Skip to main content

Top 25 Reads for 2018

2018 was a busy year for reading -- lots of great books, so little time, right?

Although I must admit that this year I was immersed in Susan Mallery's Fools Gold series, as well as Jill Shalvis' Lucky Harbor and Heartbreaker Bay series --  and I do mean totally immersed.  These two writers can world build like no other!  But for the sake of the Top 25, I am putting Mallery and Shalvis in their own kingdom and let you decide.

Also, please note that I am not driven by the NYT Bestseller List or any other "lists" -- I tend to like to find my writers in a more organic way, mainly by browsing in real brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries, so some are "newish" and some are older.  If I'm starting a new series, I like to start at the beginning, which means I'm reading past bestsellers.

So, here's my top 25 titles that I heartily recommend to readers (broken down by genre / subgenre):


Regency Romance:

Sherry Thomas, His at Night
Tessa Dare, The Dutchess Deal
Suzanne Enoch, The Care and Taming of a Rogue
S. Enoch, The Lady's Guide to Improper Behavior
Grace Burrowes, Douglas
Sally MacKenzie, What Ales the Earl  (no, that's not a misspelling) 
Historical Romance & Mystery  --  Colonial America / American Revolution:

Laura Frantz, The Lacemaker  (gentle)
Donna Thorland, Turncoat
Karen Swee, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Murder (mystery)
Barbara Hamilton, The Ninth Daughter  (mystery)
Contemporary Romance:

 Jennifer Crusie, Bet Me
Elisa Lorello, Pasta Wars
Nora Roberts, Inn Boonsboro Trilogy (counts as 3 books)
Vicki Lewis Thompson, The Nerd who Loved Me
Julia Gabriel, Drawing Lessons
Elizabeth Adler, Summer in Tuscany


Other:

Marlena DeBlasi, Thousand Days in Venice (memoir, travel, romance)
M. DeBlasi, Thousand Days in Tuscany


Stay tuned as I begin to post my 2019 "Intentional" Reading List(s) -- good intentions sometimes fall by the wayside, depending on time, health, weather, which side of the bed I woke up on . . . ah, so many variables! 


To sit alone in the lamplight with a book

spread out before you . . . is a pleasure beyond compare.

        ~Kenko Yoshida, Buddhist monk (ca. 13th c.)


Happy New Year!




Labels:

Comments

PJ Sharon said…
Love this and will keep for reference:-)
1/01/2019
Claire Hadleigh said…
Thanks, PJ!
1/03/2019
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More Secondary Characters

As promised, I'm back with some tidbits of info on another favorite secondary character who has appeared in several of my Regency romances -- the Dowager Lady Rutherford. I needed a character who would balance out Lady Caro (see last week's blog entry), someone who was smart as a whip, tough and yet hiding a soft side.  The dowager seemed to fit the bill for when she first appears in Snowbound Seductions , she's ornery, feared by all (even the duke) and willing to use her ebony cane like a Scottish claymore. So, the first British actress who visually inspired me, mostly for the dowager's physical attributes is Phyllida Law.  If you're an Acorn TV or Brit Box fan, many of you will recognize Ms. Law. Phyllida Law She's appeared in so many series and movies, and is also known as Emma Thompson's mother.  She is a wonderful actress and, to me, captures how I visualize the dowager. And in my work-in-progress, Wicked Wagers , we'll see a b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Of Ladies and Lacy Fichus

 Apologies all around for not writing more frequently on my blog -- something I'm determined to correct in the coming weeks.  Today I'm going to talk about my main character, Miss Julia Charlotte Montford, the heroine of Wicked Wagers , due to release in October of this year. Julia is a feisty one -- spoiled, often impudent, headstrong and all too often making wagers.  If she lived in today's world, she'd probably be buying lottery tickets by the yard!  But one day she makes a wager with the ex-cavalry officer, Benjamin Malory Burton, and her life will never be the same.   Oftentimes we writers scour the internet and sites like Pinterest to find an image that sparks the imagination of both the writer and the reader.  Many times it's an actress or actor, but this time I stumbled on a series of paintings by John Hoppner, who lived and painted in the late 18th century into the early years of the 19th century.   And I found Julia -- here she is -...
Post a Comment
Read more