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.

I think Nerd in Shining Armor by Vicki Lewis Thompson is very funny and has good characterization. (Guy and girl stranded together on island.) You might pick up and riffle through It Had To Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Art-loving daughter inherits football team from estranged father and has to produce a championship.

One of these days I shall read something challenging again. I started Albion's Seed and was very impressed, but it's dense. A scholarly study of the four major British migrations to America and how their different cultures shaped American society. link.

Nerd in Shining Armor by Vicki Lewis Thompson

I've been looking for that! (I think the actual problem was that the computer said it was at my library, but I couldn't find it.) I think it's on the Kelly Ripa bookclub list. Which I kind of gave up on because the one book I could find, I hated. But I will pull it back out and try again.

Oh, and when I say I like other stuff "when it's good," I'm saying that because I like crime fiction even when it's not that good.

Oh, and Jesse - you have totally got me hooked on George Pelecanos. I had to rush out and get Soul Circus in pb after reading the first two Strange/Quinn books. Curse you! I really didn't need any more books to read right now! t shakes fist

ETA thanks, Betsy, for the title help.

Muah-ha-ha! t /evil laugh

The only "old" Crusie I've read is Manhunting, and I thought it was cute but not much more. Her voice is there, but it was written for a shorter, category romance line, so I assumed it wouldn't be as quirky or dense (in an amount of story way) as her newer stuff.

Early Susan Elizabeth Phillips stuff might appeal to anyone who likes Crusie, as Betsy said. I loved Kiss an Angel and the "football" books, which include It Had to Be You and another one whose title is escaping me.

In the Funny, Charming Historical area I adore Julia Quinn. Set in Regency England, and usually much more going emotionally than you'd expect from books that at first seem to be very light and frothy.

Um, Susan Isaacs..."Compromising Positions" is pretty good.