Bitchin' Blog Posts

Romance News: You Submit, We Compile

by SB Sarah | April 20, 2007 | Friday at 3:56 pm | 102 Comments

Cayrle wrote: Maybe the Bitchery should compile our own “official” list of the greatest love stories of all time.  I can guarantee my list wouldn’t include as many books with less than happy endings.

Darn right. So - bring it. Leave your suggestions in the comments or, if you’re a happy lurker,  email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your suggestions, and we’ll use Excel or something better to compile our own list. I’m not going to differentiate between romance novels in the modern conception (e.g. bodice rippers of the 1970’s and 80’s on through current offerings) and romantic stories from the Penguin Classics issue, because I think current romance can go toe-to-toe with “the classics.”

And if you disagree, please say so. Bring it on! Most Romantic Story Evah!

Filed: Good Shit vs. Shit to Avoid

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  1. Sarah Frantz said on 04.20.07 at 04:12 PM • [comment link]

    Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion.

    Baronness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel.

    Matthew Haldeman-Time’s Off the Record.

    Suzanne Brockmann’s Heart Throb.

    LaVryle Spenser’s Morning Glory.

    Georgette Heyer’s Venetia.

  2. snarkhunter said on 04.20.07 at 04:19 PM • [comment link]

    Anne Eliot and Frederick Wentworth in Persuasion. FAR more romantic than Sense & Sensibility (though I love that book, too).

    Keep Pride & Prejudice.

    Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane—Gaudy Night (and the other novels involving Harriet, but especially GN).

    And can I add a vote for a non-book? B/c, um, Mulder and Scully?

    Sonnets from the Portuguese.

    Beatrice & Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.

    The Anne of Green Gables novels—Anne & Gilbert. And the Emily novels—Emily & Teddy (and Ilse & Perry, to a lesser extent).

    Oh, and my only sad contribution: Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.

    (Ha!! Confirmation word? Married84)

  3. Bithalynn said on 04.20.07 at 04:54 PM • [comment link]

    I’d have to add Jennifer Cruisie’s Bet Me to this list. Of course keep the Austens. I’d also add Jo Beverley’s Shattered Rose.

  4. Laurie Breton said on 04.20.07 at 05:00 PM • [comment link]

    LaVyrle Spencer’s Morning Glory

    Celeste DeBlasis’ The Proud Breed

  5. Darlene Marshall said on 04.20.07 at 05:04 PM • [comment link]

    I’d add to the list Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and The Windflower by “Laura London” (Tom and Sharon Curtis).

  6. Natalie said on 04.20.07 at 05:15 PM • [comment link]

    Sayers, Gaudy Night and Busman’s Honeymoon

    Bujold, A Civil Campaign

    Elizabeth Peters, Trojan Gold and Night Train to Memphis (Sir JOhn and Vicky push my buttons a million times harder than Peabody and Emerson do.)

    Crusie, Welcome to Temptation

    There are other books I find romantic, of course, but those are the ones I find myself going back to time and again.

  7. Tilly Greene said on 04.20.07 at 05:36 PM • [comment link]

    Bloody hell, this is hard to narrow down, I keep on adding so I’m going for historicals romances only.  The ones I keep going back and rereading them, wish they were in all in ebook format so I could carry them around with me as I travel:

    The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

    Devil’s Desire by Laurie McBain

    Lady Vixen by Shirlee Busbee

  8. Roslyn Holcomb said on 04.20.07 at 05:42 PM • [comment link]

    McNaught: Perfect
    Garwood: For the Roses
    Roberts: Honest Illusions, Dream Series
    Gregory (Camp): The Rainbow Season
    Gellis: The Heiress Series and the Roselynde Series
    Krentz: Wildest Hearts, Gift of Gold/Fire

    Kind of scary that all these books are at least a decade old. Even scarier that the Roselynde Series began the same year I was born (1964). Harlequin recently re-pubbed Roselynde and Alinor. They’ve both stood the test of time.

  9. shaina said on 04.20.07 at 05:53 PM • [comment link]

    Diana Gabaldon, Outlander series
    Sara Donati, Into the Wilderness series.
    —>both my favorite series, i read them at least once a year—yes, the ENTIRE series. 

    also, just about any Nora Roberts works for me. :-D

  10. Najida said on 04.20.07 at 06:02 PM • [comment link]

    Gabaldon’s Outlander Series jumped to my mind first.

    But I’m hungry and my mind is blank.  I’ll eat lunch and think about it.

  11. Bonnie said on 04.20.07 at 06:14 PM • [comment link]

    Any early works by Mary Stewart, but my all-time favs of hers would include:
    - Touch Not the Cat
    - Nine Coaches Waiting
    - Madam, Will You Talk
    - This Rough Magic

    I cut my early romance teeth on her, so I’m a little partial! ;p

    Some other favorites:
    - Mary Balogh, “The Secret Pearl”
    - Nora Roberts, “Honest Illusions”
    - Liz Carlyle, “No True Gentleman”
    - Adele Ashworth, “Winter Garden”
    - Lisa Kleypas, “Where Dreams Begin”

    All just off the top of my head, and ones I don’t think have already been mentioned here. My criteria on “most romantic” - my heart gets all a’flutter and I might even weep a little as I read.

    Sigh. I feel a re-read or ten coming on ...

    — Bonz

  12. Sandra Schwab said on 04.20.07 at 06:22 PM • [comment link]

    Francis and Pippa from Dorothy Dunnett’s Checkmate (ooooh! sigh-sigh-sigh) (even if the book is not a romance in any sense of the word) (but who cares? It’s got Francis Crawford of Lymond!)

    Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion

    Susanna Kearsley’s Mariana and The Shadowy Horses

    Julia Ross’s Night of Sin

    Laurie McBain’s Devil’s Desire

    Susan Sizemore’s Wings of the Storm

    And now I better stop before I go on and on and on and, well, on. :)

  13. Rachel said on 04.20.07 at 06:28 PM • [comment link]

    Definitely Pride & Prejudice—Jane Austen

    Paradise by Judith McNaught

    Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie

    Pretty much anything by Karen Marie Moning

    and a classic romance novel that isn’t actually a romance novel…

    Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

  14. --E said on 04.20.07 at 06:38 PM • [comment link]

    I second Sandra’s vote for Checkmate—I cried my eyes out at the end of that book when Francis and Pippa got their HEA.  (Especially since I had cried my eyes out when Francis was being a noble fool and protecting Pippa’s feelings earlier in the book.)

    If we’re talking romantic stories, which includes movies, not just books, I have to vote for When Harry Met Sally.

    And, strangely enough, Braveheart. I cannot watch the end of that without bursting into hysterics when he sees Murren in the crowd.

  15. EG said on 04.20.07 at 06:50 PM • [comment link]

    Seconding Georgette Heyer’s “Venetia”.

    Also agreeing with “Pride and Prejudice.”

    Mary Balogh’s “A Summer to Remember”.

    And I don’t know how much it counts as a romance, so may be out of place here, but Ned and Verity from Connie Willis’s “To Say Nothing of the Dog” have a simply lovely love story.

  16. Ann Aguirre said on 04.20.07 at 06:59 PM • [comment link]

    The Outsider, Once in a Blue Moon, Keeper of the Dream—all by Penelope Williamson

    To Have and To Hold, To Love and to Cherish, by Patricia Gaffney

  17. Anita said on 04.20.07 at 07:01 PM • [comment link]

    Definitely Austen and “Jane Eyre”!  I’d have to add both “Beauty” and “Rose Daughter” by Robin McKinley—so sweet and innocent AND unicorns with silver poop (in “Rose Daughter”).  And Lois McMaster Bujold gets me every time: “The Spirit Ring,” “The Curse of Chalion,” “Paladin of Souls,” “The Hallowed Hunt,” “The Sharing Knife: Legacy,” and even the many and varied romances of Miles Vorkosigan.

  18. Ann Aguirre said on 04.20.07 at 07:02 PM • [comment link]

    Sunshine, by Robin McKinley.

  19. Estelle Chauvelin said on 04.20.07 at 07:06 PM • [comment link]

    As I said in the other thread, Cyrano de Bergerac- which has to be the most romantic story I can think of that ends with somebody dying

    And The Fantasticks, if contemporary theatre is elligible.

    If a great romantic scene can justify a book in which the love story is not necessary the main plot, then A Tale of Two Cities.  Yes, more death, but I don’t care.

  20. Estelle said on 04.20.07 at 07:25 PM • [comment link]

    Ah yes, Francis and Philippa! One of the best love stories ever written.

    It doesn’t get much powerful than that.

    But the only Austen I find romantic is Persuasion. I’m very fond of all her books but Jane Austen didn’t write romance or love stories IMO.

    I also second The Windflower.

  21. CantateForever said on 04.20.07 at 07:27 PM • [comment link]

    The Princess Bride

    His Dark Materials

    “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Sonnet 13

  22. tonithegreat said on 04.20.07 at 07:34 PM • [comment link]

    Here’s one that’s sure to be an outlier:

    Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein

    I also think Jane Eyre belongs in the top ten, which someone else mentioned.

    Oh and The Scarlet Pimpernel, too!

  23. Piper said on 04.20.07 at 07:38 PM • [comment link]

    This is my DIK:
    The Secret Pearl by Mary Balogh

    I’ll meet the LM Montgomery books, and raise you Kilmeny of the Orchard.
    I love Austen’s Persuasion over the others.  Something about the emotion is more real to me, I guess.
    Can we throw A Knight in Shining Armor from Jude Deveraux into the mix? 
    Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquival.
    Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott.
    A Lady’s Tutor by Robin Schone.
    The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (forgetting the obscenity that was the movie…)
    Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
    The Bridges of Madison County by Robert Waller.
    Hmmm.  Looking over this list, I think I have a thing for unrequited love.  Something else to bring up in therapy, I guess!


    On a completely different topic, I have a general question for the bitchy ladies out there.  I read (while hiding in a closet as a kid) a book in the mid-to late 80s that featured white slavery.  The male protagonist was the “stud” and she was brought to him for impregnation and they felt a connection (no snickering!)  Eventually it was revealed that their families had known each other and she’d seen a portrait/picture of him and had a crush (when they’re in the dark hut o’ impregnation he asks her what she imagines he looks like and she describes him perfectly from said picture).  All works out in the end, naturally, though I think she miscarried the baby they made. The book was probably published late 70s early 80s, but I don’t know for certain.  Does anyone have any idea what this book might be???  It was quite an eye opener (hey, I was probably 10!) and I would like to find it for nostalgia and to ensure I’m not just crazy.  Thanks!

  24. Estelle Chauvelin said on 04.20.07 at 07:38 PM • [comment link]

    Tonithegreat, as I was looking over my bookshelf, I considered mentioning Time Enough for Love, too.

  25. sleeky said on 04.20.07 at 07:38 PM • [comment link]

    Seconding “Sunshine.”

    Here’s a weird but totally sincere nomination: “Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard” by Eleanor Farjeon

    “Angelica” by Sharon Shinn

    “I Capture the Castle” by Dodie Smith

    “Joy in the Morning” by Betty Smith

  26. Piper said on 04.20.07 at 07:41 PM • [comment link]

    One more:
    Goddess of the Rose by PC Cast

    I’ll second Cyrano and Beauty!

  27. Piper said on 04.20.07 at 07:47 PM • [comment link]

    Belay my last.
    The book I was thinking of is Alyx by Lolah Burford.
    Sorry! Should have Googled first!

  28. Emily said on 04.20.07 at 08:03 PM • [comment link]

    All of Austen, my personal favourite being Northanger Abbey.
    The Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon series.
    The Scarlet Pimpernel, the ENTIRE series. It’s a toss-up between The Elusive Pimpernel and El Dorado for the most romantic, IMO. Although I really like Lord Tony’s Wife because I really like Lord Tony.

    -The Bridges of Madison County (book, not movie. Ew Eastwood.)
    -The Princess Bride
    -I Capture the Castle—I second that. Hated the movie until I read the book.
    -Little Women
    -Gone with the Wind
    -Of Marriageable Age by Sharon Maas.
    -Peacocks Dancing by Sharon Maas.
    -The Speech of Angels by Sharon Maas. (See a pattern? Although Peacocks Dancing is my favourite, Of Marriageable Age has a special place in my heart and is a *very* close second for the sheer wangst and scope of the romance—I wish I could spoil it, really. It’s just brilliant.)

  29. Tania_HC said on 04.20.07 at 08:08 PM • [comment link]

    I’d like to add
    Shadow of the Moon by M.M. Kaye

    I love that book.

    As far as Heinlein goes, I would say that Job: A Comedy of Justice has the most romantic/sappy line of all his novels “Heaven is where Margrethe is”.

  30. Najida said on 04.20.07 at 08:10 PM • [comment link]

    Sala- Sweet Baby
    Ashworth- Winter Garden

    Susan Elizabeth Phillips-
    It Had to Be You
    Dream a Little Dream
    Kiss an Angel

    Dodd- That Scandalous Evening
    Kleypas- Dreaming of You

    Linda Lange- Bartell Tender Warrior

    Elizabeth Elliott (where’d she go?)
    Warlord
    Scoundrel

    Garwood-
    Honor’s Splendor
    The Bride
    The Secret

    Crusie-
    Welcome to Temptation
    Getting Rid of Bradley

    Woodiwiss-
    Shanna
    Wolf & the Dove

    Medeiros-Breath of Magic

    Stuart-
    Moon Rise
    Night Fall
    Lord of Danger

    McNaught-Something Wonderful

    Moning- Highlander Series
    Howard- McKenzie Series
    Feehan- Dark & Ghost Walker Series
    Roberts/Robb- In Death Series

  31. Lucinda Betts said on 04.20.07 at 08:34 PM • [comment link]

    A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
    Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (book, not movie, which had a completely different ending.)

  32. Lucinda Betts said on 04.20.07 at 08:39 PM • [comment link]

    And also, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

  33. Teddy Pig said on 04.20.07 at 08:46 PM • [comment link]

    As geek pig supreme, I say…

    You had best have at the very tippy top of that dang list…

    T. H. White - A Once and Future King

    Arthur and Guinevere - Tragic love is good love


    J. R. Tolkien

    Strider(AKA Aragorn) and Arwen - I mean come on!

  34. Teddy Pig said on 04.20.07 at 08:47 PM • [comment link]

    Oops! J. R. Tolkien - The Lord of The Rings

  35. Kerry said on 04.20.07 at 09:06 PM • [comment link]

    Futher votes for:
    Persuasion
    Checkmate (but really the whole series to build the relationship)
    Venetia

    I’ll add another L.M. Montgomery - The Blue Castle

    It’s not really a romance, but it caught my eye as I was perusing my shelves look for anything else to add: Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. McAvoy has a lovely “mature” romance in it.

    Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster

  36. Nanna said on 04.20.07 at 09:19 PM • [comment link]

    Austen: Pride and Prejudice and Emma (where’s the love for Emma?!)

    Seems I should reread Persuasion…

    Audrey Niffenegger: The time traveller’s wife

    Laura Esquivel: Como agua para chocolate (“Like water like chocolate” in English?)

  37. Ellie M. said on 04.20.07 at 09:33 PM • [comment link]

    WITH THIS RING by Carla Kelly
    KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR by Jude Devereaux
    BET ME by Jennifer Crusie
    SPLENDID by Julia Quinn
    MR. IMPOSSIBLE by Loretta Chase

    Probably more but brain is cheeze.

  38. eponymous said on 04.20.07 at 09:39 PM • [comment link]

    Dark Moon Defender, by Sharon Shinn (my favorite of the 12 Houses series, but it really helps to have read the two previous books first)

  39. Meredith said on 04.20.07 at 10:00 PM • [comment link]

    No Laura Kinsale? How can this be!

    Flowers from the Storm (You know, we should take a poll, because I find that those of us who like this book don’t like For my Lady’s Heart, and vice versa)

    Lord Carstair’s Bride by Mary Balogh

    Gone with the Wind

    And now I’m drawing a complete blank. Must be Friday afternoon.

  40. Mollie said on 04.20.07 at 10:05 PM • [comment link]

    Definitely Gabaldon’s Outlander!

  41. Laila said on 04.20.07 at 10:12 PM • [comment link]

    Nevile Shute’s A Town Like Alice.  It was also made into a terribly romantic miniseries.

  42. Kimberly said on 04.20.07 at 11:46 PM • [comment link]

    I agree with everyone who mentioned Jane Austen. I love that her heroines are smart and capable.

    Jane Eyre- Bronte
    Rebecca-Du Maurier (a classic of Romantic suspense. Also one of my favorite movies.
    I also remember reaing a lot of Mary Stewart, especially her Merlin series

  43. Monika said on 04.21.07 at 12:03 AM • [comment link]

    As mentioned:
    Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers

    Also…
    The Marquise of O - Heinrich von Kleist (and everything else by him)
    The lady with the dog - Anton Checkhov

    And some stuff in German (Sommer in Lesmona by Marga Berck is amazing; I realise all my favorite romantic stories are from when I was 16 or so and have not changed since)

    I only started reading ‘Romance’ novels quite recently, so cannot tell which ones will stick.

  44. skapusniak said on 04.21.07 at 12:53 AM • [comment link]

    Another vote for each of:

    Much Ado About Nothing
    Persuasion
    and
    Cyrano De Bergerac

    ...for the Classics slots.

    Obligatory Georgette Heyer Pick:
    Frederica (sorry Venetia fans)

    Compulsary Kathleen Woodiwiss Selection:
    Plumping for Come Love a Stranger on the grounds of outrageous plot-device overload! (and possibly also because I haven’t actually ever read The Flame and the Flower)

    Inevitable JAK book (I hear y’alls eyes rolling all the way from here in Edinburgh, Scotland, stop that now!):
    Wildest Hearts - Jane Anne Krentz

    Sci-Fi (Special Liaden Division)
    Conflict of Honors - Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (just pips Scout’s Progress at the post. Also, Miri and Val Con get disqualified due being spread across more than one book)

    Sci-Fi (non-Liaden Division)
    Restoree - Anne McCaffrey

    Mystery
    Pass. (Mysteries are a mystery to me, clearly I need to check out these Whimsey and Vane people)

    Horror:
    Ummm I’m really stretching to think of something appropriate here, eeerrr, The Mummy - Anne Rice, oh and I guess the classic Carmilla - Sheridan Le Fanu (but remember that, as all the authors tell us they’ve been told, the flavour of romance he’s being coy about in there just doesn’t sell!).

    Fantasy
    Another Pass. (*sigh* Sharing Knife, you’re just too recent for this sort of list, and too cut in half, and with your second half not out yet, so I haven’t read you all yet. Bad publishers! No Biscuit!)

  45. endy said on 04.21.07 at 01:06 AM • [comment link]

    Persuasion
    Pride and Prejudice
    Bet Me
    Arabella
    Cotillion
    Charming Grace
    Lord of Scoundrels
    After All These Years

    Hey you rebels—haven’t you heard Gabaldon go on and on and on about Outlander not being a romance?

  46. Eliza said on 04.21.07 at 01:39 AM • [comment link]

    Another vote for His Dark Materials. Not a Romance in the strictest sense of the word, but Will and Lyra are the quintessential love that brings you out of childhood.

    My favourite romantic story, possibly of all time, is the retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth within Apuleius’s “The Golden Ass” - it’s got everything you’d want in a romance, including a HEA. And Hector and Andromache in the Illiad had a lovely romantic relationship, even if it didn’t have the HEA.

    Other than that… Archangel by Sharon Shinn, and Outlander by Diana Galbaldon.

  47. spinsterwitch said on 04.21.07 at 01:43 AM • [comment link]

    Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

    I’m sure there are more, but I have literally read 1000s of books and live in a studio apartment, so I can only keep a rare few….thus I don’t remember names.

  48. Chris said on 04.21.07 at 02:31 AM • [comment link]

    Dr Zhivago

  49. Kendra said on 04.21.07 at 02:59 AM • [comment link]

    Elizabeth Lowell: Only Love, Too Hot to Handle, Forbidden

    Anne Stuart: To Love a Dark Lord, Moonrise, Nightfall

    Judith McNaught: Until You

    Susan Elizabeth Phillips: Heaven, Texas

    Linda Howard: Dream Man, After the Night

    Meagan McKinney: Fair is the Rose

    Suzanne Brockmann: Over the Edge

    Julie Anne Long: The Secret to Seduction

    Lisa Kleypas: Dreaming of You, Because You’re Mine

    Jennifer Crusie: Crazy for You

    LaVyrle Spencer: Vows

    Julia Quinn: The Duke & I

    Mary Jo Putney: Thunder & Roses

  50. Jackie L. said on 04.21.07 at 03:38 AM • [comment link]

    Ursula K. LeGuin: The Dispossed.

    Georgette Heyer:  The Unknown Ajax
                Venetia
                Fredericka
                The Toll Gate
                Death in the Stocks
                Grand Sophy

    Linda Howard:  Cry No More

    Nora Roberts:  Birthright
              Northern Lights
              Hidden Riches
              True Betrayals
              (Etc.)

    Lois McMaster Bujold:  Civil Campaign
                    Komarr

    Suzanne Brockmann:  Gone Too Far

    Jayne Ann Krentz:  Absolutely, Positively

    Elizabeth Lowell:  Amber Beach series
                Running Scared

    LaVryle Spenser:  Morning Glory

    Dorothy L. Sayers:  Busman’s Honeymoon
                  Gaudy Night

  51. Elle said on 04.21.07 at 05:14 AM • [comment link]

    Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion

    Georgette Heyer’s Frederica

    Diana Gabaldron’s Outlander

    Laura London’s (AKA The Curtis’) The Windflower

    Patricia Gaffney’s To Have and To Hold and To Love and To Cherish

    Judith Ivory’s Bliss, Black Silk and Untie My Heart

    Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm and Seize the Fire

    Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife

    Judith McNaught’s Kingdom of Dreams

    Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind

    Jennifer Crusie’s Welcome To Temptation

  52. MamaNice said on 04.21.07 at 05:44 AM • [comment link]

    Yes! to the Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series! & I’d like to add Morgan Llywelyn’s work.
    Yes! to Flowers From the Storm (BTW, I also like For My Lady’s Heart too) my first LK book was Prince of Midnight, I was hooked - and love em all - but favorite is “FFTS” for sure.
    Yes! To KMM’s Highlander series.

    Each of these selections appeals to a different aspect of what I find romantic. From intense and enduring to inspiring and touching to sexy and fun.

  53. Rebecca James said on 04.21.07 at 06:15 AM • [comment link]

    Love Story by Erich Segal - both the book and the movie broke my heart.

    Villette by Charlotte Bronte

    I think I LIKE crying

  54. Sam said on 04.21.07 at 06:17 AM • [comment link]

    Someone to watch over me by Lisa Kleypas

    The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

    Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

    Moonlit by Emma Jenson

    Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

  55. Bimbo said on 04.21.07 at 06:36 AM • [comment link]

    Suzanne Brockman:
    Flashpoint
    Hot Target
    Everyday, Average Jones

    Lisa Kleypas:
    Dreaming of You
    Scandal in Winter

    Julia London:
    Extreme Bachelor

    Teresa Medeiros:
    Yours Until Dawn
    Lady of Conquest

    Catherine Anderson:
    Keegan’s Lady
    SImply Love

    Katie MacAlister:
    Aisling Grey series
    Men in Kilts

    KMM:
    Anything by her, really, but perticularly Kiss of the Highlander. I mean, he went to sleep for 500 years just to see her again? Come on!

    Johanna Lindsey:
    Gentle Rogue

    Kresley Cole:
    The Price of Pleasure

    Cindy Bonner:
    Lily - This is a very old book, one of my 1st romance, ending was hanging but the story was heartwrenching.

  56. Bimbo said on 04.21.07 at 06:41 AM • [comment link]

    One more!

    Michelle Jerott - A Great Catch

  57. Liz said on 04.21.07 at 08:25 AM • [comment link]

    Reading through the messages brought back so many wonderful reads.

    I found Like Water for Chocolate on my daughter’s bookshelf when I was having a clear out recently.  We both loved that and it’s definitely one for the list.

    My list generally doesn’t include those great sweeping stories that get labelled “great”.  They tend to be the books I return, though.  Re-read when life throws curves.  Almost any book by some of the authors named would do it, but these are a few of my “greats”.

    Persuasion, Austen
    Bet Me, Crusie
    Dream a Little Dream, SEP
    Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare
    Venetia, A Civil Contract, Heyer
    The Colour of Snow, Kate Fenton

  58. CrankyOtter said on 04.21.07 at 08:41 AM • [comment link]

    Over the Edge by Suzanne Brockmann
    Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
    The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
    Slightly Wicked by Mary Balogh
    Joint Forces by Catherine Mann
    Take a Chance on Me by Susan Donovan
    Mackenzie’s Pleasure by Linda Howard
    Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie
    Menage by Emma Holly
    Identity Unknown by Suzanne Brockmann

    I’ve got more, but I don’t want too much dilution.

  59. annanickle said on 04.21.07 at 09:16 AM • [comment link]

    For the Jane Eyre cohort, count another one…

    Others on my list;

    Deerskin—Robin McKinley (the woman can do no wrong and this book is her at her best; a love story first and foremost in that it teaches a young woman how to love herself again after a trauma which allows her to see the love around her…also it’s a retelling of a fairytale, something R. McKinley excels at, so bonus).

    Anne of the Island— L.M. Montgomery, the best of the series in my humble etc.

    And there is Wolf in Waiting— Rebecca Flanders…a little gem of a thing, so well written I wanted it to go on for forever.

    A Ring of Endless Light— M. L’Engle, from her “Meet the Austins” series. Young Adult, I know, but I fell in l.o.v.e with Adam (main male character of the book) at the age of 14 and have been looking for him ever since and if that isn’t a good sign I don’t know what is…also, it’s L’Engle so multi level meanings and angst are included with the romance; I was young, the angst called to me.

    And a special thanks to the Bitchery what posted, I have not read a few of the books listed and am making myself a sticky note right after I post; new books to read, hurrah for me!

  60. Julie said on 04.21.07 at 11:38 AM • [comment link]

    No contest, it has to be Dorothy Dunnett’s ‘Checkmate’ (but read the preceding five books first).

  61. Darla said on 04.21.07 at 01:29 PM • [comment link]

    Oh, yes, Rachel.  Atlas Shrugged.  Makes my little heart go pitty-pat every time I read it.  Hey, it’s got both the true love and the unrequited love. 

    And I’ll agree with Bonnie’s suggestion of Honest Illusions, CrankyOtter’s suggestion of Menage, and everybody who said Checkmate (ah, Lymond!) and Bet Me.

    Tonithegreat—yes!  thanks for reminding me of The Scarlet Pimpernel.  Fabulous love story.

    I’ll add Freedom and Necessity by Steven Brust & Emma Bull.

    Then I’d fill in the rest of my top ten with any random Kinsales.  Starting with Shadowheart, because it was my first.

  62. B.E. Sanderson said on 04.21.07 at 04:00 PM • [comment link]

    Add another vote for Jane Eyre. 

    I picked up a romance when I was a teen that I’ve held onto ever since - King of the Castle by Victoria Holt.  It’s similar to Jane Eyre, but happier.

    I’d list more but at one point or another, everyone else has mentioned the best ones.

    And yes, Atlas Shrugged has an awesome romance aspect to it.  =oD

  63. seton said on 04.21.07 at 07:13 PM • [comment link]

    Another vote for the following:

    P&P—austen
    CYRANO DE BEREGERAC
    IVANHOE
    OUTLANDER
    THUNDER & ROSES—MJP
    TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE
    SEIZE THE FIRE—Kinsale
    FOR MY LADY’S HEART—Kinsale
    BLACK SILK—Ivory
    KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR—Deveraux
    SCARLET PIMPERNEL
    MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING—Shakes
    GWTW—Mitchell

    Flowers from the Storm (You know, we should take a poll, because I find that those of us who like this book don’t like For my Lady’s Heart, and vice versa)

    seton: Those are my two favorite Kinsales. FMLH being #1.

  64. BevQB said on 04.21.07 at 08:10 PM • [comment link]

    Okay, here goes- these are the first ones that came to mind:

    Menage Emma Holly
    Across the Sea Irene Maillol
    Son of the Morning Linda Howard
    A Gentleman’s Wager Madelynne Ellis
    The Proud Breed Celeste DeBlasis (thanks to Laurie Breton for the reminder)

    Within a series:
    Devil’s Bride Stephanie Lauren’s Cynster series
    Skye O’Malley Bertrice Small’s Skye O’Malley series
    Tempting the Beast and Elizabeth’s Wolf from Lora Leigh’s Breed series
    Darkfever from Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series
    Seduced by Moonlight from Laurell Hamilton’s Merry Gentry Series
    Blue Moon and Narcissus in Chains from Laurell Hamilton’s Anita Blake series

    I just KNOW I’ll probably kick myself later for some I forgot.

    Bev(QB)

  65. Tamara said on 04.22.07 at 05:18 AM • [comment link]

    Gone with the Wind is my all time favourite romantic story

    it doesn’t have a happy ending but in the scheme of things that doesn’t effect the romantic impact of this story…the main characters are so perfectly flawed that you can’t help but love them and the romance that they share

  66. MT said on 04.22.07 at 06:15 AM • [comment link]

    Can’t believe I had to read so far down to find The Time Traveller’s Wife.

    A second for Lord of the Rings, though for the Eowyn/Faramir love story.

    And finally… The Great Gatsby.  Not a happy ending, but c’mon, don’t you wish you were someone’s Daisy?

  67. Camille said on 04.22.07 at 09:14 AM • [comment link]

    Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
    Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
    Sleeping Beauty by Judith Ivory
    Devil on Horseback by Victoria Holt
    Banners of Silk by Rosalind Laker
    Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
    The Slightest Provocation by Pam Rosenthal

  68. Camille said on 04.22.07 at 09:15 AM • [comment link]

    The Ladies Delight by Emile Zola

    (Nearly forgot this one! Love the ending on this one!)

  69. Beth said on 04.22.07 at 01:54 PM • [comment link]

    This is probably the most obscure book ever, but I love it to bits:

    The Ordinary Princess, by M.M. Kaye

    So it’s not a sweepingly romantic novel, it’s a fairy tale, but it’s very, very sweet.

  70. BelladS said on 04.22.07 at 02:42 PM • [comment link]

    i agree with meredith; couldn’t believe nobody had listed Kinsale yet. do you know how many copies of Flowers i’ve bought because i’ve loaned it and never gotten back? (btw, i like Heart, too, but Flowers is way better)

    Jane Eyre
    Scarlet Pimpernel
    any Anne of…
    Raum, by Carl Sherrell.
    any Garwood HISTORICAL, esp Lion’s Lady
    Wishes, by Devereaux - remember when he ate all the apples? *sigh*.
    Miss Emmaline and the Archangel, Rachel Lee
    Night Fire, Catherine Coulter
    No Quarter Given, Lindsay Mckenna
    Rainbows and Rapture, Rebecca Paisley
    Morning Glory, LaVyrle Spencer
    Warrior’s Woman, Johanna Lindsey
    Knight of a Trillion Stars, Dara Joy

    Ghost, the Patrick Swayze movie.
    Buffy and Spike. yes, i know, but i still rooted for those two to have a HEA.

  71. Sandra Schwab said on 04.22.07 at 02:42 PM • [comment link]

    I picked up a romance when I was a teen that I’ve held onto ever since - King of the Castle by Victoria Holt.

    Aaargh! How could I’ve forgotten Victoria Holt? My favourite of hers is Devil on Horseback.

    Beth, I totally agree: Kaye’s The Ordinary Princess is a very sweet book.

  72. Lauren Willig said on 04.22.07 at 06:21 PM • [comment link]

    So many of mine have already been mentioned (huzzah for “The Blue Castle” and “Nine Coaches Waiting”!), but I have to add:

      M.M. Kaye: “Trade Wind”
      Judith McNaught: “Almost Heaven”
      Fanny Burney: “Evelina”
      Jane Austen:  “Persuasion”
      Kathleen Winsor:  “Forever Amber”
      Robin McKinley:  “The Blue Sword”

  73. NC said on 04.22.07 at 09:43 PM • [comment link]

    Go out of town for a few days and it seems like it might almost be too late to add in.  I do (of course!) love romance, but I frequently find my favorite stories take a bit longer to tell.  As it is here are a few I don’t think have made it on a list yet that I really love.

    Sci-Fi/Fiction
    Lions of Al-Rassan (Guy Kay):  awesome and really interesting heroine
    The Oracle Glass (Judith Riley)

    Romance
    Keeper of the Dream (P. Williams):  one of the first I read and still a favorite

  74. jocelynnesimone said on 04.22.07 at 09:43 PM • [comment link]

    I, too, have to put in my vote for Persuasion by Jane Austen. Also, The Princess Bride, The Lord of the Rings, and Gone with the Wind, and I would like to add one of my personal favorites… Phedre and Joscelin from the Kushiel’s series by Jacqueline Carey. (And no,I don’t just adore him because we share a name… really.)

  75. Molly said on 04.22.07 at 10:22 PM • [comment link]

    . . . why are they comparing fiction to Brangelina or whatever?  “It draws people to reading again?” What the hell? I love reading, but when I had to read Wuthering Heights for a class assignment, I had trouble getting through the cliff notes.  And I could go on for a while about how I don’t see Romeo and Juliet as a romance.

    But I digress.

    Bujold’s Shards of Honor
    The Princess Bride

  76. Marci said on 04.22.07 at 10:38 PM • [comment link]

    Classics:

    Pride & Prejudice
    Midsummer Night’s Dream
    Beauty and The Beast


    Modern:

    Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters

    Private Scandals - Nora Roberts

    The Secret - Julie Garwood

    Romancing Mister Bridgerton - Julia Quinn

    Naked In Death & Glory In Death - J.D. Robb

    Charlie All Night - Jennifer Crusie

    The Unsung Hero - Suzanne Brockmann

  77. hollygee said on 04.22.07 at 11:02 PM • [comment link]

    Crusies, but I will limit myself to Welcome to Temptation and Fast Women

    Austen, P & P

    Alcott, Little Women

    Heyer, Unknown Ajax and A Civil Contract

    Laura Ingalls Wilder, These Happy Golden Years

    Bristow, Celia Garth

    All of these are the comfort reads that I return to again and again.

  78. J Urbik said on 04.23.07 at 01:04 AM • [comment link]

    Hello.  Several people have mentioned M.M. Kaye’s Tradewinds.  I have recently acquired it and have not read it yet.  However, M.M. Kaye wrote one book that I have bought for my self at least ten times (it is so good i keep giving it to people and getting myself a new copy).  I also make sure to give it as part of a christmas gift or birthday gift one in her life to mostgirls I am related to (and with 15 nieces and nephephs and assored cosins to match…)

    The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye

  79. Darlene Marshall said on 04.23.07 at 01:15 AM • [comment link]

    I was thinking of YA novels that I’d put on the list.  Perhaps we need a second category?  Some people have mentioned the Anne of Green Gables books.  I’d add to the YA list these:

    Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
    Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
    Sharon Shinn’s YA Romances—Safekeeper’s Secret; Truthteller’s Tale; Dream-Maker’s Magic;
    Stardust by Neil Gaiman
    The novels of Sally Watson (Witch of the Glen, etc.)

  80. Josie said on 04.23.07 at 01:33 AM • [comment link]

    Persuasion is the only Austen I haven’t read and I can’t think why not… Might have to rectify that very soon!

    Jane Eyre - Bronte
    P & P - Austen
    Time Traveller’s Wife - Niffeneger(sp?)
    Bet Me - Crusie
    Match Me If You Can - Phillips
    Duke and I - Quinn
    After Midnight - Medieros
    Dreaming of You - Kleypas

  81. Sheena said on 04.23.07 at 06:24 AM • [comment link]

    Lots of my favourites are already here, which shows what great taste The Bitchery has!

    Absolutely these:

    Neville Shute, A Town Like Alice
    Baroness Orzcy, The Scarlet Pimpernel
    Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
    M.M. Kaye, The Ordinary Princess
    L.M. Mongomery, Anne of the Island (though I also love the Leslie/Owen story in Anne’s House of Dreams)
    Jane Austen, Persuasion
    Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night and Busman’s Honeymoon (what do people think of Thrones, Dominations?)
    Georgette Heyer, Cotillion, These Old Shades, Frederica, Arabella, Friday’s Child
    Audrey Niffenegger, The Time-Traveller’s Wife
    Diana Gabaldon, Cross-stitch and Voyager
    William Golding, The Princess Bride

    and can I add:
    Mary Renault, The Charioteer, and The Last of the Wine
    Ruth Park, Playing Beatie Bow, Swords and Crowns and Rings
    Sharon Penman, Here be Dragons
    Nikki Gemmell, Lovesong
    Juliet Marillier, Son of the Shadows

    Hope that’s not more than my fair share!

  82. Qadesh said on 04.23.07 at 07:40 AM • [comment link]

    Add another to the Jane Eyre bandwagon, along with P&P, S&S and I wouldn’t even raise a stink if The Scarlett Pimpernel made it. 

    For the modern contributions mine would include:

    Night Play - Sherrilyn Kenyon
    Always a Lady - Sharon Sala
    Devil’s Bride - Stephanie Laurens
    Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
    Kiss of the Highlander - Karen Marie Moning
    Dark Lover - JR Ward

  83. Roslyn Holcomb said on 04.23.07 at 04:02 PM • [comment link]

    Dang, I forgot two:

    Lindsey: Angel
    SEP: Heaven, TX and Breathing Room

  84. runswithscissors said on 04.23.07 at 05:11 PM • [comment link]

    It’s been very interesting, looking at what other people have chosen as greatest romance stories and thinking about my own list and what makes a romance ‘great’. 

    When I started mentally selecting my own shortlist, I realised that a lot of my favourite romance writers weren’t represented ... in part possibly because I found it too difficult to select just one.  But also, I think, because (and this might not make sense to anyone other than me!) my favourite writers don’t/haven’t necessarily written my favourite books!

    Anyway, my own list of romances that make my heart clutch in my chest – most of them have been mentioned already:

    Mary Stewart – Nine Coaches Waiting
    Nora Roberts – Chesapeake Bay Quartet
    Baroness Orczy – The Scarlet Pimpernel
    Dorothy Dunnett – Checkmate (though absolutely agree you have to read them all to appreciate how amazing it is when you go from Philippa hating Francis as a child to ... well, it’s worth the wait!)
    MM Kaye – Trade Wind

    And possibly the best of them all: Eva Ibbotson’s A Company of Swans.

  85. Qadesh said on 04.23.07 at 06:41 PM • [comment link]

    *pounds head into wall* Dumb, dumb, dumb, I forgot one.

    Naked in Death - JD Robb/Roberts

    Any in the In Death series would do, but since it is the first in series and Eve and Roarke get together, let’s start there.  Shutting up now.

  86. Nifty said on 04.23.07 at 06:59 PM • [comment link]

    <

    I’ve heard her.  (Or read about it.)  I think that OUTLANDER is more of a romance than the other books in the series.  Doesn’t romance have a basic formula:  boy meets girl, boy and girl go through lots of stuff while falling in love with one another, boy and girl have a HEA.  Outlander fits the bill for that. I’m not sure I think of any of the others as being a romance, per se, although I think of the series as a whole as being a work of romance.

  87. Janetm said on 04.23.07 at 07:41 PM • [comment link]

    Wives and Daughters, Mrs. Gaskell.
    Villette, Charlotte Bronte
    Daniel Deronda, George Eliot
    (my big three)

  88. leslieW said on 04.23.07 at 09:00 PM • [comment link]

    Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane are perfect, from Strong Poison through Thrones, Dominations.
    Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes in all of the Laurie King mysteries—a relationship that develops in a multitude of ways.
    Persuasion, of course.
    Any and all Loretta Chase, esp. Sandalwood Princess and The English Witch
    SEP: It had to be you, Nobody’s baby but mine, Heaven Texas
    Kleypas: On any random day, any of her books
    Crusie: see Kleypas!
    Howard: MacKenzie’s Mountain
    Feather: Vixen

  89. Jess said on 04.23.07 at 11:21 PM • [comment link]

    I tried to put together a list from different genres of romance…

    Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

    Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

    Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie

    Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward

    The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

    Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

    Archangel by Sharon Shinn

    Gabriel’s Ghost by Linnea Sinclair

  90. Annie said on 04.24.07 at 07:17 AM • [comment link]

    I just had to stop lurking to mention a few:

    Donati’s Into the Wilderness series
    Austen’s P&P and Persuasion
    Bronte’s Jane Eyre
    Rosenthal’s The Bookseller’s Daughter
    Gabaldon’s Outlander series

  91. isfive said on 04.24.07 at 09:02 PM • [comment link]

    ooh, someone mentioned wives and daughters by elizabeth gaskell ... sigh. also concur with the austens, jane eyre, scarlet pimpernel, little women, ivanhoe (*must* get another copy), time traveller’s wife, much ado, etc.

    add:
    a room with a view and passage to india, e.m. forster
    summer of my german soldier, bette green (i think ...)
    the thorn birds, colleen mccollough
    *sigh* i know there are more, but i can’t remember them. oh, and for films (it was on the film list from a month or so ago), indochine. *le sigh*

  92. Victoria said on 04.26.07 at 01:06 AM • [comment link]

    Actually, as much as I love Jenny Crusie’s books, I don’t think of them as the most romantic stories evah because oftentimes they are so *bitter*, hello Fast Women. Not to say that they’re aren’t amazing and amazingly fun to read.

    As numerous others have said, definitely Dorothy Dunnett’s Francis and Philippa arc. The Windflower. Judith McNaught’s Perfect, also Once and Always. Patricia McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. Anything Laura Kinsale (cannot choose!) Georgette Heyer’s Devil’s Cub.

    Done now.

  93. Sheena said on 04.26.07 at 02:13 AM • [comment link]

    Oh, can I add “Katherine” by Anya Seton?

  94. Kaitlin said on 04.26.07 at 02:23 AM • [comment link]

    Aw, favorite romances… *sigh*

    Lessee…he-he

    LaVyrle Spencer:  Years

    Mercedes Lackey:  The Arrows Trilogy *sniffle*

    Linda Howard:  Son of the Morning

    Nora Roberts:  Jewels of the Sun (actually, that whole trilogy)

    JD Robb:  I don’t know how to pick just one because each of them deals with Eve & Roarke in different ways.  I’ll say Naked in Death because that’s when they met & I love that book.  :)

    Cindy Gerard:  To the Brink.  Whole Bodyguard series ROCKS, but this is my favorite one.  :)

    Anne McCaffrey:  The Rowan

    Jude Deveraux:  The Summerhouse…not necessarily a full romance, but it’s about loving yourself, which is always good.  :-D

  95. Minx Malogoski said on 04.26.07 at 03:59 PM • [comment link]

    My favorites are:

    ~Hidden fires - Sandra Brown
    ~One pink rose - Julie Garwood
    ~Still Mr and Mrs - Mary McBride
    ~Size 12 is not fat: A Heather Wells mystery - Meg Cabot

    And YA romance:
    ~Mediator series - Meg Cabot

    There’s a LOT more but I can’t think of any right now. Maybe later.

    Bye beeyotches!

  96. Denise said on 04.26.07 at 10:25 PM • [comment link]

    LaVyrle Spencer’s Hummingbird

    Dorothy Dunnett’s King Hereafter

    Mary Balogh’s The Secret Pearl

    Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander

    Richard Bach’s The Bridge Across Forever

  97. Darlene Marshall said on 04.27.07 at 03:37 AM • [comment link]

    Denise, I think you’re the only person I’ve met who’s also read King Hereafter.  I loved it.  A very different hero from Lymond, but a wonderful book.

  98. Qadesh said on 04.27.07 at 06:35 AM • [comment link]

    “Mercedes Lackey:  The Arrows Trilogy *sniffle*”

    Kaitlin, my niece just turned sixteen earlier this month and in addition to passing along to her the family pearls, I also sent to her The Arrows Trilogy.  I told her I’ve waited her entire life to send those books to her and I hoped she enjoyed them as much as I did.  I cry everytime I read them.  I didn’t even think of those.  Great choice.

  99. Erin said on 04.27.07 at 09:06 AM • [comment link]

    I suppose, because I prefer my romance with a m/m bent (*snerk*) to it, that while I do have one of Mercedes Lackey’s trilogies in my romantic favorites, it’s her Last Herald-Mage one, not the Arrows one. Vanyel is such a whiny little emo bitch, but I can’t help loving him anyway.

  100. romaddict said on 04.27.07 at 12:31 PM • [comment link]

    Got to add (because I just finished re-reading it yesterday) An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer.  Her best love story ever is between Bab Childe and Charles Audley and the way she writes about the approach of the battle of Waterloo and the battle itself is masterly.

    Seconding the Francis of Lymond series.  Superlative.

  101. Qadesh said on 04.27.07 at 07:13 PM • [comment link]

    Erin, “whiny little emo bitch”?  Yep, that describes Vanyel.  Cried during that one too.  Marion Zimmer Bradley was one of the first mainstream fantasy authors to have a main character who was gay.  And she had to fight like mad with DAW books for him not to be edited out of her Darkover series.  Years later here comes Misty Lackey and she wants to write *gasp* a trilogy with a gay protaganist!  She had the same problems.  I’m thankful they both got their wish.

  102. Shelley said on 05.23.07 at 03:56 AM • [comment link]

    Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Browning
    A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
    Faking It, Jennifer Crusie
    A Monstrous Regiment of Women, Laurie King
    The Armies of Daylight, Barbara Hambly
    The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley
    Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers
    Mystic and Rider, Sharon Shinn

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