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Friday, 9 March 2012

Help! I need more romance in my life!

Over the last couple of years I have become a great fan of paranormal romance, but I have avoided the rest of the genre. I'm not entirely sure why, but they have never really appealled to me.

That all changed recently though. Imagine the scene - I have just finished up reading all the books I need to read for my recent Paranormal Romance Month and I am looking for something a little bit different. I start to browse my review book shelf and find Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas and My Ruthless Prince by Gaelen Foley, both of which have been sent to me by the lovely people over at Piatkus Books. One is contemporary romance and one is historical romance, and neither of them are books that I would normally pick up. But I decided to give them a try. And I ended up absolutely loving both of them! Especially Rainshadow Road, which I gave five stars to. Reviews will be up some time next week.

Now, here is the problem and I'm hoping you might be able to help. I really want to read more historical and contemporary romance and I have no idea where to start (apart from backlist titles from Lisa Kleypas and Gaelen Foley). Do you read these genres at all? Who would you recommend I start with?

Also, I am thinking I would like to read some more romantic suspense whilst I am at it. I have read a couple as I quite often read mysteries, but I am thinking that this is something else that I would like to explore some more. I have read a couple of books from Bella Andre's Hot Shots series about sexy firemen which I quite enjoyed, and a book from J.D. Robb's In Death series, although that was a long time ago and I'm not entirely sure now which one it was I read - I do remember that I enjoyed it though! So, are there any romantic suspense fans out there? Who are your favourite romantic suspense authors?

I look forward to reading your recommendations! I've got no idea where to start looking on my own :)
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9 comments:

  1. Nea9 March 2012 at 12:10

    YA or Adult romance??

    Adult historical romance - Sarah MacLean is very good!! I totally love her book Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake ;) You can also check her two other book, they are also good ;) Then also adult romance - Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire is so so good! Did you read the Brotherhood serie by J.R. Ward? is very good ;)

    YA contemporary romance - Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is AMAZING! I loved it! Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson is also very good! Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have) by Sarah Mlynowski is hilarous! The Vincent Boys by Abbi Glines is great! Saving June by Hannah Harrington is so beautiful <3

    I suggest you to check the My Book Boyfriend meme ;) You find the best romance books there ;) I know I did :)

    Hope I helped you a bit :) Enjoy!

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  2. Sidney Bristol9 March 2012 at 14:44

    Ooooh, I can help with this!

    Historicals I don't read a lot of, but two of my staples are Sarah MacLean and Kieran Kramer. They both write historicals with some humor and heroines that are a little adventerous. Kieran's are sometimes a little bit of a stretch of social believability, but super entertaining. Sarah's Love By Numbers trilogy is just fantastic. It's the reason I started reading historical.

    Okay, Contemprary, this will probably be a long list!

    Victoria Dahl, who I just remembered also writes historicals.
    Dakota Cassidy, who aslo writes Paranormal's.
    Cynthia Eden, who also writes Paranormal.
    Rachel Gibson, I love her hockey series.
    Kaily Hart, she has novellas out right now.
    Inez Kelley, her books are amazing, also writes paranormal, Sweet as Sin might need a box of tissues (in a good way) to go along with the book.
    Louisa Edwards, foodie romance, so yummy!
    Joey W Hill, she writes a lot of BDSM as well, so choose which book you read carefully.
    Jodie Becker, her Dirty series is gritty, but has a lot of heart and unexpected stuff, it's awesome.

    Okay, I'll stop! Hopefully that's a start.

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  3. Jackie9 March 2012 at 18:06

    Jade Lee has a lot of light romance reads written as Kathy Lyons, she started a brand new romance series that is considered historical but will probably also be hysterically funny as Jade is a riot.

    Diana Gabaldon has the famous Outlander series which mixes paranormal with the historical and time travel never worked out so well as it did for Claire!

    Paula Quinn has 2 series that intertwine families and are Highland Historicals with political overtones interwoven for the time period.

    Contemporary Romance, anything written by either Jill Mansell or Jill Bartlett is wonderful and fun reading. (If have their names correct.)

    Suspense thrillers that have heat try Jaci Burton, Cindy Gerard or even Lisa Jackson.

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  4. Chrissie (Once Upon a Series)10 March 2012 at 20:22

    nea barabea - Oooh, you've reminded me that I've been sent a copy of Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake! I'll be bumping that up my TBR pile :) Thanks for all the suggestions :)

    Sidney - Wow, you know a lot of comtemp authors! I picked up a Victoria Dahl book at the library today so I'm looking foward to starting that one :)

    Jackie - I started reading Diana Gabaldon's books quite a while ago and I absolutely loved the first book! Hmm, might be time for a re-read I think. Reintroduce myself to Jamie *sigh* Thanks for the other recommendations :)

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  5. Liv Rancourt10 March 2012 at 22:50

    I don't read a lot of straight romance, either, but I liked My Fierce Highlander & My Wild Highlander by Vonda Sinclair.
    ;)

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  6. Sam @ The Little Munchkin Reader12 March 2012 at 11:39

    I'm a big HF romance lover! My favourite author in the genre is Sharon Lathan. However, she may not be suitable if you don't like P&P and/or very intimate scenes.

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  7. Sarah (saz101)14 March 2012 at 23:16

    I've read NO contemp romance, but I LOVE historical! I haven't read much either, but what I HAVE, I've really enjoyed.

    Julia Quinn's Bridgeron series (The Duke & I, The Viscount Who Loved Me) is fabulous and fun, and the books read a lot like historical chic-lit. Quinn has a fabulous sense of humour, and they're kind of light in tone.

    I can't recommend Loretta Chase's Lord Of Scoundrels. It's the historical romance novel by which all of HR is judged. I swear. It's brilliant. Jess is a kickass heroine to put modern UG and PNR ones to shame... she's comfortable in herself, in her sexuality, she's not shrinking violent, and she's just... she's BRILLIANT.

    I REALLY enjoyed Captives of the Night which is part of the same series, comes BEFORE LoS, but has a very different feel. The romance is still intense and bone-melting, but the plot is actually driven by a murder mystery, more so the the romance. I was intrigued, and it was brilliant. The first couple of chapters were slow, but after that? WOW.

    Seriously, though. If I could make anyone read any ONE HR novel, it'd be LoS, followed closely by The Duke and I, or The Viscount Who Loved Me :)

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  8. Tanya Patrice19 March 2012 at 16:53

    Another Sara MacLean fan here - I loved Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart. And a book I just read which will probaby end of being on my end of year favorites list - Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn - it's a phenomenal historical romance.

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  9. Amy14 November 2013 at 22:21

    Find a used book store and look for the classics. You won't be disappointed and may look at current fiction with a more critical eye. Mary Jo Putney, Jo Beverly, Catherine Coulter, Nora Roberts, Mary Balogh, Kathleen Woodiwiss,Jude Devereaux, just to get started. These books are a smashing good time. Just thinking about them makes me want to revisit a few.

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