Romantic Novels

[YanaAlYanas]

Does anyone know of any good romantic novels out there. I love reading Nicholas Spark's books. But I would like to expand and find other authors and books with a realistic story line. Not really looking to read anything about fantasy and hybrid creatures.

[catstaff]

Some questions first, to refine what you're looking for.

 

Do you want more general fiction with some romance involved, or do you want romance novels? I'm not personally familiar with Nicholas Sparks' works, so that's not a big help for me. Also, just how mature do you want the reading material to be? Do you like historicals, or do you lean more towards contemporary settings?

 

I mostly lean toward historical romance myself. For the steamy stuff, I highly recommend Bertrice Small, as she tends to get the history part mostly right. (This is a pet peeve of mine: blatant disregard for history in historical fiction. Sure, make up some Norman knight for William the Conquerer to marry off to the Saxon thegn's heiress. But don't place Queen Matilda in London less than three months after the battle of Hastings, when it's documented that she didn't set foot in England until more than a year later.) Anyway, as I said, Bertrice Small gets the history fairly accurate, and I like pretty much everything I've read from her. She writes a multitude of time-periods and locations, from early Saxon England to Byzantium to Renaissance Florence to Tudor England and Scotland and even into the Regency period. She does have one contemporary series, but it does have a bit of a fantasy/supernatural sort of twist to it. No vampires or werewolves, though! Some of my favorites are Enchantress Mine, Blaze Wyndham, Love Remember Me, and The Duchess.

 

If you prefer more general fiction with romantic elements, you might try Joan Wolf. Again, I'm familiar with her historical works, such as The Road to Avalon, her take on the Arthurian story, and Daughter of the Red Deer which is set in prehistoric times. She's also done novelizations of Biblical stories: The Reluctant Queen (story of Esther) and The Scarlet Cord (story of Rahab of Jericho).

[DustyBelle]

Georgette Heyer wrote romances. Some historical, some regency, some mystery romances. All were pretty good I always thought.

 

Suzanne Brockmann writes a variety of romances often with a suspense undertone.

Add more later when I think of them or comeacross. Please do respomd as if you give more details of what you like it is easier to name authors.. Harlequin obviously offers up Romances of all kinds in a major way as does the zephyr romance publishing. Fern Michaels Texas series. Janet Dailey does romance well also.

[Rain_Goddess]

The Selection is great, and it kept me hooked till the end. It's a great book in the way that you're not drowning in romance, but you're not hungry for it either. It's a dystopian book, and I personally loved it

[lady_caetlyn]

Catherine Coulter has some good historical romances, and I agree with the recommendation for Bertrice Small.

 

If you want non-historical romance, Danielle Steele's books are actually really good. (I've been reading her books for 30+years).

 

[ChocolateIzzy]

Vampire Academy

Bloodlines (2nd series of VA)

The Lost Boys

[Gracefulsarah]

Debbie Macomber is a great author for those kinds of stories. Also check out Sherryl Woods, Barbara Delinsky, and Susan Wiggs as well. All have nice stories with happily ever afters for the most part.

[MermaidLady]

I love Courtney Milan; she writes mostly historical romances but always with a twist (suffragettes, female scientists and mathematicians, peers who want to abolish the peerage...that kind of thing). She recently put out a contemporary called Trade Me that includes a transgender best friend and someone rather unexpected suffering from an eating disorder. She overturns expectations, but keeps the story focused closely on the characters.