Those of you who know me personally or through my
now-defunct blog Just Janga know that
I am almost as addicted to list-making as I am to romance fiction. It thrilled
my list-making heart when PJ asked if I’d do a top ten of 2014 list. I’ve read
less this year than I usually do, but I still read well over three hundred
books—about 80 percent of them romances. Since I generally don’t finish books I
don’t like, most of what I’ve read I consider good reads, books that left me
feeling that my time and my money (sometimes) were well invested. But even
among good books, there are those that stand out, that earn not just a spot on
my keeper shelves and highly-recommended raves but, if you will pardon me for
waxing sentimental, a multi-starred place in my memory and in my heart.
One final explanatory note: Since it would probably take me
until this time next year to complete this post if I ranked these books 1-10, I
present them in their order of publication, indicating only my #1 book of the
year.
1. Sweet
Disorder by Rose Lerner (March
18)
This
novel, with its cross-class romance, party politics plot, and not one but two
bad mothers who seem disturbingly real, is a treasure. Phoebe Sparks, widow of
a newspaper editor and printer, and Nick Dymond, a war veteran and the middle
son of an earl, are likeable and flawed, their meeting is credible, and their
relationship is based on more than libidinal urges. Set in the town of Lively
St. Lemeston, the story offers a portrait of ordinary life in the second decade
of the nineteenth century and shows the extraordinary relationship between two
complicated people who earn their HEA. And I love that the title is taken from a Robert Herrick poem which Nick quotes at a meaningful moment.
2. Three
Weeks with Lady X by Eloisa James (March 25)
In 2009 when A Duke of Her Own, the concluding book in the original Desperate Duchesses
series was released, I longed to know more about what happened to the
illegitimate children of the Duke of Villiers, especially Tobias, the oldest of
the group. When I asked if EJ would ever write Tobias’s story, she held out the
tantalizing possibility that she would. Five years and the Fairy Tale series
later, she gave readers Tobias’s story in what many think is her best book yet.
Tobias, now Thorn, is more than his father’s son. He is a self-made man who
earned his fortune, who accepts his bastardry, and who refuses to disguise a
roughness that is natural to him but foreign to the polished Villiers. And he
is matched with India, a designing heroine who uses her natural ability to turn
chaos into order to buy her own diamonds and choose her own husband. She is
perfect for him. This is, hands down, my best book of the year, one that I have
already reread several times.
3. Home
to Stay, Terri Osburn (May
13)
I
loved Anchor Island from my first glimpse of it, and I have only become fonder
of it with each book in the series. But
Home
to Stay is my favorite. Will is a phenomenal heroine who demonstrates that
love can heal even the deepest wounds and give the wounded warrior the strength
to fight and win the necessary battles. But Randy is the reason this book is my
favorite. A giant beta with a heart to match, he is my #1 book boyfriend of the
year.
4. To Scotland with Love
by Patience Griffin ((June 9)
I
owe this one to a recommendation from PJ. “Read it,” she said. I did and found
it just as wonderful as she said. The title may suggest this is just another
Scotland-set historical, but it is a contemporary romance with a journalist
heroine, Cait Macleod, who retreats to Gandiegow, Scotland, her childhood home,
after the death of her faithless husband and discovers Gandiegow is also the
place to which Graham Buchanan, a reclusive movie star, has retreated. Cait is
confronted with her own past, a complex hero who challenges her at every level,
and a test of her morality. This is a beautifully written debut novel, easily
my top choice for debut of the year.
5. The
Game and the Governess
by Kate Noble ((July 29)
Noble
gives her readers an intricate plot and a sizeable cast of characters in a
story that is part romantic romp, part moral tale. Her hero Ned is totally
unprepared for the realities of life without the privileges that he takes for
granted. The taciturn, introverted Turner is no more prepared for the social
responsibilities and lack of solitude that comes with Ned’s title than Ned is
for the lack of status his secretary is given. Both men learn from the
experience. Phoebe is a wonderful heroine who has a rare wholeness in that
there is little distance between the beliefs she espouses and the way she
conducts her life. However, it is the hero’s growth that is central to this
story. Ned grows into a man with a keener mind, a sharper conscience, and a
larger heart—and I loved watching his growth.
6. A Love to
Call Her Own by Marilyn Pappano (August 26)
I think it is impossible to read
A Love
to Call Her Own and not be moved by the experiences of these characters and
root for them to find happiness again. Perhaps most significant is a new
awareness of all the stories that lie behind the media coverage of casualties
and memorial services and of the price paid not just by those who serve but by
their families as well. Although this novel may move you to tears, it is more
than a sad story. It is also filled with laughter, the warmth of friendship,
the endurance of memory, and the resilience of the human spirit. It is also one of the best portrayals of
stages of grief that I have encountered in fiction.
7. Not
Quite a Wife by Mary Jo Putney
(August 26)
One
of the things that I appreciate most in Putney’s fiction is that she is
unafraid to create characters who have bodies, minds, and spirits. In a genre
that typically ignores the spiritual (except for the Inspirational sub-genre),
Putney has long woven stories with characters who tackle issues of faith and
belief, most notably in
The Rake,
Thunder and Roses, and
Twist
of Fate (the third book in her contemporary trilogy, retitled
An
Imperfect Process in a 2013 reissue). She does it again with skill and
insight in this book. The religious beliefs of the heroine Laurel are at the
heart of this book, and there is nothing simplistic about her struggles.
8. The Songbird’s Seduction
by Connie Brockway (September 16)
An Edwardian-set
romance that pairs a chanteuse and a professor in a romance that reminded me of
The Lady Eve, My Man Godfrey, or Bringing Up Baby, and other romantic comedies from the Golden Age of that genre
in film, this is another Brockway gem. Lucy Eastlake and Professor Ptolemy
Archibald Grant have joined a long list of Brockway characters I adore. And, as
usual, this author’s secondary characters are richly drawn and memorable. Every
Brockway book I read serves to remind me why she has a long-established,
permanent spot on my auto-buy list.
9.
In
Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins
(October 5)
The
fourth book in the Blue Heron series, this book is filled with the things that
make Higgins’s books perennial favorites: hold-your-sides funny moments,
families with their quirks and kerfuffles and myriad manifestations (and
sometimes failures) of love, and protagonists readers want to add to their
circle of friends—plus, of course, puppy love for canine fans. Emmaline is a
heroine in whom independence and insecurity are blended in fascinating measure,
but it is Jack, who is saved from perfection by a twenty-year-old,
life-altering wound, that makes this book a standout in the work of an author
who has the knack for crafting keepers.
10. Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah
MacLean (November 25)
It’s now official: Sarah MacLean is
brilliant. This book is sweet, sexy, poignant, intelligent, and funny. Chase’s
triple identity is smart, artful writing that makes this story distinctive from
other disguise plots, and the fact that Duncan West is caught up in protecting
bits of his own identity is a wonderful touch. I don’t believe the perfect book
exists, but this one comes very close. It is a superlative conclusion to an
outstanding series.
I
have a difficult time cutting my list off at ten. If I had been doing a top 15,
I would have included The Winter Bride
by Anne Gracie (March 25), Between the
Devil and Ian Eversea by Julie Anne Long (March 25), I Adored a Lord by Katharine Ashe (July 29), My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas (August 5), and What a Duke Dares by Anna Campbell
(August 26). Each is an extraordinary book that helped to make this year a memorable
one for this reader.
~Janga
(Some
of my comments are self-plagiarized from my reviews of these books.)
PJ here! I love your lists, Janga. Thank you so much for sharing them with us here at TRD.
Readers, I'm giving away a package of books that includes Janga's top book of the year, Three Weeks With Lady X by Eloisa James and her top debut, To Scotland With Love by Patience Griffin. (U.S. addresses only) So tell me:
What are your top books of 2014?
Top Historical Romance?
Top Contemporary Romance?
Top Romantic Suspense? Paranormal? Womens Fiction?
Have you read any of the books on Janga's list?
Do you keep a list of the books you read?
Let's dish about our best of 2014!
