I am on such a historical romance kick right now, it’s not even funny. Which is kind of surprising, since I haven’t been remotely interested in reading historicals for the past several years. Not for any particular reason! I still buy them, & they look so good, but when it comes time to grab a new book to read, I seem to pass them over for contemporaries—often Romantic Suspense.

But then, also for no particular reason, I suddenly decided to pick up Let Sleeping Rogues Lie by Sabrina Jeffries. Should I confess that I hadn’t read her before, even though I’ve met her & chatted with her & always thought her books would be wonderful? I just hadn’t been in the right mood. :sleepy:

Well, it was WONDERFUL! Loved, loved, loved it! I wanted to go grab up every Sabrina Jeffries book I had on hand & read them all at once.

I’m a little too slow to actually follow through with that, but luckily it was the holidays, so when I went looking for Christmas-themed stories, I found an anthology (Snowy Night with a Stranger) with one of her novellas in it. Read it, loved it, wanted more! :chocoyum:

I won’t say there wasn’t another book or two in between, but next I found myself reading By Love Unveiled, one of Sabrina’s books written a while back under the name Deborah Martin. It didn’t have the same lighthearted tone of her Jeffries titles, but as far as the story & writing, it made no difference to me. Loved it.

Skip ahead a little ways—more “other” books in between—& I decided to read Amanda Quick’s Slightly Shady. Mostly because I know I like Quick’s books, & my copy was also a hardback that I thought would be nice to get out of the way. :bunnyyum:  But I really liked that one, too, & being in a historical backdrop again wasn’t difficult at all; I enjoyed every minute of it! I’d also been reading other historical authors/novellas along the way, within the anthologies that contained Sabrina Jeffries stories, so I had those historical experiences, too.

Then came (completely out of order, I know) The School for Heiresses—yet another Sabrina Jeffries-driven anthology. The first novella is hers—“Ten Reasons to Stay”—& it took me about ten seconds to fall in love with it. :bunnybounce:

And now I’m reading Ransom by Julie Garwood. The minute I opened it up, it sucked me in. :cuckoocat:

Sigh. I’d say it’s official—I’m definitely on the historical romance band wagon again. But I’m not sorry…I’m actually really digging it. :giraffe:  I’ve moved three or four more Jeffries titles higher on my To Be Read pile, & I’ve also been glancing about for other historicals that catch my eye. :cuffs:

So far, though, I haven’t been struck by the desire to go back to writing historicals. I know some of you have asked if/when I’m ever going to write another historical, but considering that I’m currently contracted for contemporaries only, this is a good thing. And I kind of like my sexy, funny contemporary world, so I’m hoping the historical romance bug doesn’t bite me hard enough to make me want to write them again; it would just be SO complicated & confusing!

But that doesn’t mean I can’t still live vicariously through the authors who are currently doing it so very well. (Think we could get Sabrina to drop by The Dungeon for a visit one of these days? Oh, that would be such a treat! :bunnyhop: )

How about you—are you currently on a historical or contemporary romance kick? And feel free to name the titles & authors that have sucked you in! I wouldn’t mind a few new recommendations for the TBR/TBB lists. :basket:

Comments

16 Comments  •  Comments Feed

1. 

   Minna says:

   I’m currently on a steampunk romance kick. My current favourites are Cindy Spencer Pape’s Gaslight Chronicles series, Bec McMaster’s London Steampunk series and Jax Garren’s Tales of the Underlight series. :bunnybounce:

   On April 25, 2016 at 5:40 am

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     Heidi says:

     The only steampunk story I’ve read was a novella by Meljean Brooks. But I really liked it & would love to read more! :cuckoocat:

     On April 25, 2016 at 10:30 am

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       Minna says:

       Oh, I also just bought this book: Steampunk Tea Party: Cakes & Toffees to Jams & Teas – 30 Neo-Victorian Steampunk Recipes from Far-Flung Galaxies, Underwater Worlds & Airborne Excursions.

       There are some recipes I intend to try out. :chocoyum:

       On April 25, 2016 at 2:03 pm

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       Sabrina Jeffries says:

       You should read the whole Iron Seas series. I love it! I’m a little behind (you know how that is), but I have every book and novella, and have read 5 of them. She’s just magnificent. And I never thought I’d like steampunk!

       On April 25, 2016 at 9:59 pm

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         Heidi says:

         I want to! There are so many of them, now, I feel like I should read them all & read them in order, which is why I’m behind, too. But if the novella I read is any indication, the entire series has to be awesome! :bunnybounce:

         I never thought I’d enjoy reading steampunk, but I love Firefly & a few others, so I understand why I do. :alice:

         On April 25, 2016 at 10:37 pm

2. 

   Kathleen O says:

   I love Sabrina Jefferies and Amanda Quick books.. I used to read a lot more historical books, but now I just read one or two a month.
   Currently I am reading a new to me author Linda Goodnight, her book is The Memory House and I am really enjoying it. It is one of those books that goes back and for the from the past to the present and visa versa. So you get a little history too..

   On April 25, 2016 at 8:56 am

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     Heidi says:

     There are so many fabulous books out there, it’s hard to keep up. I want to read all historicals…but then what will happen to my stack of contemporaries? They’ll get out of control! And vice versa. :dizzyegg:

     I really am enjoying historicals now, though—& that makes me happy, because it’s been a while since I’ve A) read many of them & B) really, really enjoyed them this much. :bunnyhop:

     On April 25, 2016 at 10:37 am

3. 

   Dee says:

   I had been on a paranormal kick and now I’m historical nuts. I cannot get enough. Although the last book I finished reading was a contemporary.

   On April 25, 2016 at 12:42 pm

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     Heidi says:

     Do you normally get on “kicks” or does it sometimes just happen? For me, it usually just happens—for some reason, a bunch of the books I most want to read or have most easily on hand will be the same sort of thing. But sometimes, I do go looking because I’m in the mood for “more historical!” “more paranormal!” “more RomSusp!” :bunnybounce:

     On April 25, 2016 at 4:17 pm

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       Dee says:

       It just happens for me. But I would say my kindle is 75% historicals.

       On April 25, 2016 at 10:09 pm

4. 

   Sabrina Jeffries says:

   Amanda Quick is one of my favorites, too. She’s one of the reasons I shifted to writing Regency-set historicals.

   So glad you’re enjoying the books! And thanks for mentioning them.

   On April 25, 2016 at 10:01 pm

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     Heidi says:

     So excited that you dropped by, Sabrina! Thank you, & welcome. :alice:

     Oh, yes, big fan of Amanda Quick, as well as her JAK contemps. You do an AMAZING job at Regency-set historicals, so if she was your inspiration, I feel like we should all say thank you. :candy:

     On April 25, 2016 at 10:39 pm

5. 

   Zeee @ I Heart Romance & YA says:

   I am definitely a histoeical romance reader… not sk much with contemporary.

   I love Sabrina Jeffries, too! Try reading Lisa Kleypas’ historicals ?

   On April 25, 2016 at 10:09 pm

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     Heidi says:

     Oh, I love Lisa Kleypas, too! One of her Christmas novellas is an all-time favorite…I read it almost every holiday. And her full-length historicals are delightful. :basket:

     Well, shucks…now you’ve got me craving even more historicals. Gotta go dig up some of Lisa’s literary gems. :candy:

     On April 25, 2016 at 10:41 pm

6. 

   Brooke C says:

   I definitely go on historical kicks and contemporary kicks. In fact, I’ve gone through a lot of my historical TBR pile because I go on so many historical kicks. I adore Sabrina Jeffries! I can certainly see how she’s get you onto a historical kick.

   I’d highly recommend Sarah MacLean and Tessa Dare, if you haven’t check them out already. Sarah MacLean has been one of my favourites for years, and I read my first Tessa Dare a few months ago. Of course, by now I’ve read a significant portion of her backlist :chocoyum: I just can’t help it when I find an author I love! Both of them have started me on historical readings kicks :bunnyhop:

   On April 26, 2016 at 6:50 pm

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     Heidi says:

     You’re the second person to recommend Sarah MacLean & Tessa Dare, & I definitely have several of both their books, but don’t *think* I’ve read them yet. Must change that soon. :cuffs:

     On April 26, 2016 at 7:20 pm