"He kissed her. Without warning, without permission. Without even deciding to do it, but simply because he couldn't have done anything else. He needed that breath she was holding. It belonged to him, and he wanted it back."- Tessa Dare
The next time I blithely state in a Romance E-interviews newsletter that I'll post one romance Top 5 list per day for a full week, somebody kick me :) It's hard work, this imagining!
Historical romance - consider it: carriages, corsets, high society, dashing heroes, décolletage, rakehells, witty repartee, gaslight, parlour room drama, intrigue and scandal. Reputations were made and lost at the turn of a card. What you said wasn't important so much as how you said it. The good will of the ton accounted for much. Marriages were matches of standing rather than matches of affection and passion. Historical romance covers often belie the social conventions and mores of the time - they are lush, seductive, vivid in colour, passionate (for something so still), evocative and, sometimes, downright scandalous looking. It's the contradiction that probably gets my attention.
