Happy Boxing Day, all Risky Regency readers! I hope Santa brought you just what you asked for. 🙂 And I also hope you aren’t quite as brain-fogged as I am, after a weekend of food, drink, and family festivities/quarrels (they are sometimes so hard to tell apart!).
All this week, the Riskies are going to be doing a sort of “year in review” thing. What were some of our favorite reads of 2005? What were some of YOURS? I’m starting off with my own “best of” list. One quick note (or three)–I didn’t count any of the Riskies’ books on my list, because that would have been the whole list. I didn’t count non-romances, contemporary romances, or anything but historicals. And I tried to stick to Regency-set books, but a few others crept in. 🙂
Amanda’s Favorite Historical Romance Reads of 2005 (in no particular order):
1) Susan Carroll’s The Dark Queen and The Courtesan (okay, not Regency-set, but these books were wonderful. Had to count them)
2) Loretta Chase’s Mr. Impossible
3) Myretta Robens’ Once Upon a Sofa
4) Kate Huntington’s To Tempt a Gentleman
5) Cheryl Sawyer’s The Chase
6) Gaelen Foley’s One Night for Sin
7) MJ Putney’s Stolen Magic (possibly the first time I’ve ever read a story where the hero was a unicorn)
8) Shana Abe’s The Smoke Thief (ditto above, only dragons)
9) Barbara Metzger’s Ace of Hearts
10) Liz Carlyle’s The Devil to Pay
11) Diane Perkins’ The Marriage Bargain
12) Jude Morgan’s Passion (breaking my own rule here–this is not really romance, but great historical fiction about women of the Romantic period. I was totally engrossed in this story)
13) I’ve just started reading Julia Justiss’ The Courtesan, but so far it is shaping up to be a great read
And that’s it for 2005! I didn’t read as much romance this year as I have in the past, but most of what I read was great. What were some of your own favorites?
Thanks, Amanda. That is, without a doubt, the nicest list I’ve ever been on.
Thank YOU, Myretta, for the great read! I especially enjoyed the unusual heroine. 🙂
I haven’t read as much romance myself this year as in some years past. Aside from the Riskies, I’ve only read a handful…THE LADY IS MINE by Judith Laik, and THE DEVIL’S BRIDE by Penelope Stratton (which is old, but new to me) both leap to mind, but I think there were a few more…
Most of the nonfiction books I read this year were also not specifically Regency, though some overlapped with the period. One that I found surprisingly entertaining was THE BOOK ON THE BOOKSHELF by Henry Petroski, who writes books about the history of engineering for everyday things. This book talks about the history of books and libraries, and the way that methods of storing and reading books have changed with time, as books grew more common and libraries larger. Since the number of books that we own threatens to overwhelm us constantly, it is a topic which I find interesting…
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That book sounds absolutely fascinating. I’m going to have to find a copy, too. (That’s the bad part about reading blogs Like this–I always find new titles to add to my already groaning shelves!). Just read a similar book called EVERY BOOK ITS READER, which loosely followed the format of a 1960s exhibit at the British Museum called Printing and the Mind of Man. Great stuff.