The cover of my gateway book into historical romance…and as far as I’m concerned, all these years later, there could not have been a more perfect book as introduction.
This next week I get to take off my writer hat and put on my reader hat. There’s a romance book convention taking place an hour or so from where I live, and I can’t wait to meet the signing authors and talk books (and undoubtedly leave with a huge addition to my bookshelf & TBR list). Ahead of that, I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorite historical romance books, pictured below.
My Mount Rushmore of histrom authors features Joanna Bourne, Meredith Duran, Cecilia Grant, and Sherry Thomas. And of course among Regency authors, Mary Balogh is an Incomparable, a diamond of the first water, and stands entirely on her own. So many other authors could merit honorable mentions but then this post would turn into a novel itself.
Although fluffier, lighter reads have a definite place on my shelf, as a reader I tend to most enjoy grittier books that explore heavier themes–overcoming wartime trauma, for instance, to make a HEA feel deeply earned. If there is some sort of spy work or intrigue at the same time, all the better!
Not only are the first 16 books below some of my genre favorites, I would say they’ve influenced my own writing quite a bit. There is sage advice in the author community to write the book(s) you’d want to read, and I’ve found it very true in terms of what inspires me and what I write in my turn.
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