WELCOME TO OUR BLOG

  • We've been blogging since May of 2006, making us one of the longest-running group author blogs on the internet.

Sign up for Blog notifications

  • Please enter your email below to sign up for notifications when we publish a new blog post.

Your email address:


Powered by FeedBlitz

The Wenches


  • Mary Jo Putney

  • Patricia Rice

  • Susan Fraser King

  • Anne Gracie

  • Nicola Cornick

  • Andrea Penrose

  • Christina Courtenay

In Memoriam


  • Jo Beverley
    Word Wench 2006-2016

  • Edith Layton
    Word Wench 2006-2009

Word Wenches Staff

Wench Staff Emeritae

Contact Us

FIND-A-WENCH

  • Want to read ALL the posts by a specific Wench? Just scroll down to the bottom of her post and click on her name!

June 2023

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30  

Wenches Statistics

  • Years published: 164

    Novels published: 231

    Novellas published: 74

    Range of story dates: nine centuries (1026-present)


    Awards Won:

    • RWA RITA

    • RWA Honor Roll

    • RWA Top 10 Favorite

    • RT Lifetime Achievement

    • RT Living Legend

    • RT Reviewers Choice

    • Publishers Weekly Starred Reviews

    • Golden Leaf

    • Barclay Gold

    • ABA Notable Book

    • Historical Novels Review Editors Choice

    • AAR Best Romance

    • Smart Bitches Top 10

    Kirkus Reviews Top 21

    Library Journal Top 5

    Publishers Weekly Top 5

    Booklist Top 10

    • Booktopia Top 10

    • Golden Apple Award for Lifetime Achievement


    Bestseller Lists:

    NY Times

    • Wall Street Journal

    • USA Today

    • Waldenbooks Mass Market

    • Barnes & Noble

    • Amazon.com

    Chicago Tribune

    • Rocky Mountain News

    • Publishers Weekly

Books

« Is History Bunk? | Main | Guest Author Mary Hart Perry »

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Margot

I usually prefer to avoid royalty in my reading. Aristocrats I'm perfectly happy with, but royalty tend to have even stricter lives, so all the runaway princesses seem a bit far fetched. (For whatever reason, princesses are always running away, and a large number seem TSTL.) A few of my favorite books feature royalty, though, so I will read books with royalty occasionally.

I like reading about lower class characters when I can find them, but I have a definite love for historical high fashion, and that's only going to show up among the rich.

Patricia Rice

Ah hah, Margot, you are as perverse as I am! So I get to dress my schoolteacher in high fashion, and the runaway princess really isn't running away. If she can't foment revolution, then she danged well intends to take life on her terms. But I do totally understand--runaway make-believe royalty is practically a cliche in romance. Which is why I had to be different.

Lyn S

I like Royalty because they have nice shiny jewels. It is the same as how I love fantasy where some people get to have magic and make their own sparkles (Michael O'Toole). So I can easily suspend belief and enjoy the little extra glamour (which was originally a term applied to magic) they add to a story.

Patricia Rice

Ooo, shiny, yes! Must think of jewels to add...

LilMissMolly

I don't really enjoy reading about pampered princesses.

Lyn S

But watching Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday is a treat.

donna ann

like Margot & you I find they royalty a little hard to "buy into" with somewhat convoluted plots, strict propriety/social rules & what not. that said, I tend to not read to many where one of the h/h is royalty

Sherrie Holmes

Sherrie, here. I take each book on its individual merits, though I have to say that I must be living in the Black Hole of Calcutta because I've read very few romances where the heroine was a princess. *g* I'll willingly suspend disbelief if it's a good story. And if the heroine *is* a princess, I'm more apt to read the book just for the novelty value and because it's different!

Anne Gracie

Pat, I was the same until my editor asked me to write a story with a princess, and I did much the same as you — did the research and found Europe was made up of a mass of principalities (which therefore have princes and princesses.) But none of the real ones fitted my story, so I made my principality and my princess up.

And I have to confess mine was a runaway princess, Margot, though I hope not TSTL — I thought she had a good reason to flee — the next in line to the throne was trying to murder her son, who was the heir.

And I had a Russian grand duchess in another book (which is like a princess) but this time I took a real one who had died as a baby and gave her a long and happy life instead.

So I guess Royalty comes to us all in the end *g*

Isobel Carr

I think the fact that we don’t have an aristocracy imbues a time and place that does with a fantasy element that is almost irresistible. I can’t imagine ever writing a book with a prince/ss, but then I thought I’d never write a secret baby either, and low and behold I’m doing one now, LOL!

Linda Banche

I think I've read too many regencies, because now I'm tired of reading about people who have too much money and too many privileges for their own good. I like stories about heroes who make their own way, and succeed because of their brains and hard work.

But I don't really care for working class heroes. I like people who are about half way up the ladder, like younger sons who have to work. As for the daughters, they have to have some money or they wouldn't get any education. I realize marriage was about the only way for a woman of any class to survive, but heroines whose only concern is being pretty and marrying a rich man irritate me.

Ideally, I'd have my hero and heroine both educated and they work together to make a future for themselves in the world. The heroine's education would contribute in some way to the couple's economic success. A heroine should be more than the cultural stereotype.

Patricia Rice

LOL, we all think alike! Anne, your books are always about character and not just title, which is what a good book should be.

And I promise, my princess who isn't a princess is poor and works hard and is not privileged. And my hero is a younger son, although his secret is entertaining.

I'm thinking it's getting harder to come up with new stories within our Regency framework.

CateS

I like royalty in my reading because they get such great bling and clothes.. In reality, I suspect their life is not as 'easy' -- the 'free press' has always been in the face of those perceived as privileged... long before the current crop of today..

magasin new era

Par inadvertance, voir votre article, je me sens très semblable au style de l'écriture et je peux voir le contenu de l'article et son même esprit, il vaut vraiment la peine heureux de lire votre article que celles rencontrées Concert generallyalso espérons que vous aurez de bonnes œuvres les plus , et des remerciements spéciaux.

The comments to this entry are closed.

Social Media

Word Wench Newsletter

  • Word Wench Newsletter
    By signing up, you are agreeing to receive the Word Wenches monthly newsletter. We will never spam you or share your info. You can easily unsubscribe from the mailing list by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the emails.

Books