Meet Senior Reviewer Wendy Clyde Wendy’s Top 10 Romance List
About Me Favorite Romance Novels
Hi y’all. I’m thrilled every day that I’m a reviewer here. I’m a stay at home mom, married to my husband for 21 years, with two children ages 15 and 14, two dogs, two parrots, one guinea pig, and one houserabbit. For many years, working and rearing two children so close in age, I had little time to read and spent my lunch hours and bathroom time with a book in my hand. Now that I’m no longer working I finally have enough time to indulge.
I’ve been an insane reader since I was a small child, spending evenings reading with my mother, and then branching out on my own. I can remember reading the entire World Book encyclopedia from A-Z at age 8 or so, because I’d read everything else in the house. By age ten I’d read The Lord of The Rings trilogy about 100 times and had exhausted the children’s section of our little local library. I discovered romance when I sneaked into the adult section of the library, sitting and reading Harlequin Romances by Anne Mather and Violet Winspear and the like because they wouldn’t allow me to check them out. My first full length romance novel was The Thorn Birds by McCullough, followed by Ashes in the Wind by Woodiwiss. I sought out other romances afterward and became discouraged by the bitterness and rapemances that were so prevalent. Romances sucked in the late 70s and early 80s! I stopped reading romance then and became primarily a sci-fi/fantasy reader until one day in 1990 when I picked up a huge box of books at a garage sale for five bucks. In it I found Karen Robards and Heather Graham and Nora Roberts, among others. Although I no longer read those authors, they turned me on to romance and I’ve never looked back.
Absolute Favorites
The Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole
Favorite Classic
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
Personal Reading Tastes Favorites by Sub-Genre
What I’m a sucker for in a book:
Massive heroes with a squishy heart, heroines who know when to be strong and when to be vulnerable, first person narration with a dry & witty tone, Vikings, barbarian heroes, a good fantasy back story, vampires, werewolves, dragons.
What I don’t particularly care for in a book:
Crises of faith as the main conflict, small/young heroes, teen heroines, harem romances, doctor/nurse romances, heroines who’ve had sex once and decided it wasn’t worth the bother, poverty ridden protagonists (If I want to read about poor people I’ll pull out an old tax return!).
What drives me absolutely nuts in a book:
The Big Mis/Eavesdropping conflict, H/h separated by treachery, psuedo-contemporaries that were written 30 years ago and are completely out of date (should be called historicals or anything else but contemporary), rapemances, no use of condoms in a contemporary, TSTL heroines, the next-to-last book in a series when 20 new characters are manufactured to keep the series going, beta heroes (yuk!), skanky villain sex, bad timing sex (I mean, really, who stops to do it in an alley while on the run from the bad guys?), repeated bad grammar (one popular author ends so many sentences with “at” that it makes me wonder where her editor is at).
Favorite Romance Authors
All-Time Favorite Romance Authors
Kresley Cole, Shana Abe, Carla Kelly, Edith Layton (regencies), Georgette Heyer, SEP except for NBBM, Mary Balogh, Lisa Kleypas, Julie James, Julia Quinn, Kristin Higgins, Rachel Gibson, Ellen Conner, Ellen O’Connell, Ilona Andrews, Kim Harrison, Terry Pratchett, Jill Barnett, Loretta Chase, Jennifer Crusie, Tom and Sharon Curtis, Suzanne Robinson.
Best Discovery/Buried Treasure Authors
Ellen O’Connell/discovery. Laura Parker, Jessamine Cresswell, Lisa G Brown/buried treasure.
My Biggest Glom
Not sure, there’ve been so many!
Contemporary:
Charming Grace by Deborah Smith
European Historical:
Lord Perfect by Loretta Chase
Traditional Regency:
The Abandoned Bride by Edith Layton
American Historical:
The Rainbow Season by Lisa Gregory
Category:
Diamond Bay by Linda Howard
Medieval:
The Conqueror by Brenda Joyce
Paranormal / Alternate Reality:
There are many, but the one I’ve loved the longest is Prince of the Night by Jessamine Creswell
Favorite Characters Favorites by Plot Type
Favorite Hero
Devon Crandall from The Windflower by Laura London
Favorite Heroine
Kate Daniels from Magic series by Ilona Andrews
Most Tortured Hero
Either Luke Turner from Rainbow Season by Lisa Gregory, or Will Parker from Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer or Ryan from Fallen From Grace by Laura Leone
Strongest Heroine
Avalon from the The Truelove Bride by Shana Abe
Favorite Couple
Dominic and Mary from Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer
Best Villain
Trent Kalamak in Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series
Romantic Suspense:
Dream Man by Linda Howard
Funny:
The Ideal Bride by Nonnie St. George
Sexy:
Vampire Dreams by Angela Knight
Cabin or Road:
Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase
Favorites by Mood
Stressed out and needing escape? Shana Abe or Edith Layton (regencies).
Needing a good cry? Charming Grace by Deborah Smith or one of several by Kristan Higgins.
Upbeat and energetic? Jen Crusie.
Comfort Reads:
The regencies of Edith Layton, anything by Tom and Sharon Curtis, Deborah Smith
Guilty Pleasure:
Shadow of the Dragon series by Tielle St. Clair
Least-Favorites
Most Disappointing Books
Patience by Lisa Valdez. After waiting for years, found it just meh.
Worst
Too Wicked to Wed by Cheryl Holt …revolting!
Purple Prose-iest Read
Dreams of a Dark Warrior by Kresley Cole (After Horny Governess in the Wild West, read in elementary school)
Authors I Have Given Up On
Stephanie Laurens
Christine Feehan
J.R. Ward
Authors Others Love That I Don’t
Nora Roberts
Danielle Steel
Margaret Mitchell
Kathleen Woodiwiss
Diana Palmer
Most Annoying Lead Character
Rhett Butler, Gone with the Wind by Magaret Mitchell
Non-Romance Favorites
Favorite Author
Kim Harrison
Favorite Book
Guards, Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Favorite Mystery
Any of the Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries by C.S. Harris
Favorite Classic Novel
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Favorite YA Book
A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle
Favorite SF/Horror/Fantasy
Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro
Armor by John Steakley
Mystery Walk by Robert McCammon
Vampire by Steakley
Madness Season by CS Friedman
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay…its so hard to choose!
Book Most Often Reread
The Abandoned Bride by Edith Layton
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