In the comments, if you don’t mind, answer one or more of these questions:
1. Name a few of your favorite historical romances. Books you’d want with you if you were stuck some place for a long time.
2. Are there types of stories you miss?
3. Duke. Pro or Con?
I’ll answer to get things started.
Mary Balogh’s A Summer To Remember is one of my all time faves. I loved Amanda Quick’s Ravished. I loved Karen Robard’s Loving Julia.
I miss the the big honking saga. I wish there were more Gothics. Once, I read a Regency-Set vampire book and I totally hated it. But now I wouldn’t mind. I can’t explain that.
Pro.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not open to non-dukes.
Don’t want to think too hard about this…
1. Sherry Thomas’ Not Quite a Husband, Jude Deveraux’ The Duchess. (Though now that you mention Karen Robards, her Tiger’s Eye had a HUGE impact on me when I first started reading romance–that and Iris Johansen. I think I read The Magnificent Rogue a few hundred times).
2. No. I feel like I have more choice now rather than less–I can find whatever I’m hankering for.
3. Pro! I don’t want all dukes all the time, but I like having them in the mix.
I read Tiger’s Eye several times! Yes, there are more choices out there. I haven’t seen a saga, though. That might mean I haven’t been looking hard. I should go look.
1. This is too difficult, because there are so many! Books by Joanna Bourne, which repay the close careful reading you can do if you’re stuck somewhere for a while. Ditto C.S. Harris, Kate Ross, Tracy Grant, Adele Ashworth, etc.. Georgette Heyer for comfort. Lots of others I’d hate to be deprived of (I’m thinking desert islands here).
2. I’d like more romantic suspense of the Mary Stewart type, but historical. I read spy and mystery historicals instead (and enjoy them) but that’s what I’d really like more of. But no too scary – just like Mary S!
3. I don’t really mind whether he’s a Duke or not. But if he is, he has to act ducal – most Dukes written today do not! And so I suspect there’s more scope if he isn’t a Duke, so: con, but only for that reason.
Love the list!
Mary Stewart. Oh, yes. I miss those gothics!
The essex sisters by Eloisa james.yes to dukes, I not a big fan of the spy stories in historal books when they take over the story and the charcaters or put on the back burner.
Indeed to Eloisa James. I like a spy story where the romance gets its share. There are several great ones out there. Jo Bourne being among the best.
1. Courtney Milan’s Brother Sinister series, A Counterfeit Christmas Summons by Ava Stone, Fly with a Rogue and Lady Dearing’s Masquerade by Elena Greene, The Bridegroom Wore Plaid (MacGregor Trilogy, #1) by Grace Burrowes just to name a few of the best I’ve read recently.
2. I’d like more sweet historical romances. There seems to be a lot of unnecessary adult content in books. I don’t mind steamy and hot scenes if they have some meaning to the plot. However many times it wouldn’t change the story at all if those scenes had been left out.
3. Dukes are ok. I don’t mind having them nor do I think that having a duke in a historical romance is necessary.
Love your list of authors! I’m so glad so many of the traditional Regency authors are putting out their stories again. There are lots of the sweeter level stories available now, and that’s true in Trad or not.
1. I’d be happy with a random selection of Georgette Heyer, Miranda Neville, Pam Rosenthal, Julia Ross, Jo Beverley, and Carolyn Jewel (to name a few).
2. I miss the lyrical, lit fic-y, romances of Julia Ross and Pam Rosenthal. I would kill for new books by either of them.
3. Pro, but I want dukes who feel like real dukes. I want them to be busy! To have obvious responsibilities, commitments to the House of Lords, issues to solve with querulous tenants, political rivals, business accounts to review and land management issues to resolve with their agent. I want to see all this stuff impact their day to day life and occasionally interfere with their hedonistic purists and their wooing of the heroine.
Thank you, by the way.
And agreed. Busy dukes!
Here we go:
1. Keeper of the Dream by Penelope Williamson, The Bride & the Beast, Yours Until Dawn by Teresa Medeiros, Lord of Fire by Gaelen Foley, Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, and, of course Georgette Heyer, especially The Grand Sophy, Bath Tangle, Venetia, and The Unknown Ajax. Oh, and The Duke’s Double by Anita Mills. And The Wastrel by Margaret Moore.
2. I’m with Isobel: Can I have some more books by Julia Ross? Please????
3. Not quite sure about the masses of dukes. But I love ducks! 😉
Quack quack.
Snicker
Desert-island historicals: Untamed (Anna Cowan), Duke of Shadows (Meredith Duran), Not Quite a Husband (Sherry Thomas), A Lady Awakened (Cecilia Grant), Flowers from the Storm (Laura Kinsale).
I’m too new to the genre to miss anything, but the stack of well-written, true-to-men, M/M historical I’ve read is sort of…short. (Open to suggestions!)
Pro if he’s a damaged recluse. (But that goes for ANY hero.) Otherwise, give me a blacksmith, or carpenter, or mercenary — someone who gets his hands dirty.
You have named so many of my favorites!
For M/M historical I know I lot of people who loved Alex Beecroft’s False Colors.
Blacksmith. Mmmmm.
Thanks for recommending Beecroft!
Historical m/m:
Beecroft, Lee Rowan, Charlie Cochrane, Josh Lanyon (a few), Joanna Chambers (trilogy), Donald Hardy, Harper Fox (a couple).
Could I just copy Mia West’s list of authors and books?
If I had more time (I counted my ebook TBR pile the other day, and didn’t have strength left to count the paper books), I’d love to revisit some Mary Stewart that I read as a kid.
Dukes? Hmm. If they’re angsty (with genuine reason) or funny, sure.
Copy away! Everyone has great lists.
1. Heyer, obviously. Mr Impossible, Miss Wonderful and The Last Hellion by Loretta Chase. Flowers from the Storm by Kinsale.
2. I would like more books with better historical accuracy and better British English.
3. Con. I don’t mind the occasional one BUT I hate the way that it’s assumed that title = status in Regency society. Neither title nor wealth were the primary factors in determining social status. I’d like to see a few more Mr Darcys.
Love your choices. I loved Mr. Impossible!
I think aristocracy did = status, but it’s not the only thing that did. There were plenty of plain “Misters” who were in the elite class.
Oxford, I discovered when I was emailing someone at an Oxford College with a question about a student from the Regency era (grad school project) tracked the class of the students. For example, “mr. So and So, Plebian.” And that one word meant the person was a commoner and was likely admitted solely because someone who was NOT a commoner thought he had promise and got him admitted — could be a vicar, for example or a gentleman. But those students NEVER got out from under their plebian status while they were students.
1. Let’s see: An Unwilling Bride, Bound by Your Touch, The Devil’s Cub, To Have and To Holde, Untie My Heart . . . a bunch of others.
2. I miss gothics. I miss long passages of description. Have you noticed how paragraphs have gotten shorter and shorter?
3. Neither. As in everything, I’m pro or con based on execution not idea.
I miss Gothics, too. I know there are a few writers doing them. I did one a few years ago — though I couldn’t call it a Gothic– that is what I was going for.
And yes, it is all about the execution.
1) Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas, Rules of Seduction by Madeline Hunter, The Shadow and the Star by Laura Kinsale, Lily by Patricia Gaffney, Tempting Harriet by Mary Balogh.
2) I also miss Julia Ross… and Judith Ivory and Patricia Gaffney and Lisa Cach. We have some wonderful historical writers currently, but we can never get enough of those that are both excellent prose writers and deliver a good strong emotional punch.
3) I can take or leave dukes. More leave these days, because they tend to go with blah, wallpappery books. The busy/responsible kind is certainly far more interesting than the rakish wastrel.
1. Marion Chesney. Wish there was more of her works out there. (And can’t go past the ultimate queen of subtlety, Georgette Heyer.)
2. I wish there was more Raving Bluestocking romance. Yeah, yeah, romance is the last thing you expect from Raving Bluestockings, but I’d love to see more of these fiery champions of universal rights and the men who are sensitive enough to love them.
3. Pro. (After all, I married a duke when everyone else was marrying princes.) That said, many of my romances feature mere “Lords” and “Honourables”.