FAV Romance authors!

I LOVE FEBRUARY.


Why?

Well, for one, I have a really GOOD excuse to eat chocolate!

But really, Valentine's Day and my OWN Valentine's birthday month makes me think of love and flowers and romance and hearts.

It's hard not to smile when looking at a pink heart, let's be honest! Especially if that pink heart is filled with chocolate... but I digress!

So, our "theme" for this week and next, to celebrate the wonderful month of February, is romance novels.

I find it nearly impossible to tell you what my favorite romance novels are. Mostly because many of my other alley-cats are posting theirs and there is a TON of duplicates that would be on my list.

What's a cat to do?

Well, I stick out my tongue and post them anyway, of course!

Actually, no. What I do is instead focus on romance AUTHORS that I really like and just happen to name some of their books... It's my way of beating the system, although really, there is no system... Just my weird quirkiness that doesn't want to look stupid repeating things.

Hmmm... I think I might need therapy.

Anywho,

Fav Inspirational Contemporary Romance Authors (NOT all inclusive... and I'm excluding historicals because, well, there are a lot of them and I have a lot of favorites there, so this would be a VERY long post!):

Jenny B. Jones. She's new on my list... on my romance list anyway. Her contemporary romance novel, Save the Date, was OH MY GOODNESS hilarious. My mother even said after she read it that it was the first book she's read that is as good as mine. Okay, not saying this to say that my manuscripts are awesome, but if you can beat out a woman's own daughter, then it's pretty good.


Tamara Leigh. Okay, some might call these more "chick lit" however all her books have boy ending up with girl at the end, so I stick out my tongue at you and call it romance. NA NA NA! Seriously, these are hilarious, and I rarely take more than a day to read one. I just wish she would write faster... still waiting for newest one in her Southern Discomfort series (and Faking Grace is still my ALL TIME FAVORITE Leigh book.)

 Kaye Dacus. Kaye is fun because she has both contemporary AND historical romances out there. Love to get a fun flavor of both. I have a hard time picking a favorite of hers because I love them all, but I probably would still say that Stand-in Groom, her first, is probably my favorite. But urgh... I really liked them all. So yeah, just read them all and you're good:-)




Francine Rivers. Another conteporary and historical writer, and I think her books are probably most all Christian fiction reader's fav list. Scarlett Thread and Atonement child were both great, great books. It's been a while since I've read them... need to remedy that!





 
Lori Wick. Yes, I know she writes mostly historical, and she hasn't written anything new in a long time. But she was the main author who got me reading Christian fiction, so I can't leave her off the list! Sophie's heart was one of my favorite's for a long time though, and sometimes I still go back and read it again. It was sad, fun, and romantic all at the same time. Very much a "sweet" romance. She had some other really good contemporaries as well, but Sophie's heart is the one I could read many times over!

Susan May Warren. Another one where I can't list a favorite if I tried. I love her romances as they have a bit of suspense added as well, and she writes a metaphor like no one else I know! Favorite series would be the Noble Legacy Series, however loved her other ones as well too!





Okay, there are a ton more that I love, but I think this is a pretty good list to start.

So, who are YOUR favorite contemporary romance authors? If you are a historical fanatic and don't read a lot of contemporary, feel free to list those too:-)