Romance novels

[Demrbee]

Does anyone read romance novels? I read constantly but I've never read a romance novel and I'd like to try one. Suggestions anyone???

[Merski]

I work at a library and see lots of Highland warrior romances being checked out. I also remember Julie Garwood wrote Ransom which I believe was good at the time....

[razz]

Romance novels take many forms. Start with a Fern Michaels or Nicholas Sparks or Debbie Macomber for a variety to explore.

[Bastelmutti]

My favorite: Room with a View by E.M. Forster. A classic rather than the paperback type, but SO ROMANTIC! :D

[AmeliaJane]

If you will pardon the website name, http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php is a really excellent website on the genre and has many great recommendations (although the language is, as you can probably tell, on the salty side.) One that the bloggers there recommend as an "entry level romance" is Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase. It's a Regency with great dialogue. I liked it a lot.

[Kestrel]

I don't read what are called "bodice rippers" -- you know, where the cover of the book has a man on a wild black horse grabbing up a woman (who is perhaps pretending to resist) with long blonde hair in a romantic white Southern Belle-type dress (with bodice somewhat exposed), with misty hills in the background and perhaps the distant view of a castle. Whew!

When I was much younger I used to love the novelettes that were at the end of Redbook magazine (do they still have those?), simple mysteries that wound up kind of romantic -- young woman inherits an estate on a Caribbean island and is met at the plane by a young good looking lawyer of some kind; they kind of fall in "love", but there's also a rapscallion of some kind who the lawyer convinces her is trying to steal the estate from her, but of course he isn't, it's the lawyer who's trying to steal it from her. And she realizes "that man" is her true love after all, and they live happily ever after. I don't remember reading any romance novels, but I did watch some soap operas! Now, at my age, I couldn't possibly care less. :-D :-D :-D Give me a good Michael Connelly mystery!

[Packratona!]

I absolutely love the romance novels written in the 1920's.

[JaneV2.0]

"young woman inherits an estate on a Caribbean island and is met at the plane by a young good looking lawyer of some kind; they kind of fall in "love", but there's also a rapscallion of some kind..."

Sounds like Jane Aiken Hodge; I read her in college, just looked her up and she lived a satisfactorily long life until just lately.

[IshbelRobertson]

I'm not a great modern 'romance' reader - I prefer those of an earlier time, like Jane Austen! However, I do enjoy the modern Irish chick-lit writers such as Sheila O'Flanagan, Patricia Scanland and others. Wry, funny and with believable heroines (they eat biscuits and drink too much, for instance!)

I cannot STAND bodice rippers, particularly those set in Scotland at the time of the clans etc... the writers are often Americans, who have never even visited Scotland, and give the characters modern, hollywood-style names (perhaps seeking a movie deal?!) - the sort of 'dark dangerous clan chief, striding through the heather with his face painted with woad'... I have never read them, but a friend does and has hours of pleasure laughing at the anachronisms in those books and boring us all to death by reading the passages aloud!

I know lots of people love Diane Gabaldon. Not me!

[Gingerella72]

Diana Gabaldon fan here, sorry IshbelRobertson! ;)

I like romance novels that have a touch of sci-fi/fantasy to them, which is why I love the Diana Gabaldon books - time travel.

Other good time travel/romance reads are Karen Marie Moning's Highlander series and Lynn Kurland's books.

[Anne Lee]

Georgette Heyer. My personal favorite is A Civil Contract. These were written in the 30's I believe and are a literature from another time.

I used to read Victoria Holt. And it's been years but Barbara Michaels wrote some good spooky/romance ones.

[IshbelRobertson]

Diana Gabaldon fan here, sorry IshbelRobertson! ;)

I like romance novels that have a touch of sci-fi/fantasy to them, which is why I love the Diana Gabaldon books - time travel.
.

Don't be sorry - it wouldn't do if we all enjoyed the same writers, now would it?
I honestly tried to read her first book (more than once, I may say!) - no, no, no..... The woman wrote it before she'd ever stepped foot on Scottish soil.. and it showed!

[IshbelRobertson]

Oh yes, I loved her books when I was about 14, and worked my way through all of her regency romances - and even some of her 'modern' thriller style books, too.

[Packratona!]

So what are your favorites from an earlier time?

I love the Gene Stratton Porter romances. All good.