Good romances for readers of historical & period fiction
Jane Austen is dead, so she won't be writing any more novels.The wretch.How dare she leave me, a reader not born or thought of until 153 years after her passing, with only six completed novels, a few fragments, and juvenilia to keep me? In my search for sprightly, shrewd, compassionate, and fun fiction about people and the odd things we do to each other, I've had to roam from the literature section to what my old Powell's coworkers called "The Pink Aisle." Yes, friends, the Romance section.
I'm enough of a lit snob that I never thought I'd go there. And as Adam can
testify from the heap by my side of the bed,
I've had to wade through a fair number of
mediocre books to find ones I really like.
(But let's face it, even the Lit section is
not always a bastion of brilliance. And as
much as I love science fiction, some of what
gets printed simply ought not.)
I'm picky about
historical detail, for one thing: before
1800, Europeans wore linen, not cotton, for
their underclothing. And I find it
hard to believe that English is the first
language for some of these authors. But when
they're good, they're very good!
