Here are just a few of the many novels I love, drawn from my favorite genres: historical romance, fantasy, and historical fiction.  Click Here And Tell Me About Your Favorites!

 Historical Romance

 FOR MY LADY's HEART by Laura Kinsale

This is my favorite historical romance novel of all time, by one of my favorite authors.  I love Kinsale’s work because she consistently transcends the genre of romance, writing beautiful literature that is meticulously researched and finely nuanced, with deeply-involving and human characters who defy stereotypes.  This medieval romance tells the story of a powerful and cunning noblewoman and a knight who doesn’t know the meaning of deceit.  As an added bonus, all the dialogue is written in Middle English (modified a bit so that today’s reader can understand it), which adds a lovely authenticity to the work.  Lots of suspense and dark drama in this one.

 SHADOWHEART by Laura Kinsale

This is another favorite of mine by the same author.  It’s the sequel to For My Lady’s Heart and is the romance of Allegreto, the tormented and sinister anti-hero of the previous novel.  This is definitely a dark romance, and the lovemaking is a bit unconventional and may be off-putting for more conservative readers, but it’s tastefully done and appropriate to the characters, explicit without being at all pornographic.  I admire Kinsale’s courage and honesty in writing this story.  As writers, I believe we owe it to ourselves and our readers to be honest and genuine, crafting stories that are true to ourselves and our characters—although this is often a painful and difficult process for the writer.  We need to turn off the internal censor, the sense that our mothers and grandmothers will be reading the work, and not flinch from exposing what moves us most deeply.

 SKYE O'MALLEY by Bertrice Small

Small is another of my favorite historical romance authors.  This book is a classic, the first in what is an eight-book series (and growing) about the larger-than-life heroine Skye O’Malley and her descendants.  Small’s work is rich in historical detail, including tons of gorgeous detail on fashion, feasting, and the English countryside.  This novel takes place during early Tudor England (one of my favorite periods), and features a strong-minded, smart and unconventional heroine who is also a sensual beauty.  Another feature of Small’s work that I appreciate is her tendency to allow her heroine to explore more than one romantic relationship before she finds her “happily ever after.”  Throughout Skye O’Malley and its excellent sequel All The Sweet Tomorrows, Skye has a total of six husbands, each of them unique and distinct from the others!

 OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon

This is the first of five books (and counting) by Gabaldon in the cross-over genre of time-travel romance.  The heroine is post-World War II era nurse Claire who enters a ring of standing stones and is flung back in time to 18^th century Scotland, where she meets and falls in love with her Scottish hero Jamie.  The books are rich in the history of Scotland and, later, colonial America, and the story spans some thirty years in the romance of Claire and Jamie and then the romance of their daughter, who also time-travels, deeply embedded in the Scottish and American struggles for independence.  These books are a delight to read, offering the unique perspective of a modern twentieth century woman experiencing life and love in the 18^th century.  Clever, sometimes spicy, and occasionally quite violent, with a cast of complex and sympathetic characters, the series remains one-of-a-kind, and has been largely responsible for the current popularity of time-travel romance as a genre. 

 BELINDA by Anne Rice

I must confess that Rice remains one of my favorite authors, and I’m particularly fond of her early work.  She is best known for her Vampire Chronicles, of which (in my view) The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned stand out as some of her finest writing.  Belinda, however, contains no supernatural elements.  It is in essence a love story between Jeremy, a successful 40-something author of children’s books, and Belinda, a mature and sophisticated 16-year old girl.  The premise may remind you of Nabokov’s Lolita (another classic), but Rice writes with a lushness that the witty Nabokov doesn’t equal although Lolita has other strengths.  Belinda is a psychologically complex story which revolves around this May-December romance, Jeremy’s internal conflict and fear of the implications of this relationship for his career, and the growing mystery of who Belinda really is.  Belinda is a woman in jeopardy of sorts, so the mounting suspense of whether she’ll escape her past and those who seek her (with Jeremy’s help) is another element that pulls you into the story.

 Also worthy of note among Rice’s impressive body of work are The Witching Hour, a paranormal which covers three hundred gripping years in the history of the Mayfair witches, and Cry to Heaven, a work of historical fiction that focuses on the twilight world of the castrati opera singers of 18^th century Naples and Venice.    

 I also enjoy anything by:

AMANDA QUICK, who writes clever and graceful Regency romances with a strong element of suspense.  Her heroines tend to be unconventional, neither beauties nor belles, but rather eccentric and quick-witted spinsters who find themselves caught up in a mystery or a dangerous situation.  The heroes are likewise unusual.  My favorite hero described himself throughout the novel as “bland as a potato pudding” and was constantly removing and polishing his spectacles.  Yet, of course, he was sexy and strong!  Also, Quick is very adept at producing surprising plots with unexpected twists.

 My favorite Quick novel is probably Mistress, about a woman who pretends to be the mistress of a notorious nobleman whom she believes has been secretly murdered, and whom she has never met.  The hero—very much alive—turns up unexpectedly at a ball she’s attending and engineers a public confrontation with his so-called mistress.  Who couldn’t keep reading, after a hook like that?

 Fantasy:

 THE SWORD OF SHANNARA by Terry Brooks

This is a fantasy classic, the fat and deeply satisfying first in a long series of “Shannara stories.”  It contains all the classic elements:  a young half-elven farm-boy with a mysterious heritage finds himself inexplicably hunted by a horrifying monster (some early scenes of the hunt, masterfully written without being at all “over-written,” make the flesh crawl!)  The young hero flees his home and encounters allies along the way as he undertakes a quest to recover a long-lost relic (the Sword) and save the world from the forces of apocalyptic evil.

 I think the reason I love this novel is because it gives you that comforting feeling that readers seek in classic fantasy:  the forces of good are massively outnumbered by the forces of evil, but courage, friendship and loyalty prevail, sacrifices are made, and against all odds the world is saved.  Who doesn’t long for this comfort, now more than ever?  The #2 book in the series, The Elfstones of Shannara, is just as good and another favorite of mine.  Somehow later in the series the books lose that special magic for me, but I know there are many diehard fans who continue to wait eagerly for every book.

 THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING by J.R.R. Tolkien

I’ve been a Tolkien fan since long before Peter Jackson’s beautiful and brilliant films were released—and what a miraculous joy it was to find each of the films so lovingly produced, and so true in spirit to the original works.  I feel quietly thankful to the cast and crew every time I watch, and I just bless them in my heart for the work they did. 

 Tolkien’s original works are not for everyone.  They are dense with the mythology and history of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, they’re long, they’re painful.  Never does Tolkien give in to the temptation to say “and then, three weeks later….”  No, you’re living every hour of every day with these hunted characters trudging toward Mordor on a hopeless quest to save Middle-Earth, whether anything exciting happens to them that day or not.  But Fellowship in particular is rich with that comforting feeling I was talking about, that sense of friends sticking together against all odds to fight for what’s right.  The Hobbit is the prequel to the series, and it’s very different—more of a “children’s story” and thus much easier to read, but comforting in the same way.

 THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA by C.S. Lewis

This series started with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the story of four English children during the early 20^th century who tumble through a wardrobe and find themselves in the enchanted world of Narnia, where the White Witch’s magic has made it always winter.  The story is a parable, really, with the Lion representing Christ.  With the children’s help, the Lion sacrifices himself to save the world, banish the White Witch, and bring springtime to Narnia.

 My favorite novel in this series is actually #3, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is a nautical story.  Edmund and Lucy fall through a painting onto the deck of the Narnian ship The Dawn Treader, and travel to the end of the world.  There is a sweetness, an innocence, an enchantment to this story that’s difficult to describe.  There’s also a bittersweetness to it, because you find out that it’s the last time Edmund and Lucy will be able to visit the world of Narnia—because they’re growing up.        

 DRAGONDOOM by Dennis McKiernan

This novel by a very solid writer transcends the genre with an original and poignant fantasy containing a strong romantic sub-plot between a female human warrior and a prince of dwarves.  I read this one again and again, since it satisfies both my fantasy and romance cravings!  Two of the primary antagonists are dragons, and the scenes of combat, rage and destruction in which the dragons attack the people of Mithgar are among the most powerful scenes of the book.  The chronology is a bit challenging to follow since you’re jumping back and forth in time and covering at least three major points of view, but the individual storylines come together brilliantly as the novel builds toward a satisfying, moving and surprising climax.  (I was tearful.)  This novel is one of several written by McKiernan in the world of Mithgar.  The author writes with a clean lyricism and historical layering that is sometimes reminiscent of Tolkien.  Within a satisfying fantasy series, Dragondoom stands out in a class of its own.            

 Historical Fiction:

 THE MISTS OF AVALON by Marion Zimmer Bradley

This book is well known, a luscious thick tome that tells the Arthurian legend from the eyes of the women in Arthur’s life:  his mother Igraine, his wife Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere), and his sister Morgaine (Morgan le Fay).  It’s the only story I’ve read that treats Morgan as a sympathetic character, and the story is somewhat less than entirely sympathetic to Guinevere who is often treated as a darling in classic versions of the tale.  The novel is also rich in the fabric of Goddess-worship and the struggle between the old religion and Christianity. 

 Bradley is one of my favorite authors (I have so many, don’t I?  But there’s absolutely no point in being a writer if you don’t revel shamelessly in books.)  She’s written a classic fantasy series (here we are back in fantasy again) called the Darkover novels, about a lost colony of humans on a distant planet (Darkover) who develop an array of telepathic and telekinetic powers over many generations and forget their Terran origins.  Then they’re rediscovered by the Terran Empire, and there’s a lovely tension over many books between the desire for the benefits of assimilation with an advanced society and the desire to remain distinct and therefore “primitive”.  Bradley explores feminist themes in many of her works.  Some of my favorites are Hawkmistress, Stormqueen, Thendara House, and City of Sorcery.

 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HENRY VIII by Margaret George

I’ve just finished reading this.  It’s Bible-sized and every page is a treat.  George will forever have my admiration for the research she completed to tell this story:  fifteen years, over 300 books, and three trips to Europe.  It’s written as Henry’s lost journal, “with notes by his Fool, Will Somers”.  I love to wallow in Tudor England, and this is a beautiful multi-faceted portrayal of a very human ruler that covers his accomplishments as a monarch, his religious controversies, his insecurities and flaws but also his remarkable strengths—and, of course, his romantic and marital adventures. 

 George has also written The Memoirs of Cleopatra, which are similarly fascinating.  I’ve spent a lot of time in Egypt and this book was really moving, as well as rich in history and Egyptian lore.   

 THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS by Jean Auel

This is the third of five books written by Auel that began with The Clan of the Cave Bear.  The series takes place at the dawn of history, before the written world, when the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons were co-inhabiting the earth.  All five books are excellent, and they are unlike anything else I’ve ever read.  The books tell the story of Ayla, an orphaned Cro-Magnon who is raised by Neanderthals and then exiled by them; her struggle to survive alone and her search for her own people which takes her across the Eurasian continent; and, ultimately, her quest to “fit in” when she does begin to encounter tribes of her own kind.  It’s also an amazing love story between Ayla and Jondalar, the first of her own people she encounters. 

 Auel’s work is rich in research on flora and fauna, geology, climate, the social structures and survival skills of the early men and women who inhabit her world.  Her research is often presented in chunks which are, for some readers, a bit dense, but it’s all pretty interesting stuff. 

 I, ELIZABETH by Rosalind Miles

I’ve mentioned that I love Tudor England, haven’t I?  Who isn’t utterly fascinated by Elizabeth Tudor, “the Virgin Queen”?  Her 40-year rule was called The Golden Age of England.  She was viewed as the illegitimate daughter of a whore and a heretic, and she ruled in the 16^th century which was hardly noted for equality between the sexes.  Yet she was one of the greatest rulers in English history.  Miles writes sensitively and skillfully from the first-person perspective of this extraordinary woman.  Miles is a beautiful writer, with prose that one can savor.  She has also produced an ethereal fairytale of a trilogy covering the Arthurian legend, written primarily from the perspective of a strong warrior-queen Guenevere, and a trilogy about the romance of Tristan and Isolde which I have not yet read.

 Also I cannot resist recommending to you the film Elizabeth, starring the divine Cate Blanchett in the title role.  For those of you who read my novel, The Devil’s Bargain, I sometimes visualize this redheaded Elizabethan Cate in the role of my heroine, Katrin.

 THE QUEEN's FOOL by Philippa Gregory

Gregory is another talented writer of historical fiction who has produced several notable works in the Tudor period, including this one.  The queen in question is Mary Tudor—known to history as Bloody Mary, the unhappy and fanatically Catholic daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.  The protagonist of the tale is Mary’s Fool, a common-born woman who sees holy visions and must tread carefully among opposing Catholic and Protestant factions at court.  This story bridges the gap between two eras with which casual readers are generally more familiar:  the dramatic life of Henry VIII and the phenomenal reign of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen.

 Gregory has also authored the stunning novel The Other Boleyn Girl, which is written from the perspective of Mary Boleyn, one of Henry VIII’s early mistresses before he fell in love with and married Anne Boleyn.    

There are so many books in the world, and so little time!  I’d love to hear recommendations from you on the books you’ve read and loved, particularly in these genres. 

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Last modified: 03/29/09