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[rhyssj]

Firstly -- apologies to people still waiting on responses to various memes. I'm slowly getting them answered, but I keep getting sidetracked because, um, stories, sparkly boys, the sexy. This'll learn me to post a bunch of meme things in too short a period of time, because I am too frigging slow and overworked and busy to fully participate in

Comments

[miss_lurker]

Lurker popping in for a sec. =)

I read romance novels for about 10 years. I read pretty fast, so I went through a lot of books in just about every genre in romance. Weirdly, enough I stopped reading them when I got into fandom a couple of years ago. I think I was just burnt out.

I would have been able to dish out a ton of recs a couple of years ago, but I'm out of the romance loop now. All About Romance is a good place to check for reviews and ask for advice on what to read (in the forums). A good source for cheap and pretty new used romance novels are thrift stores. I would literally find books that came out two weeks ago sitting on the shelf for 50 cents and lots of good older novels. It kind of depends on the store though.

One piece of advice: For really big authors who've been around for a long time, older works are usually better than their newer works.

[dsudis]

I nurture a particular fondness for Emma Holly's romance novels with Beyond in the title - I think it's Beyond Innocence and Beyond Seduction. Innocence includes the very sympathetic treatment of the hero's gay younger brother, and Seduction, IIRC, had some very threesomey love triangle stuff involving the hero and some old friends of his. Ms. Holly first wrote erotica for Black Lace, I think, so her attitudes are a trifle more, um, flexible than most. *g* Then she started writing books with 'Midnight' in the title, about 14th century shapeshifting vampires, which still included the flexible sensibilities, but were sufficiently ahistorical and irritating to make me throw them across the room. YMMV

[ohevet_likro]

Romance novels, particularly ones set in Regency England are pretty much my Saturday reading...let me see if I can remember good authors' names...
I concur with hrd02ca, Diana Gabaldon is great, but not Regency period.
Catherine Coulter has several books set in Regency England, but her more recent works are current time period in the States.
Stephanie Laurens has a great series set in Regency England about the Cynsters.
Amanda Quick writes romance mysteries set in that time period as well although I haven't been as fond of her latest books as I have her earlier books.
Mary Balough writes about the Bedwyns, also set then.

There are many more, but I can't remember them right now, I hope this helped.

[ohevet_likro]

Oh, yes, her too!
I also love Bertrice Small, especially her Skye O'Malley series, but that is Elizabethan England, not Regency.
Jo Beverly has a few novels also.

[daraq]

What a wonderful Sunday morning topic!

For gay romance you could try Mel Keegan's Fortunes of War (aka the big gay pirate romance) or Diana Gabaldon's Lord John Grey books: Lord John and the Private Matter, Hellfire, Lord John and the Succubus, and the forthcoming Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade. For lesbian historical romance Sarah Waters is my fave.
The website Gay History and Literature might have some suggestions.

I give Georgette Heyer a huge rec! A few years ago they started to reissue her books, but I spent the decade before that tracking them all down in used bookstores so that I could have them to reread any time I got a craving. Also Judith Merkle Riley does a fabulous mix of fantasy and historical romance.

Good luck and please share all your recommendations!

[bayleaf]

A moment of squee! It has been a long, long time since I read a romance novel (Except for the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, which I love love love.) BUT, I was just talking about Laura Kinsale last week and how much I wanted to reread. Only I'd forgotten her name and the names of her books and I really wanted to reread them. So, thank you!

And I'll second the rec for LaVyrle Spencer. I loved her historical romances because of how the women were actually characters (imagine!), but her modern books generally rubbed me raw.