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	scorpio20 2012-06-12 12:58 pm UTC (link)
	You can never go wrong with Nora. She has a new book just out called The Witness. Excellent read. (Reply to this)

	argylespy 2012-06-12 02:46 pm UTC (link)
	I've never actually read one of her classic romance novels (only the Stephanie Plum, Between the Numbers, and Barnaby series), but Janet Evanovich is quite intelligent and snarky. I mean, this is a woman who says that the reason she decided to stop writing romance novels was because she "ran out of positions." (Reply to this)

	the__ivorytower 2012-06-12 02:58 pm UTC (link)
	Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has regular segments about stuff to read vs. stuff to avoid, and they review romance novels regularly. Might be worth poking around there. They love Nora too. ^^ (Reply to this)

	annathepiper 2012-06-12 04:04 pm UTC (link)
	As a somewhat finicky romance reader, I definitely endorse Nora Roberts in general. Other romances I've read recently and quite enjoyed have been things by Kate Noble and Courtney Milan. Courtney Milan's Turner brother series is fun even if it's kind of silly and probably not terribly historically accurate. ;) She does a GREAT job subverting familiar romance tropes, though. (Reply to this)

harumph
2012-06-12 06:25 pm UTC (link)

I'll second Courtney Milan, she's one of my new historical favorites. My all-time fave historical romance author is probably Loretta Chase (Mr. Impossible is my favorite of the series about the Hargates, although I'm not sure if the series has a proper name. Probably...).

If you prefer more contemporary stuff I'm a big fan of Jennifer Crusie (Bet Me is a keeper), although lately most of her books have been co-written and I haven't enjoyed them as much. I've only read a couple of Nora Roberts' books and wasn't an enormous fan; however, she seems like a kickass lady so trying out her books for yourself definitely wouldn't be a bad idea. :D Most contemporary authors are hit and miss for me, but I've also liked Jill Shalvis and Victoria Dahl.

Oh, and I'll also second the suggestion to visit Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for their "Good Shit vs. Shit To Avoid" category. Well, the entire site is an awesome resource, but that category specifically might be helpful for you.

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bitca
2012-06-12 08:00 pm UTC (link)

The one caveat I'll put on Jenny Crusie is never ever read Sizzle. It was once hard-to-find/out-of-print, but even she hates it and tries to actively discourage people from buying it. I think they reissued it when she became marked more as a "chick lit" than romance, but in looking now, I may be wrong about that.

That said, I love her earlier Harlequins (I adore "Anyone But You" and "Charlie All Night") and her chick lits are pretty fun as well.

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	midnight_hawk 2012-06-12 08:12 pm UTC (link)
	Elizabeth Vaugham's Warprize trilogy (well there's a 4th book out now, but I haven't read it). I wasn't expecting to like the books at all, but the characters and world building are fantastic. (Reply to this)

staroverthebay
2012-06-12 08:50 pm UTC (link)

I'm not a romance novel reader, at all but I know my grandmother read a lot of Nora Roberts and liked her because her writing isn't quite as trashy as some romance novelists out there. (Grandma has been dead for over a decade now, though, so I can't possibly give you any titles, it's been far too long since we got rid of the books after she died... I just remember that the books had Scottish tartans pictured on the covers.)

As I recall, Grandma was actually kind of picky about books -- she had books by other romance novelists (I think they were given to her by my aunt?) but you could tell that she barely more than cracked them open, whereas the Nora Roberts books were decently worn, you could tell that they had been read.

And of course we know that Nora is an amazing person. So, yeah, um... I would recommend Nora. If I ever get the hankering for romance novels, she's at the top of my list to read. The biggest problem I can see with her is figuring out WHAT to read, cuz she has so dang many (but I think that most avid readers will agree that that's a happy dilemma to have; too much to choose from is better than not enough!)

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	threegoldfish 2012-06-12 10:33 pm UTC (link)
	I haven't been steered wrong yet by Dear Author's A rated books. Butterfly Tattoo was one I picked up on their rec a while back. It blew me away andI don't even care for contemporary romances all that much (Reply to this)

	esclaramonde 2012-06-12 11:49 pm UTC (link)
	I was big into romance novels for awhile and then I burned out on them, and practically the only ones I can still read are Eloisa James's Duchess series. A couple of them are meh, but for the most part they're great. (Reply to this)

	puipui 2012-06-13 04:48 am UTC (link)
	You should read Moira Rogers! Because yes. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tez 2012-06-13 08:29 am UTC (link)
	...your icon. This is me LOL'ing. Also thank you for the reminder to pick up a couple Rogers books when I deposit my check tomorrow. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	puipui 2012-06-13 09:53 am UTC (link)
	I also have one that ships breepuifish. XD (Reply to this)(Parent)

ymfaery
2012-06-13 09:11 am UTC (link)

The only caveat I have in recommending Nora is that she often releases things in trilogies or bigger groups. Even some of her early individual novels (Montana Sky is the one off the top of my head, but there were others) you could tell were meant to be three separate stories that she smashed into one for some reason. (Actually, I kind of suspect those ideas were originally intended for Silhouette, but when she broke off from them she had to redo things for her new publisher.)

Other than that? Uh, it's been ages since I actually picked up a Nora Roberts that wasn't under her JD Robb pseudonym, so my brain isn't coming up with titles, sorry. ^_^a Oh wait, I remember really loving the "Born in.." series set in Ireland.

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	librarianmouse 2012-06-13 01:58 pm UTC (link)
	It's been a while since I've read it, but I remember really enjoying Nora Roberts' Three Fates. There's romance, globe-trotting adventure, an over the top villain, and all manner of things that hit my happy buttons. (Reply to this)

rhosyn_du
2012-06-13 06:40 pm UTC (link)

Anything by La Nora is good. In addition to her more standard romances, she has some great thriller-flavored romances and fantasy-flavored romances. I fail at remembering the titles of any of the thriller-flavored ones I liked, but for fantasty-flavored, I really dug the Three Sisters Island trilogy.

And if sci-fi romance sounds at all up your alley, I highly recommend Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair. I read it a couple months back, and it hit all of my happy-making romance buttons pretty soundly.

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	jat_sapphire 2012-06-14 11:28 pm UTC (link)
	If you're looking for the real Nora Roberts, be aware that there's a dunderheaded copyright infringer calling herself Nora A Roberts. If her books are still up at Amazon, don't buy them. Smart Bitches have an article about it. (Reply to this)