"By Possession" by Madeline Hunter and "Storm Winds" by Iris Johansen.
I stopped reading Romance for a long time because every talented historical author wants to write about love among the Pretty English Gentry in the 18th century and every modern novelist writes about some feminist fantasy Xena Warrior Princess and the effimenate loser/freak/freak of nature who can't wait to lick her leather.
These two authors on the other hand write about real men and women, who are involved in their time periods and realistically involved with each other. The heroines are intelligent, loyal and kind-hearted but have their their own issues and the heros are passionate and sexy but no less complicated and human. The plots are layered and elaborate with a rich cast of secondary characters.
These books are forever keepers.
Well, that changes from time to time depending on what I've read recently that makes an impact on me. I just finished a book a few days ago called PhotoJENic by Wendy Bruening which I absolutely loved. The hero and heroine seem like very real people, not totally fake like a lot of the characters you read in books. I could really connect. Jen is a wedding photographer,which is a career that I find very interesting and I enjoyed reading about all the ordeals Jen had to go through when photographing other people's weddings. She also faces a dilemma in her dating life because she's always working week-ends and has a problem connecting with potential love interests due to that -- until she meets Nate, a DJ who works in the wedding industry. I liked how their romance unfolds so realistically. I guess I love when books are realistic that way. Anyhow, right now, it's my favorite book. It had such a tender romantic ending, I actually cried!
