I fell in like with Stephenson through Zodiac. Snow Crash and The Diamond Age made me glad I got them at the library. But he got me back with Cryptonomicon. It sprawls and wanders and then ends all too suddenly. But the characters were fascinating -- well, the male ones anyway -- and I liked some of the ideas he raised.
I've enjoyed all the Crusie I've read except for Strange Bedfellows and What the Lady Wants. In the former I felt, like others here, that the romance was forced. I could see the two leads having a fabulous affair, but their marriage seemed doomed. And the heroine in WtLW seemed like a spoiled brat.
Bet Me really worked for me. I thought Crusie did a good job showing two people from mildly disfunctional families catching one anothers' backs. I liked how a fair amount of the conflict came from character issues that resonated for me. And a little couch bondage sex never hurts a book in my eyes (unless you're lying on said book at the time).
I think someone on this list recommended Regencies by Loretta Chase. If so -- thanks! They've been a great escape at a kind of tense time. Going back and forth between regencies and H:LotS dvds has been a bit of a head trip, but it's still cheaper than most drugs.
The Annie Dillard quote had been my personal mission statement for about 20 years.
What The Lady Wants, Trust Me On This, Manhunting
are pretty forgettable IMHO. (Trust Me hasn't been reissued yet.) A list of the early stuff is here. And I agree that the couple in Bedpersons is kinda doomed.
Somebody, somewhere, maybe at Autofocus, wrote Homicide AS a Regency...
Well, I rather like making my own cheese balls, but I couldn't agree more about the "clean house" part. Anyone who's seen the dog fur bunnies under my bed could tell you that.
I'm still on the library waiting list for
Bet Me,
so I'm glad to hear others liked it.
Welcome to Temptation
is probably my favourite Crusie, though I also loved her old category romance - the one with the older woman/younger man couple and the Basset - am blanking on the title.
That's Anyone But YOu, which I also love.
And
Charlie All Night
is a great read.
OK, so I like Crusie, but haven't read other Romance writers. Who should I pick up next? It matters to me that stuff feel real, even if the situation is improbable -- the JD Robb books drive me BATTY, between the fact that NYC is unrecognizable, the cop stuff is lame, but not as lame as the future stuff.
stuff feel real, even if the situation is improbable
If you like historicals, one of the best at that IMO is Jo Beverley.
I don't read a lot of contemporary romances other than Crusie, so I can't help there. The genre conventions that I accept in books set in the past (virgin heroines etc etc) drive me nuts when used in the present without any changes.
I could try historical, thanks, Dani.
Probably 80% of what I read now is modern urban crime fiction, on the gritty side. So I kind of forget that I do like other stuff, when it's good.
