When I was in high school, I signed a somewhat-friend's yearbook, and I noticed that her best friend had signed the inside cover with a huge paragraph wherein she'd somehow included the title of every Judith McNaught novel (this was in 1993 so there were plenty of them) because they loved those books and read them over and over. That was my introduction to McNaught, and I started with Once and Always.It was all downhill from there.
I love Once and Always for the tortured hero, even if he's a big ol' jerkface in some scenes. Also, I think that's one of the very few times I've encountered a historical hero named “Jason.”
This picture shows my copy of A Kingdom of Dreams, and beneath it is my copy of Perfect. If you open Perfect, it will fall into two pieces, so I rarely touch it. Clearly, these two women in high school were on to something, because once I read those books, I had to read all of them.
And my reaction was the same with Perfect and Paradise: jerkish hero mends his ways, often with a grand gesture that left me in a puddle of sighs.
McNaught is one of the classic names in romance, and I know so many people who have an all-time favorite of hers on their shelves.
Which is your all-time favorite? If you were recommending a McNaught novel to someone who had never read her books, which would you recommend?
A Kingdom Of Dreams definitely and then Almost Heaven or vise-versa. IMO these two are hands down her very best books.
My copies of “Paradise” and “Whitney, My Love” are in about the same condition, but all of my McNaughts are in different stages of falling apart, poor things.
This is hard! I’m a bigger fan of her contemporaries. Perfect is just well… the title speaks for itself. The emphasis of adult illiteracy was really educational without being too preachy. It’s an important theme and reminded me as a youngster that not everybody gets to have what you have (a love and a passion for reading.) Paradise is amazing also. I’m in the minority but I really like Night Whispers also. Interesting characters and the introduction of Courtney who appeared in “Someone to Watch Over me.” If JM writes another book it needs to be Courtney’s. I guess if I have to pick a historical, A Kingdom of Dreams.
I’ve only ever read Once and Always and just could not deal with all the rape. He rapes her on her wedding night and then feels like a schmuck only because he realizes she was a virgin. Because raping non-virgins is ok?! And then he forces her again later?! I’ve never read another one of her books, even though I liked a lot about the book. But, I could not ever admire the “hero.”
Are her others rape-free?
Perfect was the first of hers that I read and I loved it SOOOO much. Because I’m OCD I’d probably want someone to read Paradise first (also loved it) because I like things in order.
Almost Heaven is by far the best one. I’m not a huge fan of any of her other novels; too many jerk heroes who believe all women are evil (especially in her historicals) and dated-even-when-they-were-published contemporaries.
Double Standards was the first Judith McNaught book I ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but Almost Heaven and the revised edition of Whitney, My Love are my absolute favourites. I am always disappointed when I read Miracles because it is a novella and I always thought that Nicky deserved a novel!
Whenever I reread Whitney, My Love I also have to read Stephanie Stevens’ Defiant Angel because it is pretty much the same story all over again and I love them both!
My first and favourite McNaught was/is Something Wonderful. I still remember the scene where Jordan was embarrasedly trying to explain to Alexandra how babies were made and she exclaims “oh, you don’t know either!”
I realise that there is a bit of love/hate for this book (and this author’s work generally) but I love it. It’s on my keeper shelf.
“Double Standards” was my first McNaught, borrowed from a friend. And then I found “Whitney, My Love” in the library. But my favourites are “Almost Heaven” (there’s a good reason my son is called Ian) and “Paradise”. “Remember When”, a book nobody else seems to have read, or liked, comes a distant third in my favourites list.
I’ve gone off her more recent books, to the extent that I never even bought “Every Breath You Take” and wouldn’t have read it if my mom hadn’t brought a second hand copy home when she came back from vacation one year.
My favorite McNaught has to be “A Kingdom of Dreams” followed by “Whitney My Love”, although I think WML gets that honor only because it was not only one of the first McNaughts I ever read but probably one of the first romances I ever read (along with the entire Woodwiss oevre). While KoD stands the test of time and still is a keeper for me, I have a harder time reading WML now due to the level of Big Mis and Alpha-jerkness of the hero. I actually have copies of both the original edition where Clayton spanks Whitney as well as rapes her along with the newer, PC version of the book. It’s funny to me that a writer actually did cave to fan pressure and re-issued the book with more acceptable scenes.
I know I’ve read quite a few of her other books, but “Paradise” is ‘the one’ for me. Now I have to add all the others to the TBR pile so I can remember if I liked them or not!
I liked the writing in Double Standards but the blatant (even by romance standards) sexism in the workplace really turned me off. I’d have to go with Paradise and Perfect.
“Almost Heaven” was my first McNaught and my favorite, although it had some stiff competition along the way from “Double Standards” (blonde heroine named Lauren? sign me up!) and “Kingdom of Dreams”.
I’d also like to thank McNaught for getting me through my 1L year of law school. I re-read every single one of her books that first term! (Except “Tender Triumph”. That one never made it onto the re-read shelf.)
‘Double standards’ was my first JM too! I love all her historicals, but ‘Until You’ is my favorite. I’m not one to cry when I read books or watch movies but ‘Paradise’ and ‘Perfect’ both bring a tear to my eye. And the HEAs leave you with such a warm and fuzzy feeling that you don’t feel the need to pick up another romance for a few days after reading these two.
PS: I agree that Nicky (and Julianna) deserved a whole novel (and IMHO, a much better journey to their HEA)
I’m with Cakes – I couldn’t handle the rape and abuse in the one and only JM I read – Whitney My Love. I know that a lot of people love, love WML but the rape and general WTF abusive behavior was enough to put JM on my standing Do Not Read list. Are there any JMs without asshole heroes and without rape?
Cleo and Cakes – I’ll admit that there is a scene in Whitney that to this day I just roll my eyes at a skip ahead, even though it is a favorite of mine. Try her contemps maybe? Paradise doesn’t have anything objectionable like that that I can recall off the top of my head…
Ah! Once and Always was my first romance ever. I was fourteen and my mother had it on the coffee table. I didn’t even know what a romance was when I read it. I’d read a few of mom’s Jackie Collins by then but they weren’t like this! I loved it. Despite it’s flaws -jerky Jason antics, Mary Sue Victoria perfection- I still love it. How can you not love your first romance?
I’d start with her historicals, Once and Always, Almost Heaven, Kingdom of Dreams, Something Wonderful… and embrace the old skool, over-the-top, classic romance angst.
I have to go with “A Kingdom of Dreams”. I read “Whitney My Love” and did NOT put it on my keeper shelf.
Almost Heaven and Something Wonderful were my two favourites! I cut my Romance reading teeth on Judith and LaVyrle!
I’d definitely go with PERFECT for the contemporary romance reader. I love that book. And for historicals: UNTIL YOU or ALMOST HEAVEN. I’ve reread UNTIL YOU so many times that I think I wore the book out; the grovel in that book is delicious.
And I would LOVE if McNaught’s books were available digitally. One day.
Perfect for the contemporary and A Kingdom of Dreams for the historical (but Something Wonderful is a close second).
Whitney My Love for historical, and Paradise for Contemporary. All of her books are sigh-worthy though and I keep checking on her bulletin board every year for news of this mythical Clayborne contemporary novel supposed to be out ‘sometime’ but I have about given up hope!
Having only read Whitney, My Love, Once and Always, Remember When, Perfect, and Double Standards…
I have to vote for Perfect! Also, though I’m a lover of both contemporary and historical romance, I globally like all of McNaught’s contemporary novels better than her historicals.
I love Double Standards, it was probably the first romance story I ever read. Despite the flawed male lead, in Lauren it also had a strong heroine.
I misplaced my copy and hadn’t reread it until the beginning of this year and was pleased to find that the story hadn’t lost any of its PTQ, though I have to say that with a cigarette-addicted male lead and a workplace without computers, it pretty much felt like reading a historical 🙂
Whitney, My Love for historical romance lovers, and Paradise for the contemporary folks. Although it’s hard for me to decide between her early books, save for Tender Triumph (sorry, Ramon and Katie), W,ML and Paradise are the two that stand out. Have to do a reread soon.
I cannot live without Almost Heaven, A Kingdom of Dreams and Remember When. I adore most of her historicals and many of her contemporaries, but these three are tops for me!
Most of them are. Whitney, My Love has a rape in it. I stopped reading at that point.
I ADORE Remember When… it’s #3 for me after Paradise and Almost Heaven!
Is there any way you can put this to a vote for those of us who are to lazy to
A) write a comment
B) tally up the results ourselves
the other “Which one first” have over 60 comments each, and I knew the answers to those 🙂
My first McNaught was a novella, Double Exposure, from a collection my mother bought on holiday in the US as a gift for me. I loved the character of Corey and that lead me onto Remember When, the story of her sister Diana. Then I read the Miracles novella and finally I started on her full historicals with Whitney My Love due to the presence of Nicki.
My favourite story is the novella I first read, followed by Once And Always then A Kingdom Of Dreams. I always wanted more on Brenna’s story. The one book I didn’t like was Until You – I thought Stephen deserved a much better story than that.
Paradise was also my first McNaught! I loved it, especially at 13. Oh, the angst and the silly misundestandings that could have easlily been resolved with a quick conversation: Ahem
Matt: “Did you abort my baby???’‘
Meredith: “Of course not! I named her Elizabeth after your mother”
And scene.
But, I think Something Wonderful will always be my favourite. Come on! How many heroines get shot in the head and are brought back from the brink of death by luuuuuuurve. No, really.
I’m wondering if there is a way in reviews to put a “Trigger Warning” on them. I am a victim of sexual assault and I know these scenes can sometimes be traumatic for me and many victims to read.
When I was just getting into romance, I read Whitney, My Love because I’d heard such good things about that book and McNaught. I finished it but could not mentally get past the rape.
Even before that, the hero didn’t seem like such a great guy and he was going to really have to work hard to convince me that he should end up with Whitney. And then he raped her (but he was sorry so its ok?!?!).
Since it was one of the first romance novels I read (and came highly recommended), my experience with Whitney, My Love nearly put my off romance entirely. (I’m glad it hasn’t!)
The first Judith McNaught book I ever read was Perfect. I loved it so much that as soon as I read the last sentence, I flipped to book back to the first page and read the whole thing again. For that reason, Perfect will always be my favorite, but I’d have to rate Whitney, My Love as a close second.
I read Whitney My Love and Something Wonderful, and that was it. Heroines were sort of treacle-vessels, not happy with asshat heroes with rapey tendencies and I just felt sort of skanky after reading them. If I’ve got to have AHWT males around, I’d take Woodiwiss over McNaught.
Whitney, My Love was one the first romance books I ever read (at an age where I didn’t understand two thirds of what was going on!) and I thought it was amazing. So many of the tropes that we roll our eyes at now (feisty heroine who happens to be gorgeous AND fluent in Latin and Greek) seemed very novel at the time. Of McNaught’s historicals, Almost Heaven was my favourite and Perfect was my favourite contemporary. I say ‘was’ because when I picked up Almost Heaven recently for a reread, I couldn’t finish it … years have passed, my tastes have changed. It’s a little sad and I haven’t tried any of the others again as a result – I’d prefer to keep my teenage fangirl love for Ms McNaught intact.
Based on raves and recommendations from others, I went thru an intense McNaught phase many years ago. I read A LOT of her books, so no one can accuse me of not giving her a fair shot. That said, I can barely remember most of them—they just didn’t impress me much. I do remember Whitney, My Love more than most, but only because I despised it. I thought both the leads (m and f) were thoroughly unlikeable.
I’m fully prepared to admit that I might be wrong in my assessment, and that the fault was/is with me, but I’m not prepared to give JM another shot to see if they’re better a second time around all these years later. Too many other things to read.
Perfect and Almost Heaven are my two favorites. Whitney My Love lives in my “WTF was that??!” pile—- I thought it was terrible :rapey, melodramatic with an unforgiveably jumps-to-wrong-conclusions-hero who has to be the worst I’ve ever encountered (and I’m a BIG fan of Kathleen Woodiwiss books so that should give you some idea of the high level of ass-hattery I can tolerate.) Perfect is one of my all time favorite books though.
Last year, my friend’s mom was like “YOU HAVE TO READ THIS” and thrust this book – Whitney, My Love – into my hands. Now, my friend is not a big romance reader (she went through a phase at, like, 12, but never got back into it) but all of her reads were from her mom, who read it ages and ages ago. She had a history of giving me good suggestions (namely a shared love of Johanna Lindsey’s Gentle Rogue – which was my first true romance and best freaking shit I ever read.)
In the span of that year, she has gifted me her McNaught collection (save for two books that are her all-time favorites.) Whitney, My Love is one of my top romances. It has all the history and the passion and the chemistry between the characters that I love, and it’s epic.
I haven’t had the time to read any more McNaught, but I have to say that every single book of hers interests me. Whitney isn’t for everyone – I read the old edition with the less PC rape scene – but I actually liked that it was addressed. I felt like the romance in that book was very complex and worthy of exploring despite the way the hero and heroine were so polarized. McNaught just creates sexy heroes and heroines with lady balls. It’s still Old Skool, but if you love it you LOVE it.
That’s an important point for new JM readers – there are two versions of Whitney My Love – I haven’t read the 2nd edition, but I think the rape scene and the crop scene are edited out or at least are less graphic.