Winnowing the list down
Oct. 15th, 2009 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksJessica at Racy Romance Reviews suggested posting your personal top 16 romance novels on Friday, October 16, in honor of Kathleen Winsor, whose birthdate was October 16th. Who was Kathleen Winsor? Well, she was the author of Forever Amber, an amazing historical romance set in the Restoration, following the loves, losses and fortunes of Amber St. Clare from a small English village to London to America. (I read it a couple of years ago: it was fascinating, and I alternated between admiring Amber and wanting to smack some sense into her.)
I was *certain* that I posted my Top Ten romance list somewhere on my livejournal...but I couldn't find it even when I Googled myself. [That sounds vaguely dirty.] I did find a list of comfort reads posted to Bookseller Chick's blog as a comment. And my opinion of the books listed in AAR's Top 100 Romances. After scanning my LibraryThing account and my bookshelves, I came up with a list of favorites. But the list included a bunch of books that, strictly speaking, were not romances and only had thin threads of romance. Decided that my 16 must be genre romances, or be able to qualify as such based on a focus on the heroine and hero and their progress toward a relationship with HEA/HFN.
Here are some of the books that were edged out by that focus:
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. Obviously not genre romance, but I dare anyone to deny that the bedrock foundation of this book and the entire series is the (platonic) love story of Lawrence and Temeraire.
Megan Whalen Turner's Thief series. There is a very subtle romance thread in the second and third books of the series, but the focus is on adventure and political machinations, not the relationship.
Here Be Dragons and The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman "suffer" from a similar issue for the purpose of my Winsor list. As do Bujold's The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, although PoS slightly less so. (I've mentioned before the TCoC is perhaps my favorite book. Of all books. But then I reread Persuasion and change my mind.) And also M.M. Kaye's The Far Pavilions.
Several more books had sweet romance threads, but were more focused on the growth of the heroine/narrator and aren't what I would consider candidates for the genre romance tag:
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Blackwell
My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson
Sloppy Firsts + Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
L.M. Montgomery's Anne Shirley series is teetering. Because the only book of the series that I would consider romance per se is Anne of the Island. The other books are YA and/or domestic narratives, not romance.
There are a few more that might qualify for that last category, but I'm trying to decide if there is enough time/space devoted to the relationship to leave them on the Winsor list: Marian Keyes' Sushi for Beginners, Kelley Armstrong's Bitten, and Siri Mitchell's The Cubicle Next Door. We'll see.
I was *certain* that I posted my Top Ten romance list somewhere on my livejournal...but I couldn't find it even when I Googled myself. [That sounds vaguely dirty.] I did find a list of comfort reads posted to Bookseller Chick's blog as a comment. And my opinion of the books listed in AAR's Top 100 Romances. After scanning my LibraryThing account and my bookshelves, I came up with a list of favorites. But the list included a bunch of books that, strictly speaking, were not romances and only had thin threads of romance. Decided that my 16 must be genre romances, or be able to qualify as such based on a focus on the heroine and hero and their progress toward a relationship with HEA/HFN.
Here are some of the books that were edged out by that focus:
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. Obviously not genre romance, but I dare anyone to deny that the bedrock foundation of this book and the entire series is the (platonic) love story of Lawrence and Temeraire.
Megan Whalen Turner's Thief series. There is a very subtle romance thread in the second and third books of the series, but the focus is on adventure and political machinations, not the relationship.
Here Be Dragons and The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman "suffer" from a similar issue for the purpose of my Winsor list. As do Bujold's The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, although PoS slightly less so. (I've mentioned before the TCoC is perhaps my favorite book. Of all books. But then I reread Persuasion and change my mind.) And also M.M. Kaye's The Far Pavilions.
Several more books had sweet romance threads, but were more focused on the growth of the heroine/narrator and aren't what I would consider candidates for the genre romance tag:
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Blackwell
My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson
Sloppy Firsts + Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
L.M. Montgomery's Anne Shirley series is teetering. Because the only book of the series that I would consider romance per se is Anne of the Island. The other books are YA and/or domestic narratives, not romance.
There are a few more that might qualify for that last category, but I'm trying to decide if there is enough time/space devoted to the relationship to leave them on the Winsor list: Marian Keyes' Sushi for Beginners, Kelley Armstrong's Bitten, and Siri Mitchell's The Cubicle Next Door. We'll see.
