100 books like Flowers from the Storm

Judith Ivory has one of the most distinctive voices in historical romance. I wish she was still releasing new work! The Proposition is a fun take on My Fair Lady, where Henry Higgins is a down-on-her-luck duke’s daughter and Eliza Dolittle is a charming rat catcher. Yes, you heard that right. We’re a long way from the usual historical romance fare of dukes and rakes. Not only that, Mick Tremore, the rat catcher in question, has the most wonderful dog Win who threatens to steal the show every time she’s on the page. Charming, clever, witty and full of delicious sexual tension, this is a compelling read – and it has a serious message about how often the greatest barriers to our dreams are those our minds place on us. 

Georgette Heyer is the queen of Regency romance. My mother gave me my first Heyer when I was about eight and I’ve loved her work ever since. Witty, beautifully written, romantic, glamorous, her books were the perfect introduction to historical romance. I’m currently in the middle of my fifth re-read of all her books and this time 'round, I think my favorite is Faro’s Daughter. This pairs the very rude and unromantic (but irresistible!) Max Ravenscar with clever, independent Deborah Grantham, a well-bred lady brought low by financial trouble who now runs her aunt’s gambling house. When Max sets out to rescue his beef-witted cousin from Deb’s clutches, the stage is set for a clash of titanic proportions. This book sparkles like good champagne, and it always makes me laugh.  

Loretta Chase presents a thoroughly entertaining Beauty and the Beast story in Lord of Scoundrels, book three of her Scoundrels series. Miss Jessica Trent attempts to negotiate with the Marquess of Dain in order to extract her idiot brother from Dain’s unhealthy influence. But Dain dislikes the species known as “ladies” and trusts them even less. He offers Jessica his own self-serving terms, which she roundly rejects. They’re horribly attracted to one another, which Dain refuses to acknowledge, and Jessica knows is the road to ruin. Experiencing this big, powerful, beastly man’s taming at the hands of a small, beautiful, fiercely intelligent woman is delightful. Their dialogue and banter are stellar and their constant battles a thing of beauty. Truly, one of the best Regency’s out there.  

This is my favorite comfort read, the perfect book for days when life has too many sharp corners. I must have read this one at least twenty times. It has all the virtues of a classic fairytale: a pure-hearted, brave heroine; an honorable, steadfast hero; and a happy ending earned through suffering and effort and against all the odds. It tells the story of Countess Anna Grazinsky, a young refugee from the Russian Revolution, who finds work as a maid at a stately home in the English countryside, where she falls in love with the gallant war hero who owns the house. But the Earl of Westholme is promised to another woman. Heartwarming, triumphantly romantic, wise, and funny, A Countess Below Stairs is one of those rare books that makes the world seem a better place.  

I am a huge fan of Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels, and it is largely because she creates characters that I just cannot forget.

In Cotillion, Freddy Standon is the most unlikely of heroes, being rather quiet, and not all that bright, but he agrees to a fake engagement so that the impoverished heroine, Kitty, can enjoy a season in London. In Kitty’s words “he is the most chivalrous person imaginable.” 

His efforts to keep Kitty out of trouble culminate in him defeating the more typically heroic type, who also wants to marry Kitty (though not for chivalrous reasons) It all happens in such an amusing way that I read it time after time. In fact my original paperback copy has fallen to pieces, so I had to purchase the ebook version!

The hero of this book, The Duke of Sale, has always wondered what it would be like to be plain Mr Dash of nowhere in particular. 

He gets his wish after encountering Belinda, the foundling of the title, and goes on an adventure during which he learns a lot about himself and his own worth. As so often happens in a Heyer story, the comic interludes (often involving Belinda’s wish to own a purple dress) build to an ending which has an air of farce to it.

So far I’ve recommended books that I read over and over again because I’ve enjoyed them so much.

This time I am recommending a book which has only recently come out, but which has really impressed me with the clarity of the writing, the interesting story, and the convincing historical details.

And, of course, a hero who is just a little bit out of the ordinary, who marries his childhood friend in order to inherit enough money to save his property, and slowly learns that she is the only woman he could ever truly love. (sigh)

I love this book for many reasons, one of them being that the heroine is a naïve young author who is having her first book published.

She has used Sylvester, the Duke of Sale, as the model for the villain of her story, because of his “tigerish” eyebrows.  Which wouldn’t have mattered, if her family hadn’t decided they ought to get married.

During the course of their unorthodox courtship, (which involves her flight from him, a curricle accident, the kidnapping of his nephew, and the adoption of a French puppy) the arrogant Duke learns that he can’t have whatever he wants for the snap of his fingers – and it does him a great deal of good.

I love to read about artists in Paris in the 1930s. And this book is about a woman who tries to leave the world of modeling to become a photographer, and then she morphs again into one of the only WW2 journalists.

Lee Miller was a real person and she fell in love with Surrealist Man Ray in Paris. 

I first picked this book up because of the setting—New York during a blizzard—but also because I love impossible situations.

Here we have Christmas-loving, hopeless-romantic Eva who has agreed to housesit an amazing penthouse on Fifth Avenue, and to have it decorated in time for the owner’s return for Christmas. There’s just one problem, the owner never left. Unaware of his grandmother’s meddling machinations in hiring Eva, Christmas Grinch and crime writer Lucas has isolated himself in his penthouse due to a looming deadline, and the impending anniversary of his wife’s death.

However, when the blizzard of the century leaves Eva stranded in Lucas’s apartment these two opposites discover they have more in common than they first thought. This is a beautiful fairy tale of a book.