Hooked on Historical Romance

I was quite young when I read my first historical romance, in fact, to be precise, I was 13 years old. I can say so accurately because I keep, not a personal diary, but a Novel Journal, where I note down my own book review with the start date and the date when I finish reading any particular book. The first time I had my hands on an historical romance has its own story to tell. My maternal uncle was in the shipping business, that is, he used to buy used ship and dismantle them. Anything that was on board become his property the moment he bought the ship. So this one time, there were a lot of books on board, books that used to belong to the previous owner or perhaps the crew or passengers. My uncle brought a number of those books home and forgot all about them, till years later he was discarding them, and I happened to be there. I brought home a tattered book, it had a number of first few pages missing and bits and parts of the red cover was barely hanging on to the book. It was a novel written by Laurie McBain and was titled, Tears of Gold. Despite its tattered condition I was drawn to the red book and to this day I am grateful to myself for not judging a book by its cover.

Although, you will hear most people say that Historical Romance novels are for bored housewives, I dare to say differently. It is for all those girls and women alike who have an active romantic imagination. Romance is good on its own, like a matt lipstick, but the additional ‘historical’ adds the shimmer. Romance fits well in the olden days more than any other period. Reading about young women who are daring and adventurous even in times when girls had little freedom makes a reader, at least myself, feel great about being a girl. Historical romance feeds any girl'ss inner craving to wear those beautiful flouncy gowns as seen in Gone with the Wind and attend balls with a thousand candles ablaze. Any one who appreciates beauty would definitely appreciate romance in the form of Historical romance.

The language of love is deep and caring, as expected, but to find a handsome man talking in the archaic language of the 17^th or 18^th century feels so much better. It helps the readers to recall that the English Language is actually so much more beautiful than what we have turned it into; that conversations used to be so much more thought provoking; that there are more beautiful ways to express ones love and that, it does not require money or gifts, rather only beautifully arranged words that sink to the end of your heart and bring forth a tear of gold! It's beautiful to see the blossom of love rather than just lust. That it can be much more erotic to just see a pair of bare ankles than a completely unclothed body. Romance and love seems so frank in our era that we forget how it was meant to be- profound and passionate!

A personal matter that makes my reads a hundred times better is the fact that I mostly read second hand novels. It makes me feel like others have been where I am and in that I find a subliminal connection with them. And that makes me feel.

If you have never read a historical romance, then I suggest that you take your baby step towards it. You can start with some of the big names in this genre as listed below:

• Johanna Lindsay
• Amanda Quick
• Julia Quinn
• Judith McNaught
• Lisa Kleypas
• Kathleen Woodiwiss
• Mary Balogh

  - My favourite series by Mary Balogh is her Huxtable Series:

  1. First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh
  2. Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh
  3. At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh
  4. Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh
  5. A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh