Looking for new authors

[oyceter]

Have about read all of Connie Brockway's backlist by now, still digging up more Crusie's and digging up the Wyckerley trilogy for Patricia Gaffney, but I've run out of romance authors again.

Tried trolling around All About Romance to check out the Desert Island reviews, but a lot of those are hit or miss with me, so asking for recs right now.

On my list, next time I visit Book Rack:
- Laura Leone's Fallen From Grace
- Anne Stuart, Moon Rise
- Tracy Grant
- Judy Cuevas, if I can ever dig her up
(all stolen from melymbrosia)

I dislike: heroines who are too stupid to live, too spirited in that Judith McNaught way, too cute, or too perfect. I have tried and do not particularly like Jo Beverley, Mary Jo Putney (I've read three, China Bride being the last, and yes, I really did throw that against a wall), Judith McNaught (outgrown), Teresa Medeiros, Jayne Anne Krentz/Amanda Quick, Robin Schone, Johanna Lindsey, Brenda Joyce, Andrea Kane and probably a ton of others I've never read. Wow. I think I'm pickier than I realized. I also tend to dislike alpha bastards with tortured pasts, but if they have tortured pasts and turned out to be nice, give 'em to me. They are also acceptable paired up with a cold, alpha-ish heroine.

I like: Connie Brockway, some Patricia Gaffney, Jennifer Crusie, Nora Roberts (sometimes mediocre but never so bad I can't read them), Laura Kinsale, Judith Ivory (well, often admire but can't get in, but they are still eminently readable). I also adore Shana Abe's The Secret Swan but hated her Rose in Winter, so she's still up in the air. I also have a thing for Elizabeth Lowell (hey, first author I read) even though she's got horrible bastardy heroes and too-sweet heroines and really awful language (must all the heroines smell like a certain flower?). I also love strong yet quiet heroines, books that turn around genre tropes, and most importantly, good writing. I just tried Mary Balogh and found for some reason I'm not in the right frame of mind for the language. Ditto with Jo Beverley.

I'm a sucker for any kind of childhood unrequited crush that gets requited (is that even a word?), heroines who have had their hearts broken, heroes who fall in love first and aren't scared to admit it, nice guy heroes who lose control, and quiet heroes and heroines with a lot of hidden angst (All Through the Night!). Unequal power in favor of the alpha hero tends to piss me off. I'm very fond of American historicals when done right, almost anything turn of the century, westerns, and the Victorian period. I also like a delicate balance between PC-ness and period correctness.

I've started and never finished: Christina Dodds, Lorraine Heath, Mary Balogh, Julie Garwood (oh wait, have, oops), and others.

I am very sick of most romances that go along the Judith McNaught or Elizabeth Lowell vein (innocent, dewy-faced young heroines protesting their innocence to older men who think women are just for sex). But, hey, the right writer could work wonders...

Um. Any recs? Or did I just scare everyone off? =( Maybe I will (finally) pick up Heyer...

Comments

[ebonbird.livejournal.com]

Mallory BurgessMallory BurgessMallory BurgessMalloryBurgessMallory

Mallory Burgess

Her Beloved Honor may be right up your alley. It's probably my single favorite book.

[oyceter]

Thanks! Planning on hunting it down *fingers crossed*

Sometimes going to used bookstores feels like a lottery. Except, pleasant.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Do pick up Heyer, truly. She's witty. The new Jennifer Crusie, Bet Me, is due out either this week or next.

You might try Susan Elizabeth Phillips. She has a dismaying habit of using unplanned pregnancy as a major plot device (IDIOTS), but there's still humor. Try IT HAD TO BE YOU, about a heroine who inherits a football team.

DAUGHTER OF THE GAME by Tracy Grant is a superb Regency thriller that for once doesn't skip over the dark side of the Regency. MY DARK PRINCE by Julia Ross is a fun (to me) variation on the PRISONER OF ZENDA plot.

CHINA BRIDE drove me insane, too. Hello? Victorian sexual mores? Remember the concept?

[oyceter]

Got new Crusie on hold at the library -- will have to wait a bit, sigh, but I'll have it soon!

Phillips! I knew I forgot someone... I read her First Lady and thought it was ok (except the kids were too cute and the whole Dying Baby fear was dumb). Problem was I read it right after Welcome to Temptation and it didn't fare so well in comparison.

And by sheer luck, the Julia Ross was on the new this week cart at the store!

Ugh. I actually never finished the book! The whole China thing was annoying me, as was Troth, and then it hit the point where she tries to off herself to save Kyle trouble or who knows what. Tossed in sheer disgust with much eye rolling.

[molly_may]

Right now I'm reading Almost a Gentleman by Pam Rosenthal (AAR review here), and so far, so good. The hero is not an Alpha, the heroine has the tortured past, and the cross-dressing angle puts a whole different spin on their attraction to one another. However, I'm not even halfway through the book yet, so I can't say if the book is good all the way through.

I also recently read She Went All the Way by Meggin Cabot (AAR review), which was fluff, but charming fluff. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

[oyceter]

Ooo the Rosenthal looks interesting! Older heroine in drag instead of nubile young thing ^_^. I like older heroines ^_^.

Thanks for the recs!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

You have probably culled all these from my recs already but:

Try Carla Kelly, especially for friendship going to love; Chloe Cheshire (only one book, and out of print, but very good); Loretta Chase, esp. Lord of Scoundrels and skip The Sandalwood Princess, it will only make you angry; Barbara Samuel/Ruth Wind, although she can be hit or miss, and likewise Suzanne Brockmann. I second jonquil's rec of Julia Ross/Jean Ross Ewing. Megan Chance's Fall from Grace, The Portrait, and The Gentleman Caller. Lynn Kerstan's Lord Dragoner's Heir (but not necessarily others).

Also not romance, but some mysteries may hit the same spot, if you haven't tried them: Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night and (to a lesser extent) Sarah Smith's The Vanished Child and sequels.

[oyceter]

Thanks! Lots of stuff that I've probably read about in your LJ but never quite crossed the radar. I was going through the All About Romance stuff, but I think I heartily disagree with some of their reviewers... trust people on LJ more.

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

Hi, I don’t know if you have read Peter Høg ”Smilla's Sense of Snow ”?. A female friend said to me ” that it was remarkable, how well a he could write a complex main female character, that she could relate to”. The plot is fairly traditional who-has-done-it, and the ending has been criticized, and with some validation I think. But then again, I think that the writer wants to point out the chaotic and often lake of ‘neatness’, that is often the case in the real world. The story is, at its basic, about Smila, and if one can believe in her characterisation, is it a great book.
amazon link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385315147/qid=1076437992/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-5326408-9946401?v=glance&s=books)

[oyceter]

I actually haven't, but thanks for the rec!

[oyceter]

I think I've tried her in the past and ended up not liking her... but thanks for the rec!