I love this author but falling in love with her writing has been a slow process filled with several hits and misses. I say that to contrast the way I feel about her books with that almost instant connection we readers sometimes feel with the writing styles of authors. You know the type that usually leads to almost no misses. Usually, but not always. Those authors are special to us but I sometimes think the ones who have to really work to get our attention may even be more special in the long run.
That instant connection did not happen for me with Lovelace’s novels, that’s for sure. I’m not even sure I was all that crazy about the first couple I read by her, so it kind of surprises me that I do like her so much. There’s just something about her writing that keeps me interested enough to keep checking out both her new stuff and backlist. And I have found a couple of real gems in her work.
I think my favorite is The Captain’s Woman, partly for the heroine’s amazing journey, both emotional and physical, and partly for the setting, Cuba during the Spanish American War with Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. The Captain in the title is a Rough Rider. There are times when I honestly believe that it could become my all-time favorite romance, surpassing even The Bride by Julie Garwood, a book that’s held that spot in my heart for at least a decade.
Another favorite by Lovelace is Siren’s Call, an older Harlequin Historical set in Ancient Greece. A very unusual yet strangely compelling romance with elements of both a captive and opposites attract plot. It also has the distinction of standing out as making the best use of a major separation of the hero & heroine I’ve ever seen in a romance. They were apart for months, I think, and yet it fit into the narrative and plot so well I barely even noticed. I think that’s one of the things that fascinate me about Lovelace’s writing. She’s one of those authors that really can make me like elements that I’d swear I don’t like. And probably won’t like from any other author.
I’ve had considerably less luck with her contemporaries but I keep trying there, too. In fact, I just recently picked up a two-in-one by her called One of the Boys. Turns out both stories are reworked books from the early 1990s but that didn’t stop me from really enjoying the first one about a free-spirited engineer and a tough as nails Air Force Colonel.