Romance Reading

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Aside from my forays into pulpy science fiction, I am a firm hater of bad pulp novels. I'm the kind of book snob who turns her nose up at the mystery and romance sections of book stores (though whether that's a bad thing or not is a matter of opinion, I'm sure), but on occasion I find myself wanting to read a love story that isn't fraught with tension or difficulty or infidelity or what have you. No matter what I read, though, the characters must be believable. This, I've found, is the biggest downfall of any of the pulp novels, and is why I seek romance and love stories out in the literary fiction shelves.

So, please, if you would, recommend to me some happy loves stories where nobodys heart gets broken, and where everyone ends up living happily ever after (except maybe the bad guy, if there is one). The better written, the better selection. I don't even mind dipping into the romance shelves if the suggestion is a really really good one.

― Caenis (Caenis), Sunday, 14 March 2004 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

The first thing I thought of was "Pride and Prejudice", but I'm sure you've read it. More recently, I would recommend "The Mistress of Spices". "The Time Traveler's Wife" is as moving and believable a love story as I have ever read, but it does have some serious conflict and what some might call an unhappy ending, although I was satisfied. And I reread "Jill the Reckless" by Wodehouse (published in UK as "The Little Warrior") at least yearly. A more charming romantic heroine you will never meet, except perhaps in other of Wodehouse's romantic comedies. You may not find Wodehouse's characters believable, but I prefer them to gritty realism by a long chalk.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Sunday, 14 March 2004 19:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I suppose magical realism isn't what you'd like, if you look for characters on a realistic level...

If I'm mistaken, then I really recommend "La Cucina" by Lily Prior, "Like Water for Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel and for something a bit different, "The Sixteen Pleasures" by Robert Hellenga.

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Sunday, 14 March 2004 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, and there's always "Stardust," by Neil Gaiman (illustrated by Charles Vess).

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Sunday, 14 March 2004 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

"The Slave" by Isaac Bashevis Singer. An educated mn falls in love with the illiterate slave who brings him his food, and they escape together and build a new life. The story is full of tension and difficulties, but not within the central love story, which holds firm against all odds.

― Bunged Up. (Jake Proudlock), Sunday, 14 March 2004 22:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I should explain that the man was a prisoner. Takes place in seventeenth-century Poland.

― Bunged Up. (Jake Proudlock), Sunday, 14 March 2004 22:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Lorna Doone by RD Blackmore. Entertaining, gripping, romantic, all that. Read it, everybody.

― SRH (Skrik), Monday, 15 March 2004 08:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Read Laurie Colwin.

― Andi Ferguson, Monday, 15 March 2004 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd recommend The Time Traveler's Wife, though I agree with Rabon about the reservations. I also loved Like Water for Chocolate. You might want to look at The Crimson Petal and the White, though not all is cheery and I'll be darned if it's a love story or not. Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes is sweet and tender, I seem to recall.

Gosh, I don't seem to read romances, either.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm with Ms. Laura on "Fried Green Tomatoes" - some heartache, but very sweet & tender.

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Reminded by Ms Laura in another thread, I offer "The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge. A sweet romance with couples of several different generations finding happiness after vanquishing the dark pirates. The dark pirate has a happy ending too.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

You might try Jennifer Crusie - perhaps, Faking It, Welcome to Temptation, or Fast Women. She is sometimes shelved in fiction, sometimes in romance. Her books are usually romantic comedies (they often remind me of Katharine Hepburn movies like Bringing Up Baby). They might be a little too pulpy, though.

― Sara L (Tara Too), Thursday, 18 March 2004 03:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I just started Andrew Miller's Casanova in Love. It's sweet but not overly gacky and not too raunchy, either (much to my disappointment). Anyway, it's the story of Casanove falling for a woman and his pursuit of her, while she's pursuing him for other reasons. Interesting.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 19 March 2004 02:53 (twenty-two years ago)

In a career of copy editing and proofreading, I've yet to run across any romances better than Georgette Heyer's Regency novels. Forget what you might have heard or read about Regency romances--Heyer was a history expert who got everything right, and her heroines are cool intelligent young women who remind me of Austen's ladies.

― Carol Robinson (carrobin), Friday, 19 March 2004 22:39 (twenty-two years ago)

twenty-one years pass...

https://archive.ph/p7ZBr

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 19 June 2025 11:37 (nine months ago)

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