Books like Ravished — picked by fans

A Summer to Remember is one of my all-time favorite historical romances. The story, set in England’s Regency period (1811-1820) is an excellent introduction to Balogh’s emotional, heart-tugging stories of people who fall in love against all odds. “Pretend Engagement” is one of my favorite Romance tropes, and this story delivers. Kit Butler has no intention of marrying but needs a fiancée to distract his parents. Lauren no longer believes she’ll find love but wants one summer to remember. Enter Kit and the pretend engagement. Over the course of the summer, mutual passion hovers at the edges of their developing friendship. At times Kit is almost unbearably sweet to Lauren. Balogh has a deep, deep backlist. You can’t go wrong with her work.

Private Arrangements was my introduction to Sherry Thomas’s absolutely exquisite prose and story-telling. The setting is the Edwardian period and gives us a couple who were once passionately in love. The day after their wedding everything goes wrong with no way to pick up the pieces. Indeed, the two have lived apart for the last ten years. Now she wants a divorce, and he has a shocking proposal for her. How on earth can two people who have made such terrible mistakes find their way back to each other? Thomas takes you on an emotional ride on the way to the answer. She’s an amazing writer whose characters come to life on the page in a way few can match. If you haven’t read her work, you should.

This was my first Jenkins Historical Romance and it was by no means the last. I confess I picked up the book because I was tickled that the title was my last name, but the story. Wow. It gripped me hard from the start. The historical setting is the American West of the 1870s and involves a couple who pretend to be married, for just one evening. The pretense ends in scandal and a real marriage to save their reputations, and the hero’s journey to love is deeply emotional. Some of Jenkins’s contemporary-set romances have been made into movies and I keep my fingers crossed that one day they’ll choose some of her historicals.

We’ve all watched The Bridgetons on Netflix, but the books are better!

This is Anthony’s story, and my favourite of Quinn’s Bridgerton series. It’s witty and wonderful, with a strong heroine and a swoony hero! Anthony had made up his mind to wed Kate’s sister, but Kate’s not having any of it!

In her opinion, reformed rakes are not good husband material! Kate and Anthony’s rocky road to love is brilliant, witty, and wonderful. 

Okay, I’m cheating here a bit because Winterbourne isn’t a Scot. He’s Welsh!!!! I didn’t think a book boyfriend could get any sexier than a Scot until I discovered Rhys Winterbourne, a Welshman. Who knew? Imagine a dark hulk of a man, a commoner who clawed his way to unimaginable success. And then he meets Helen Ravenel, a delicate, retiring beauty, an aristocrat, the last person on earth he should want and yet he must have her. My heart breaks for this man. He can easily steamroll right over Helen, but she finds the strength within her to stand up for what she wants. The ending of this novel is so satisfying. I’ve read this book a dozen times and I’ll probably read it another dozen. I hope you do too! 

This book was my first introduction to One-dimensional Chess. I assumed the idea was as ridiculous as other impossible games in the story, such as Spotless Dominoes, but then it occurred to me that maybe not.

I devised a version with a King, Queen, Knight and three or four pawns facing each other along a single line of spaces and amazingly it does kind of work, though it is probably more of a puzzle than a game. I later learned that there are many other versions of One-dimensional Chess devised by chess fanatics over the years.

Apart from that, the story is a thought-provoking triple fantasy that plays with the notion that perhaps life itself is just a game, a puzzle we have to solve before we can move on.

Making life choices is difficult for all of us, as it is for the hero in this book. Andy thinks the job he holds defines him and finds out that because of his job, he has no life. He’s living a hollow existence, and when he least expects it, he meets the love of his life.

The heroine has her own problems to deal with when she meets Andy. They are opposites drawn together, as many of us are in real life. A twist at the end has him having to choose between love and his career. Another beautiful second-chance love story I enjoyed reading and recommend to pull at the heartstrings.

This is really terrible–if highly moreish–stuff: a thin, junky, first-drafty picaresque. But it formed the basis of a film starring Jackie’s sister, Joan. The film even had a tie-in aftershave (heavy on the ginseng), promising all kinds of advantages for the wearer. The film and the book both try to suggest a deluxe, upmarket, classy melding of disco culture with the post-permissive society sexual freedoms now available to the 1970s bachelor and (as an ill-informed nod to feminism) the businesswoman.

This imagined milieu was a million miles from the sleazy, criminal experience of London’s Soho, which had traditionally been where all this erotic access was clustered. The aspiration was shared by Paul Raymond, who worked to translate the risqué stage shows of the 1960s (think pre-fame Christine Keeler) to more contemporary fare for the proto-Thatcherite managerial class, keen to see what secular society had to offer them and their new… show more.

Any and all of Jenny Bayliss’s books can be read at Christmas and leave you feeling just as good as a hot toddy with the perfectly sized slice of spice cake.

Each of her books is a delectable treat and an immersion in the holiday spirit, but Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is my absolute favorite. Probably because I adore the heroine – Elinor Noel, or Nory for short. She owns her own vintage bookshop in London, but grew up in the English countryside.

Her parents’ home was near a posh private school, which Nory received a scholarship to attend. Throughout the years, she’s remained close with her old school chums and now two of them are set to be married just before Christmas in the old castle on the school grounds. 

Isaac has taken over as head gardener for the castle estate. He tormented Nory when they were children,… show more.

A trio of tall, dark, broodingly handsome werewolves await, in this action-packed, high-passion, angsty trilogy indulging the fantasy of ‘the beast within’. A terrifying transformation befalls the men of the Wulf dynasty, and the curse can only be avoided by never falling in love. The perfect premise for romance!