Kit's Recommended Reads Part 2

This is part two of my blog series in answer to all the questions I get about what I would recommend for folks to read.

Okay, I’m blogging about it rather than listing them out because it’s not about answering the questions, it’s about having the opportunity to gush about the books.

Now, in an earlier blog, my first recommendation was vintage Johanna Lindsey, WARRIOR’S WOMAN.

That book hit me first because it was such a hugely pleasant surprise, something so different to devour in that time, a sci-fi, space-age romance that kicked ass.

But as many of you who know me know, it’s Judith McNaught’s stories that will always and forever own my heart.

Although I could wax poetic about every one of her books, particularly KINGDOM OF DREAMS, SOMETHING WONDERFUL, ONCE AND ALWAYS (all historicals) and PARADISE (a contemporary – though don’t count out DOUBLE STANDARDS, one of her first and a tremendously good one), for the sake of this blog not being a tome, I’ll focus on my introduction to Ms. McNaught.

I first discovered Judith McNaught when I found ALMOST HEAVEN. I’d been reading romance for years when I stumbled on to this book and it wasn’t one of Ms. McNaught’s early novels so I don’t know how I was missing out on her.

I just know, as a romance reader, it rocked my world. And as a wannabe writer, it changed my life.

It was the perfect mix of everything a romance should be, in my mind. An interesting hero, flawed but fabulous. A plucky heroine who managed to be plucky in a real way that made you fall in love with her. A mix of romance, redemption, and very (very!) importantly, humor. But mostly, a string of secondary characters who were well-rounded, unique and individual, stealing their own scenes and serving to further define the main characters for, as I say often, we are defined by those who love us.

In mentioning the secondary characters, I’ll point out that I particularly adored Lucinda Throckmorton-Jones, duenna to our heroine. Haughty, reserved and set in her ways, Ms. Throckmorton-Jones supplies some of the most delicious comedic moments…and some of the most loyal.

As much as I adored our hero, Ian Thornton, in a turnabout that was the staple of McNaught’s stories, our heroine, Elizabeth Cameron, stole the show. She was loyal, strong and amazing. So often, we fall so hard for the heroes, the heroines don’t find their way in our hearts. Not so with ALMOST HEAVEN (or any of McNaught’s novels). Elizabeth Cameron had a lot burdening her slim shoulders and she took it all on in clever, amusing and/or heartbreaking fashion.

But it must be mentioned that McNaught was a master of redemption. Although I think the redemption scene in her KINGDOM OF DREAMS is the best I’ve ever read, Ian is no slouch in this department.

Quite frankly, McNaught’s writing informed my own in an integral way where all the elements that make her novels such an utter joy for me to read every single time I read them (and there have been many), I’ve personalized and injected into my own. I want my readers to fall in love with my hero but I also want them to fall in love with my heroine AND all the people around them. To feel a part of that family. To be drawn into their lives so completely, they feel they belong to their posse. To be so involved in the story, they’re rooting everyone on like they would a friend who’s living and breathing.

Judith McNaught gave me that. She lit the way for my writing like no other author (and I had a great many favorites, including the aforementioned Johanna Lindsey as well as Penny Jordan, Jude Devereaux and Julie Garwood).

I’ll admit gleefully to the fact that my favorite romance genre is the historical. I’ve never written one and I rarely get to read anymore so I miss them. However, I’ll take this opportunity to share with you some I’ve read in (relatively) recent years that I found fantastic. These being Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series and Elizabeth Hoyt’s WICKED INTENTIONS.

And I’ll end this by saying, if you read romance and you haven’t read Judith McNaught, I encourage you to do so. They’re “vintage” and they’re still fabulous. Alas, they can’t be found on ebook for reasons that are very perplexing to me, but they’re definitely worth the investment in print. Even if you don’t read them again, you can pass them on to friends, libraries or used bookstores to make certain someone gets to share in their joy.

Though, my copies have spanned two states and two continents during my travels. I don’t let them go.

And I never will.