Max strikes Lucy as suspicious and arrogant, but finds herself charmed by his father (think Laurence Olivier), with whom she, of course, shares a career path (if not similar success!).
Photojournalist Godfrey Manning is also on Corfu, completing a book project, and he hires Spiro to do some work for him. When Spiro is apparently killed off the coast of Albania during a boating accident, Godfrey seems devastated and of course, Miranda, Spiro’s sister, is inconsolable.
But the tragedy isn’t just a tragedy—something is going on under the surface. Lucy befriends a dolphin in the waters near her sister’s home—and someone tries to kill it. Why? Even more frightening, Lucy stumbles on a dead smuggler in the cove. Who killed him—and why?
Lucy isn’t an amateur sleuth trying to dig up answers. She’s a young British woman with a strong sense of responsibility and duty, and it is those characteristics that wind up putting her smack in the middle of the danger. She doesn’t know whom to trust—but one of the men she cares about is a murderer.
Top Five Romantic Destinations
Bon voyage!
Rome, Italy
Paris, France
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Barcelona, Spain
Wichita, Kansas—okay, okay, just kidding! How about Maui, Hawaii?
86
To Have and to Hold
PATRICIA GAFFNEY
HISTORICAL / 1995
“But it is too rude of you, Bastian! How can you send me away like this? Don’t you like Lili anymore?”
Darker than Gaffney’s other novels, with a morally ambiguous hero, this is a fan favorite.
Patricia Gaffney worked as a high school English teacher and a court reporter before becoming a writer. It wasn’t until she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984 that she decided to give her dream of being an author a try.
After getting her start in romance, Gaffney began writing women’s fiction, including her first bestseller, The Saving Graces.
To Have and to Hold is the second book in the Wyckerley trilogy.
Rachel Wade is wrongfully convicted of killing her husband and sent to prison. Released ten years later, she has nothing left and no one to turn to. She’s arrested for vagrancy, and the Viscount D’Aubrey, Sebastian Verlaine, cynically and selfishly offers to employ her as his “housekeeper,” an obvious, in this case, euphemism for “mistress.”
There is nothing remotely endearing or loveable about Sebastian at the beginning, and he torments Rachel in cruel ways. Their relationship is ugly and sad. Sebastian is debauched, Rachel beaten down.
But this is a story of transformation, and that is why readers keep coming back to it. How Sebastian learns to become kinder and how Rachel learns to stand on her own two feet again make for riveting reading. The characters are realistic, their trials are difficult to endure, but they are both able to find a way to connect, first as friends, and then as people who love each other with their whole hearts.
87
Touch Not the Cat
MARY STEWART
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE / 1976
“My lover came to me on the last night in April, with a message and warning that sent me home to him. Put like that, it sounds strange, though it is exactly what happened.”
Touch Not the Cat shows Stewart at the height of her suspenseful powers. Later novels are quieter and less thrilling, though still lyrical and well worth reading. This, though, is a superb balance of suspense and romance.
Mary Stewart is best known for her Merlin series, a series of historicals with fantasy elements based on Arthurian legend.
Bryony Ashley’s father dies under mysterious circumstances, and she returns home to Ashley Court, and the Ashley cousins. Significant to the story is the psychic link Bryony has to one of her cousins—she’s not sure which one, for he isn’t willing to tell her just yet. By the time the story concludes, it’s clear why her psychic lover didn’t reveal himself earlier, but throughout, his unwillingness to share this one vital thing chafes on her.
Eventually she decides she knows which of her cousins she shares this connection with, and since she loves and trusts her psychic partner, she loves and trusts the man she thinks he is. That sets her off on a path that ends in mortal jeopardy.
In the end, it’s the man she has loved and trusted all along who turns out to be her psychic connection—and they become lovers physically as well as psychically.
88
True Confessions
RACHEL GIBSON
CONTEMPORARY / 2001
“There were two universal truths in Gospel, Idaho. First, God had done His best work when He’d created the Sawtooth Wilderness Area. And except for the unfortunate incident of ’95, Gospel had always been heaven on earth.”
Romantic comedy meets sexy romance. Yum.
True Confessions won a coveted RITA award from the Romance Writers of America.
The townspeople in Gospel, Idaho, have a tendency to blame all earthly ills on California, so when Hope Spencer, an LA-based tabloid reporter shows up, they’re a little skeptical. “They” include sheriff Dylan Taber who doesn’t think she’ll stay more than a week in their little town.
Hope is looking for something to write about—she’s been dealing with writer’s block for months. And she definitely finds it in Gospel.
Dylan’s living down a wild past. He’s mature now. Got a son to be a role model for. He is not going to do anything foolish with Hope. Nope. No way, no how.
These two opposites become unlikely friends, but they both have secrets. And the only way they’ll ever be able to live happily ever after is if they both make some true confessions.
89
Twilight
STEPHENIE MEYER
PARANORMAL / 2005
“My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my favorite shirt—sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka.”
Though Crimson doesn’t publish young adult novels, we’d make an exception for Twilight. It’s impossible to discuss the top romance books without including the phenomenon that is The Twilight Saga. Not only has the series earned billions of dollars in sales, been translated into thirty-seven languages, and been adapted into five blockbuster films, it is largely responsible for the recent boom in the young adult genre, and even inspired another international literary sensation—E. L. James’s erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey, which originally began as Twilight fan fiction!
Author Stephenie Meyer had never written a book before Twilight, and says that the idea for the story came to her in a dream. Upon awaking, she immediately began writing the scene she’d seen (which is now Chapter 13 in the book). Less than three months later, the manuscript was completed.
The four-book Twilight Saga has been adapted into five feature films, the first four of which have grossed more than $2 billion—so far!
Stephenie Meyer is also the author of The Host, an adult science fiction novel about body-snatching aliens.
The first book in Stephenie Meyer’s wildly successful Twilight Saga, Twilight tells the story of Bella Swan, a seventeen-year-old high school outcast who moves from Arizona to a small, rainy town in Washington state to live with her father. But soon after starting at her new school, she meets the mysterious Cullen family and realizes that life in Forks is going to be anything but dull.
The pale, quiet, gorgeous Edward Cullen takes an interest in Bella immediately, and when he saves her, using what can only be described as super speed and super strength, from an oncoming out-of-control van, their lives become dangerously intertwined. Bella learns Edward—and his entire family—are vampires. He can read minds—everyone’s except hers—and lusts after her blood, even though he and his entire family have sworn off human blood, instead subsisting only on the blood of animals. Still, the love between them is too strong to fight. They begin a relationship, even though he co
uld kill her at any moment.
But when Bella goes to a baseball game with the Cullen family and catches the interest of a sadistic tracker vampire named James, Bella—and her family—are in a whole new kind of danger.
90
Until You
JUDITH MCNAUGHT
HISTORICAL / 1994
“Propped upon a mountain of satin pillows amid rumpled bed linens, Helene Devernay surveyed his bronzed, muscular torso with an appreciative smile as Stephen David Elliott Westmoreland, Earl of Langford, Baron of Ellingwood, Fifth Viscount Hargrove, Viscount Ashbourne, shrugged into the frilled shirt he’d tossed over the foot of the bed last night.”
A mistaken identity and amnesia story all rolled into one—no one but McNaught could have pulled this off.
McNaught has been called the inventor of the modern Regency.
This sequel to Whitney, My Love tells the story of Stephen Westmoreland, the brother of that novel’s hero. American Sheridan Bromleigh, a paid companion, is escorting Charise Lancaster to London for her wedding to the man her father has arranged for her to marry. But Charise elopes, leaving Sheridan in a bind. Stephen comes to meet the ship to explain that Charise’s fiancé has died, and he mistakes Sheridan for Charise.
She is injured on the pier and suffers amnesia as a result. She awakens in Westmoreland’s home, with everyone thinking she’s Charise. The doctor tells Stephen to pretend to be Charise’s fiancé so that the shock of learning her fiancé is dead does not do further damage to her health.
Sheridan and Stephen come to care for each other, but then Charise shows up, demanding to know why Sheridan is pretending to be her, and Stephen believes that Sheridan has misled him all along. Sheridan isn’t all that happy about being duped either, and it takes some intervention by Stephen’s family to make sure all ends well.
91
The Viscount Who Loved Me
JULIA QUINN
HISTORICAL / 2006
“Anthony Bridgerton had always known he would die young. Oh, not as a child. Young Anthony had never had cause to ponder his own mortality. His early years had been a young boy’s perfection, right from the very day of his birth.”
Families in a Julia Quinn novel are wonderful things, full of supportive, loving people who ensure a plot won’t lean on dastardly lies from wicked, jealous mothers and other romance clichés.
Fans of the Bridgerton series know that the parents named their children in alphabetical order: Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth.
Julia Quinn once considered becoming a doctor. Just as she was trying to decide which medical school to go to (she got into both Columbia and Yale … smarty pants) she got a call from her agent and found out her first two novels were in hot demand by some pretty big publishing houses. That should be the end of the story, right? Wrong. It took her several months of actually going to medical school for her to realize that she was meant to be a writer, after all. We could have told you that, Julia!
Kate Sheffield shares her first London season with her younger half-sister—platinum blond Edwina, considered the family beauty—and finds herself concentrating more zealously on protecting her sibling’s reputation than her own. After all, if Edwina makes the right match, the Sheffields can hope to end their cash flow problems and take their proper place in Society. Kate’s idea of Mr. Right for herself is as vague as “a kind-hearted man.”
Certainly, affirmed rake Anthony Bridgerton doesn’t fit the bill for either one of them despite his viscount title, but sure as gun’s iron, he shows up to call on Edwina, sending Kate into a flurry of sharp-tongued barbs to barricade her innocent sister. This sets Kate and Anthony at deep odds with one another, complete with bickering, from the minute she opens the door.
What the infamous Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers gossip rag can’t know to spill about Bridgerton’s wifely pursuit is the young man figures he’ll die at a young age—his father, after all, cocked up his toes at age thirty-eight—so he wants to get this heir affair behind him before he departs for clouds and harps. He needs someone attractive, pleasant, and smart, but who leaves him with no special feelings beyond the lust he needs to reproduce.
So his mother, hoping to help her eldest son’s cause, invites the Sheffield sisters to their country home, where Kate relents to let him marry little sister. But before she can relay the happy news, the two are innocently caught in a compromising situation, thanks to a bee sting, and Society’s rules and reputation threats force Kate to stand at the altar as the Bridgerton bride. As she falls in love with her accidental husband, she must convince him theirs is a relationship worth living for.
92
What Happens in London
JULIA QUINN
HISTORICAL / 2009
“By the age of twelve, Harry Valentine possessed two bits of knowledge that made him rather unlike other boys of his class in England of the early nineteenth century.”
Quinn’s trademark wit is on full display here.
In 2001, Quinn appeared on the game show The Weakest Link and won a $79,000 jackpot.
Quinn is the youngest member of the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame.
What Happens in London is the second book in Quinn’s Bevelstroke series.
Olivia Bevelstroke is told that her new neighbor, Sir Harry Valentine, killed his fiancée. She doesn’t really believe it, but she does do a little spying—and discovers that whatever the truth about the dead fiancée, he is indeed up to something covert.
Harry works for the War Office, but only in the most boring of ways. He’s a translator, not a spy, but he knows when someone’s spying on him. And then he’s enlisted to spy back, because Olivia’s Russian friend may not have the country’s best interests at heart.
Though they don’t like each other at first, they soon discover that a mutual attraction can lead to love.
This lighthearted, fun romp ends with satisfaction all around.
93
Where Roses Grow Wild
PATRICIA CABOT
HISTORICAL / 1998
“Lord Edward Rawlings, second and only surviving son of the late duke of Rawlings, was unhappy.”
Warm and witty, this charming Victorian-era historical (Cabot’s debut) is a treasure.
Patricia Cabot gained fame later as herself, Meg Cabot, the author of the young adult Princess Diaries series.
After Patricia’s first manuscript was rejected, her grandmother gave her some sage advice: “You’re not a hundred-dollar bill, not everyone is going to like you.” Based on that advice, Patricia kept trying, and Where Roses Grow Wild was published five years later. Ironically, she published it under a pen name so her grandmother wouldn’t find out she was writing “smutty” novels!
Edward, Lord Rawlings, learns that his dead brother has a son, a ten-year-old who is the rightful Duke of Rawlings. Edward goes off to find the boy and discovers him in the care of Pegeen MacDougal, the boy’s aunt, whom he has to persuade to let the boy take up his inheritance.
Pegeen is not afraid of voicing her opinion, and she’s something of a surprise to Edward, who can’t fit her into a convenient category. He’s a bit of a rake and accustomed to women of dubious morality, not women who have a social conscience and aren’t that interested in letting him kiss them.
But eventually Pegeen decides that kissing Edward isn’t that bad….
Top Five Romantic Date Destinations
Tired of the same old dinner-and-a-movie? Try changing it up a bit.
The beach, any beach. Well, almost any beach.
A park, garden, or other natural environment.
A theme park, amusement park, or arcade.
A sporting event—or play a sport of your own. You get the idea.
Couple’s spa day! You’re welcome.
94
White Hot
SANDRA BROWN
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE / 2004
“Some say that if he was going to kill himself, he couldn’t
have picked a better day for it.”
Like the title says, this one is white hot—suspenseful and sexy.
Sandra Brown started her writing career on her husband’s dare! With more than 80 million copies of her books in print today, we bet she’s glad she did!
As if she isn’t already busy enough, Sandra Brown is also a TV presenter, having guest-hosted episodes of truTV’s Murder By the Book and Investigation Discovery’s Hardcover Mysteries.
Sayre Lynch escaped from her terrible father and swore to herself she’d never return to Destiny, Louisiana, where her family owns an iron foundry and controls the town’s fate. But after her younger brother kills himself, she finds herself back in Destiny for his funeral—and asking questions about his last days. Her corrupt family doesn’t want her looking too closely into anything—and they’ve hired Beck Merchant, a handsome lawyer, to keep trouble off their backs.
Sayre is attracted to Beck even as he gets in the way of her finding answers about her brother’s death.
When Sayre discovers that her brother’s death might not be suicide but murder, and that her family might well be involved in his murder as well as its cover-up, the stakes get even higher—and her relationship with Beck gets even hotter.
Can they work together to discover what happened to her brother? Or is Beck just trying to keep her from the truth?
95
Whitney, My Love
The 100 Best Romance Novels Page 10