Also, I like Nalini Singh and Jade Lee (most of what I’ve read by her has been in the Harlequin Blaze line, but I constantly re-read those books.)

Yasssssss! This week’s episode dragged a bit for me for most of it but only because I knew what was coming. And those last 5-10 minutes?

Jenny is the one I recommend to non-romance readers (specifically, Bet Me) for just, everything wonderful in romance. If mini buttercup had been a girl, we seriously considered Minerva for a name (yes, Min would probably tell me not to, but whatever). I re-read that book probably 3 times a year, or when I don’t feel…

i’ve read it happened one autumn maaaaaybe seven times now.

In fact, Devil in Winter was the first historical I read. And that was it for me, I was sucked into the genre.

I’m late to this post, but I love Courtney Milan! Also a huge Tessa Dare and Elizabeth Hoyt fan. More contemporary stuff, I like Bella Andre and Jill Shalvis. I used to think I hated romance novels and then my friend made me read the wedding quartet books by Nora Roberts and I was sold.

I have everything Cruisie has written! She’s truly delightful. I think you’ll enjoy Molly Harper- I’ve been recommending them left and right for a few years now. The heroine is a sarcastic librarian who’s fired in the first few pages and it’s all up/downhill from there.

I really like all of Crusie’s work. She did some early, much shorter works which I like as well. Charlie All Night was probably my favorite. She teamed up with another writer for a short period and wrote a couple of books: Agnes and the Hitman was my fave of those I think. I’ll look into those Good Girls Don’t books-…

“He also claims, “E. L. James is no better or worse a writer than most of her compeers,” which is news to me, as a prolific romance reader who couldn’t make it halfway through the first Fifty Shades book.”

Ohhh I forgot about Lisa Kleypas! I have read a ton of her historical stuff, but I always forget that she writes contemporary because my library shelves her contemporary titles in the main fiction section and not the romance section, where the rest of her stuff is. Thanks so much for the reminder! I’ve just put…

“Contemporary” has a super wide vaiety of titles. Based on what you like, I’d reccomend sticking to stuff pubbed within the last 5 years or so to start.

I’m going to second or third Alisha Rai, Rachel Gibson and Suzanne Elizabeth Phillips.

For the record, I write contemporary romance (and make a living at it) and “The Hating Game” by Sally Thorne is so freaking good it makes me want to weep at my own inadequacy. If you just want a book with some kick-ass sex, check out Christina Lauren (“Sweet Filthy Boy” is a personal fave...though I’m cringing at the…

Oh, he does mention it, but Daddy gets top billing:

“She’s funny, she’s sexy, and as the funny and sexy (at least on the page, and for all I know in real life) Eloisa James, author of WILDE IN LOVE (Avon/HarperCollins, paper, $7.99), puts it, “In the last half decade, he’d seen an enormous white whale, the Great Wall…

Julie James and Lisa Kleypas are my favorite contemporary romance authors. Julie James’s are very funny, too.

So, why does he even bring up E.L. James at all? She didn’t have a book in the crop that he was reviewing. Since when does a review of specific books become a statement about the entire genre as a whole throughout history?

My all time favorite is Jennifer Cruisie, I’m not sure how active she is anymore. Bet me is just about the most perfect contemporary romance I’ve I also have a special fondness for Jayne Anne Krentz because she was my gateway.

Thank you for always championing my industry, Kelly. I love how much you love romance. :)

The Gottlieb piece was so condescending. Even when he complimented one of our living greats, Eloisa James, it comes off backhanded. Of course she’s talented, her father was a poet! It couldn’t be that she’s brilliant (Which she…

alisha rai! And check out Smart Bitches Trashy Books. And the wonderful podcast Hopeless romantic. (focusing on LGBTQ romance.)

Jennifer Cruise. Welcome to Temptaton and it’s sequel Faking It are a great duo. Also Bet Me and Fast Women are great. She’said very funny and has non-traditional heroines. (Plus sized, a bit older, a bit crooked) They also have full lives outside of the romance.