A Place on My Bookshelf

What does it take for a book to earn a place on my bookshelf?

Blog readers want to know....What's our favorite here at CCC?
(stay tuned all week as each of us talk about our favorite authors, novels, genres, and our 2016 reading lists)

Anne here. It's no secret that historical romantic fiction is the genre I love.
But which ones? By who? And by what criteria do I choose?

To earn a special place on my bookshelves:

I love a cover that is classy, vintage, and intriguing. Not flashy, sleazy, or too glitzy. I want to take my novels on my errands, I'm not interested in carrying around a corset-buster--or reading one. But, I also love when the story beneath the cover is as well told as the cover is crafted.


I love a full-length novel, where I can really get to know the character's hidden depths. I love a multilayered plot--as long as good characterization isn't left in the dust for the sake of plot intricacies.

I have loved the 19th century the longest, but have begun to grow a wonderful love for colonial times, thanks to Laura Frantz and Lori Benton.

I like a romance that is sweet, realistic, and not too predictable. For me, less is more appreciated--meaning I'm picky about not wanting the romance overdone or too sensual. Let's just say, I prefer clever endearing chemistry over cheap combustion.

I'm intrigued by great historical research resources that transport me back in time. I have books from topics of the Civil War, the American Revolution, pioneer medicine, 19th century Montgomery Wards catalog reprints, colonial midwifery, Custer's last stand, and Mackinaw Island history. Also, filling my research and human interest shelf are books about Laura Ingalls Wilder, the American Yellow Fever plague, a collection of adoptions accounts pre-Roe v. Wade, the history of the logging industry, and Robert Louis Gates, Jr.'s edited account of a rare diary of an escaping African American Slave, Hannah Craft.

I like a story that has a fresh story twist, or involves a seldom discovered niche of history. I've read my share of prairie school teacher romances from Texas. I'm on the look out for something new. I think that's why I branched out to the colonial time period.

I still have a running list of classics I'd like to add to my to-be-read list. I skipped the voracious reader stage as youngster and started my love for reading later in life. I have some catching up to do. I still have Pride & Prejudice, Last of the Mohicans, and Anna Karenina on my shelf to tackle.


I am always looking for a story that pulls me in, evokes an emotion or memory, and connects me to the character, or the author's mind. I'm looking for a well-crafted story that makes me pause to ponder. A story that makes me want to reread a scene because somewhere in my soul, I'd once felt the same thing as the character had, or I'd once cherished the same awareness of truth, or the love of a place or time.

Readers: 
What about you? What's on your 2016 shelf?
What stories do you love? Do you have reading "criteria"?
What novels do you hope we will review at CCC in 2016?
-------------Blog post by Anne Love-




Writer of Historical Romance inspired by her family roots. 



Nurse Practitioner by day. 



Wife, mother, writer by night. 



Coffee drinker--any time.


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