Billie Bloebaum, romance book buyer for Powell’s in the Portland Airport, is exercising the power of her handselling abilities online, and fields requests for books to read. Kimberly writes in with a Bookmatcher request:
Hi Sarah,
I was wondering if you could help me out. I usually read urban fantasy or fantasy books with strong romance elements. I’m ready to move on and expand my horizons a little. I remember that you have done a feature called The Bookmatcher and was wondering if you would do one for me. I would love to read more space romances (think Linnea Sinclair-LOVE her books!)
I also used to love reading books about the western frontier as a kid and was hoping to find some romance books in the genre (I’m thinking Little House on the Prairie for grown-ups)-no Christian books please. I’ve read some and I liked them ok but I’d rather try some prairie/frontier books without the Christian elements. Do you think you (or the Bitchery) can help me out?
Billie says:
Oooooh…
For Science Fiction Romance I would recommend Catherine Asaro, Elizabeth Bear (on whom I have a total stoopid fangirl author crush), Lois McMaster Bujold (though if she’s been visiting your site for any length of time that particular rec shouldn’t be necessary), Sharon Shinn, Robyn Owens, Jayne Castle (another pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz)… Some of these authors are more romance-y than others and some may be less Science Fictional than she’d like, but they’re all good to excellent writers. There’s a lot more out there, but it’s not an area I’ve read extensively in. It’s something I usually stumble across by accident because someone recommends a book or an author to me and it ends up being S-F with romance-y bits or Romance with science fictional bits.
The frontier stuff is even more of a challenge. However, I would recommend Jo Goodman’s ‘Never Love a Lawman’, which is quite good and has a nice high page count.
I’d also recommend Janet Fox’s ‘Faithful’, which is one of my favorite romances of the summer. However, it is YA, so if Kimberly’s looking for hot, steamy action, she should be warned that the only hot and steamy in this book is from geysers. (It’s set in Yellowstone, and, yeah, we could read all kinds of symbolism into the spewing that goes on, but is it really necessary? Fun, yes. Necessary, probably not.)
I hope that I’ve given Kimberly an idea of where she might start, but, honestly, I’m waiting to see what the Bitchery recommends so I can start adding to my reading list.
So, what’s on your space and frontier reading lists? Which books are your absolute faces? And come on, someone’s written space cowboys, right?
And if you’ve got a request for Billie, send it over to me at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom, with “Bookmatcher” in the subject line.
I loved the Flowers of the West trilogy by Millie Criswell. In particular, I remember Sweet Laurel- a temperance crusader and notorious saloonkeeper fall for each other. I think it came out in the mid-nineties. I had them out from the library and now I might have to go seek them out again.
Second, third and fourth getting the Firefly series on DVD. Combines the very best of Western with Sci-Fi in a clever way. And Mal, oh Mal…..sigh…. I love me some Mal.
On authors, in addition to Song of Scarabeaus (which I loved) I have kind of gotten hooked on Wen Spencer, but I think it’s more contemporary fantasy than Sci Fi. Try Tinker.
More uber-fantasy mixed with Sci Fi can be found in Justina Robson’s Quantum Gravity series the first of which is Keeping It Real. The romance in it is just lovely, though I’ll be honest and say that as much as I adored the books, some of it kind of floated above my head somewhere. It’s a demonstration of the author’s talent that I loved them *anyway* because I was so hooked on the characters.
Another enthusiastic vote for FIREFLY. Watch it. You’ll love it.
I completely agree with the Firefly suggestion. And while I loved Mal, Simon was always my favorite. Holy abs! or maybe that should be yummy abs…….
I know you didn’t want a technically Christian romance, but I’ve always loved Kristen Heiztman’s Diamond of the Rockies series. All 3 are set in gold-rush Colorado frontier, and the love story is well written to the point where you feel like you actually get to know the characters. The story doesn’t have a lot of religious theme; or I wouldn’t re-read it every few months. Same thing with Deanne Gist’s early books: A Bridge Most Begrudging, etc.
I wish I hadn’t packed up all of my books this yesterday! (moving soon) I’d probably have more to contribute. I’ll definitely be looking into some of these suggestions. Historical/frontier romance is one of my favorites.
For frontier/wilderness romantic fiction, I highly recommend the Sara Donati wilderness series. There are six in the series:
Into the Wilderness (Wilderness Saga 1)
Dawn on a Distant Shore (Wilderness, Book 2)
Lake in the Clouds (Wilderness, Book 3)
Fire Along the Sky (Wilderness, Book 4)
Queen of Swords (Wilderness, Book 5)
The Endless Forest (Wilderness, Book 6)
I listened to the audiobooks, and Kate Reading is an excellent narrator. The story is set after the Reveloutionary War & continues through to the War of 1812. A British spinster (age 27) comes to upstate New York to teach school and meets the son of Hawkeye & Cora for Hawthorne’s “The Last of the Mochians.” I just pictured Daniel Day-Lewis throughout!
Reading over what you want…I would highly recommend Bujold’s Sharing Knife series. Yes it’s fantasy, but there is a definite wilderness edge to it. And for her ‘space opera’ books I can say at the Baen Free Library they now have The Warriors Apprentice as a free download. I have it as an audio book, a dead tree book, and now on my Nook (thank you Baen/Bujold). It is the book I normally introduce people to the Miles Vorkosigan series with, even though Shards of Honor/Barrayar comes first in chronological order because once you Go Miles you don’t go back.
Right now Baen’s Free library has the first Miles Vorkosigan book by Bujold, The Warrior’s Apprentice, for free download. They have formatting for both Nook and Kindle. A wonderful introduction to both Lois’ writing, and her most famous character, Miles.
Cause once you go 4’11” hyperactive brittle boned hero you won’t go back.
sorry for the double post, I thought the first comment had not gone through
spamword: systems48 I need to check the systems 48 times before trusting that it is truely malfunctioning!
definitely Firefly FTW!
Captain Tightpants will never steer you wrong.
*laughs*
For Frontier – Roseanne Bittner’s Series – Savage Destiny—Sweet Prarie Passion – 7 books. The last book was written years after book 6 but it nicely ties up all the ends. I got hooked after I was babysitting for her sister in the mid-80’s. While waiting for her sister to come home – I picked up SD: SPP and devoured it – it was my first historical romance ever (and I think Bittner’s first published book) – its “not sexy” but – but has a very good romance and story line following Abbie/Zeke from the time they meet on a wagon train until she is in her 70s. Some of her other stand alone books are good too.
On the SF Front I would recommend all of the ones ID’d above and Patty O’Shea – “Ravyn Flight” and “Eternal Nights”.
If you’re into more graphic romances/Romantica (C), I highly recommend Sarah McCarty’s Promies series in the western historical romance category.
If you’re into more sensual romances, I highly recommend Sarah McCarty’s Promies series in the western historical romance category. I haven’t read all of them yet, but have really enjoyed the first three.
For futuristic/space romances in the same vein, I second the Shareem series by Allyson James. The only one of those I have’t read yet is “Calder.”
My comment didn’t post! I’ll try again. The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee. I read it a loooong time ago and vaguely remember it being good. You’ve got a human and a robot and everything against them. I can’t remember how it ended so I don’t know if it’s tragic or a HEA. But there you go.
For Science Fiction Romance, you might try Katherine Allred. She’s written Close Encounters and Close Contact.
well, for SFR (more R than SF) there’s always the JD Robb books. In my Borders, they’re filed under Mystery.
I second, third, fourth the Liaden books, which ought to be better known than they are.
And, for die-hard Bujold fans, Baen has an eARC of her latest Miles book, Cryoburn, available – it’ll be in hardback in mid-October, I believe. Since I couldn’t wait, I paid the $15 for the eARC, and am glad I did – it’s wonderful.
A couple on the SF side:
Debra Doyle and James D MacDonald: Mageworlds series
1 – Price of the Stars
2 – Starpilot’s Grave
3 – By Honor B’trayed
Romance, space pirates, family drama. And one of my favorite lines ever: “Are you the man who’s sleeping with my sister?”
Less romance-y but probably my favorite SF series in the last several years, Mike Shepherd’s Kris Longknife series.
@KimberlyD For Catherine Asaro, I recommend starting with SUNRISE ALLEY. The sequel, ALPHA, is also terrific. I’ve also heard good things about Asaro’s THE PHOENIX CODE.
For Lois McMaster Bujold, hie thee to a copy of CORDELIA’S HONOR. Great place to start.
I also recommend Jess Granger’s BEYOND THE RAIN if you like SFR with a lot of heart.
Susan Grant’s SUREBLOOD was a real swashbuckler of a read (I’ll be posting about all of its space pirate goodness at The Galaxy Express this Thursday, spoiler free if you want to check it out).
C.J. Barry’s UNMASKED is also good SFR, and also involves space pirates, rowrr!
If you want to try SFR with hard sf and lots of heat, KS Augustin’s IN ENEMY HANDS is a good read (also the first mix of hard sf and erotic romance that I know of).
I heartily recommend Sandra McDonald’s THE OUTBACK STARS. It’s more on the military SF side, but the romance is so compelling and has an HEA.
If you like teh funny, Gini Koch’s TOUCHED BY AN ALIEN is a riot.
I could go on, but allow me to direct you to a post I did about a list of SFR “must-reads.” I still need to update the list with tags and re-post, but there are 100 books there that represent the subgenre:
http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/2010/05/what-are-must-read-science-fiction.html
And thanks to everyone who recommended western romances. I was just talking to a friend a day ago about my desire to read more western romances, so I’m very happy to see this thread. It’s a great resource.
@Jody W. Thanks for the shout out!
Western/frontier recs.
Lorraine Heath; The English Rogues in Texas series. Set 1865. A Rogue in Texas, Never Love a Cowboy, Never Marry a Cowboy, The Outlaw and the Lady. Quite a few more after that which I haven’t read.
Sarah McCarty’s Hell’s Eight and Promises series.
Prince Charming by Julie Garwood. London to Montana. 1868. (it was good. really)
I whole-heartedly recommend Barbara Hambly. She’s written a whole lot of a whole lot, much of which is fantasy with a strong romantic element.
I especially recommend the Darwath Trilogy (turned into a series) and the Starhawk/Sunwolf books.
Another (Colonial) frontier recommendation: Kathleen E. Woodiwiss’s Petals on the River. It’s one of my two favorite books EVER! (The other is LaVyrle Spencer’s Morning Glory, which I also highly recommend, but it’s not frontier or science fiction.)
@Lyssa Thanks for the heads up on The Warrior’s Apprentice! I own it in pb but now I get to carry it around everywhere with me. Yay!
(I just ordered the Sharing Knife series after some contemplation. It’s good to have reaffirmation that I’m in for a treat.)
(I also figured out why I’m having such a difficult time remembering these books. The sad facts are that I rarely get to recommend books so that part of my brain has atrophied, and I just had a birthday so I’m getting older which means that the rest of my brain is…atrophying. Yeah.)
I’m not really familiar with many western type books, but I do know a few SciFi Romance ones. These are the ones that really stand out in my mind.
Planet X by Evangeline Anderson. I have read this one several times.
Cassiopeia by Nathalie Gray
This one is older, but Ravyn’s Flight by Patti O’Shea. (Still have my copy & now that I think about it, could be time for a reread)
There’s also the Hunters for Hire series, which is a series of books by different authors (all stand alone titles) revolving around bounty hunters in space. Those are available through Ellora’s Cave. Or you can find more information on them here. http://huntersforhire.wordpress.com
More SF/future/space romances I enjoyed:
The Water Crystal – Anya Bast
Fugitive Lovers – Jennifer Dunne
The Eternal Bond series – Christine d’Abo
His Sahvira – Reese Gabriel
Another frontier romance:
A Hearing Heart – Bonnie Dee (Liquid Silver e-book)
The hero is deaf, the heroine is a teacher in Broughton, Nebraska at the turn of the century. Loved it! More romance than steam, unlike many of my other suggestions ;>).
Off to Baen’s to find Bujold’s Sharing Knife series.
I’ll third the rec for Linda Lael Miller and second the one for Leigh Greenwood.
Berkley Diamond did a line of westerns back in the early/mid-1990s that you might find at your local used bookstore (my first books were in that line). They had flowers on the cover. And lots of mantitty and heroine hair.
I guess this is technically urban fantasy, but if you haven’t you should definitely read Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series.
Oh yeah. You should for sure watch Firefly. And Battlestar Galactica.
@BN
I am afraid the Sharing Knife series is not to be found at Baen. That series was published by Eos.
If you are looking for the e-version, you can find it at Diesel eBooks or Books On Board
For western romance, I’d recommend Carolyn Davidson or Cheryl St John. Or for a slightly different take on the subject, any of Kate Bridges’ stories set in the Canadian west. Sometimes her heroes are Mounties. My favorite Davidson is still the first one I read, Marriage By Chance: The hero wins half the heroine’s ranch in a poker game (her younger brother is a lousy poker player, as well as a general waste of space ).
From my email inbox:
Seconding the recommendation for Tanith Lee’s Silver Metal Lover. It is heart-wrenchingly tragic, in a good way. But don’t, for the love of all that’s holy, read the sequel Metallic Love, which rips the heart out of everything that made the first book so good.
Also seconding Barbara Hambly. One of my favorites of hers not mentioned is the standalone Strangers at the Wedding, where the hero and heroine have a Tracy-Hepburn thing going on.