My Must-Read Authors

If anyone knows me at all, they know I am reader.  Mostly romance but I read books all the time.  Constantly.  I know myself, and I know if I want to get anything done I can’t be in the middle of a book.  If I am in the middle of the book… I. Must. Finish. It.  Nothing can stop me.  I haven’t read a book in a day in a half, I keep stopping myself.  The reason? I’m cleaning out my bookshelves.  It takes awhile.  I estimate I have about 2,000 books but every 18 months I go in and prune them because I simply don’t have enough room.

At this house, I have my custom desk and bookshelves that hold… well, quite a bit.  Hubby also claimed a section of bookshelves. I begrudgingly let him.  Not surprisingly, I married a man who also likes to read.  How else would he tolerate me?

Upstairs in our room, we have a small sitting room with a built in bookcase with glass doors.  It’s beautiful. One of the selling points to the house, obviously. 🙂 I keep my special authors up there.  I recently did some switching around because some of my favorite authors have not written in awhile, or they changed genres and I simply don’t like them as much.  My main stipulation to being in my special bookcase is would I read them again?  There are a few authors that I can go back and constantly reread their books and not get tired of them.  Here they are in alphabetical order:

Jude Deveraux – One of my early favorites. I don’t like the stuff she is writing now as much but I simply can’t forget about the Montgomery’s, the Taggarts, the old historicals. Remembrance, a random past-life time travel book that I wouldn’t have thought I would love… I sobbed, simply sobbed through two specific pages when I was 16 years old.  I lent this book to my friend Lindsay and we were reading together on vacation and I looked over at her and tears were pouring down her face, and I knew she was at the sad part.  I used to go back to that section when I needed a good cry. Sweet Liar – a contemporary Taggart themed book is just amazing with the New York history, the beautiful romance of it all.  The Black Lyon: an old historical that I still love to read to this day.

Suzanne Brockmann – She was just moved up to the bookcase today.  I simply adore her US SEALS, the Troubleshooter series.  Each one is better than the last and every time a new one come out, I can’t resist reading the whole series.  The Unsung Hero (Troubleshooters, Book 1) is the start of the series, although I think I read Gone Too Far first, which was fabulous. Never can get enough of Sam and Alyssa but Deck, Dave, Sophia, Izzy, Nash… oh my gosh, all of her characters feel like my best friends.  They are often sent out on frightening missions and the level of detail, suspense, and mystery is just awesome for me.

Julie Garwood – I had been tempted to move Julie downstairs but her last book came out two weeks ago, Sizzle, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was really good.  I adore her earlier works (The Bride, The Secret, the Rose series) because the snappy dialogue with the historical bent always made me laugh.  Lately she is writing contemporary and her flighty silly heroines just were not cutting it in a contemporary genre for me but I was happy with this last one so left her up there.

Eloisa James – Publisher’s Weekly reviewed one of her books as having a Regency-era novel with a “modern ring of a Sex and the City episode” and it’s totally true.  Many of her series are filled with characters that float through the different novels and I love that. They are funny, witty, and romantic, and she is definitely an auto-buy.  I just can’t decide which ones are my favorite, lately it is the last one she has written which is always a good thing.  I purchased two of her beautifully bound hardback books from the Pleasures series in a charity auction and I just adore them.  She is on Facebook and Twitter lately and I love reading her updates as she is spending a year in Paris.

Lisa Kleypas – On the same level as James above, her novels are a wonderful read.  She has also switched to contemporary but the difference (from Garwood and Deveraux) is that she did it beautifully! I adore her latest contemporary novels as well as all her old historicals.  I wish her website would list the different series books together but going back and rereading them and putting them back in order is always fun too. Her older ones (Somewhere I’ll Find You, Because You’re Mine) I just sigh over, the Wallflower series is fantastic, and her new contemporary series is just awesome.

Stephanie Laurens – Ahh, the Cynster’s. I love them all. A Secret Love always stands out in my head.  Some of them started to feel the same but her newest series, the Black Cobra Quartet is very compelling!

Johanna Lindsey – Another oldie but goodie.  I adored her so much I took one of my senior portraits with one of her books in my hand. haha 🙂 You know those photos you would take as a senior with action shots, or dressing up or something silly? Yes, I had a Lindsey book in my hands. 🙂  Her top books that stand out right now in my head are Man of My Dreams, Once a Princess, Love Only Once (Regan and Nicki!! Ahh!), and Secret Fire.

Judith McNaught – Judith will always be in my favorite bookshelf.  Always.  Because of Once and Always.  No, actually that is not even my favorite. My favorite is a tie between Whitney, My Love (her first novel – an amazing AMAZING historical) and Paradise (contemporary – I have read it so many times, I am on my 3rd copy).  She has a whole forum of fans who are crying because her latest novel has been pushed back two, almost three years at this point.  It’s so sad but I just adore all her novels, they are all amazing.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips – I will laugh out loud reading any of SEP’s novels.  The funniest one I always recommend to friend is Nobody’s Baby But Mine.  The ‘cereal killer’ joke just does me in.  All of the Chicago Stars series is awesome though, This Heart of Mine is a close second.

Julia Quinn – The Bridgertons.  You will find people fighting over which Bridgerton novel is the best. Obviously, it is Romancing Mister Bridgerton (the 4th) but I think the The Duke and I (the first in the series) is a close second.  She is pretty famous for writing one of the longest series of family members in such an amazing way.  Eight siblings and each book is fantastic.  Her early books (before the Bridgertons) are fantastic and she even did the most amazing thing, she wrote some pretty awesome books after the Bridgerton series. It’s really tough to even think of Julia Quinn writing something besides that family after so long but she did, and her latest, What Happens in London, is just a pure romance and pretty perfect.  Her next one looks to be fantastic too.

Nora Roberts and her alter ego,  JD Robb – Could any bookshelf be complete without the most prolific romance writer of all time?  I reread her books all the time.  The Reef stands out in my mind as I just asked for Christmas the trade book for my bookshelf, it’s a fantastic read about finding a ship filled with treasure under the ocean. I love it. Honest Illusions is another great stand alone read.  All of her series books, of course, I can’t decide which is my favorite! They are all different and just wonderful.  She writes as J.D. Robb, which is a futuristic police suspense series with Eve Dallas and Roarke.  You must read.

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That is the end of my special bookshelf.  At this point, so many authors in my regular bookshelf I will read over and over again but there is not enough room for everyone! I moved Jane Feather downstairs and Janet Evanovich, while I laugh at her books I don’t think I want to reread any of them so I just went and took them out from upstairs and gave them all to the library!  Christina Dodd, Catherine Anderson, Catherine Coulter, Susan Mallory, Sheryl Woods, and Susan Wiggs are just a few more examples of some of my favorite authors that I have been keeping around and auto-buying.  I also have a completely different shelf of regular fiction that I love – Jane Greene and Sophia Kinsella to name two, that I love as well.

If you are looking for a good book to read, please ask me for advice! I love recommending books. I always have to know what you like to read, or what you have read in the past so I can think of the perfect book to recommend.