# Strong/Feminist female leads in romance books?



## Wolf9 (Apr 27, 2014)

I want recommendations on this theme in contemporary & historical subsection particularly in love-hate trope.

From what I have read so far from romance category, my
favorite authors are Julie James & Lisa kleypas.

Julie James was corporate lawyer working in leading law firm
for few years & writes about love-hate themed books about lawyer female leads. Her books consist of alpha
male & female characters & power struggle between them .
Female leads are strong career oriented women in early 30's with urban setting & hint of feminism. (I hate weak female
leads  

Lisa Kleypas writes excellent historical romance set in
Victorian era ,Male leads are predominantly alpha types with bad boy caveman mentality with female leads that can considered as rebellious for that time period. 

Julie James (Author of Something About You)

Lisa Kleypas (Author of Mine Till Midnight)

Some of books that I have liked-

Then Came You (Gamblers, #1) by Lisa Kleypas — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists


Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists


Something About You (FBI/US Attorney, #1) by Julie James — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Thanks


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## turnera (Jan 22, 2010)

The strongest female character I know of is Dagny in Atlas Shrugged, my favorite book ever. That said, she got into an affair, so it has tempered my respect for her. But she's definitely strong, the more so because she was in 1930s (1940s?) America, when women didn't work, let alone run one of the biggest companies in the world.


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## Anon Pink (Jan 17, 2013)

Can I ask why you want this list?

Your links are from Good Reads, which is the best place to get, gather and create the list of titles you're looking for. So I'm not sure how TAM members could replace the excellent resource Good Reads is?


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## Wolf9 (Apr 27, 2014)

Anon Pink said:


> Can I ask why you want this list?
> 
> Your links are from Good Reads, which is the best place to get, gather and create the list of titles you're looking for. So I'm not sure how TAM members could replace the excellent resource Good Reads is?


There are so many books to choose from on goodreads with almost same average score being rated between 3,4 or 5 .After first top 100 books in any trope you get to that saturation level, remaining books are nearly recommended by same no of people. My observation is that when prolific readers read some 2000 books, then they have probably 200 books rated as 5, 500 books rated as 4. But generally very few books or authors have that impact factor of being truly best as par their individual preference.

It's subjective issue, I am hoping to get probably new suggestions like these which are way down the line due to low score or recommended by very few people ie being at bottom of category or sometimes not even categorized on GR.


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## turnera (Jan 22, 2010)

He's (1) reading English books to improve his English and (2) wanting to understand women better.


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## Anon Pink (Jan 17, 2013)

turnera said:


> He's (1) reading English books to improve his English and (2) wanting to understand women better.


Yeah, kinda like herding cats!

Wolf, all of those books might give you some general ideas about women, but every woman is different, thus your approach toward women has to be specific to THAT woman.


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## Coffee Amore (Dec 15, 2011)

Goodreads has a feature called Listopia. You can find lists for just about anything written. I'd recommend you start there in Listopia. I did a quick search there and I found about three pages of lists with strong female characters. https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=✓&q=strong+female+character&search_type=lists&search[field]=on


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## RandomDude (Dec 18, 2010)

turnera said:


> He's (1) reading English books to improve his English and (2) wanting to understand women better.


:scratchhead:

So OP is trying to understand women by reading books about fictional women?


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## moxy (Apr 2, 2012)

Books by Richelle Mead and Karen Marie Moning.


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## Wolf9 (Apr 27, 2014)

I agree that reading some romance books gives general idea about female psyche, but that's not my main intention about requesting those suggestions. When I have started reading in this genre, It's swamped with story lines (Boy meets a girl-they date- some big confusion- happily ever after) where you can imagine it turning into many normal marriages with white picket fence ending. Even though books with strong female characters have same formula, but they have immense chemistry due to power struggle between genders.

It's fictional world & escape from realities hence I view watching TV shows, movies or reading books like that, My favorite male characters from Tv shows are 'Rust Cohle from True Detective, Frank Underwood from House of Card, Dr. Gregory House from House MD & Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock'.

They are all agnostic ,misanthrope, cynic, narcissist, and curmudgeon to certain degree. That doesn't mean I try to emulate them in real life but find them intriguing & interesting.

Similarly open marriage in 'House of Cards' between 'Frank & Claire Underwood' have lot of chemistry even when they smoke together while discussing next conniving plan. You can argue that "They even don't have sex with each other & still have more chemistry than couples in semi happy or unhappy marriages? ".

It's subjective issue open to individual interpretation. But there's power struggle between them like equality of sexes which I individually prefer to watch or read that theme. (Again Fiction)

House of Cards: Do Frank and Claire Underwood have an ideal marriage?

Francis Underwood: A Textbook Case of Antisocial Personality Disorder

House of Cards' Claire Underwood: Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

Hence my request was particularly on "Strong female leads in romance books" as I find them interesting, nothing less nothing more. Even stories set in different eras gives significant information on how society in western world evolved gradually in terms of dating, marriages, notion of female Promiscuity which I find interesting. Suggestions are welcome.

There's another interesting debate about "How romance books are bad for marriages", Even though I think obsession or binge reading of them can create some problems if people can't separate real & fictional world. But they have basic outlook about 'how minds of female authors works with additional insight of evolutionary psychology'.

Are Romance Novels Hazardous To Your Health?


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## Faithful Wife (Oct 31, 2012)

That article is about condom use in romance novels. I'm confused. I think it is saying that reading romance novels condones unsafe sex, but....that's so stupid I can't really believe that's what I'm reading.


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## NextTimeAround (Dec 15, 2011)

Scarlett O'Hara.


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## soccermom2three (Jan 4, 2013)

I was going to recommend Karen Marie Moning too. The reason I like her books are her female protagonists are very strong. They are really different than your usual romance novels. It's probably why I like them so much.


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## turnera (Jan 22, 2010)

If you can handle fantasy, I highly recommend the Wheel of Time series (Robert Jordan). The women in that world are SERIOUSLY strong women, you have no idea. I learned a lot from reading about them.


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