I recently slipped sideways from my historical murder mysteries to historical romances by the same author and they are pretty good but the conflict is always about how society is keeping these lovers apart and also generally sucks in various systemic ways and that is not soothing at all, even with a specific resolution for this particular couple
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Taking note of the Robin McKinley recs! I have somehow never read her
Ooh! Spindle's End and The Blue Sword are my favorites.
Thanks!
I just discovered (or put together, I fl like I might have been told this before but didn’t retain it) that the Selena Montgomery romances that have shown up in my recommendations are Stacey Abram’s pen name, so my interest is piqued!
Early Robin McKinley is great! But Deerskin is very traumatizing. I find her later work self-involved and unrewarding, but maybe that's just me. Still, strong recommendations for Beauty, The Blue Sword (despite more than a hint of Orientalism/colonialism), Hero and the Crown, and Outlaws of Sherwood.
Oh, I forgot Outlaws of Sherwood.
Deerskin is good but yeah, there are some serious content warnings. I haven't read anything later than....Sunshine, I think. I like Chalice too.
I love Door in the Hedge, too. It's retelling fairy tales, but Robin has a deft touch with it.
I heart retold fairytales. RM showed up on my radar recently because of that but there were just so many books - having some specific refs from y’all is definitely going to help!
I've been re-reading a lot - I don't seem to be able to read any new books except on my e-reader. I've found Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb books my go-tos (plus The Goblin Emperor ... and I would dearly love a sequel). The NR/JDR books are especially appreciated because someone actually copyedited them - I almost never find myself wanting to edit the text. And - in the NR books - she features dogs.