Now that a great many of us are Smart Bitches, thanks to the membership feature of this here site, I have a question to the general Bitchery: What is your A book?
I don’t necessarily mean your all-time favorite, since sometimes the book you call your most lovely favorite is a book wherein you must acknowledge the flaws in the structure or plotting or character, and love the book despite its imperfections.
I mean the book that made you go, “Well, beat me with a donkey’s ass, that was a fucking awesome romance novel!”
For me, there are desperately few of these books: Bitten by Kelley Armstrong is one of my A books, because it just knocked me over and I still think about it. It was also the book that created my utter fascination with paranormal romance.
Also, Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, because this book beat down the weeds in the side yard of the estate of romance and created a whole new field of readng for me: The Holy-Shit Good Romance. Can you imagine the editor’s meeting for that one? “No, really, he’s a immoral, licentious duke, but he had a stroke, and she’s a Quaker, so he’s locked in an institution unable to communicate clearly, and she’s locked in to a different institution that she loves but feels she is betraying – hey, where are you going? This is too a romance!”
I’m still working on my “All About Sarah” entry (I have twice as many cats plus a dog so I have to take a lot more pictures) but since one of the questions is about my A book, I want to know- what’s yours?
Menage by Emma Holly – Technically it’s romantica but it was my first Holly book and I was blown away. It was HOT but more than that, it had real emotional pull. I cared about the characters and I didn’t expect to.
Moonrise by Anne Stuart – My first Anne Stuart book and like my experience with EH, it blew me away. It was so different than anything I’d read before b/c it was so DARK. I’m pretty jaded but the end shocked me b/c the hero admitted to something very atypical for a romance hero. It seemed like such a risk by the author and I ate it up.
The Duke by Gaelen Foley – My pattern appears to be loving books that buck the trend. In The Duke the heroine is a courtesan (forced by poverty but still…) and surprise, surprise she’s not ashamed of it.
Judith McNaught circa 1990’s – My affinity for romance novels had just started and for some reason JM’s books just got me. They always seemed to push the right emotional buttons. Paradise, Something Wonderful, Almost Heaven, Until You, Once & Always, Double Standards…I ate them up.
A Kiss In the Dark by Meryl Sawyer – I think this was her 1st (and best) book. This and Anne Stuart’s Moonrise turned me on to romantic suspense in the mid 90’s.
Here are some I’ve read recently:
Contact by Evelyn Vaughn.
Wow, this woman writes great series romance.
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris.
Harris’s voice is terrific and unique.
When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn.
This is the first book I read by Quinn and I LOVED it. Still do.
Oh, I know EXACTLY what you mean.
When I am reading excellent fiction, there are moments when I forget I am reading and feel I am witnessing something, like I’m hidden away in the room with the characters. My consciousness of reading goes away. It’s like looking at a picture and forgetting it’s a picture, losing the frame, simply feeling I am entering it. I will call this Level A-1. Usually this feeling only lasts for a bit of dialogue, a few paragraphs, a scene.
Then there’s another equally delightful experience, when I am reading and truly pulled in, but more conscious of the artistry, the wheels turning. I think: “This is brilliant. Can she really do this? Can she get away with it? What is she going to do next?” This I will call Level A-2.
Judith Ivory gets me up to Level A-1 most often in these books:
Bliss, Dance
And to Level A-2, because she’s a more selfconscious artist, in:
Black Silk, Beast, Untie My Heart
Patricia Gaffney’s “To Have and to Hold” kept getting me to Level A-1
Laura Kinsale wavers in and out of Level A-1 for me. She’ll do it for a scene, for a dialogue exchange, then I drop back into remembering it’s fiction that I am reading. For me, oddly enough, the one where she manages this most consistently is “The Dream Hunter,” which I know a lot of people don’t like much. Parts of this felt to me as if I were watching a modern day couple battling their wills, an astonishing level of naturalism for a historical romance. (Like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” with George and Martha.) Whoa! I say and good for her.
Mostly, Kinsale’s at A-2, where I am admiring her artistry but not quite melding. “Flowers From the Storm,” amazing technically sustained performance, and “My Lady’s Heart” for the same reason. Bonus points for versatility, for these two fine books being so very different
Here are my A-list entries:
The Lover – Robin Schone
Menage – Emma Holly
One Starry Night – Mary Alice Kruesi
This Heart of Mine – Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Welcome to Temptation – Jennifer Crusie
Raspberry Crush – Jill Winters
Science fiction: Stephen Donaldson flawlessly manages the Perfect Bad Guy Transforms into Perfect Anti-Hero storyline, leaving me wishing like hell there was a plausible way for an HEA, in his Gap Series.
Plus, the Perfect Bad Guy to Anti-Hero calls another character Captain Sheep-fucker, which is a nice insult to add to your own repetoire, and
Plus plus, the spaceship chases conform to known laws of physics!
Kelley Armstrong was just a guest author at Marianne de Pierre’s discussion forum, Torley’s, from
June 1-3.
If you missed the session, but are interested in this author:
http://artesix.blogspot.com/2005/06/bookswriters-guest-author-sessions.html
(read guest author name, bio, links to books, click on link to enter board/participate)
or
http://torleys.proboards34.com/index.cgi?board=auth
(participate in current program, read archived discussions)
If you’d like to participate or pass along the info about the ongoing guest author sessions, feel free to drop by, or to pass along the info.
Next guest author (June): Richard Morgan
Must say that I have a more complete list of A-reads on my blog. However, the ones I mentioned were off the top of my head because dammit, I hate, hate, hate that I didn’t include Roberta Gellis and Kathleen Gilles Seidel. Love those two contemporary writes as well as Olga Bicos, too. Whose earlier books I’d recommned without thinking: Risky Games and Perfect Timing. Ok, I’m outta here.
Ok, I need to learn to reread my posts before hitting the SEND button.
Older books here:
Heather and Velvet by Teresa Medeiros. I loved the characterizations of both hero and heroine.
Son of the Morning by Linda Howard. I enjoyed the plot and liked both h/h.
OOhh…there’s only one romance novel that ever made me CRY…
Sweet Everlasting, Patricia Gaffney, the scene where she has to bury her poor dog!!
Any romance that can bring tears to my eyes—Holy Shit.
Other than that, anything by Laura Kinsale.
ummmmm….so many books to pick from, but here goes:
Kelley Armstrong snarls, claws, casts spells and does it SO WELL! Bitten, Stolen, Dime Store Magic, Industrial Magic…pick one – they’re ALL incredible. Haunted is nest on my TBR pile. Take a message; I’ll be having some QT with Kelley and the gang.
Nora Roberts’ Birthright. Go now & get it off the shelf for a re-read…you KNOW you wanna.
For some odd reason, I adored the book Charming the Prince by Teresa Medeiros. It was just too funny and so “out of the romance mold”. Gorgeous girl has a rough Cinderella-ish life, takes a chance on marrying a man she’s never met, turns out he’s looking for a babysitter/nanny/nursemaid for his passel of brats. Much hilarity ensues when said Cinderella join the kids and puts the familial smackdown on afforementioned smokin’ hot groom. Oh yeah…HELL YEAH. Bring it.
Any Anita Blakes – who cares if she’s turning into a menage-seeking, slutty trampolina with dibs on all of the hotties, both alive and undead? I like her. Makes me wanna be a necromancer/whatever she is.
Ahh, the Dark Hunters…*fanning self*. Why do they all have to be so damn perfect??? They’re like Lays Chips…you can’t stop at one.
Twin of Ice/Twin of Fire by Jude Devereaux: Yeah, there’s no accounting for campy, predictable and hokey romance. But I think these ones have that certain something that sets them apart.
Just about anydamnthing historical from Susan Johnson. Frick, but this chick can write the EEEEEEEEEEEROTIC luuuuurrrrveee scenes. Holy hell, I laughed, I cried, I needed a cigarette and cold shower afterwards. Try Brazen, Outlaw, Wicked, Pure Sin. Are these titles saying anything to you???
And there you have it. My personal list of faves. I’m adding more ALL the time.
This is a thread I adore, even though it’s way old. I’ve been hitting the library transfer service awfully hard since finding it.
I’ve read a ton of these after reading everyone’s recommendations, and my absolute favorite is When he was wicked, which I must say I didn’t see coming, especially after reading the comparatively tame Romancing Mr. Bridgerton. Talking dirty y’all, that book is HOT. I also loved the Shadow and the Star.
My personal list:
Sunshine – Robin McKinley. The only problem with this book is that it ended. Perfect, holy crap perfect. RM just blows me away, hers was the first fantasy book I ever read (the Hero and the Crown) in 6th grade, as well as the first book I ever read with a mention of Doing It. It would never have remained on my christian school shelf if anyone had known. It is incredible to me that 17 years later she is still putting out new books that are so incredibly fresh, so moving, and all so different. You can’t go wrong with her, buy the library. Ok that was long.
The Kushiel Series by Jacqueline Carey. Fucking hot, gorgeously written, incredible characters. Ahh Joscelin. Holy shit.
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. One book I was surprised not to see on this list. A straight up sweet little romance, always perks me up.
Pride and Prejudice. The gold standard.
These aren’t precisely romance, but the witch series by Kim Harrison is getting to be great. Way better than the first book lets on. A great love triangle of sorts, involving the main char, a bisexual vampire chick and a hot, hot vampire dude. Moral ambiguity, check. Sexy vampires, check. Ass kicking heroine who doesn’t make me want to scream, check.
Not a romance, but it’s a crime to leave it out of my a-list books. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. I can’t believe a Brit up and wrote the great american novel. Spectacular and smart, with a page and a half monologue that makes me holler YES YES YES. Also if you want to see something hot just look at the back of the book to see his picture. Oh dear god.
Awaken, My Love by Robin Schone. It’s the only good book she’s ever written, but Gods, it’s great.
The Masqueraders, by Georgette Heyer. Why is it that no other Heyer fan ever mentions this one? It’s perfect. It’s funny. Go buy it.
Miss Wonderful, by Loretta Chase. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard at a romance with serious hero/heroine issues. Hilarious, well-written, wonderful. Came home and threw it to my husband, demanding he read it already.