Meet Publisher/Senior Reviewer/Ombudswoman Lynn Spencer
Lynn’s Top 10 Romance List
About Me Favorite Romance Novels
Like the other reviewers here, I have spent most of my life sitting behind the covers of a book and thus traveling across time and around the world. I’ve loved historical fiction and mysteries since I was a child, and as I got older, my mother let me read some of her romantic suspense and gothic novels. Summer afternoons spent poring over Victoria Holt, Mary Higgins Clark and Phyllis Whitney novels opened up a new world for me of heroines who could have fun, go through all manner of adventures, and fall in love.
In high school I discovered historicals and traditional regencies at camp. I was put off at the time (and still am, on occasion) by the “clinch” covers on many novels, so I did not venture far beyond the world of Harlequin Historicals and the occasional discreet stepback until I discovered Roberta Gellis’ Roselynde Chronicles my last year in college. After that discovery, my time spent haunting used bookstores increased exponentially.
Today, I am an attorney in the Washington DC metro area, a place rather far removed from the Virginia mountains where I grew up. I still have very eclectic reading tastes, but prefer historicals, romantic suspense and mystery novels on the whole. Nonfiction books on history and politics, gothic novels and regencies also take up plenty of space in my TBR pile, though. I love reading, writing and generally chatting about books with people, so I welcome the chance to be a reviewer at AAR. When I’m not working or reading, I enjoy hiking, surfing the internet and goofing off with my two beloved cats.
Absolute Favorites
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Favorite Classic
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Personal Reading Tastes Favorites by Sub-Genre
What I’m a sucker for in a book: “Different” settings (i.e. not England or the Old West), especially Russia/Eastern Europe, the 16th-18th centuries, long, meaty historicals loaded with period detail, characters who grow and change throughout a book, a touch of mystery or the supernatural, characters outside of the usual lord/lady/cowboy rut, witty repartee, strong secondary characters, gothics, and first-person point of view.
What I don’t particularly care for in a book: “Wallpaper” history (unless it’s a good comedy), bedroom doors thrown too far open, the obligatory baby-studded epilogue, the insistence on shorter novels (I realize this is more an editor quirk than an author quirk but I still don’t like it), amnesia, overly cutesy titles, falling in love with the boss plots, and I-hate-you-no-I-love-you plots.
What drives me absolutely nuts in a book: Shoddy historical research/lots of historical errors, lust dressed up as love, one person daring the other person to kiss him or her, heroines who keep trying to run away from the hero, romances at improbable/inappropriate times (i.e falling for some hunk when your beloved husband is barely cold in the ground), characters who have a “burgeoning” anything , Dukes of Slut, “child” heroines, “Taming of the Shrew” plots, spineless, and “clinging vine” heroines (especially if they’re supposed to be leaders or professionals).
Favorite Romance Authors
All-Time Favorite Romance Authors
Julia Quinn
Nora Roberts
Roberta Gellis
Best Discovery/Buried Treasure Authors
Bronwyn Williams (historicals only)
My Biggest Glom
Julia Quinn
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Frontier or American Historical:
Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer
Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke
Rosewood by Candace Camp
European Historical:
Forever Amber by Kathleen Windsor
Lord of the Night by Susan Wiggs
Gypsy Baron by Mary Daheim
Bridgerton Family series by Julia Quinn
The Blood of Roses by Marsha Canham
Traditional Regency:
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
Isabella by Janet Grace
The Emerald Necklace by Diana Brown
Medieval:
Tapestry by Maura Seger
Child of Awe by Kathryn Lynn Davis
A Falcon’s Heart by Jayel Wylie
Roselynde by Roberta Gellis
Alternate Reality:
In Death series by J.D. Robb
Category:
A Rose for Maggie by Kathleen Korbel
Break the Night by Anne Stuart
Fear Familiar series by Caroline Burnes
Favorite Characters Favorites by Plot Type
Favorite Hero
Christy Morrell, To Love and to Cherish by Patricia Gaffney
Favorite Heroine
Penelope Featherington, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Augusta Ballinger, Rendezvous by Amanda Quick
Most Tortured Hero
Charles Fraser, Daughter of the Game by Tracy Grant
Gideon Westbrook, Ravished by Amanda Quick
Strongest Heroine
Melanie Fraser, Daughter of the Game by Tracy Grant
Augusta Ballinger, Rendezvous by Amanda Quick
Favorite Couple
Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Charles and Melanie Fraser, Daughter of the Game by Tracy Grant
Best Villain
Sebastien de Saint Vallier, Bliss by Judy Cuevas
Daniel de Ribard, Rightfully His by Tracy Grant
Cabin or Road:
The Cockermouth Mail by Dinah Dean
Suspense:
Daughter of the Game by Tracy Grant
Be Buried in the Rain by Barbara Michaels
Funny:
How to Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn
Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
Sexy:
A Dove at Midnight by Rexanne Becnel
Favorites by Mood
Comfort Reads:
Any earlier novels by Amanda Quick or Susan Wiggs
Anything by Julia Quinn
Most-Hanky Reads:
To Love and to Cherish by Patricia Gaffney
Guilty Pleasure:
Velvet quartet by Jude Deveraux
No Gentle Love by Rebecca Brandewyne
Least-Favorites
Most Disappointing Book
The Inheritance by Joan Johnston
Worst Books
All the Sweet Tomorrows by Bertrice Small
Amarantha by Melanie Jackson
Purple Prose-iest Book
Anything by Cassie Edwards
Authors I Have Given Up On
Patricia Gaffney
Karen Harper
Jude Deveraux
Authors Others Love That I Don’t
Bertrice Small
Susan Johnson
Linda Howard
Most Annoying Lead Character
Mellyora MacAdin, Come the Morning by Shannon Drake
Non-Romance Favorites
Favorite Author
William Shakespeare
Leo Tolstoy
Jane Austen
Barbara Tuchman
Favorite Book
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Favorite Classic Novel
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Emily of New Moon trilogy by L.M. Montgomery
Favorite Mystery
Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie King
The Unkindness of Ravens by Ruth Rendell
Favorite Fantasy
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Beloved Exile by Parke Godwin
Favorite Women’s Fiction
The Saving Graces by Patricia Gaffney
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
Favorite YA Book
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Step to the Music by Phyllis Whitney
Susannah by Candice F. Ransom
Favorite Set of Connected Books
Morland Dynasty series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Book Most Often Reread
Anything by L.M. Montgomery
Child of Awe by Kathryn Lynn Davis
Too Deep for Tears by Kathryn Lynn Davis
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