Good Romance Novels?

[BTM]

With Valentine's Day coming up, I've been wanting to get my girlfriend a gift or two. Since the whole candy-and-flowers thing is so played, I was thinking maybe I should get her a romance novel.

I might know some other ideas... just read a cool book on stuff like this... what's her first name?  (You can private message it to me if you don't want to reveal that here...)

- My girlfriend is younger than I am, and therefore the novel really ought to have some age difference between the guy and the gal--doesn't have to be a lot, but there has to be some.

How much younger we talking here?  I'd hate to see you on To Catch A Predator.   


- She's a devout Southern Baptist preacher's daughter and not too lacking in devotion to the faith herself, so books loaded with obscenity and blasphemy need not apply.

- In keeping with that last point, sexual tension is fine--bring it on--but let there be no actual sex, unless within marriage.

Are you sure we're talking about the same genre here? 

[BTM]

Hey, just thought of one... have you ever heard of The Time Traveler's Wife?  About a guy who keeps jumping around in time and falls in love with a young lady.  Problem is, when he jumps he becomes whatever age he is then, but she ages normally. 

Dunno about the content of the book as far as sex and goes...

Anyway, he can read about it here http://www.amazon.com/Time-Travelers-Wife-Audrey-Niffenegger/dp/015602943X/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201736345&sr=1-1

[Inyarear]

i meant no insult....sorry!

None taken. Do I really come across sounding that much older, though?

I might know some other ideas... just read a cool book on stuff like this... what's her first name?  (You can private message it to me if you don't want to reveal that here...)

Is that such a touchy subject? Her name's just about as generic as they get around here, actually: it's Ashley. I don't know what your book has to say about it, but I do know it's just about impossible to find anything online that actually pays any girl named Ashley due respect. Believe me, I've looked. (There are lots of singers with that name, just none who actually sing about it...)

- She's a devout Southern Baptist preacher's daughter and not too lacking in devotion to the faith herself, so books loaded with obscenity and blasphemy need not apply.

- In keeping with that last point, sexual tension is fine--bring it on--but let there be no actual sex, unless within marriage.

Are you sure we're talking about the same genre here?

Quite sure. What, you never heard of romance being clean and hot at the same time? FYI, I wasn't kidding about A Rose In Winter. The whole story's wound up tight with sexual tension and there are about four or five really steamy scenes between the husband and wife in there. Though the language gets a bit rough at times, there's no blasphemy and no obscenity, and though her church only turns up in the story as part of the background, the lady in question does make a strong point of keeping true to the wedding vows she took there. The tale even manages to be rife with conflict without having any truly forbidden aspect to the romance (although it helps that throughout the story, the gal has to keep fending off all the other guys who want her for their various nefarious purposes). That's quite the achievement.

Hey, just thought of one... have you ever heard of The Time Traveler's Wife?  About a guy who keeps jumping around in time and falls in love with a young lady.  Problem is, when he jumps he becomes whatever age he is then, but she ages normally. 

Dunno about the content of the book as far as sex and goes...

Guess I'll have to look up a copy of it for myself sometime. It sounds a bit like the creepy short story Clap Hands And Sing by Orson Scott Card. Really had me wondering about the author, if you know what I mean...