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These are romance books most often recommended by romance readers to other romance readers, books that have a "generational" or "classic" feel to them, pivotal in moving the genre into new territory. Some of these stories were provocative for their time, and of course, generated very different feelings today because most readers aren't comfortable with the subject matter (rape/UberduperAlpha behavior/dated male-female concepts), but I feel they all elicited strong emotional response then and now.
1) MacKenzie's Mountain -- Linda Howard
2) Sarah's Child -- Linda Howard
3) "Born In" trilogy -- Nora Roberts (my fave was Born in Fire)
4) Lord of the Storm -- Justine Dare (a classic, very hard to find)
5) Knight of A Million Stars -- Dara Joy
6) Naked In Death -- J.D. Robb
7) The Stud -- Barbara Delinsky
8) The Lover -- Robin Schone
9) Prince Joe -- Suzanne Brockmann
10) Walking After Midnight -- Karen Robards
11) Sweet Savage Love -- Rosemary Rogers
12) The Flame and the Flower -- Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
13) Dream Man -- Linda Howard
14) Chained Lightning -- Elizabeth Lowell
15) A Man To Slay Dragons -- Meagan McKinley
16) Menage -- Emma Holly
17) Devil's Bride -- Stephanie Laurens
18) Leopard In The Snow -- Anne Mather
19) Outlaw -- Susan Johnson
20) Blaze -- Susan Johnson
21) Blush -- Suzanne Forster
22) The Morning Side of Dawn -- Justine Davis
23) The Windflower -- Tom and Sharon Curtis
24) Dream A Little Dream -- Susan Elizabeth Philips
25) Gentle Rogue -- Johanna Lindsey
26) Flowers From The Storm -- Laura Kinsale
27) Stormfire -- Christine Monson
28) Rangoon -- Christine Monson (Please do not read 27 or 28 if you have no stomach for the most bodice rippling trainwreck taboos ever. You have been warned. They will make you gnash your teeth and buy brain bleach. But, for the 80s era, this was definitely a definitive classic, like Sweet Savage Love was in the 70s)
29) Hangar 13 -- Lindsay McKenna
30) Slow Heat In Heaven -- Sandra Brown
31) Nightfall -- Anne Stuart
32) Dark Prince -- Christine Feehan
33) Outlander -- Diana Gabaldon
34) Clan of the Cave Bear -- Jean M. Auel
35) Bridget Jones' Diary -- Helen Fielding
36) Golden Surrender -- Heather Graham
37) Bad To The Bone -- Debra Dixon
38) Fantasy Lover -- Sherrilyn Kenyon
39) Cry Wolf -- Tamo Hoag
40) Knight In Shining Armor -- Jude Devereaux
41) Whitney, My Love -- Judith McNaught (the non-revised version, please)
42) Walking After Midnight -- Karen Robards
43) Untie My Heart -- Judith Ivory
44) In The Midnight Rain -- Ruth Windy
45) Winter Garden -- Adele Ashworth
46) Morning Glory -- LaVryle Spencer
47) The Bride -- Julie Garwood
48) Sweet Starfire -- Jayne Ann Krentz (considered the first mainstream futuristic romance)
49) The Negotiator -- Dee Henderson (I feel this is the first Christian book that crossed genre into romance, thus brought a lot of attention to Christian and sweet romances)
50) One of Barbara Cartland's...breathy...novels..., especially the one with the overweight heroine that went into a coma...and...woke up...so amazingly...thin...and...gorgeous and...talks...like this.... That's one of hundreds I read but it definitely remained in my memory.
50) One of mine, of course! Come on, where would you find a Chinese heroine tied down with a seat belt? Or all brothers named Steve? Huh? Huh? J/K. Fill up #50 and above for me.
Yes, I've read 95 percent of the books above. I'll come up with the next 50 this week, maybe. Please fill free to help get to #100 by giving me titles that you always hear people recommend to a romance reader. Yes, I also left out the inevitable Danielle Steele. I know everyone knows her and she should be on the list because of recognizability (is that a word?) but I decided she should be on another list with the Bible and James Patterson romances. Ahem.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
These I Know You Read More Than 6!
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13 comments:
I read seven on the previous list and only eight on this one. I've read bits and pieces of a few of the books, but never finished them. Does that count? ;)
I've only read eight of the books here! But if I count all of your books Jenn that would bump that number up :D
I think I'm showing my age here, Jordan and J ;-). Maybe I'll make a short list of more current (1995-2005) most rec'ced. Any books after 2005 would be too recent to think of as "classic," imo.
So needed that second half to make up 6 or more. Though yes, I have read Rosemary Rogers and Barbara Cartland, though the Cartland that sticks in my mind is not that one. Um, no Nora on my list. One author I have not read a single book by.
Mo,
Goodness, Mo, you need an old school-romance education! ;-) I have too many NR books to start recommending; she is a master at contemporary family interaction and family conversations that just sparkle. She also writes as J.D. Robb. The In Death series, as you know, is one of my all-time favorite series.
I know you read a lot of fantasy. Romance gained many fantasy and SF readers when the two genres started criss-crossing.
Funny, from that list I only read Fantasy Lover and your books. I'm not a very lovey-dovey-romance-chick-book kinda person. Nora Roberts gets on my nerves.
"Clan of the Cave Bears" is considered a romance? Yikes!
Ferah,
The books started off as historical fiction but turned into a huge romance epic, really. It even featured a hero with an epic hard-on ;-).
Clan of the Cave Bear! Yeah, the prehistoric urban fantasy! Heh heh.
My count of your list is 16. The Kathleen E. Woodiwiss that made an impact was A Rose in Winter, though my fave of her books was Wolf and the Dove. I don't remember reading The Flame and the Flower.
I have read 17 books on the list
Not sure where you would put Jennifer Crusie and the first of her books..ie
"Anyone But You", Charlie All Night", "Manhunting", What the Lady Wants".
The Barbara Cartland you mention, must have been one of the first romance novel I ever read. And I've been looking fot it for ages and ages. You wouldn't know the title, would you? Because so far it's been impossible for me to find out which of the 600+ Cartland's that is.
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