My husband adores stand up comedy. I do not. My siblings all rave about Curb Your Enthusiasm. I think it’s mean and unfunny. Others in my book club–the less fun one–cracked up over Where’d You Go, Bernadette. I found everyone in it profoundly unpleasant.
Clearly, humor is in the funny bone of the beholder.
I confess, I am rarely made to laugh out loud by romance novels though I’d like to be. There are a few authors whose work reliably amuses me. I tend to find contemporary romance funnier than any other genre. Rachel Gibson’s Chinooks series, Kristen Higgins’ romances, several of Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Chicago Stars books, and some but not all of Jill Shalvis’ Lucky Harbor novels amuse me. Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series is, upon occasion, hilarious. Tessa Dare, Julie Anne Long, Julia Quinn and Loretta Chase have all written funny scenes though I rarely think of their books when I think “I’d like to read a romance that makes me giggle.”
And then there are books that others find hilarious that I think are bland. (I’m sorry–all those Beard books don’t tickle me. Nor do Lucy Parker’s works.)
But that’s just me. What about you? What books make you howl with laughter? Smile as you turn the pages?
P.S. I am much easier to make laugh when viewing rather than reading. We just rewatched my very favorite movie, Almost Famous, and this scene (and so many others) slayed me.
Lucy Parker makes me laugh. So do Olivia Dade and Jackie Lau.
I posted my highest humor scores yesterday, but decided to work up a slightly different list today. I have reread a lot over the years, though much less recently. I don’t always have a strong urge to reread all the books with the most humor. This list of most-reread romances with humor scores appended shows that I have read many 4-star and even some 3-star books more times than several 5-star books. (Though of course more recent books and more recently discovered books haven’t had time to accumulate a lot of readings.)
28 A Rake’s Reform (r) Holbrook, Cindy (1995-2019) *****
25 Ravished (r) Quick, Amanda (1995-2016) *****
23 Black Sheep (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2018) ****
22 The Secret (r) Garwood, Julie (1995-2015) ****
22 The Mad Miss Mathley (r) Martin, Michelle (1995-2019) *****
20 The Lion’s Lady (r) Garwood, Julie (1995-2006) *****
19 Lord Sayer’s Ghost (r) Holbrook, Cindy (1996-2019) *****
18 Dangerous (r) Quick, Amanda (1995-2016) ***
18 Christmas Wishes (r) Metzger, Barbara (1993-2019) ****
17 These Old Shades (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2011) ****
16 The Bride (r) Garwood, Julie (1995-2006) ****
16 Devil’s Cub (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2011) ****
15 Mistress (r) Quick, Amanda (1995-2016) ***
15 Scandal (r) Quick, Amanda (1995-2008) ***
15 Elyza (r) Darcy, Clare (1993-2017) ****
15 The Actress & the Marquis (r) Holbrook, Cindy (1997-2019) *****
14 The Corinthian (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2015) ****
14 Deception (r) Quick, Amanda (1995-2014) ****
13 Honor’s Splendour (r) Garwood, Julie (1995-2005) ***
13 Venetia (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2014) ***
13 Laugh With Me, Love With Me (r) Damon, Lee (1997-2017) ****
13 Frederica (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2015) ****
13 The Duke’s Downfall (r) Lynson, Jane (1996-2012) *****
12 Rendezvous (r) Quick, Amanda (1995-2017) ***
12 The Unknown Ajax (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2015) ****
12 A Suspicious Affair (r) Metzger, Barbara (1994-2019) ****
12 Cupboard Kisses (r) Metzger, Barbara (1993-2019) ****
12 The Tenacious Miss Tamerlane (r) Michaels, Kasey (1994-2014) *****
11 Prince Charming (r) Garwood, Julie (1995-2018) ***
11 Saving Grace (r) Garwood, Julie (1995-2004) ***
11 Lady of Quality (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2000) ***
11 The Black Moth (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2011) ***
11 Pepper’s Way (r) Hooper, Kay (1997-2016) ****
11 A Woman’s Touch (r) Krentz, Jayne Ann (1996-2013) ****
10 Amaryllis (r) Castle, Jayne (1996-2017) ***
10 Zinnia (r) Castle, Jayne (1997-2017) ***
10 For the Roses (r) Garwood, Julie (1996-2018) ***
10 Four in Hand (r) Westhaven, Margaret (1994-2018) ***
10 Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2016) ****
10 The Masqueraders (r) Heyer, Georgette (1993-2001) ****
10 Minor Indiscretions (r) Metzger, Barbara (1993-2020) ****
So nice to see Lee Damon on a list. I liked all of the books of hers that I was able to obtain. Laugh With Me, Love With Me was a great romp, and the kids in the book were fun, too. Plus, a very unconventional heroine.
Again the Magic has some funny scenes, but (trigger alert) the book deals with a heroine who is a survivor of domestic abuse that is detailed in the text. Damon’s description of the hero’s house is my favorite fictional residence, bar none.
I frequently found moments in various Laura London books entertaining. The business with the wheel of cheese and also the description of the contents of the ocean in The Windflower were moments I still recall with amusement. Likewise, I enjoyed the authors’ contemporaries — they wrote under their real names for those, as Sharon and Tom Curtis.
I find I enjoy the humor in Carole Buck’s books pretty consistently. I am always amused by the toddler in “Cody’s Honor.” Although I generally dislike novels where the hero or heroine is concealing aspects of their identity, I like “Swann’s Way.” It, too, has a child I enjoy. She also wrote Peachy’s Proposal. She’s good with dialogue. In her day jobs, she’s done a lot of television news work and also was a film reviewer for a time — look her up as Carol Buckland. I wish she was still writing romance, but unless she’s using a pseudonym I don’t know about, she’s not.
I think the kind of humor I like is commonly described as “dry.” The one-liners and snark that Jayne Ann Krentz slips in, for instance, in her various guises. Lisa Kleypas has some books and situations I find funny. The business with Catherine Marks and the ferret in the Hathaway books is a nice thread throughout. Between Helen and Winterbourne and Lady Berwick, the business about “alas” amuses me. There were some moments in the first Cynster book, Devil’s Bride, by Stephanie Laurens, that I laughed over.
One problem with remembering books that I thought were humorous is that the books I recall best are the ones where the author portrayed such intense emotion between the characters that I was utterly absorbed. Laura London managed to be both entertaining and emotionally absorbing, as was Again the Magic. Kleypas manages it. Much as I enjoy Carole Buck, she never sucks me into emotion the way K.J. Charles does.
The funniest books I have ever read are three paranormal series: The Pride – Shelly Laurenston, Charley Davidson – Darynda Jones, Magical Mayhem – K.F. Breene. All of the books had at least one LOL moment usually more than one. I also will never forget the LOL moment I experienced while reading the cat scene in Wallbanger by Alice Clayton. I recently discovered a funny contemporary series by Pippa Grant that for some reason they are not calling a series. The first book is Mr. McHottie.
Many books make me smile (the books written by Jennifer Crusie or Loretta Chase, for instance) but I do rarely laugh with one. I can only think about Penny Reid’s ‘Beauty and the Mustache’ –in that book, I found a scene in which I really laughed out loud. It’s rather surprising, considering that part of the book is about something as hard as the illness and death of a parent. It could be related to the fact that I’m Spanish. Let me explain.
I’ve always thought that humour is something very personal and, partly, it relates to your culture. Many American romance novelists –for instance, Susan Elizabeth Phillips or Julia Quinn– tend to the slapstick situations. I don’t usually find it funny, although I can accept them in a contemporary romance. It falls flat in a historical one. I feel closer to the typical British humour, with its irony, sometimes sarcasm. My own Spanish culture tends to black humour, and I think that’s why I did connect with the aforementioned Penny Reid‘s book.
You can’t imagine the jokes we make about the COVID-19, even being one of the countries with a highest rate of people dying in relation to the population. It’s cruel and hard, and people from other countries find it sometimes very disrespectful, but it’s the way we cope with things.
That’s why I think that, in part, humour is related to your culture.
My parents lived in Europe when they were first married and our family has always been more comfortable making iffy jokes. It’s one of those things that I think Americans have in some ways lost. We are so careful about humor–at least in some quarters–that we seem more joyless than other cultures.
“It’s one of those things that I think Americans have in some ways lost. We are so careful about humor…” Oh, absolutely! I think it says something that Jerry Seinfeld, who is a pretty squeaky clean comedian, refuses to play American college campuses any more because he has found young people to be increasingly offended by pretty much everything.
I think a certain amount of comedians that can really make me laugh also make me gasp sometimes like Dave Chapelle and Ricky Gervaise because they tackle some very controversial stuff. They are making me laugh and shocking me while providing social commentary. And the truth is we all think and do things that are not 100% perfect or even p.c, at all times so it’s funny when it gets called out.
Great comment, Bona. Though born in the USA I have lived in England for 41 years and really love dry, wry, cynical and ironic British humour. As far as the Spanish Covid-19 jokes, it’s always better to laugh than cry so I say the more sarcastic, cynical, rude and tasteless the jokes the better. My friends love mickey-taking any time!
There are very few truly funny romance historicals IMHO, but a few that I have read made me giggle and laugh out loud in places. My favorites: The Bridal Season by Connie Brockway; and A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare is so funny and cute. Love Colin!
And no one ever mentions this author, but I LOVED Ridiculous by D. L. Carter. Laughed throughout the whole book.
It’s fairly easy to write angst and drama, but very hard to make people laugh. I wish more writers would write funny and clever plots.
There are some funny scenes in the Kate Daniels series. I always chuckle when I think about Kate calling here kitty right before she meets Curran, or much later in the series when she and Curran go to Roman’s home to ask him to officiate at their wedding (practically any scene with Roman makes me smile).