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Romance and Me: What’s your favourite HR time period?
Hey Everyone!
Welcome back to #2 of our Historical Romance sessions. Today we’ll discuss time periods. One of the best things about historical romance stories is that they come in all shapes and sizes i.e. set in so many different time periods. There are some set in Ancient Egypt (like Priestess of the Nile), Greece or Rome, Medieval times (all those delicious Highlander heroes *dreamy sighs*), then there are the many set in Regency/Victorian/Edwardian England with those dashing dukes and rogues, and sure there are the more modern ones set during World War I or II or later, just to name a few.
I love them all without any discrimination. I never discard a HR story based solely on the time period it is set in. I can’t pick one favourite time period I love above all the others, but there are certainly some that I prefer. Stories set in Regency/Victorian England tend to be more fairy tale-like and romantic than let’s say HR set in the Viking era. Recently I tried reading a Viking historical romance, wondering how come I haven’t read any HR set in that time period. Well while I was reading that story (The Viking’s Sacrifice by Julia Knight, which by the way is a nice and interesting story, it just wasn’t for me), I realized why. I prefer my HR stories to be an “historical fairy tale”, a warm reading escape, and I find Viking novels harsh and less romantic. (But if you have a romantic Viking HR in mind please share because I’m all for giving it another chance.)
When I asked my fellow HR lovers if they had a favourite time period here are the answers I got and their reasons:
Caro: Well most of the HR novels I read are set in Victorian and Edwardian England. I really dislike stories set during WWI or WWII.
Alisha: I’m a big fan of the English Victorian era. It’s fairly specific in scope when compared to other eras like Ancient Greece or Renaissance, but it’s marked by so many societal changes that the imagination can come up with quite a bit while remaining somewhat historically faithful. The period is far enough from the present day that it feels almost fantastical, yet close enough to be recognizable; it’s where you’ll find the advent of modern technologies, for instance. It’s the time period most closely related to steampunk–major plus right there. It’s where you’ll find many stories featuring strong, independent women…and I love a good bluestocking. ^_^
And, of course, who can forget the dresses, the dances, the royalty, and the country estates? Whether a Victorian-era HR book chooses to be pretty historically accurate or add a bit of contemporary flair to it, it’s always pretty easy to get lost in the imagination of it all. Long live Victorian-era lit!
Anna: I love Victorian England, probably because first loves die hard and my first ever historical romances were those written by Jane Austen, an author who I simply love!
Apart from that, I love the dresses, the dances the way people lived then (well, minus the restrictions women used to live under) but, Victorian England is an era that fascinates me beyond words!
Michelle from Twitter: Anything different. I feel Tudor England and any period in Scotland have been overdone.
So now that we shared it’s your turn to tell us,
Do you have a favourite time period you like your historical romance novels set in?
Which one is it? And why that one in particular?
Or if you don’t have a favourite, do you have some time periods you don’t care much for?
Is there a time period that you feel hasn’t been explored yet, or not enough?
Do come back in 2 weeks, we’ll be here continuing our discussion about other aspects of historical romance novels.
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Early American (1800’s) even though it isn’t overwhelmingly popular right now 🙁 My 2nd would be Regency England or Scottish Highlands during the uprising years!
I agree Felicia, I can’t find enough early American HR stories! How come authors don’t find that period romantic? When I was pre-teenager I also loved the Indian stories 😀
Most of the historicals I read are Regency ones. When I first started reading romances (which admittedly wasn’t very long ago), I read all different time periods and subgenres. I don’t do that so much anymore. I do like the Edwardian ones but it may be due to the influence of my favorite author P. G. Wodehouse and his fabulous Jeeves stories. Plus, Edwardian ones have cars in them!
I agree! So far I only read about 2 Edwardians, I recommend Laura Lee Guhrke’s Abandoned at the Altar series if you haven’t checked it out yet, love modern HR heroines in trousers, driving cars and smoking cigarettes 😉
I’m not picky about that at all. Just like Rogues and virginal ladies.
Definitely the Regency era. There’s just so much fun that can be had when you have debutantes, marriages-of-convenience, English spies, wallflowers, spinsters, compromises, titles, and the all-important “reputation” to work with. Once you hit the Victorian era everything starts getting too modern for my liking, a little too close to real life.
I am not a fan of Viking romances cos they annoy me to death when they get everything wrong from names and so on. That is the curse of living and having studied our history.
But I love highlander romances cos a man in a kilt, yum! And regency is my biggest fav cos everything is so sweet.
I love every time period. Even prehistorical, like Jean M. Austen. If you want to try some more Vikings, I could say Johanna Lindsey, but her books sure were bodice rippers in the 80’s! And my all time favourite historical author is Bertrice Small. She has books in lots of different times, though my favourites are the Skye O’Malley books. And as you know how much I read, saying she is THE favourite, sure means something 🙂
I enjoy all time periods. I was weaned on Barbara Cartland’s books!
I’ve gone thru phases where I read a lot more of certain time periods than others. A lot of that has to do with what’s being published at the time; these things often run thru cycles. But, frankly, I love them all–ancient civilizations, medievals, colonial America, American West, American Civil War, English Civil War and Restoration, Georgian, Victorian/Gilded Age, Edwardian, and, of course, the ever-popular Regencies, to name a few. I like HRs set in places other than America/Britain, but they’re harder to find. One of my all-time faves was a story set in Renaissance Italy.