Current events have had me torn between reading military romances and historical romances (specifically those set in Britain in the 18th & 19th Centuries), so I wanted to share my favorite books from these two genres!
Historical British Romance:
1. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase - This is pretty well recognized as one of the best ever in this genre. The dialogue is some of the best I've ever read in a romance, bar none, and the hero, Dain, is just the right amount of broken. The heroine, Jessica, is just flat out awesome.
2. Once and Always by Judith McNaught - Another classic of the genre, with another broken hero who I just love.
3. The Lion's Lady by Julie Garwood - This is the first in Garwood's Crown's Spies series, and they are all worth reading.
4. A Loving Scoundrel by Johanna Lindsey - This book is the 7th in a series, but I only read a couple of them, and this one was my favorite, perhaps because we are introduced to the hero, Jeremy, in an earlier book, when he is a young and reckless teenager.
5. The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook - I'm kind of cheating by putting this book on this list, because it probably falls more into the steampunk category than in historical romance, but it *is* set in Victorian London, and there are Dukes and Duchesses and Marquesses. There are also zombies and automatons and nanotechnology. Its a thoroughly original book, with such an interesting mythology, that I can't recommend it enough.
Military Romance:
1. Shadow Game by Christine Feehan - This is the only non-Brockmann book on my list, but I really enjoy Feehan's paranormal/military Ghostwalker series about a group of special forces soldiers who go into a program designed to boost their paranormal abilities. I like the later books better than this first one, but the first one is still good and is vital to understanding the plot lines of the later books.
2. The Unsung Hero by Suzanne Brockmann - Brockmann's Troubleshooter Navy Seals series is pretty much the epitome of military romance, and this is the first book. The author is fantastic at introducing characters in earlier books, giving them character development, and letting that pay off in later books, and it all starts here.
3. Out of Control by Suzanne Brockmann - This is book 4 in the Troubleshooters series, and it makes the list because I just adore the hero, Wild Card. He's not only a badass Navy Seal, but also a complete geek underneath the ripped exterior.
4. Gone Too Far by Suzanne Brockmann - Though I'd rather never choose, if you made me pick my favorite romance novel ever, this would probably be it. Sam Starrett and Alyssa Locke are introduced early in the TS series and Brockmann spends 5 books giving them an emotional history together that makes this book payoff in such a satisfying way. Added to the Sam and Alyssa story is one of Brockmann's signatures, a secondary story about a couple who had a great influence on Sam, Walter and Dorothy.
5. Taylor's Temptation by Suzanne Brockmann - This is from a different Brockmann Navy Seals series, one with much less interlocking stories, but I've always loved this one because the heroine, Colleen, is so relatable and Bobby Taylor is such a good guy, not broken like so many of Brockmann's heroines, just a normal guy trying to do the right thing.
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