Recommended Regency Romances

Maggie Blackbird asked me about a month ago (sorry Maggie!) for my recommended Regency Romances. I had written up a long list and lost it to stupid swipe on my “magic mouse” that managed to erase the reply on the web page. So… I’m sure I’ve forgotten authors I absolutely adore on this list, and I apologize for that in advance.

I figured it would be cheating to put this up as a Regency Primer Series post, although it would have made my life easier this week with all the holiday madness. I tried to keep it to Regency Era specific, but there are a few authors who write much later and veer into Victorian or skew earlier and are considered Georgian.The heat levels also vary quite a bit, but are fairly consistent author to author. For example, Julia Quinn is much tamer than Stephanie Laurens.

I’ve read some of these several times over (marked with a *) and have loaned many out to friends looking for something good to read, so I hope that Maggie and anyone else looking at this list finds something they’ll love and enjoy!

Recommended Regency Romances: Series

This list contains my favorite series by these authors, and what I consider the best introductions to their books.

Julia Quinn – The Bridgertons Series*
Mary Balogh – The Bedwyns Saga
Suzanne Enoch – Lessons in Love Series*
Anne Gracie – Perfect Quartet*
Stephanie Laurens – The Bastion Club Series and Cynsters Series
Celeste Bradley – The Liar’s Club Series — SPIES
Gaelen Foley The The Knight Miscellany + The Spice Trilogy
Joanna Bourne – set a little earlier around the French Revolution, but excellent reads, SPIES, and Jo has an EXCELLENT blog

Recommended Regency Romances: Stand Alone Titles

These were a few stand out books that I knew were set around the Regency.

Connie Brockway – The Golden Season
Loretta Chase – Mr. Impossible*
Lynsay Sands – Love is Blind

Recommended Regency Romances: My Go To Authors

These authors have multiple books on my shelf, but many either don’t always write in the Regency or add in paranormal elements, or don’t have a particular series that I’d start people out with.

Victoria Alexander
Anna Campbell
Liz Carlyle
Kathryn Caskie
Tessa Dare – if you like to laugh, you want to read Tessa’s books. A bit steamier, but great reads!
Jennifer Haymore
Karen Hawkins – more scotland than london — printable booklist has all of her titles
Georgette Heyer – old school Regencies– if you like Jane Austen, you’ll love her wit and sense of humor
Eloisa James
Sabrina Jeffries
Lisa Kleypas – much darker and more upper working class than haute ton: Scotland yard, lawyers
Julie Anne Long
Julianne MacLean
Teresa Medeiros – Scotland or Regency with some paranormal thrown in – always entertaining
Amanda Quick – not always strictly romance, but always a great read for the period feel

Hope that gives you a lot of ideas and new authors to explore. I’ve got to get cracking on my TBR pile before I can’t fit anything else on that shelf!

Fan Girl Moment

Suzanne Enoch and Teresa Medeiros at Romance World in El Cajon, CA on 8/3/08. — Suzanne Enoch and Teresa Medeiros
at Romance World in El Cajon, CA on 8/3/08

On Sunday, I dragged my kids with me down to El Cajon to the Romance World bookstore. Two of my favorite Avon authors, Suzanne Enoch and Teresa Medeiros were signing their newest books, Before the Scandal: The Notorious Gentlemen and Some Like It Wicked. After attending the Janet Evanovich event here at Borders, I was a bit apprehensive, but we set out and got there when the store opened. And yes, I took my camera this time!

The kids were predictably bored. Especially the boy. Their kids section was limited and they only had 2 Star Wars books, one of which we own. DD did much better and I think she ended up with more books than I did.

There were maybe a dozen people in the store including the staff. So it was nothing like Janet Evanovich’s event. Although I hope their Borders event later this week is as well attended as that one!

I love the books these ladies write. I got about 9 books signed and managed to get thoroughly tongue-tied and not manage very coherent sentences. Suzanne did remember my name when I mentioned I was the one who blogged about England’s Perfect Hero (Lessons in Love, Book 3) being one of my “comfort reads” back in April.

My daughter impressed Teresa with her love of reading and ability to speak better than her mother. She even wrote down the names of two of the authors my daughter recommended. When she found out DD had written a story for my birthday, she encouraged her to keep up with her writing. DD came home and wrote two pages of a new story. Sad to say that’s more than I accomplished yesterday.

And, Suzanne? A full resolution copy of this picture should be in your inbox as promised.

Review: A Touch of Minx

Suzanne Enoch has become one of my favorite authors. I forget where I first stumbled across one of her books. It was likely recommended by Amazon as something I’d like because of reading authors like Julia Quinn. I went through her available books still in print and then went and specially ordered a couple because the stories and characters are so good. My favorite book of hers has to be England’s Perfect Hero (Lessons in Love, Book 3) — wonderful story and magnificently told. It definitely stands up to rereading also.

A Touch of Minx is the 4th full book to feature the heroine, Samantha Jellicoe — a retired cat burglar, and her hero, Rick Addison, a wealthy businessman and titled English Lord. This couple also featured prominently in her historical romance, Twice the Temptation.

As usual, the story focuses on Sam and Rick’s differing worlds and how Sam slowly settles deeper into his life, which is complicated when Sam must solve two mysteries within the week and Rick is kept busy in his attempts to keep her out of trouble. Tensions are wound tight as Samantha investigates the mysteries and the stakes are raised when Rick starts talking marriage. Can there be a happily ever after in this couple’s future or will they always be stuck with happy for now endings?

Along with all the others in this series, I enjoyed this book. Sam and Rick have great chemistry and the rich characters (even the recurring secondary ones) draw you into their world. Every time Jellicoe pulls away from him, you want to smack her for being so dumb, but you also understand why she is emotionally distant and unable to settle easily. Addison is a great hero. He’s not obviously troubled or broken, but has a few issues of his own. You can tell he genuinely loves his little cat burglar and not just because she saved his life back in book one. I was eager to read this book since Enoch has such a fantastic track record and I needed a refreshing, fun and solid series entry after the last couple I’ve read.

Other titles in this series:

Flirting With Danger
Don’t Look Down
Billionaires Prefer Blondes
Twice the Temptation