What does everyone think of Stephanie Laurens? I recently read a short story of hers, "The Scandalous Lord Dere" from the Secrets of a Perfect Night anthology, and loved it! I am planning on reading some of her novels next. Any recommendations?

I've enjoyed her Bastion Club series quite a bit...though most tend to say the Cynsters series is better. I haven't read any of those yet...I'm working on getting used copies as I can (it's a long series).

I've read a couple of her earlier works and didn't care for them much, though.

I liked the Bastion Club series better too. The thing with her books is after a few u feel like ur reading the same one over and over. I recommend going ahead and checking her out, though.

Definitely give her a try. Her Bastion Club books are very good. The Cynster series started out very strong but there are a lot of them and not all of them as good as the first few. If you want to give her another try without getting into a series of hers, try Four in Hand. It is a great book and will give you more of a feel for her writing then just the novella you have read so far.

Thanks for all the recommendations! I'm going to try a little of everything. I've requested (I work in a public library) the first books in the Cynsters and Bastion Club series as well as Four in Hand. I can't wait to get started!

Harlequin - you nailed the Bastion/Cynster series on the head.

Two of the later Cynster books, though, On A Wild Night, On A Wicked Dawn, are particularly good.

Has anyone ever met Laurens? Her copyright is actually an incorporation which makes me wonder if her books are written by more than one person. She certainly publishes frequently.

I really enjoy the Cynster books and agree with the comments earlier about them being a bit 'samey' and for that reason I leave time between books. I have been reading the series for 2 years and not quite at the end. If I read other authors in between I come back to them fresh. Hope this makes sense.
Natalie (UK)

I agree Natalie. I've read them as they came out (or pretty close to it) so I always had books in between. When a series is as big as the Cynster, it would tend to sound "samey" by the end just because the author has to keep revisiting her own emotions that connect her to the Cynster characters. IMO

I just finished Four in Hand and Devil's Bride (the 1st in the Cynster series). I really liked both (especially Four in Hand, though I almost wish she had divided that book into four and given each of the sisters their own book.) I am going to start on the 2nd book in the Cynster series next, and then give the 1st in the Bastion Club series a try.

Becca, Thanks. I went to her website to grab a link to her "About Stephanie" page. She is just one person writing all the books. I've never met her personally but I do know people who have.

http://www.stephanielaurens.com/AboutSte...

Lindsey, I felt the same way about the sisters. They each would have made great books on their own. Four in Hand is still one of my favorites of hers and I re-read it often.

I just finished reading the 3rd book in the Cynster series, Scandal's Bride, and I loved it! I had thought the first two books in the series were good, but this one (in my opinion) blew them out of the water. I just requested the next 3 books in the Cynster series from the library. I am going to start reading the first book in the Bastion Club series today and hopefully it will tide me over until the others arrive.

I just finished Devil's Bride a few days ago. I LOVED it. It was my first Laurens book and Im glad it was the first book within the series. Shopping at used bookstores it's a wide shot on grabbing the first book of a series. She was just a random pick up. Now, for me to find the other books.

I really love the Cynster series. Even though I started reading them after many had been published, I don't usually read them one right after another and that does keep me from feeling they are "samey" also. I really loved the first three, so much that I would re-read them at some point.

I am anxious to read the second one. I am dying to see the similarites and differences between Vane and Devil since they are so close. I have to wait a few more weeks for the next two books to come in so I have an ample amount of time to calm my excitement down a notch.

Does anyone know the order for her Bastion Club series?

Hi Chasidy, it looks like her Bastion Club series is ordered here on GRs already. I took this info from the Romance Series List Group, which is a handy group. :-)

Prequel - Captain Jack's Woman
1. The Lady Chosen
2. A Gentleman's Honor
3. A Lady of His Own
4. A Fine Passion
5. To Distraction
6. Beyond Seduction
7. Edge of Desire
8. Mastered By Love (Aug 2009)

Prequel12345678

I think I actually started liking the Bastion series more for some reason. I got tired of the Cynsters.

Great! Thanks, Kathrynn!

Cannot wait for Mastered by Love to come out. Next week!! I discovered Stephanie Laurens by way of Mary Balogh b/c they wrote the anthology It Happened One Night together. I really like Mary's books and wanted to start reading someone else, so I picked Stephanie Laurens...I think the first book I read was A Lady of His Own. She loves to do Alpha males and I really like Alpha males in romance novels. Especially all of her nobles.

I met her editor at a writers conference I went to in May.

Lindsey wrote: "What does everyone think of Stephanie Laurens? I recently read a short story of hers, "The Scandalous Lord Dere" from the Secrets of a Perfect Night anthology, and loved it! I am planning on readin..."

I am currently reading the Cynster series and really have enjoyed it--especially the first novels about the cousins. I've really liked some of the others, too. They are formulaic as people have noted, but I've still found them a wonderful escape read. My thought is that I'm not reading romance novels for a surprise ending. I haven't read her other series, though, so can't compare. I love the alpha male and alpha females coming together.

I enjoy Stephanie Laurens _ I agree there seems to be written along a formula... but I like knowing what I am getting and I am not buying these anything more than a wonderful fairy tale for grown ups to read!

I was reading The Lady Chosen on the Love gives Back site then it wouldn't let me access it anymore! I was almost done too! Ugh! Now I just have to go to B+N and loiter to finish it or pick it up... I haven't decided yet. lol

What I read so far was good. I like Tristan's character very much.

Stephanie Laurens is one of my favorite authors in the historical romance genre, she writes fluently and vividly but I have to admit that I enjoyed the Cynster novels better than the Bastion Club. Her stories tend to drag at times and sometimes there's a template for the plot it's predictable, but still she knows how to make a scene sizzle.

I've just finished reading Stephanie Laurens' new book - The Untamed Bride - book one in the Black Cobra series. I really enjoyed it, like the premise of four heroes each racing back to England with important information that must reach the Duke of Wolverstone (aka Daziel from the Bastion Club) aided by characters from the Bastion series and all of the Cynster cousins. Talk about putting all your apples in one cart! But it worked, mostly.
I don't know if it's just me, but I do like historical accuracy in my HR novels, as in any other historical novel I read - and in this one, Laurens' for me, dropped a clanger. It probably won't mean much to the majority of readers of her books, or indeed to this thread, but her main characters, Del Delborough and Deliah Duncannon both hail from an area known as the wolds, he from Middleton on the Wolds, which is great I thought, it's not far from where I live! Then she dropped the clanger by consistenly saying it was in Humberside - all throughout the novel this jarred, and I admit if I hadn't have been enjoying the plot, I would have chucked the book away in disgust - it's sloppy research. Humberside as an administrative county only existed between the years of 1974 and 1996, until then and indeed afterwards it has always been in the East Riding of Yorkshire! In 1822, the year in which the novel is set, Humberside wasn't even used as a descriptive for the area around the Humber, it was either Yorkshire or for the south bank Lincolnshire! As I was reading the novel I then started to question the rest of the historical geographic information, so far haven't found any other clangers there.
I was reminded of the other time Laurens sloppy research annoyed me, it was in one of the Bastion books, and they were trying to find out who the bad guy was, they had a name but nothing else - so what did they do, but go to St Catherine House to search for his birth! No, no, no. This book was set in 1816, general registration in England didn't start until 1837 - before that births were only recorded if someone was baptised, and that information in 1822 would still be in the individual churches, so I can see whey Laurens did it - and St Catherine's House as the deposit for birth registrations didn't start until 1970, before then they were held at Somerset House on the Strand in London from 1837-1970. - Sorry, I'm a genealogist, so that misinformation really annoys me!!
I mean, I accept that for HR novels, the characters, usually members of the British Aristocracy are made up, the Dukes of St Ives and Wolverstone weren't real Dukedoms, and I accept that, they are fiction. But it's were historical accuracy is needed is around the period that the books are set in, so if a book is set in 1822, then only those places that existed historically in 1822 should be mentioned, etc.

Anyway, rant over, sorry to bend your ears - it was just bugging me.

Not enough though to stop me buying the next Black Cobra book when it comes out in February, but I will try not to get too incensed if there are any historical inaccuracies in that one:-)

I just read my first Stephanie Laurens story, "Scandalous Lord Dere", the same one that Lindsey mentioned at the start of this thread, and thought it was absolutely wonderful. The hero of this novella had just the right amount of alpha-ness without going overboard for me. I hope all her heroes are like him. I have several of the Cynster and Bastion Club novels on my TBR pile and am now eager to get to them. I noticed a lot of comments mentioning the formulaic nature of her stories, but since I never read series books one right after the other, hopefully it won't be a problem for me.

Carol wrote: "I've just finished reading Stephanie Laurens' new book - The Untamed Bride - book one in the Black Cobra series. I really enjoyed it, like the premise of four heroes each racing back to England wit..."

I just got The Untamed Bride for Christmas. I think from all the comments I'll probably enjoy it. I'll let you know.

I enjoyed her Bastion Club books...except for the last one. That one was a total disappointment.

But just having read those, and none of the Cynsters, I didn't really notice anything too terribly formulaic. I didn't read them back-to-back, though. I read most of them as they were released (one a year).