Sunday, February 17, 2013

Top 5 Sundays #38 - Favourite Romance Novels!

Ah, romance. The stories that tell you about two souls battling the odds, overcoming obstacles, defeating prejudices, and ending up living happily ever after. Eventually. Sometimes we're talking vampires, sometimes werewolves, sometimes fae or witches or demons or humans or a combination thereof. Sometimes it's set in the past, sometimes the future, sometimes the present, sometimes whole other worlds. No matter what though, these are stories meant to pull at your heart and illustrate just how enduring love can be, despite the difficulties it faces.

#5 - Seducing the Vampire by Michele Hauf

This book has a couple who must overcome social status (she's nobility, he's illegitimate), prejudice (she's a pure blooded vampire, he's a vamp/werewolf halfbreed), a scorned lover (his brother and a pure blooded noble to boot) and, oh yes, her death (which is actually an immobilization spell that leaves her trapped in a glass coffin underground in Paris' catacombs...needless to say she wakes up insane two hundred years later).

#4 - Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James
A retelling of Cinderella, this story has a prince in an arranged marriage meeting his cousin's finacee who's actually a woman impersonating her ill sister at her wicked stepmother's insistence. Both these characters have determination and wit playing in their favour, but Kate's deception and Gabriel's pride keep getting in their way and tripping them up right to the end.
“Give me one last time,” he begged. “Please, please. I beg you.”

“I—” She stopped and started again. “I’m afraid, Gabriel. You’ll break my heart.”

“Mine is already broken.” 
#3 -  Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
“With the world securely in order, Dain was able to devote the leisurely bath time to editing his mental dictionary. He removed his wife from the general category labeled "Females" and gave her a section of her own. He made a note that she didn't find him revolting, and proposed several explanations: (a) bad eyesight and faulty hearing, (b)a defect in a portion of her otherwise sound intellect, (c) an inherited Trent eccentricity, or (d) an act of God. Since the Almighty had not done him a single act of kindness in at least twenty-five years, Dain thought it was about bloody time, but he thanked his Heavenly Father all the same, and promised to be as good as he was capable of being.”
Enough said.

#2 - And One Last Thing ... by Molly Harper
The main character, Lacey, notifies her cheating husband that she plans to divorce him in an email. An email that takes the form of his monthly business newsletter. Which she forwards to all his clients and business associates. It's glorious. And disasterous. But mostly glorious. When Lacey then flees the town scorn by running away to the family cabin, she meets Monroe, former cop turned successful writer and gets to work on some writing of her own. In true Harper style, this book is a through-through romantic comedy that would do the likes of Pretty Woman and 27 Dresses
and their ilk proud.




#1 - A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole
After spending centuries chained to wall and being tortured daily by flames as a prisoner of vampires,  Lachlain MacRieve rips off his own leg (don't worry - it grows back) in order to reach his destined and long-awaited mate who just happens to be a half-vampire. Their relationship goes downhill from there but somehow manages to come around to a happily ever after. It's an amazing story of overcoming the obstacles and defeating the odds to find your happiness. What's not to love about that?

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