A tale of love and intrigue: Old friendship turns to love

Houston Leigh survived the Civil War, though badly scarred both inside and out. But will he survive a dangerous journey along the wild trails of Texas with Miss Amelia Carson, his handsome brother's mail-order bride? Left in debt when her philandering artist husband is murdered by his mistress's own jealous husband, Susanna Dallet must rely on her skills as a painter of miniatures to survive her new position at the court of the devious Cardinal Wolsey. Luckily, there's a wayward angel and a handsome but easily ruffled court secretary looking out for her.

As with so many entries in this list, you really should read the whole series. But if we had to pick just one, it'd be this one. Brilliant and yes, troubled, Ian MacKenzie has been banished to an asylum by his cruel, powerful father. Freed upon his father's death, Ian makes an impulsive marriage proposal to Beth Ackerly, a wealthy widow who decidedly wants no more drama in her life.

Mary Balogh is a prolific historical romance author, and readers gave the most votes to her books about the spectacular, seductive Bedwyn brothers and sisters. But we'd be remiss if we didn't also mention her excellent Survivor's Club series, about seven survivors of the Napoleonic wars who find themselves convalescing together at a stately home in England.

Fossil-hunting rector's daughter Harriet Pomeroy summons the notorious Viscount St. Justin to sleepy Upper Biddleton to hunt the thieves who've been hiding loot in the caves where she works. Love, intrigue and a lot of old bones can't be far behind. Amanda Quick is a pseudonym for the prolific contemporary romance author Jayne Ann Krentz who also writes futuristic romance under the name Jayne Castle. Lisa Kleypas writes solid contemporary romances too, but this series about a quartet of 19th-century young women who band together to conquer the London marriage market was a favorite with our voters and our panelists.

You can start pretty much anywhere in this beloved series about an alphabetically named family Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne The Bridgertons are some of the most famous siblings in romance — and the books are also a lovely example of familial love surrounding the individual love stories.

There's nothing actually sinister in this interconnected series of stories about very smart women a chess prodigy, a newspaper publisher, a scientist and an astronomer, among others and the left-handed men they fall for. Courtney Milan is a master of the intelligent relationship discussion — which, trust us, is incredibly romantic. Four notorious aristocrats — Bourne, Cross, Temple and the mysterious Chase — have built their lives around London's most notorious gambling hell, The Fallen Angel. But love has a way of offering absolution without making you give up the baccarat table.

The dissolute Duke of Jervaulx is brilliant at both seduction and writing scientific papers — which he does with a blind Quaker mathematician. But when he's left speechless and straitjacketed by a stroke, it's up to the mathematician's daughter, Maddy Timms, to see that there's still a man inside the restraints — and to reconcile her Quaker faith with her growing love.

The seaside town of Spindle Cove is often known as "Spinster Cove" because of its lively population of unmarried women. But even in this haven for disaffected or delicate ladies, love finds a way in. Regency England is one of the most popular settings for historical romance, but Elizabeth Hoyt steps back a century for the Maiden Lane books, set in a bustling, grimy s London that teems with gin sellers and foundlings, noblemen and small, irritating dogs.

And in the background is the mysterious Ghost of St. Giles, a sword-wielding vigilante who may be a guardian of the city's poor — or something more sinister. The Everseas and the Redmonds rule the lovely Sussex, England, town of Pennyroyal Green — and the two powerful families can't stand each other. Naturally, that leads to secrets, grudges and all kinds of attraction, for the Everseas and the Redmonds, and anyone else who comes to town. When the king orders Scottish laird Alec Kincaid to take an English bride, he sets his sights on Jamie, the youngest daughter of Baron Jamison.

But Jamie has sworn she'll never love such an arrogant, brooding Highland barbarian — and that's even before murderous rumors begin to circulate about Alec. Lauren Willig takes the plot of The Scarlet Pimpernel and runs wild with it in this swoon-worthy series about florally named spies battling it out against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars.

Bracketing the historical romance is modern-day historian Eloise Kelly, who unmasks the titular Pink Carnation and finds a love of her own while researching her dissertation. We couldn't quite decide where to file this time-traveling romance, but eventually we went with the setting for the start of Nicholas Stafford's story. He's a 16th-century knight reincarnated in the 20th to clear his unjustly tarnished name, with the help — and soon the love — of Dougless Montgomery, an American abandoned in England by her faithless fiance.

Our expert panelist Sherry Thomas landed on the list with this emotionally intense story of a young Victorian nobleman who travels the world to find his estranged wife — a rare-for-her-time surgeon who has made a new life for herself in a far corner of India. Eloisa James is a professor of Shakespeare when she's not writing romance, and it shows in these sparkling stories, laced not just with Shakespeare, but also with Marlowe and Christopher Smart. It's almost as fun to play spot-the-literary-reference as it is to follow the adventures of James' exquisite duchesses.

One of Judith McNaught's most beloved books, Something Wonderful is the story of innocent country girl Alexandra, who saves cynical nobleman Jordan from a highway robbery — and winds up married to him after a misunderstanding. But Jordan doesn't quite know what to do with his young and very unexpected bride. At over pages, The Windflower may be a little dense for some readers, but this tale of a gently reared young American miss swept away by a dashing English pirate captain is a classic of old-school romance — and it's finally been reissued after years out of print.

The lure of the Napoleonic Wars proves strong again in Joanna Bourne's Spymasters books, featuring a cast of dashing French and British spies finding love amid the danger. Bourne's ability to write convincingly French dialogue — in English — makes this series a standout. Emmaline Martin, betrayed by her caddish fiance, meets soon-to-be-duke Julian Sinclair in India just before the sepoy uprising of They fall hard for each other, but a deception keeps them apart until a cold London spring, years later.

Louise Vandermeer is 18, beautiful, rich, bored and very aware that her life is limited by those factors. To escape, she agrees to marry aristocratic rake Charles d'Harcourt sight unseen, unaware that a scar and a limp mar his looks.

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For a lark, Charles decides to travel on his fiancee's ocean liner and seduce her secretly in her darkened stateroom — but the prank backfires when he falls madly in love with his own wife to be. Rachel Wade is finally free after years in prison for the death of her husband, a crime she did not commit.

But as a thoroughly fallen woman, the only work she can find is as housekeeper to the cynical, jaded Viscount D'Aubrey. Gillian, the Countess of Greendale, has survived a brutal first marriage.

Christian, Duke of Mercia, has survived capture and torture by the French. When she takes over the management of his household upon his return to England, these two terribly damaged people begin to build a new life together. This, too, is part of a series that's worth checking out in any order you want to read them. Set in colorful Tang Dynasty China, these richly detailed romantic mysteries center on the celebrated courtesans of the Lotus Palace, who seem to attract as much trouble as admiration.

Anne Wilder leads a double life: But Jack doesn't know that the seductive thief who charmed him, and the honorable widow he loves, are one and the same. Portrayals of Native Americans in romance can be problematic, but our judges loved this story of a spoiled Boston heiress who heads west with her father to inspect some gold mines, and the Harvard-educated Absarokee leader who challenges their claims. Widowed Elly Dinsmore has been treated cruelly in her small Georgia town.

She's got two young boys and a third on the way, and she needs a man to help out. So she places a classified ad for a husband — and gets Will Parker, a lonely drifter condemned to live on the fringes of society after serving time for murder. Morning Glory takes readers on an emotional rollercoaster of love, betrayal, war and trials, but Will and Elly finally get their happy ever after. In the aptly named town of Marrying Stone, Ark. Find a husband by Christmas, or they'll find one for her.

The last thing she expects is to fall for farmhand Jess Best, a good man who's been written off by the town because he doesn't think quite as fast as they do. Ruth Berger, daughter of a Jewish professor, was meant to escape Vienna, but her plans went awry. As the Nazis march on the city, her father's colleague Quinton Somerville decides to rescue her with a quick marriage of convenience — he'll sweep her away to England, and they'll get a quick annulment.

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But neither Quin nor Ruth counted on falling in love. Buttoned-up widow Martha Russell is desperate. If she doesn't produce evidence of an heir soon, her late husband's cruel family will seize the estate she loves. There's only one solution, obviously: She offers to pay her rakish neighbor Theophilus Mirkwood for a month of assignations.

And Mirkwood is determined that Martha will get her money's worth. Lady Jane Cummings is finally out of mourning for her mother, but her father is showing signs of dementia, and her brother has only just returned from the Continent, where he escaped the responsibilities Jane has had to shoulder. Jane needs a distraction, and it arrives in the form of reclusive neighbor Byrne Worth — who has mysterious ties to a highwayman who's been plaguing the area.

Notorious wastrel Reggie Davenport is only good for gambling and drinking — until a relative offers him a second chance in the form of a manor house, complete with secretive estate manager Alys Weston. Romance ensues, but Alys' past and Reggie's alcoholism prove to be formidable obstacles to overcome. Rector's daughter Drusilla Delaney becomes a companion to the spoiled, arrogant Lavinia Framling. But which will prove more dangerous to her — a supposedly cursed peacock feather fan, or Lavinia's brooding brother Fabian?

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Blurbed by Charles Dickens himself, North and South features one of the most memorable heroines in Victorian literature: Margaret Hale, who conducts a stormy romance with industrialist John Thornton while clashing with him over her quest to improve the lives of the workers in their gritty Northern mill town. A resonant mix of romance and social concern. An epic tale of forbidden love during the British Raj. British botanist's son Ashton Pelham-Martyn is orphaned in India and raised to believe he's an Indian boy named Ashok. Anjuli is a neglected princess, condemned first to an unwanted marriage and then to suttee when her husband dies — but happiness beckons for Ash and Anjuli in the "far pavilions" of the Himalayas, away from the prejudices that have kept them apart.

Jane Austen's most famous work was one of your favorite picks second only to the Outlander series.

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So much has been said about Elizabeth and Darcy that now their place in the romance canon goes without saying — we'll just leave you with the mental image of Colin Firth diving into that lake. A poor, mistreated heroine, a dour, misunderstood hero, and a mad wife locked in the attic — if that's not romance, we don't know what is!

Reader, she did indeed marry him, and they lived happily ever after. We couldn't have a romance list without Georgette Heyer, the venerable grandmother of the genre. And readers agreed, giving the nod to Venetia, her charming novel about a sheltered Regency beauty who sees the best in a notorious society rake and then convinces her family to approve the match. Rainbow Rowell's story of two misfit kids who fall in love over mixtapes and comic books in s Omaha, Neb.

While the ending is slightly ambiguous, we choose to believe Eleanor and Park got their happily ever after. We love them too much not to! Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, Ga. But then her father decides to send her off to boarding school in Paris.

A slight exception to our happily-ever-after rule, the romance in the Queen's Thief series gets off to a rocky start in the first book. But stick around for the next few volumes in this story of a master thief who steals the heart of a queen, and then must face the reality of being king. High school golden girl Brittany Ellis finds her life turned upside down when she walks into her senior chemistry class and ends up partnered with tough guy Alex Fuentes, a gang member who longs to leave the life and go to college.

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Things start to spark when Alex impulsively takes a bet that he can get Brittany into bed. Singer and guitarist Alegria Montero wants to make it big, and she's hoping that a shot on a reality show will help her leave behind her boring life of playing family parties. But when she makes it to the finals of a competition for the "next Latin superstar," she has to deal with the whirlwind of publicity, professional jealousy and a budding romance with NYU production major Jaime Lozano.

If you ever got annoyed that Lois Lane couldn't figure out Superman's secret identity, try Pamela Clare's I-Team books, featuring tough-minded investigative reporters who find love while digging up dirt on everything from environmental hazards to al-Qaida kidnappings. Nora Roberts makes her second appearance on the list writing as J. Robb with the long-running romantic suspense series, In Death.

After a long debate, we named the Nora Roberts Rule after her: While many great writers were nominated, only Roberts is legendary enough to show up twice! In this classic gothic suspense story, governess Linda Martin arrives at a mysterious French chateau to take care of the 9-year-old master of the house and discovers a sinister uncle, a dashing, sardonic cousin, and a possible plot against the life of her young charge. The ruling Psy have awesome mental powers, but no ability to feel emotions. They punish any sign of desire, and they're on the brink of war with the shape-shifting Changelings.

The action begins with one Psy desperately trying to conceal evidence of her feelings and the Changeling who sees her as the key to solving a murderous mystery. Steampunk is more than just a fashion statement in Meljean Brook's Iron Seas books, set in an alternate world where the Mongols conquered Europe with the aid of fantastical machinery. Dive in with the first book, The Iron Duke, about a military hero who falls for a police inspector when she comes to investigate a dead body dropped — via dirigible — at his doorstep.

Human technological progress has triggered a magical apocalypse, and mercenary Kate Daniels lives in the wreckage. She relies on her skills with a sword to protect her from enemies who want the magic in her blood — enemies who kill her guardian and throw her into the path of shape-shifter Curran, Lord of the Free Beasts. Poor Prince Charming is cursed: Every woman who looks at him is instantly enslaved by love. And poor Ember turns to the dark arts in order to resist the prince's pull — but can he resist her? Bettie Sharpe reworks the story of Cinderella with, as she puts it, "sex, violence and naughty words.

Jemisin's tale of human women caught up in divine disputes is one of the best fantasy series of recent years, and also one of the most stirring romances: It's packed with gods and lovers whose bonds shape their world — and the worlds to come. Often described as "a Regency romance in space," A Civil Campaign stars Lois McMaster Bujold's memorable hero Miles Vorkosigan and his clone brother Mark as they scheme for the hearts of the women they love and try to keep Mark's nonromantic scheme to engineer food-producing bugs from getting out of control.

At Hourglass Vintage in Madison, Wisconsin, every item in the boutique has a story to tell. Descriptions of vintage items at the beginning of each chapter lend texture and historical context to this multi-generational tale of second chances and unlikely friendships. A perfect book to read in front of the fire or while sipping cider on a chilly fall night.

The Undertaking of Tess by Lesley Kagen. During the summer of , ten-year-old Theresa "Tessie" Finley has her work cut out for her. Not only is she attempting to come to grips with the devastating loss and guilt she feels after she witnessed her father's drowning, her kid sister, Birdie, refuses to believe that their beloved Daddy is really gone. Tessie needs to make sure that she does before their Mom gets wind of how much "weirder" her sister's getting. Heartbreaking, funny, nostalgic, and spiritually uplifting, you'll cheer the Finley sisters on from the first page to the last of this charming novella that sets the stage for Kagen's the upcoming novel, The Resurrection of Tess Blessing.

Harms , a veteran of the New York publishing scene, makes a confident debut with this windswept, beachy story of friendship and folly. Sharing the same first and last name but very little else, two very different women named Janine Brown see their worlds changed forever when they each hear themselves named the winner of a cable network's million-dollar home giveaway.

But when they both arrive at the house believing they--and only they--are the rightful owner, they find much more than a dream home waiting at water's edge. Rich with quirky characters and wish-fulfillment, this is a story to be gobbled up in one sitting. Bones and Roses by Ellen Goudge. Pitted against lead detective, Spence Breedlove, a one-night stand gone horribly wrong, she finds herself in jeopardy in more ways than one. Can she find the murderer before the man who broke her heart and trashed her reputation puts her behind bars?

Becoming Josephine by Heather Webb. Not your typical historical, in Becoming Josephine, Heather Webb mashes up women's fiction and thriller elements in this sparkling debut about the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. The novel transports readers from the steamy jungles of Martinique and the revolutionary foregrounds, to the glittering courts of the French empire, all the while highlighting the inner life of a complex and fascinating woman.

Binds That Tie by Katie Moretti. If you are looking for something darker as the autumn nights grow longer, reach for Binds that Tie by New York Times bestselling author, Katie Moretti. Maggie never felt as though she belonged until Chris Stevens showed her what true happiness meant. Ten years into their marriage, miscarriages and infidelities have scarred them both.

When a charismatic stranger offers the opportunity for a little harmless flirtation, she jumps into the game. But charm soon turns to malice, and a deadly split-second decision forces Maggie and Chris onto a dangerous path fraught with secrets, lies, and guilt.