometime!
We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams ~ Arthur O'Shaughnessy, Ode

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