Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous discussion

Hello there! Lauren posted a thread asking about everyone's top 5 Bodice Rippers.

This led to a lively discussion with lots of great recommendations, and Meredith and I talked about making a dedicated thread to overlooked or lesser-known bodice rippers. I'll be posting a thread tomorrow about those and hope that members will add your personal hidden gems to the list as well.

Before I did that, I wanted to note the 'rippers that are commonly talked about.

Our bodice rippers group has about 400 books listed on our shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

(I don't know if this is ok to cross-post, so mods, let me know, and I'll edit);
The Zebra Reader's Group (which is still running if anyone wants to talk Zebras) has a bookshelf of over 800 books, many of which are bodice rippers:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

I have 300 bodice rippers on my GR shelves. So that means there are a lot of books out there to read!

The following brief list is a small fraction of the hundreds that were published. It consists of what I would consider a solid primer on bodice rippers for a newbie to the genre.

Is this a best-of list? No. A list of my favorites? No. A list of hidden gems? No. But if you've read half the books on this list, or a third of the authors mentioned, consider yourself well-schooled in the genre.

How did I compile this list? I took a look at Amazon, Goodreads reviews (not just ratings, but reviews), Best-of Lists, and some other blogs. After factoring the relevance of the authors to the bodice ripper sub-genre, the kinds and number of awards the books/author received, how many copies were sold, the books' initial reception when published, and finally, lasting legacy (how talked about and read the books are today, 2021, & how it's influenced other works).

(Mods, if it's ok, I will be using this OP as a reference point for an article on my blog. I will not use any other posts in this thread nor advertise my site here.)

E. M. Hull - The Sheik
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss - The Flame and the Flower
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss - The Wolf and the Dove
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss -Shanna
Rosemary Rogers - Sweet Savage Love
Rosemary Rogers - Wicked Loving Lies
Johanna Lindsey - Fires of Winter
Johanna Lindsey - Prisoner of My Desire
Teresa Denys - The Silver Devil
Teresa Denys - The Flesh and the Devil
Christine Monson - Stormfire
Natasha Peters - Savage Surrender
Susan Johnson - Seized by Love
Marilyn Harris - This Other Eden
Patricia Hagan - Love and War
Catherine Coulter - Devil's Embrace
Brenda Joyce -The Conqueror
Victoria Holt - The Demon Lover
Jude Deveraux - The Black Lyon
Jude Deveraux - The Velvet Promise
Judith McNaught - Whitney, My Love
Bertrice Small - Skye O'Malley
Jennifer Wilde - Love's Tender Fury
Rebecca Brandewyne - Love, Cherish Me
Virginia Henley - The Pirate and the Pagan

Another 25-50 books could be easily added to this list, so feel free to do so. My only concern is to keep it reasonably short, so as not to overwhelm any new reader looking for a starting point in the genre.

Happy Reading!

Great idea!

My reading has been slacking recently, there's still too many I haven't read. But from what I've read so far and just going off from you've listed...Personally I'd cut Marilyn Harris, Patricia Hagan, Rebecca Brandewyne and Victoria Holt as a BR newbies first read. The writing is very dense and often too long winded. I'd say they're for advanced BR readers, they're a slog to get through.

Henley, Woodiwiss, and Lindsey is what I'd recommend to convince someone who is use to more recently published romance. These are easy to sink into, very readable compared to modern fiction. Modern romance is mostly quick romance and sex, they're not big on intrigue and history.

Thicc vs Flat BR
Historical with romance vs Romance historical

And good luck getting them to read E.M. Hull, in my experience younger generations don't want to read or watch anything old. Doesn't matter how much they like the look or sound of vintage stuff. Same reason as above it's not what they're use too.

But I'm still fairly new to BR myself just my opinion.

There's definitely some subjectivity. I strongly disliked Fires of Winter by Johanna Lindsey. It was my first BR I had tried, and I quit reading the genre for awhile after my experience with that book. I've seen others say if The Flame and the Flower by Woodiwiss would have been their first BR it would have been their last. Different strokes for different folks. They're both beloved rippers to others. I think it's important to encourage those new to BRs not to give up on the genre just because they pick one from this list and end up disliking it --there are so many written in different styles.

When I was new to bodice rippers, I had a better experience reading Royal Seduction by Jennifer Blake than Johanna Lindsey. It has the 'Alpha' male most younger romance readers enjoy reading. As well as sex, drama, and an exciting plot. Plus it's in KU.

I've also found perusing this list helpful: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... & https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I strongly disliked Fires of Winter by Johanna Lindsey.
I've struggled to rate to Fires of Winter. Is it actually good? No. Did I enjoy it? Mostly. I finish reading it unlike far too many books. I have a problem with being too forgiving with BR books because they get so much hate lol.

Fire of Winter is incredibly popular with a general audience. Younger people and a general audience is who I thinking of when making a list for newbies.

Knowing who you are giving a recommendation to is important.

After thinking about it some more... maybe doing recs like goodreads is a good approach.

If you liked Lemonade etc then try Fires of Winter etc

But that would be a little more awkward to create lists for.

There are plenty of general BR lists already. Karla has told me she made The Real BR list after the Down n Dirty list became filled Lindsey etc. One person's trash is another's treasure.

Maybe tell us the criteria of what you want and don't want to appear.

Ixtli: You're absolutely right about the audience. I think the florid writing of some earlier authors would be a turn-off. A more, the problem would arise with the forced seduction/ rape trope as well.

Limiting a list to a number's difficult. I try to be as even-handed as possible. I might not have loved that award-winner/ bestseller/ cult classic, and I'll certainly share my opinion, but I won't dictate what one should read.

My intentions were to discuss a few dozen or so bodice rippers that started, influenced, or were so legendary or successful they're talked about still. I think of getting a new audience to get a lay of the land if they read a handful of these.

To rephrase the question: If you were teaching a class in Bodice RIppers 101, which books would be on the syllabus?

Wendy, Lady Evelyn Quince wrote: "Hello there! Lauren posted a thread asking about everyone's top 5 Bodice Rippers.

This led to a lively discussion with lots of great recommendations, and Meredith and I talked about making a dedi..."

Iv'e read every one of those oldie's Wendy and still have them all like brand new! Great list & thread you started thanks!

@Wendy it's a good list with a lot of variation. It is hard to narrow down the bodice rippers to a numbered list, but the Great Dames are all covered: Woodiwiss, Rogers, McNaught, Henley, etc. There's actually a lot on this list I haven't tried! I have some serious catching up to do.

Wendy, Lady Evelyn Quince wrote: "Hello there! Lauren posted a thread asking about everyone's top 5 Bodice Rippers.

This led to a lively discussion with lots of great recommendations, and Meredith and I talked about making a dedi..."

Fascinated by the discussion here. When I first started reading BDs, I was obsessed with reading the "popular ones" that made history. Now, having sampled a few of the big name authors, I'm much more curious about the not-so-big-names, the names that might be obscure now, to the underrated.

Also, the BD authors are so different from each other. I find recommendations really help.