Great day in the morning! We’re in People Magazine.
While the article doesn’t appear to be on their website, in the 3 August issue, featuring a very messy-headed Robert Pattinson and “his messy love life” on the cover, on page 46, there’s BOSOMS! And a list of our very favorite romances.
Here, a PDF for your viewing pleasure! People magazine, page 46.
People (the magazine, not the plural noun) had asked us for a list of our very favorite romances, and that list was, of course, a LOT longer when we sent it in. Five of our choices made the list:
One of the best romances ever: unabashed and hilarious, fun and moving. Minerva’s jerkwad ex-boyfriend bets his friend Cal that he can’t get Min to sleep with him in a month. If you love stories with bickering, blistering attraction, this will keep you reading long after you meant to turn off the light.
The premise sounds like something dreamed up in the fevered fantasies of a bad 80s screenwriter: a white ninja rescues a shy, proper seamstress from a life of drudgery. The execution, however, is flawless. Few people write with the elegance and beauty of Laura Kinsale, and this book’s emotional intensity will have you reaching for a box of tissues.
During the course of this book, the heroine tells the hero “In my dictionary, romance is not maudlin, treacly sentiment. It is a curry, spiced with excitement and humor and a healthy dollop of cynicism.” Few romance novels fit this description better than Lord of Scoundrels. This book reliably converts non-romance readers over to the dark side. Male or female; math professor or classicist; computer programmer or chef: all are helpless to resist the razor-sharp banter and explosive chemistry between Jessica and Sebastian.
People often sniff at Harlequins, known in the industry as “category” romances, but behind the covers, they can pack a marvelous story in a very short space. This one is a great example: a new twist on the Cinderella myth that’s set in Australia. It’s a perfect afternoon beach read.
This is the first of an ongoing series by Nora Roberts writing as Robb.Set in NYC in the 2020s, there’s mystery, suspense, and hot, hot action of many kinds. Eve and Roarke form one of the best couples in romance today.
But there were more on the original list, which began: Seven of our favorite romances? When People asked us that question, the wailing and gnashing of the teeth began. Not only is narrowing the list down almost impossible, Sarah and Candy have divergent reading tastes and don’t always agree on what’s good. The books they do agree on have a distressing tendency to be out-of-print and very hard to find (The Windflower by Laura London, for example). We finally agreed on a few limiting criteria: nothing that’s been out of print for more than ten years, and the selection must attempt to reflect the variety in the genre. So here’s The Smart Bitches’ Top Seven Romances That Aren’t Impossible to Find.
(The Immortals After Dark series) If you pack one of these in your beach bag, bring a fan, because holy hot steaming demons: this series is smart, savvy, and so freaking spicy. Few do hot sexy tension like Cole.
So many amazing romances are being released from digital publishers. This powerful story from Samhain Publishing features a hero and heroine scarred in different ways who have to relearn everything they thought they knew about sex and love. It comes out in print in February.
Shana Abe writes lyrically and beautifully, and her Drakon series (The Smoke Thief, The Dream Thief, Queen of Dragons, The Treasure Keeper) about a race of Dragon people with the ability to change form are no exception.
Obviously, when you have no limits in bandwidth, you can keep going for pages about your favorite books! But with column inches, space is tight like, well, you know where I was going with that.
SO! How about a giveaway? To celebrate I will give a set of each of the above books, including a bound galley of Butterfly Tattoo, to one random commenter in the next 24 hours. All you have to do is pick your one favorite, without question, ultimate recommendation for the Best Romance Novel Ever in your opinion. See? Easy, right? Riiiiight.
Devil’s Cub, Georgette Heyer.
For me It’s Linda Howard’s “White Lies”>
This is one of the first suspenseful romances that I read and it hooked me!!
First, It was uniquely written in a diary format. Secondly the husband/hero was injured and comatose. Eventually he could communicate with his eyes. Everyone good and bad guys are anxious for this guy to talk, when he does literally all hell breaks out! You’re not sure who is actually good or bad.
It kept me intrigued from begining to the end. I liked the chemistry between the hero & wife as they run for their lives! Explosive! Exciting!
As another who has been reading romance since the pre-teen years, I don’t think it’s possible to choose a favorite, so I will just pick one from my overflowing bookcase/bedside table – Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh.
Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn. It was one of the first I read (seems to be a common theme here). Still waiting to read Lord of Scoundrels however (not available in ebook!). Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas is a close second.
Probably Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie. I go back and read it again and again and it never gets old. Plus I love that her heroine gets over her food neuroses and how the hero goes from thinking she’s frumpy and unappealing to finding her overwhelmingly sexy. Gorgeous, sexy, beautiful, touching, sweet…I could go on for hours – I love this book. Of course, I could also list several more but this would be my desert island book.
Luckily, many of my favorite have been listed & I’ve recently thought about this one, so it’s easier to answer than I would’ve thought. One of my favorites, not already listed, is Bitten by Kelley Armstrong.
Not my favorite ever – who could pick just one, but….
Bet Me is not my favorite Crusie. That honor goes to Welcome to Temptation.
I think Bound by Your Touch by Meredith Duran could go on that list. I don’t know of a better PNR writer than Nalini Singh. She’s amazing and someone who will be a highlight of our genre for a long time. Kresley Cole’s books are brilliant and pro female. Dark Desires After Dusk is probably my favorite of hers.
Also, you guys look great in People.
Just one, eh? Sadists. How ‘bout top 5?
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie (he gives her a dog!)
Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
Born in Fire by Nora Roberts
As a reader relatively new to the genre as such, I’m at something of a disadvantage when it comes to picking a “best romance novel EVER”. I more or less have to reframe the question in the direction of “What romance novel do you reread most often just because the evolving relationship is so much fun to watch?”
And at that, I end up with two (plus an honorable mention).
Honorable mention goes to Kasey Michaels’ Maggie By the Book, in which our series heroine accidentally imagines the hero of her own romance series into real life in the living room of her Manhattan apartment. This is a gimmick that could go very, very wrong very quickly, but I found it charming and funny.
In a very narrow second is Elizabeth Peters’ Crocodile on the Sandbank, first of the Amelia Peabody novels. (Remember that for all that the Peabody series is marketed as mystery nowadays, Peters’ roots are in romantic suspense.) For sheer longevity, the Peabody/Emerson relationship is—so far as I know—the only one in the genre that even comes close to matching what Roberts/Robb has done with Eve Dallas and Roarke.
But top honors in my reread-most-fondly category go to The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope. Nominally a ghost story/fantasy published for younger readers (long enough ago that the market label “young adult” doesn’t really apply), the book’s focus is a developing romance involving one Peaceable Drummond Sherwood in the early days of the American Revolution, who is dashing, charming, and exasperating in roughly equal measure.
Sunshine, by RObin McKinley. Is that because I’m re-reading it right now? You bet your ass it is!
MORNING GLORY by LaVyrle Spencer
and
PETALS ON THE RIVER by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
These are my ultimate favorite and I just can’t choose between the two of them.
Hah! Every one that came to mind got the “Well, that’s not really a romance!” reaction from me, but so many others have gone ahead and posted those titles that I feel brave enough to say:
MADENSKY SQUARE by Eva Ibbotsen.
No HEA—actually, hardly a Hero to speak of—but beautifully written and lushly romantic and absolutely perfect in every way.
(Oh, and if that doesn’t count, I’ll substitute her COUNTESS BELOW STAIRS for the sheer lulz)
Nora’s Northern Lights is my go-to reread. Nate is my most favorite heros.
wtf they didn’t put the IAD series in People??? stupid People.
Julia Quinn’s series, and if I had to pick a specific one, it would be An Offer from a Gentleman (Benedict’s book).
Although I would much rather pick Dark Desires After Dusk[b/] by Kresley Cole ( that’s Cade’s book for those of us who can’t tell the titles apart) that’s a hard one to recommend.
person 1: what’s it about?
person 2: oh this demon falls in love with a woman who turns out to be a Valkyrie but he is forced to sacrifice her to a psycho in order to receive a weapon that will kill his impossible to kill enemy of old. did I mention he has horns and is over 900 years old?
Person 1: walks away slowly.
Karen Marie Moning’s series is a very close second, particularly The Immortal Highlander. But again, people are twitchy about magic in there stories.
When I think of the best romance novel ever, I immediately think of “Pride and Prejudice.” It has all the classic elements – conflict, character growth and the satisfying resolution that results in a happy ending – topped with a healthy dose of clever social commentary. It is still one of my all time favourite books.
Just one? You’re as cruel as People!
Okay, if I have to pick one, I go with The Viscount Who Loved Me, by Julia Quinn. I’ve read more amazing stories, such as Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels and Bourne’s Spymaster’s Lady, but Viscount was the first romance I really wanted to reread (and multiple times, at that).
The dialogue was great, and it was one of the first times where I felt the heroine wasn’t just waiting for the hero to show up in her life. She was genuinely happy, not just resigned to her Pre-Hero life. I still hold the story in a special place in my heart.
Honestly? Four in Hand by Stephanie Laurens. Despite a lack of desricptive sex scenes, the plot of 4 strong women easily bringing 4 hardened rakes to their knees is irresitible. I must have read it at least 14 times.
Candle In The Window by Christina Dodd. I love that book.
I started reading Bet Me by Crusie after reading this post. It’s extremely entertaining!!
The following lines made me laugh out loud. Really loud. Good thing I wasn’t anywhere in public!
This is when Min orders Chicken Marsala from Emilio’s
LOL!!
Favorite romance…. probably something by Judith McNaught. One of her earlier works. Something Wonderful, Once and Always or Whitney My Love. That’s as close to picking one book as I can get!
Oh gods, this is hard. The first thing I thought of, though, was Nora Roberts’ Jewels of the Sun – it was the first romance I ever read, and the one that I’ve since reread the most.