THE
100
BEST
ROMANCE
NOVELS
From Pride and Prejudice
to Twilight, books to
fall in love—and lust—with
JENNIFER LAWLER and the Editors of Crimson Romance
Avon, Massachusetts
Contributors
Jennifer Lawler has her dream job: As the acquisitions editor for Crimson Romance, she gets to read romances and look at pictures of male cover models all day. A former college English teacher (but don’t hold that against her), she turned to writing and editing as an alternative to grading papers and realized too late that she’d guaranteed herself homework for life. She is the author or coauthor of more than thirty books.
A fan of romance since she was in her teens, she has a particular soft spot for wisecracking heroines. She writes romances herself under several pen names.
Julie Sturgeon has been a journalist for more than twenty-five years, covering everything from business analysis to college basketball. As an avid romance reader for even longer, she was the romance columnist at Pages magazine. Today, she is a development editor for Crimson Romance and owner of Indianapolis on the Cheap.
Jessica Verdi used to dream about getting paid to read about true love and super-sexy heroes all day … and now, as Crimson Romance’s assistant editor, she actually gets to do it! Jessica is the author of the young adult contemporary novel My Life After Now and received her MFA in creative writing from The New School. She is also one of the founders of TeenWritersBloc.com, a popular blog dedicated to the world of children’s and YA literature.
Jessica watches the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice more often than is probably healthy and remains firm on her stance that vampires beat out cowboys and rugged police detectives as romance’s sexiest heroes any day of the week.
Contents
Introduction: The List—and How We Came Up with It
The Top 100 Romance Novels
16 Lighthouse Road by Debbie Macomber
All Through the Night by Connie Brockway
Almost Eden by Dorothy Garlock
Along Came a Duke by Elizabeth Boyle
Bait by Karen Robards
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Blue Heaven, Black Night by Shannon Drake
Breaking the Rules by Suzanne Brockmann
Bride of Pendorric by Victoria Holt
Captive Bride by Johanna Lindsey
Carolina Moon by Nora Roberts
Chance McCall by Sharon Sala
Chasing Perfect by Susan Mallery
Convenient Marriage, The by Georgette Heyer
Cove, The by Catherine Coulter
Dark Lover by J. R. Ward
Dark Possession by Christine Feehan
Devil in the Junior League, The by Linda Francis Lee
Devil May Cry by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens
Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
Duke of Her Own, A by Eloisa James
Emma by Jane Austen
Faking It by Jennifer Crusie
Fat Tuesday by Sandra Brown
Flame and the Flower, The by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale
Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis
Forsaking All Others by LaVyrle Spencer
Grand Sophy, The by Georgette Heyer
Guilty by Karen Robards
High Country Bride by Linda Lael Miller
Ice Storm by Anne Stuart
In Too Deep by Jayne Ann Krentz
It Had to Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Jade Island by Elizabeth Lowell
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Kiss Me If You Can by Carly Phillips
Knight in Shining Armor, A by Jude Deveraux
Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale
Lion’s Bride by Iris Johansen
Lord of Danger by Anne Stuart
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
Lord of the Night by Susan Wiggs
Love’s Tender Fury by Jennifer Wilde
Lucky’s Lady by Tami Hoag
Mackenzie’s Mountain by Linda Howard
Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas
Mistress by Amanda Quick
Montana Sky by Nora Roberts
More than a Mistress by Mary Balogh
Naked in Death by J. D. Robb
Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Nothing But Trouble by Rachel Gibson
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Over the Edge by Suzanne Brockmann
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Pirate Lord, The by Sabrina Jeffries
Playing with Fire by Gena Showalter
Possession by Devyn Quinn
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Proposition, The by Judith Ivory
Raven Prince, The by Elizabeth Hoyt
River of Fire by Mary Jo Putney
Rogue Hunter, The by Lynsay Sands
Runaway McBride, The by Elizabeth Thornton
Saving Grace by Julie Garwood
Season of Angels, A by Debbie Macomber
Seductive as Flame by Susan Johnson
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Seven Tears for Apollo by Phyllis A. Whitney
Shadow Dance by Julie Garwood
Shattered Silk by Barbara Michaels
Sheik, The by E. M. Hull
Shield’s Lady by Jayne Ann Krentz
Skye O’Malley by Bertrice Small
Slightly Scandalous by Mary Balogh
Smoke and Mirrors by Barbara Michaels
Something Wicked by Jo Beverley
Son of the Morning by Linda Howard
Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers
Thief of Dreams by Mary Balogh
This Is All I Ask by Lynn Kurland
This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart
To Have and to Hold by Patricia Gaffney
Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart
True Confessions by Rachel Gibson
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Until You by Judith McNaught
Viscount Who Loved Me, The by Julia Quinn
What Happens in London by Julia Quinn
Where Roses Grow Wild by Patricia Cabot
White Hot by Sandra Brown
Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught
Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart
Windflower, The by Laura London
Winterwood by Dorothy Eden
Wives of Bowie Stone, The by Maggie Osborne
Wrong Hostage, The by Elizabeth Lowell
Dedication
For all of the Crimson Romance readers and writers, without whom there’d be no Crimson Romance editors.
Acknowledgments
We’d like to thank all of the staff at F+W Media, for all of their unflagging support and confidence in Crimson Romance, and in this book. All books start with an idea, and every author needs someone who believes in that idea.
Special thanks to Halli Melnitsky for her patience and ability to deal with 500 “Oh, wait, I have an idea!” e-mails on any given day. And a shout-out to Meredith O’Hayre, managing editor extraordinaire, without whom we would all be drinking a lot more tequila than we should, and probably during the Friday morning edit meeting.
Introduction
The List—and How We Came Up with It
IN BETWEEN LOOKING AT PICTURES OF SHIRTLESS MEN (purely for book cover research—this is work related) (we swear), we at Crim
son Romance also spend a lot of time talking about our favorite romances and why we love them.
“Mary Stewart really knew how to set a scene,” we’ll say, or “You can always count on Jennifer Crusie to make you smile,” or “Did you read the new Eloisa James?”
We also spend a lot of time talking about the kinds of romances we’re looking for at Crimson—romances that our readers will love. “Does it have enough heart?” we ask. “Does it give enough emotional satisfaction at the end? Does it have that spark?” We know what we like, and you should hear us when we find a manuscript with that passion and that payoff. We’re happy not just because we love good romances, we’re happy because we know that’s exactly what readers like you are looking for.
Even though we eat, drink, and breathe romance all day long, we can’t get enough of it. So after a long day of reading and editing romance, we go home and read some more. Junkies are like that.
The Idea
One day not too long ago, one of us (it was Julie’s fault) (actually, it may have been Jess) (or possibly Jennifer did it) said, “We should make a list of the top 100 books in romance. The books that we would publish here at Crimson, if they hadn’t already been published.”
“Great idea!” we said and went back to editing.
Then someone else said, “Not just a list, a book! You should write a book. You could name each romance and tell what it’s about and include cool facts and the reason why Crimson would publish it!” The person who said that was our publisher, Karen, and suddenly there was a deadline and writing assignments and an editor editing the editors (hi, Halli!). Karen gets things done. It was a bit like boot camp and we enjoyed every minute of it. Really.
The Criteria
We knew from the start that certain criteria had to be met for a book to be included in our list of the top 100 romances. Any book we considered had to be a romance—a romance as we publish them here at Crimson. That is:
Whatever else happens, the novel must focus on the development of the love relationship between the main characters in the book. If the main point of the book is the heroine completing her personal journey, we love that, but it’s not romance. If she completes her personal journey in the context of a romantic relationship, then that’s romance.
There must be an emotional payoff for the reader—in the form of a satisfying happily ever after.
It must be full length—a novel, not a short story, play, blog post, or tweet.
Something about the book must make it important enough that we would publish it at Crimson. For example, perhaps it pushed the boundaries of the genre or was a pioneer in some way. Or maybe it simply has emotional staying power.
So you won’t see Romeo and Juliet on this list. Even though it is a beautiful love story, it is not a novel. And we don’t think we’ll be spoiling the ending if we say it also doesn’t end happily ever after.
Beyond that set of basic criteria, we wanted to choose from a variety of subgenres (romantic suspense, paranormal, contemporary, historical, and more) and publishing eras (nineteenth century, the 1980s, just this year).
We have presented the titles in alphabetical order rather than trying to rank them. You should see the vicious arguments that break out when you try to tell Jess that Jane Austen can’t have all of the top slots. In order to keep the peace at Crimson, we felt that it made sense to leave the ranking up to you, Dear Reader. Make your argument for who deserves the top spot, and why, and we’ll listen!
You may find your favorite authors and titles on this list—or you may not! If not, send us your pick and your argument as to why it should be in our Top 100, and we’ll talk about it on the Crimson Romance blog (www.crimsonromance.com) and possibly include it in a future volume.
The Top 100
Romance Novels
16 Lighthouse Road
DEBBIE MACOMBER
CONTEMPORARY / 2001
“Cecilia Randall had heard of people who, if granted one wish, would choose to live their lives over again. Not her. She’d be perfectly content to blot just one twelve-month period from her twenty-two years.”
Macomber portrays realistic, truthful events in a heartwarming, uplifting way. She doesn’t shy away from dealing with heart-wrenching circumstances—in this book, a couple loses a newborn child—but she always finds a way to show how grace, hope, and love can ultimately triumph.
This is the first book in Macomber’s celebrated Cedar Cove series. Others include 311 Pelican Court (2003), 8 Sandpiper Way (2008), and 1225 Christmas Tree Lane (2011).
Macomber’s hometown created a five-day Cedar Cove Days festival in 2009 to celebrate the success of these novels.
In 16 Lighthouse Road, connected stories trace the trajectory of various characters’ love relationships. Cedar Cove family court judge Olivia Lockhart hears—and ultimately denies—the divorce petition of a young couple, Cecilia and Ian Randall—a couple seeking a divorce despite having signed a prenuptial agreement promising to love each other forever. Olivia sees hope and promise for them when they cannot see it for themselves.
Olivia’s court decision leads to some challenges in her own romantic life, for the newspaper coverage of the case brings newspaper editor Jack Griffin into her orbit. Long divorced, Olivia finds Jack appealing. Olivia’s daughter must also grapple with a decision about marriage, Olivia’s good friend must deal with her husband’s disappearance, and Olivia’s mother befriends a disabled man with a secret.
Throughout the novel, Macomber uses her warm and sympathetic style to explore issues of trust and to reject the idea that relationships—and love—can be thrown away.
2
All Through the Night
CONNIE BROCKWAY
HISTORICAL / 1997
“The landlady shuffled into the long narrow room ahead of Colonel Henry ‘Jack’ Seward and headed right for the curtained window overlooking the square.”
Brockway’s warm and intelligent style shines in all of her stories—but we find this one particularly riveting.
Meticulous research makes Brockway’s historical romances richly textured and finely drawn.
Brockway is an eight-time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award. And don’t worry, this isn’t a case of “always the bridesmaid” syndrome—Brockway has won the award twice (so far)!
Set in Regency England, this tale follows the exploits of the widow Anne Wilder, a thief who targets the richest members of society. Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—Colonel Jack Seward sets a trap to catch the thief. Anne seduces him and escapes his snare, but the colonel isn’t one to give up: He chases her all over England, never realizing that the criminal he pursues (and desires) is the same person as the widow he is growing to love.
While Anne does have a noble reason for her thievery (think Robin Hood), she is also motivated by the daring and risk involved. The colonel, a ruthless agent, adds a dark intensity to the story. The characters are troubled, with pasts that must be confronted, who make decisions that aren’t always defensible, but they aren’t the stereotypical troubled characters of romance—they’re complex, sensual, tender, and likeable.
Top Five Romantic Movie Proposals
Pride and Prejudice—Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle) and Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth). The second proposal. Sigh.
Walk the Line—June Carter (Reese Witherspoon) and Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix).
Love, Actually—Jamie (Colin Firth) and Aurelia (Lúcia Moniz).
Jerry Maguire—Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) and Dorothy (Renée Zellweger).
Pride and Prejudice—Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) and Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen). I know, we cheated. No, we didn’t.
3
Almost Eden
DOROTHY GARLOCK
HISTORICAL / 1995
“Jason Picket was mesmerized. His mind scarcely registered what he was seeing, but he was alert enough to grasp the possibilities this chance encounter could mean to his miserable life.”
The romance trope of the half-breed rejected by society is given a fresh take in this adventure story.
Garlock doesn’t gloss over historical truths—her historical romances capture the true flavor of the Old West.
Characters in Almost Eden also appear in Garlock’s Wild Sweet Wilderness and Annie Lash.
Garlock was one of the launch authors for Bantam’s Loveswept line.
The two main characters—Baptiste Lightbody (Light) and Maggie—are both outcasts in their respective societies. He’s called a half-breed; she’s called a witch (mostly because she’s beautiful and adept with animals). They meet when Light rescues Maggie from a rapist; Light immediately senses they are two parts of the same spirit.
Though connected by this spiritual bond as well as by a common desire to find a home, they must confront a number of challenges—not least of which is a band of pirates—as they undertake a journey to reach their “almost Eden.”
4
Along Came a Duke
ELIZABETH BOYLE
HISTORICAL / 2012
“The day dawned like it always did in May in the village of Kempton, with a bright sprinkle of sunshine, a hint of dew on the grass and the birds singing happy choruses in the garden. There was no indication whatsoever that on this day, Miss Tabitha Timmons would not only find herself betrothed, but fall madly and deeply in love. And not necessarily with the same man.”
Boyle has written any number of wonderful historical romances, but this brand-new title is a delightful rags-to-riches Cinderella story.
This is the first in Boyle’s Rhymes with Love series—and we’re eagerly anticipating #2!
Expect tongue-in-cheek wit from Boyle rather than a perfectly realistic portrait of Regency England.