WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BOOK?

On Facebook, several people have been naming ten favorite books that meant something in your life. Narrowing my preference down to only ten would be impossible. And what each meant depended on where I was at that stage of life. Although I’ve been an avid reader as long as I can remember, I’ll skip the school years and move on to after I became an adult. I’ll also skip the classics and go for popular fiction.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by Harper Lee. Okay, so it’s a classic now. Who didn’t love that one? I kept waiting for another book from Harper Lee (as did a lot of others). I thought Scout’s story was wonderful. I saw the film starring Gregory Peck and in which Robert Duvall had his first role. This is one of the few times I enjoyed a movie as much as the book.

THE HELP BY Katherine Stockett. Didn’t we love the way the heroine obtained justice for her friends? I didn’t like the movie because so much had to be changed. This is why books are better than movies—you get the main characters’ internal thoughts and motivation in a book. Usually impossible for a movie.

THE GUENSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. How sad that Ms Schaffer died before she learned how successful her wonderful book had become. Thank goodness her niece Ms Barrows finished editing the manuscript. I have to admit my knowledge of the Isle of Guernsey was nil, but this story uplifted my spirit even though it dealt with Nazi occupation. 

MR. CHURCHILL’S SECRETARY by Susan Elia Macneal. This is another World War II setting, but Maggie Hope brings just that. I love this series and will save them to reread.  FALLON by Louis L’Amour. Any of his, really. What a great writer. He captured history and people and painted the West in words. I’ve read each of his books and will never tire of rereading them.

FOR THE ROSES by Julie Garwood. This was a wonderful saga about lost boys and the baby girl they rescued as they moved from New York to the West. Family and redemption are themes I love.

PRINCE CHARMING by Julie Garwood. Probably my all-time favorite book, I love the subtle humor the author introduces into the story and the developing love and adventure. I loved so many things about this book: the scene where we learn who stole Lucas’ knife, where we see Taylor shooting rabbits, where Taylor covers Lucas’ friend with a blanket, and so many more.

THE PROMISE OF JENNY JONES by Maggie Osborne. Jenny had only one thing and that’s her word. She keeps her promise through unbelievably difficult conditions and triumphs. My first time to read a book with a six-foot, redheaded, muleskinner heroine. In a speech once, I heard Ms Osborne say this was the traditional governess story turned on its ear. ☺

SLIGHTLY SHADY by Amanda Quick (Jayne Ann Krentz). This is the first of the Lavinia Lake and Tobias March trilogy and I loved each one. This first was probably my favorite. However, this woman cannot write a bad book under any name. I think I have each of her books by each of her names. The historical romances are my favorites.

MONTANA SKY by Nora Roberts. This is one of my favorites by Ms Roberts (although THE WITNESS may tie). I liked the three half-sisters learning to work together on a ranch and learning to be family. Family is a wonderful theme.  

TO KISS A TEXAN by Jodi Thomas. Wes McClain is my favorite member of his family and his rescue of the captive woman Allie,who salves his wounded heart, is amazing. Theirs is a memorable romance that has stayed with me for years.

 

FALLON by Louis L'Amour, along with each of his other historical works. What a creative genius this man was. He once told a group of writers that he could write while sitting in a folding chair in the center of Hollywood and Vine with a typewriter balanced on his knees. I know he was the master of setting and characterization. I chose FALLON as my favorite of his books because  it's the story of a man who is much better than he believes, a story of redemption. But L'Amour wrote only great books. Hero and I save them and reread them from time to time. I practically know FALLON by heart, yet it still calls to me. 

I have deliberately not mentioned any of the books of personal friends. To do so would be insane. I’d be certain to overlook someone and then be in the dog house forever. And there simply is not enough space or time to list all my favorites. There are huge numbers of wonderful writers whose books I’ve enjoyed and saved. And I continue discovering new writers whose works I love. Someday maybe I’ll quit writing and just read.

Naw, this is too great a job. Why would I ever give up a job where I can work at home in my jammies?

Thanks for stopping by!

  

FAVORITE ROMANCE NOVELS

February is the month of love, and that brings romance novels to my mind. What are your favorite romances? As and author, I know literally hundreds of people who write and whose books I read. But there are books that I hold as sterling examples of the craft I love. There are several books I reread - to study and for pure pleasure - at least once a year. Here are five of them:

The first is THE PROMISE OF JENNY JONES by Maggie Osborne. It’s out of print now, but is probably the most unusual romance I’ve ever read. For starters, the heroine is almost six feet tall, cusses, smokes cigars, and works as a muleskinner. (For you contemporary readers, that means she drives a freight wagon pulled by mules). Early in the book we learn what makes Jenny tick. She is stuck in a Mexican jail for killing a soldier who tried to rape her. She explains why she wouldn’t lie to save herself from a firing squad.


"Honesty is all I’ve got . . .I don’t have family. I don’t have beauty, or a man. I don’t have money, and I sure as hell don’t have a future. All I’ve got to prop up my pride is my word . . . When Jenny Jones says something, you can bet your last peso it’s true."


But she does have a future because a dying woman trades places with her, and so begins her eventful journey. All of Maggie Osborne’s heroines are unusual women.

LORD PERFECT and MR. IMPOSSIBLE are by Loretta Chase. Choosing between these books would be difficult, but I lean toward the former. What is better than watching a perfect man’s world crumble because of a strong yet unsuitable woman? I love all of Loretta Chase’s books for her wonderful descriptions and unusual characters. And what lovely names she uses! I love the way Loretta Chase introduces the hero in LORD PERFECT.

The artist heroine, Bathsheba Wingate, watches the hero in the book’s opening. The setting is a London museum and the hero is Benedict Carsington, Viscount Rathbourne, heir to the Earl of Hargate (and Lord Perfect).


He leant against the window frame, offering those within the exhibition hall a fine rear view of a long, well-proportioned frame, expensively garbed. He seemed to have his arms folded and his attention upon the window, though the thick glass could show him no more than a blurred image of Picadilly.

 Supremely assured. Perfectly poised.

Immaculately dressed. Tall. Dark.

It was clear in any case that the exhibition within—of the marvels Giovanni Belzoni had discovered in Egypt—had failed to hold his interest.


The woman surreptitiously studying him decided he would make the perfect model of the bored aristocrat



He turned his head, presenting the expected patrician profile.


It wasn’t what she expected.


She couldn’t breathe.


In the next scene, the hero describes the heroine in such delightful detail that I believe it's perfect:


She was the sort of woman who made accidents happen, simply by crossing the street.

She was the sort of woman who ought to be preceded by warning signs.
From a distance, she was breathtaking.


Now she stood within easy reach.


And now . . .


Once, in the course of a youthful prank, Benedict had fallen off a roof, and briefly lost consciousness.


Now, as he fell off something and into eyes like an indigo sea, he lost consciousness. The world went away, his brain went away, and only the vision remained, of pearly skin and ripe plum lips, of the fathomless sea in which he was drowning . . . and then a pink like a sunrise glowing upon finely sculpted cheekbones.


A blush. She was blushing.


His brain staggered back.



 Sigh, can you blame me for studying Loretta Chase’s writing?

PRINCE CHARMING and FOR THE ROSES are by Julie Garwood. These are her only forays into western historicals. PRINCE CHARMING begins in England, but moves through the U.S. to Montana. I love both the heroine Taylor Stapleton, and the hero Lucas Ross. FOR THE ROSES has a group of ragtag boy heroes who raise a young baby they find in a New York dustbin. Sounds impossible? Unfortunately, it still happens every day in America. These characters come alive for the reader.



Rereading these books still brings me pleasure and helps me understand the structure that keeps me engaged. None is the first romance I read, but they continue to be my favorites.


What are your favorite romances?


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