DW knows all

[oyceter]

Lately the only thing I seem to be able to read is romantic comedy. So... rec me stuff!

I have just gone on a terrible binge through nearly all of Julia Quinn (rilina, this is all your fault!), whom I have been enjoying because her heroes tend to be less alpha, her couples genuinely seem to like each other, and she's funny. Also, it helps that her later books have been overcoming her tendency to put 100 pages too much at the end.

I am mostly looking for something rather like 1930s romantic comedies, with a lot of banter and extremely likable heroines. Non-alpha heroes are a HUGE plus. It doesn't have to be in the romance genre, although I only want recs for textual things; my brain just cannot concentrate on TV or movies lately. Sadly, this goes for manga too and basically anything visual.

I also enjoy Loretta Chase, Laura Kinsale's comedies, Connie Brockway's comedies, and Jennifer Crusie.

I have kind of bounced off Eloisa James (is she considered funny?). I don't read as many contemporaries because a lot of the romance genre rules work better for me in historicals, but if it is screwball and feminist, I am all for it. I tend to bounce off of adult chick lit because I frequently don't actually find it funny or enjoyable.

... Maybe I should finally start reading Heyer?

Comments

[shewhohashope]

Don't read Venetia! It has this one horribly sexist bit which made me stop reading, and then I read Black Sheep which had this guy who worked for the East India Company and suddenly I can't read Heyer or any Regency novels for at least a while because of all the horrible, horrible associations I can no longer skip over.

ETA: I can never not recommend Cotillion. And I'm a fan of The Convenient Marriage, but I think a lot of people hate it. There are lots of issues with Sophy, but that one horrifically anti-semitic scene is the absolute worst.

[coffeeandink]

I am also really fond of The Convenient Marriage! Venetia and The Black Sheep also had more alpha type heroes so they are not in my top tier.

[shewhohashope]

The Convenient Marriage had an incredibly alpha hero, but I found him much more amusing!

[coffeeandink]

So does Sylvester, now that I think about it, and it's one of my favorites. Clearly writer heroines and marriages of convenience override my other objections.

[rachelmanija]

I find it impossible to take his alpha-ness seriously when he has been parodied in-book as Count Ugolino.

[rilina]

I also liked The Convenient Marriage, though I wouldn't put it in my top tier. On the other hand, I hated A Civil Contract, which many people love.

[coffeeandink]

On the other hand, I hated A Civil Contract, which many people love.

I join you in Civil Contract hatred! Plain sensible girls deserve mad passionate love affairs too, Georgette Heyer!

[rachelmanija]

See, this is why I like Sprig Muslin.

[shewhohashope]

I got into an argument about this once, but I didn't even want a passionate affair so much as an acknowledgement that he cared about whatsherface not just because she was convenient and low maintenance and really liked him.

[estara]

I always saw Venetia's hero as a reformed, trying to be low-key alpha and stumbling all the while, so I didn't mind him that much. I was much more annoyed at the incompetent older brother of the heroine and his treatment of his wife and her mother-in-law.

[oyceter]

Ahaha, I am kind of doing the fingers in ears "LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" every time the romances I read mention the East India Company or India or China or... anything. Right now am managing to ignore references as long as it's not central to the plot, or even skip over bits that are just for brain candy, but some day I will have a giant rant on the assumptions Regencies are based on.

[meganbmoore]

I've read several books recently where the heroine runs a business or co-runs it with her brother/uncle/father, and she's used to more freedom and independence (and Not A Virgin) because she's recently returned after years and years in India/the Caribbean, where rules are less strict. I swear I was automatically rewriting them as I went along.

ALSO! I forgot to tell you that, while I haven't read them yet, Andrea Pickens has a trilogy of Regency Romances where the heroines are orphans who were raised in a Super Secret Spy School For Girls. Patricia Veryan writes more Georgians than Regencies, but I've liked the two I've read. Her books are very "genteel" though.

And to add to the Heyer voices above: I found The Grand Sophy entertaining, but wasn't hugely fond of it. But that's because the heroine is one of those who always interferes in everything "for their own good" and never learns that her actions can have consequences and go bad just as easily as they were successful. I like those when the character learns and grows (and I don't even mean "stops meddling," just "thinks some about the meddling first") but not when they don't change and grow. Faro's Daughter was entertaining, but frustrating. I'd probably love it as a movie, where we'd be less directly in someone's head, but it was largely framed from the guy's POV, and he starts out with a very low opinion of the heroine. It's an understandably low opinion, but I didn't think they really interacted enough on neutral ground for me to really buy it. I liked Cotillion a good bit, but it felt more like they were BFF who thought the other was the best option available than that they were in love. I think I described it as "a delightful romance, but the writer forgot to have them fall in love." I think someone else mentioned that some people thought the hero was actually gay, but platonically mad for the heroine, and so she would have had better sex with the other guy, but a happier life with the hero, and they'll be platonically happy and comfortable together. Lady of Quality is still my fdavorite so far, though. (But my enjoyment increases per book, so there may also be something there where I'm just getting more used to Heyer's style as I go along? I think I should see if I have Sylvester, based on comments above.)

[rilina]

Andrea Pickens has a trilogy of Regency Romances where the heroines are orphans who were raised in a Super Secret Spy School For Girls.

Unless there are two writers doing this trope, I think I tried reading one of these! It was terrible!

[oyceter]

I think I have one of them sitting at home somewhere that I tried getting into but haven't succeeded in so far.

[rachelmanija]

I think I do too!

[meganbmoore]

Alas and Woe! I read a book she wrote as Andrea DaRif a while back and liked it (despite it being of the "I have great independence and sexual experience and am Different because I grew up in India and have a huge shipping company" variety) and got a bunch she wrote as Pickens, but haven't gotten around to reading them yet.

[estara]

Do you know you can get Sylvester as audiobook read by Richard Armitage?
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