Sunday, February 6, 2011

Well-Written Junk Romance

1.  Linda Howard: Son of the Morning
A murder-mystery meets Knight Templar, and you've got one of my most re-read books. 
2.  Jennifer Crusie: Bet Me
Wildly funny romance . . . with great shoes!
3.  Laurell K. Hamilton: A Kiss of Shadows
A real-life modern faerie princess . . . with killer relatives.  Warning, this could be cross-listed with horror.
4.  Jane Feather: The Accidental Bride
Historical romance, set in England in the 1600s, with wildly independent female heroines.
5.  Jennifer Weiner: Good in Bed
Modern romance: tears and laughter.
6.  Linda Howard: To Die For
Flat out the most amusing blond in the genre.  This one veers between murder-mystery, romance, and slap-stick comedy.  Delightful!
7.  Laurell K. Hamilton (and others): Never After
This collection of short-stories speaks to those of us who "dodged a bullet" when it comes to matrimony.
8.  P.C. Cast: Divine By Mistake
An English teacher gets tossed into another dimension where she's treated as a goddess.  How could I not love this?! 
9.  Tanith Lee: The Silver Metal Lover
This one is an odd little book wandering somewhere between sci-fi, fantasy, fairy tale, and romance.  Enjoy!
10.  Dan Parkinson: Starsong
Another tale that merges sci-fi and romance, this one will break your heart.

Focus for this list:
This genre is rapidly evolving, and the variety of cross-genre books is encouraging to me.  This list has everything from modern romance to a fairy princess and knights templar.  Some would even argue that a few of these belong on a sci-fi, humor, or horror list.  Best of all though?  They're all quite well-written.  I won't tell you who, but one of these authors has her doctorate in the structure of women's literature; I'm just delighted that she's making millions and helping revolutionize this genre!  Note: read the reviews / summaries as the titles tell you practically nothing about the book.  Oh, and yes, I do recommend these authors, not just these specific books, as a glance at my shelves will tell you!

8 comments:

  1. Divine by Mistake was a rather interesting read, I loved it to read the parts where she was trying to help with the sickness that was going through, and ruining the evil reputation of her "twin".

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  2. The Silver Metal Lover was also a very good one, though I haven't read it in a very long while. I'll have to check it out from the library again!

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  3. I distinctly remember doing my very best to snitch Starsong from you, and pretend it was mine all along. We also share our number one spot. So thanks for some more that I'll have to look up!

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  4. How have I not read a single book on this list? I guess I better hit the library this weekend! I'm thinking I'll start with Starsong. :-) Thanks for linking up today!

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  5. Loved SON OF THE MORNING by Linda Howard when I read it a long while ago. Also BET ME. Jennifer Crusie is a hoot! No question these are well written books.

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  6. I'm looking forward to picking up a couple of these on my next library trip. I can't believe I haven't read a single one!

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  7. JUNK! Really! Started Son of the Morning and couldn't put it down, despite my knowing that this is insanely trivial and rather a soft porn aiming at female imaginagion - but still, I really liked the crime aspects of it - I'd rather have Niall's adventure's in our world though, that would be funny in a Terminator-like way :-P oh my - another wasted afternoon on the sofa - instead of reading my students' collected works :-S

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  8. *grin* It's not junk if you like it! :) My title for this post is, indeed, quite ironic, as these books are anything BUT junk. Still, in a society that is only barely learning to honor women's voices . . . /rant.

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