Gaskell explored tensions between workers and their industrialist employers in an earlier novel, Mary Barton, but North and South is a more balanced examination of what gives rise to those tensions.
In this novel, which was originally serialized in twenty installments (in Household Words, which was edited by Charles Dickens), Margaret Hale moves from the south of England (still rural) to the north (undergoing industrialization) with her parents, and the difference in setting shocks her. She witnesses brutal strikes and develops a deep sympathy for the workers.
John Thornton is a manufacturer who treats his workers with scorn. Margaret confronts him about his attitude and behavior. It doesn’t seem possible that a romance could result from this, but it does. John comes to appreciate Margaret’s independent spirit; Margaret admires John’s tenacity and ability to better himself. Both change and grow as they come to know each other.
A series of family secrets and outside events eventually culminate in John having to stop production at his mill and Margaret inheriting the means for them to go into business together—creating a future that is more balanced for themselves and the society they live in.
55
Nothing But Trouble
RACHEL GIBSON
CONTEMPORARY / 2010
“Just because a man was lucky to be alive, didn’t mean he had to be happy about it.”
Gibson’s edgy approach to romantic comedy has won fans worldwide—including us!
Nothing But Trouble is the fifth novel in Gibson’s Chinooks Hockey League series.
Rachel Gibson’s first novel, Simply Irresistible, launched her onto the New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists.
Chelsea Ross is an actress who has never quite hit the big time. All right, her main claim to fame is playing a dead body. So when the Seattle Chinooks offer her a job as a personal assistant to one of their stars, she takes it.
Mark Bressler, an injured hockey player, knows his career is over, and he’s a little bitter. Chelsea would dump the job in a second but she needs the money. And … he is hot. Very hot. Hot, hot, hot. A jerk, but hot. What’s a girl to do?
In this delightful opposites attract, Mark’s not able to push Chelsea away (she needs the money!) and discovers, to his surprise, that there is life after hockey.
56
Outlander
DIANA GABALDON
PARANORMAL (TIME TRAVEL) / 1991
“It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance.”
We agree with Gabaldon, who is often asked to describe what kind of book this is: “‘Pick it up, open it anywhere, and read three pages. If you can put it down again, I’ll pay you a dollar.’ I’ve never lost any money on that bet.”
The book is titled Cross Stitch in the U.K. release and contains six additional paragraphs scattered throughout where heroine Claire worries about the husband she left back in time. The publisher also made her remove the sex scene that ends the “Raiders in the Rocks” chapter.
In 2010, an album consisting of fourteen songs that tell the story of Outlander was released under the title Outlander the Musical. It was so successful that several theaters are now considering staging a full-scale stage production of the musical.
In 1946, after World War II, a young Englishwoman named Claire Beauchamp Randall goes to the Scottish Highlands on a second honeymoon with her husband, Frank. As a combat nurse and an army grunt, the two have been separated for six years, and have set aside this time to restart their future. But one day Claire goes out walking by herself, and comes across a circle of standing stones, which are common across this part of the country, and is sucked through a time portal to 1743.
The first person she meets is Jack Randall, Frank’s ancestor—a sadistic bisexual pervert. While trying to escape from him, Claire falls into the hands of a gang of Highland Scots, who are also trying to avoid Black Jack Randall to escape political persecution.
To avoid being handed over to this common enemy, Claire is obliged to marry one of the young clansmen: Jamie Fraser, a loyal Jacobite who, in a romantic surprise twist, is a virgin. He’s also a traditional kilt guy taught that the way to a great marriage is to keep his woman in line, a pronouncement that does not work at winning the love of a twentieth-century, independent woman.
Claire finds herself trying to escape from Castle Leoch and her Scottish captors, trying to avoid being recaptured by Captain Randall, needing to find the way back to Frank—and falling in love with Jamie, who is quickly proving he’s got her back whenever she clashes with the culture, despite the fact he has no idea where she came from or who she really is. Does she really want to walk away from this love to go home? Gabaldon has spent twenty-one years and seven books providing hungry fans with the answer.
57
Over the Edge
SUZANNE BROCKMANN
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE / 2001
“The moon was hanging insolent and full in the sky just to the left of a billboard for a bankruptcy lawyer, and Stan knew. It was the full moon’s fault. It had to be the goddamn full moon.”
This third book in the Troubleshooters series is where Brockmann hits her stride. You won’t be able to put it down.
Over the Edge can be read as a standalone, but you may as well go ahead and get all the books in the series. You’re going to read them anyway.
In her nonwriterly life, Brockmann is very active with several civil rights organizations.
Lieutenant Teri Howe is an excellent helicopter pilot who needs a little help. Fortunately, her friend, Senior Chief Stan Wolchonok, has got her back. He’s a quiet kind of hero—not a flashy warrior but the man who keeps the mission under control. He’s also a lot older than Teri, and he’s determined to keep their relationship strictly platonic, going so far as to introduce Teri to the guy he thinks she should be with.
When a jet is hijacked, Teri and Stan must work together to save the day—and they push their relationship over the edge.
The subplot with Max Bhagat, the FBI hostage negotiator, and Gina, who bravely sacrifices herself as a hostage to prevent more deaths, is heart wrenching—and the relationship between Alyssa and Sam, which doesn’t culminate for several books, is hot, hot, hot.
58
Persuasion
JANE AUSTEN
CONTEMPORARY AT THE TIME, NOW HISTORICAL. / 1818
“Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed.”
Though not as popular as Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, the story of Persuasion just as easily sweeps readers into its timeless love story. The theme of lost love and regret is one that so many people can identify with, and Austen brings those feelings so brilliantly to life on the page—complete with, of course, an incredibly moving happy ending!
Persuasion is Jane Austen’s last completed novel—she finished it in August 1816 and it was published five months after her death in 1817.
Persuasion is linked to Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey for two reasons: The two works were originally bound and published together, and both stories are set partly in Bath, the city where Austen herself lived from 1801 to 1805.
Eight years before the start of the novel, nineteen-year-old Anne Elliot, a lovely, happy young woman, accepts a marriage proposal from the handsome and smart yet poor Frederick Wentworth. Anne’s friends and family, unhappy with Wentworth’s position in society, persuade her to break off the engagement.
Now twenty-seven, Anne is unhappy and alone. Sh
e still loves Frederick Wentworth, even though she hasn’t seen him in many years, and regrets her decision to turn down his proposal. Dire financial circumstances force Anne’s father to rent out their home—and the tenant turns out to be Wentworth’s sister and her husband! Thus, Wentworth, an extremely wealthy man now, re-enters Anne’s life. He is cold and standoffish to Anne, but flirts openly with every other young woman he meets, including Henrietta and Louisa Musgrove, the younger sisters of Anne’s sister Mary’s husband Charles.
Unable to watch Wentworth around these flirty young women, Anne directs her attentions elsewhere and soon becomes the object of affection for several new men, including two military officers and her father’s cousin and heir, William Elliot. As Anne’s relationship with Elliot progresses, Wentworth starts hanging around more and more. Could he be jealous? And even if he were, is it too late? Has Anne finally moved on?
59
The Pirate Lord
SABRINA JEFFRIES
HISTORICAL / 1998
“Miss Sara Willis had known a great many awkward moments in her twenty-three years. There was the time as a seven-year-old when her mother had caught her filching biscuits from the grand kitchen at Blackmore Hall, or the time shortly afterward when she’d fallen into the fountain at her mother’s wedding to her stepfather, the late Earl of Blackmore. Then there was the ball last year when she’d unwittingly introduced the Duchess of Merrington to the duke’s mistress. But none of those compared to this—being physically accosted by her stepbrother as she departed from Newgate Prison in the company of the Ladies’ Committee.”
A swashbuckling adventure—think Jack Sparrow getting his comeuppance.
Jeffries was born in New Orleans and raised in Thailand—where her missionary parents moved when she was seven.
Jeffries has also written under the names Deborah Martin and Deborah Nichols.
The Pirate Lord is the first of the Lord series. Gideon Horn, a pirate captain, and his men are ready to retire from the high seas. But they need wives if they’re going to settle down. The pirates target a ship of convict women (because, they reason, the women will surely rather be with them!) and get more than they bargained for.
Sara Willis is not a convict. She’s a reformer, determined to learn how women convicts are treated when transported for their crimes. She knows exactly what Gideon wants, and she casts herself in the role of the protector of the other women. She knows she can’t really stop the pirates from doing what they please, but she can negotiate certain demands.
Gideon is willing to negotiate with her—and the two of them find their sparring leads to attraction. But Sara’s stepbrother is trying to find her, and when he does, he may destroy the happiness they’ve discovered.
60
Playing with Fire
GENA SHOWALTER
PARANORMAL / 2006
“Isn’t it amazing how one seemingly innocent decision can change your entire life? For me, that decision came in the form of a grande mocha latte.”
With over-the-top plotting, bigger-than-life characters, lots of action, suspense, and laughs, you’ll fall in love with this book.
This is the first book in Showalter’s Tales of an Extraordinary Girl series.
Showalter often writes using the first-person perspective, a bit unusual in romance.
Belle Jamison spends a lot of her life unemployed or underemployed, which is why she’s working at a coffee shop when her life turns upside down. A mad scientist type slips her a mickey, but not the usual kind—this one gives her the power to control the four elements (earth, wind, fire, water).
Rome Masters, a government agent, is supposed to kill her, but that would make for a short book, so instead he falls for her—which means the two of them end up on the run.
Belle just wants to get her life back and go back to being her normal self … or does she?
Neither of these characters is sugar and spice, but they both have hearts of gold—and it’s a roller-coaster ride to see them reach their happily ever after.
61
Possession
DEVYN QUINN
PARANORMAL / 2009
“In a library crammed wall to floor with a collection of books unmatched by any public collection in the world, a specially constructed steel lectern stood by itself.”
A compelling, dark, erotic romance that will keep you riveted.
Quinn got started writing paranormal romance and erotic romance under the pen names Caitlyn McKenna and Jaya Jenson.
Deeply scarred (emotionally and physically) Kendra Carter returns to her brother’s home from a mental hospital. She opens an occult book—and unknowingly unleashes a demon. He’s a very sexy demon, and he enthralls Kendra in the bedroom—but he may also steal her soul.
Remi understands her. He knows why she suffers and what she wants. But she thinks she may be losing her mind. She has memory lapses, people think she tried to kill herself, and now she’s got a demon lover. That can’t be good.
The paranormal suspense becomes a taut psychological thriller as Kendra discovers who is behind her mental instability. In the end, she and Remi must unite to save themselves and find a way to be together.
62
Pride and Prejudice
JANE AUSTEN
CONTEMPORARY AT THE TIME, NOW HISTORICAL / 1813
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
Pride and Prejudice is the original love-spawned-from-hate romance story! Though first published nearly 200 years ago, the novel remains beloved among readers and literary scholars alike, and the story has spawned many dramatic adaptations, imitations, and modern-day retellings.
Originally titled First Impressions, Pride and Prejudice received its new name after Austen’s publishers encouraged her to choose a title that would play off the alliterative name of her previous, already successful novel Sense and Sensibility. It is widely believed that Austen got the title Pride and Prejudice from a passage in Fanny Burney’s 1782 novel Cecilia, which is a book Austen is known to have loved.
The opening line of Pride and Prejudice is considered to be one of the most famous in all of literature (see quote!).
If you prefer a bit more gore with your Regency romance, check out Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith—it’s basically the same story, but with a few fun twists. But, of course, only read it after you’ve read and appreciated the original in its pure, unaltered form!
Elizabeth Bennet is the second daughter in a family of five unwed girls. Her family’s home is entailed, which means it will go to her father’s clergyman cousin Mr. Collins upon Mr. Bennet’s death—therefore, it is of the utmost importance, especially to Elizabeth’s mother, that the Bennet girls marry as soon as possible in order to ensure security for the family.
Two eligible, rich men, Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, arrive in town. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth clash immediately—Elizabeth believes Mr. Darcy is too proud and Mr. Darcy believes Elizabeth, and her family, to be beneath him. Mr. Bingley, on the other hand, takes an immediate liking to Elizabeth’s elder sister Jane, and it looks as if the family is saved. But Mr. Bingley leaves suddenly and inexplicably, without proposing to Jane.
Meanwhile, Mr. Collins comes to visit and proposes marriage to Elizabeth—an offer that she quickly refuses even though it would mean her home would remain in the family. Her friend Charlotte marries Mr. Collins instead. Months later, Elizabeth goes to visit Charlotte and runs into Mr. Darcy. To her surprise, Mr. Darcy proposes to her—but, despite her attraction to him, she refuses, angrily citing her suspicion that he was responsible for the separation of Jane and Mr. Bingley, and also recounting the story she heard that Mr. Darcy cruelly refused to pay his old friend Mr. Wickham the money left to him in Mr. Darcy’s father’s will.
Only after Mr. Darcy writes Elizabeth a letter explaining everything does she realize how wrong she was about him, and that she loves him.
But is it too late? Or is there a way for Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth to find their way to each other one more time?
63
The Proposition
JUDITH IVORY
HISTORICAL / 1999
“The most highborn lady Mick had ever been with—the wife of a sitting member of the House of Lords, as it turned out—told him that the French had a name for what she felt for him, a name that put words to her wanting his ‘lionhearted virility’; he liked the phrase and remembered it.”
The action in this book is minimal, with much of it taking place in one setting—Winnie’s house—so the book hinges strongly on the characters’ personalities and chemistry to keep you turning the pages.
The author’s inspiration for this story was Cinderella, but with a gender swap in the roles.
Ivory’s father once bought all of the copies of her latest book from a bookstore and demanded that the owner reorder it. Now that’s love!
Lady Edwina “Winnie” Bollash’s unsavory cousin threw her out of her estate when he inherited the Duke of Aries title at her father’s death. Not one to let life’s disasters get the best of her, she offers elocution and deportment lessons to country folk and foreigners.
Two lords approach her on a gamble to see if this blueblood can turn an uncouth Cornish rat catcher, Mick Tremore, into a viscount that can attend her cousin’s annual ball undetected in a mere six weeks’ time. Recognizing both the challenge and the way to get some personal revenge on the current Duke of Aries, she takes Mick under her wing.
The 100 Best Romance Novels Page 7