Coming in at #6 in the top 100 romances is Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm. I have to admit that I liked the hero from page 1. The heroine (a Quaker) took a little longer to bond with.
At 533 pages - a bang for your buck!
So what’s to love about this book? Strong writing, a plot that continues to have twists that are relevant to the characters (at 533 pages, this is a lo-o-ong book: oh for the days when Avon regularly published that length). And a premise that has you wondering how they can ever live happily ever after. I mean, a duke and a Quaker? But that isn’t enough conflict for Kinsale. She adds in that the rich food/chocolate loving young duke suffers a stroke, which leaves him (much like Gabby Giffords) having to relearn how to communicate. Here’s their first meet prior to the stroke:
He looked into her eyes.
It was, Maddy knew instantly, the kind of look he must use on those women who fell willingly under his influence and into his arms. Even she, who at twenty-eight had only been courted once…even Maddy could identify that intense and faintly questioning glance and sense the kind of power it was meant to wield.
The flip side of all that conflict is that the book does seem long by today’s standards. And although they do achieve their happily ever after, I didn’t get the feeling theirs would be a smoothly paved HEA. But it was enjoyable and well-deserved so high up the list. So I give it 3 Trixies!
What have you learned from a great book lately?
Mel
Coming in at #5 on the top 100 romances is Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, published in 1991.
A thick book that now has cat-chewed corners
This was the book Melinda read over the holidays. She put it down a lot – not, she says, because it wasn’t an interesting story, but because it was told in epic fashion (that means a bit long-winded). Melinda says it’s the first in a very popular series, but she might not be the right reader for this book, seeing as how it’s a time travel and set in Scotland (she’s more into contemporaries and historicals set in England).
So if you like that kind of storytelling style and topic, Melinda says you should give it a try.
Trixie, aka the Red Queen
I’m skipping to #8 because I can’t find #5-7 in the local store and it’s the holidays – forgot to add them to my Amazon order (eesh!).
What can we learn from Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me? She is the queen of pitting historical h/h against each other in a way that has you rooting for both. Layer that on top of her excellent characterizations (if you haven’t read the Bridgerton series, please do – siblings at their best and funniest) and you have reads you can’t put down.
His eyes darkened. “You, Miss Sheffield, are a menace.”
“And you, Lord Bridgerton, need thicker boots.”
His grasp tightened on her arm. “Before I return you to the sanctuary of the chaperones and spinsters, there is one thing we need to make clear.”
Kate held her breath. She did not like the hard tone of his voice.
“I am going to court your sister. And should I decide that she will make a suitable Lady Bridgerton, I will make her my wife.”
Game on!
Now, there is one thing Julia does that the relatively newbie should not emulate unless you do a kick-ass job of it: Long Prologues with lots of telling of backstory. Don’t get me wrong. I love her prologues. But if I tried to do it, they’d recommend it be cut or it would become an obstacle to a sale.
The Viscount Who Loved Me is a great read. I’m giving it 4 kitties.
Mel
If there’s one thing you can bank on in the top 100 romance list, it’s solid writing. And if there’s one thing you can bank on in romance, it’s that Lisa Kleypas always delivers (she made up 10% of the list last year: that’s 10 books in the top 100 for you challenged in math).
Dreaming of You and Devil in Winter are two of her historical works (yep, this over-achiever also writes contemporary, too). Her heroines are plucky and soon discover they are more than a match for their heroes.
Both books are well plotted and well written, but it’s the characters that you grow to love, for their triumphs over their pasts and their shocking realization that they’re attracted to each other. Here’s a bit from pages 10-11 of Devil in Winter, where Evangaline has just shown up on an unsuspecting rake’s doorstep and proposed marriage (to get out of one of her family’s choosing and to provide him with a much needed infusion of money).
It was nothing new for him to be easily aroused by a woman. He had long ago realized he was a more physical man than most, and that some women set off sparks in him, ignited his sensuality, to an unusual degree. For some reason, this awkward, stammering girl was one of them. He wanted to bed her.
And then a paragraph later the deal is sealed in a way that draws you in – with the hero letting the heroine know he has the upper hand!
“It’s decided then,” he murmured. “I accept your proposition. There’s much to discuss, of course, but we’ll have two days until we reach Gretna Green.” He rose from the chair and stretched, his smile lingering as he noticed the way her gaze slid quickly over his body. “I’ll have the carriage readied and have the valet pack my clothes. We’ll leave within the hour. Incidentally, if you decide to back out of our agreement at any time during our journey, I will strangle you.”
We don’t believe his threats, of course. But it’s enjoyable to follow Sebastian as he tries to defend his turf and his image on the road (literally) to marriage.
Both books hold up well over time and are good reads, if a bit predictable. But it’s the characters that draw us in, even if we know how they’ll end. And that seems to be Lisa Kleypas’ strength (and why she made the top 100 ten times). I give these two reads 3 kitties.
Mel
Melinda’s been reading the top 100 romances of all time. She spent a lot of time interrupting my lap time to read Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austin (#4). She read some, she mumbled some, she got up, she sat back down…
Melinda pointed out to me while taking a break from reading to do laundry
You'd be mad, too, if your chair kept moving!
that the good stuff in Pride & Prejudice was written in compressed time. She quoted this scene where Darcy is prepping to ask Mr. Bennet for Lizzy’s hand. And what do we get? Mrs. Bennet sticking her foot in it (ok, she’s one funny mom, but what do romance readers want? The romance!).
“Good gracious!” cried Mrs. Bennet, as she stood at a window the next morning, “if that disagreeable Mr. Darcy is not coming here again with our dear Bingley! What can he mean by being so tiresome as to be always coming here? I had no notion but he would go a-shooting, or something or other, and not disturb us with his company. What shall we do with him? Lizzy, you must walk out with him again, that he may not be in Bingley’s way.
Elizabeth could hardly help laughing at so convenient a proposal; yet was really vexed that her mother should be always giving him such an epithet.
As soon as they entered, Bingley looked at her so expressively, and shook hands with such warmth, as left no doubt of his good information; and he soon afterwards said aloud, “Mrs. Bennet, have you no more lanes hereabouts in which Lizzy may lose her way again to-day?”
And this getting rid of Darcy so Bingly can spend time with her sister goes on for another page plus. It’s great characterization of Mrs. B. But then we get one paragraph – just one – of Darcy walking with Lizzy. Today, Melinda says, it would be written in dialogue/more actively. Back then, Jane probably didn’t want to offend.
During their walk, it was resolved that Mr. Bennet’s consent should be asked in the course of the evening. Elizabeth reserved to herself the application for her mother’s. She could not determine how her mother would take it; sometimes doubting whether all his wealth and grandeur would be enough to overcome her abhorrence of the man. But whether she were violently set against the match, or violently delighted with it, it was certain that her manner would be equally ill adapted to do credit to her sense; and she could no more bear that Mr. Darcy should hear the first raptures of her joy, than the first vehemence of her disapprobation.
As Melinda says, all that conflict – Lizzy fearful of her parents’ approval, her enjoying Darcy’s company – boiled down to an itty-bitty, teeny-tiny paragraph. Melinda still defends Jane Austin as a goddess. But I know the truth: she prefers the goddess expressed in a movie! And so do I. More uninterrupted lap time.
Trixie, aka the Red Queen
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, 1995, Avon Historical Romance. 
This book has topped the charts for many years. And I can see why. It’s a fabulous read! Lot’s of conflict (almost exhaustingly too much at the end – you’ll be begging for them to get their HEA). Strong writing, witty characters, steamy-sexy couple. What’s not to love?
The hero, Lord Dain, views himself as a big, ugly brute that no one could (or should) love. He has no use for society women or society. He’s an unapologetic scoundrel. Here’s their first meeting in his POV.
She was not classic English perfection, but she was some sort of perfection and, being neither blind nor ignorant, Lord Dain generally reconized quality when he saw it.
If she had been a piece of Sevres china or an oil painting or a tapestry, he would have bought her on the spot and not quibbled about the price.
For one deranged instant, while he contemplated licking her from the top of her alabaster brow to the tips of her dainty toes, he wondered what her price was.
But out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed his own reflection in the glass.
His dark face was harsh and hard, the face of Beelzebub himself. In Dain’s case, the book could be judged accurately by the cover, for he was dark and hard inside as well. His was a Dartmoor soul, where the wind blew fierce and the rain beat down upon grim, grey rocks, and where the pretty green patches of ground turned out to be mires that could suck down an ox.
Anyone with half a brain could see the signs posted: “ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE” or, more to the point, “DANGER, QUICKSAND.”
I love how he describes her as if she’s a piece of art and he a connoisseur. And then he catches a glimpse of himself and in his mind he’s warning her away. Loretta could have written something trite, like: But it was no use. He was a scoundrel and she a lady. But what fun the book is with her more powerful, evocative lines.
Bravo! I give this one 4 kitties!
So, Melinda is on a journey to read the top 100 romances – of all time – which is a list updated every year (like she’s going to read through the list before the new one comes out!).
Latest Cover
She finished Georgette Heyer’s “The Grand Sophy“, which was written in 1950. And guess what shocked her (besides the slow pacing, head hopping and omniscent POV – whatever the heck that is)? The shocker was…the h/h were cousins! Just like cats!
I don’t know why Melinda was so offended. She said her mother gave it to her to read when she was a teenager and she loved it. I think I should be offended. She’s been blaming my bad temper on my street inbreeding. But apparently back in the day cousins were IN and HOT!
Too bad I’m “fixed” (gender neutral). Now everything looks hot, even the Great Dane across the street.
Trixie, aka the Red Queen
Spent 5 days in Colorado working with writing maven, Margie Lawson, on my latest proposal: Kat Braddock Rides Again.
Very Vegas-Sexy!
This fun 1st person story is like a Janet Evonovich/Stephanie Plum book only without a dead body. My heroine, Kat Braddock, is the daughter of Brandon “Bad Ass” Braddock, the longest performing daredevil to zip up the rhinestone body suit since Evil Knievel. Her mother, Natasha Vladsky, was one of the few trapeze artists to attempt a flying quad without a net. May she rest in pieces.
Found this great image of my idea of Kat.
Mel
One of my favorite people in the world, Margie Lawson, is offering the opportunity to win a free online writing course:
Margie Lawson - ready to make your writing better!
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Melinda says you have to get ahead of the curve before winter comes and time gets lost between family activities, the holidays and work. So I’ve been trying to catch up on work before all the birds fly south for the winter and all the gophers hibernate.
All Trixie dreams of lately
I patrol the perimeter (Melinda complains I spend too much outside – HA! She spends too much time at the computer). Even though only the fat, slow birds remain, they’re tricky, requiring all my patience. Melinda says it’s the same with writing: if you know the scene sucks, you need to work on it extra hard. At least that was the reason she gave before removing me from her keyboard. I must have patrolled the fence line 20 times. She must have re-edited the scene just as much. Melinda says 21st time’s the charm. So here I go again.
Trixie, aka the Red Queen of all things with wings
