North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Published (1854) Cover Pub April 2006 by Penguin

When her father leaves the Church, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the North of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. In North and South Gaskell skillfully fused individual feeling with social concern and in Margaret Hale created one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.

OH- be still my heart...this is one of the most subtle yet chemistry fueled romances Ive ever read. Margaret is the perfect character to represent a woman who can be smart, bold and speak her mind without worrying about what rich society thinks of her. She also merits credit for wanting the reader to jump in the book and choke her...(letting Thornton walk out the door....are you CRAZY?)

Although she is well off financially her heart towards the working class and poor make her an easy ally to the people fighting for their rights. When she meets Mr. Thornton the local cotton mill owner not only are her fights for justice riled but her heart seems to miss a beat each time he looks at her.........I fell in love with Mr. Thornton as I vicariously lived Margaret's story...absolutely lovely.

If you haven't read this I would highly suggest it for this time of year...also BBC did a beautiful miniseries on this novel...I just watched it a couple weeks ago for the first time and its free on Netflix right now....it will be four hours of swooning...I promise!!

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Published 1813 Cover Pub Oct 2000

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues. Renowned literary critic and historian George Saintsbury in 1894 declared it the "most perfect, the most characteristic, the most eminently quintessential of its author's works," and Eudora Welty in the twentieth century described it as "irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be."

So do you even need to ask why this is on my list? I mean come on leaving off the helplessly romantic who trys not to be...Mr. Darcy... would be like leaving Dracula out of the vampire legend.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Published 1973- Cover pub Sept 2003

What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?


As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the "S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere. What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

Farm boy and the princess....I loved this book!! I loved the movie as well. You know its a favorite when you and your husband can recite complete lines of dialog from the movie at a restaurant and embarrass your teenage daughter!!!! This is a perfect love story for anyone who loves adventure!


Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Published 1847 Cover Pub 2007 Vintage Classics

Born into a poor family and raised by an oppressive aunt, young Jane Eyre becomes the governess at Thornfield Manor to escape the confines of her life. There her fiery independence clashes with the brooding and mysterious nature of her employer, Mr. Rochester. But what begins as outright loathing slowly evolves into a passionate romance. When a terrible secret from Rochester's past threatens to tear the two apart, Jane must make an impossible choice: Should she follow her heart or walk away and lose her love forever? Unabashedly romantic and utterly enthralling, Jane Eyre endures as one of the greatest love stories of all time.

Not only is Jane one of my favorite books of all time....Mr. Rochester was one of the first men in literature I fell absolutely head over heels for....sometimes people look at me strange when I tell them how easy it is to fall in love with a character from a novel.......it must be a bookworm thing or the easy thrill of a helpless romantic.

For two realities, time is running out.


In one world, a lethal virus threatens to destroy all life as scientists and governments scramble to find an antidote. In the other, a forbidden love could forever destroy the ragtag resistance known as The Circle.

Thomas can bridge both worlds, but he is quickly realizing that he may not be able to save either. In the mind-bending conclusion to the Circle trilogy, Thomas must find a way to rewrite history as he navigates a whirlwind of emotions and events surrounding a pending apocalypse.
The fate of two worlds comes down to one man's choice--and it is a most unlikely choice indeed.

Life. Death. Love. Nothing is as it seems. Yet all will forever be transformed by the decisions of one man in the final hours of the Great Pursuit.

Ok- so by now you all know one of my favorite authors is Ted Dekker....and this book is pretty much why. I met Thomas Hunter in Black in which I immediately fell in love with yet another fictional character and the world of the Circle Trilogy. White was my favorite out of the three because of the beautiful love story between Thomas and Chelsea. They were the ultimate "forbidden" couple in this world, but seem to beat all the odds and fall helplessly in-love. Ohhhh I love helplessly in-love couples with end of world drama surrounding them!

Discover some more wonderful stories about love handpicked by a great group of international bloggers.

Start from the first stop on the Romantic Reads reading circle:
This Miss Loves to Read: Take me there!

And if you haven't gotten the chance to read Random Magic...The lovely Sasha Sorens debut novel, Valentines would be a great night to cozy up with this fun story of love and friendship while you sip tea and wear some warm fuzzy slippers.


Also you can win a sweet prize by entering here and grabbing the candy heart you see on this post!!