Our Town

Why a small-town setting can make for a particularly compelling tale of love's trials.

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In Praise of Decent Men

Forget about that smoldering demon lover for a minute -- take another look at the boy next door.

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Help, Help, Save Me!

Rescue Me!

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My Brilliant Career

Tales of literary ambitions that stand in the way of love. Read more...

Alpha Allure

Why we're still obsessed with The Leader of the Pack.

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Foreign Affairs

In this month's column, tales of love in which cultures clash -- but a richer harmony is the result.

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When Love Crosses the Tracks

The barriers between rich and poor can put a chill on romance -- or urge it to leap overtop.

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Wild Kingdom!

Modern metamorphoses transform the script of Beauty and the Beast.

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Cinderella Stories

The allure of the classic rags-to-romance tale has proven a lot more durable than a glass slipper.

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High Octane Love

The roar of the engines can get your heart racing.

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Reading Romance: Practical Magic

Setting supernatural gifts to the tasks at hand. Read more...

Reading Romance: Loving a Barbarian

The erotic intrigue in social mismatch.

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Reading Romance: Romancing the Stubborn

Could the most alluring phrase in English be "You were right"? Read more...

Cupid & Psychics

If novels are any indication, the last thing we'd want to be able to do is read the future. Read more...

FAME!

Eloisa James asks: what happens when the star-crossed lovers also happen to be stars? Read more...

Romancing the Future

Eloisa James charts the stars of Futuristic Romance. Read more...

Some Like It Scots

Is it all about the kilt? Read more...

Lions and Tigers and...Heroes? Oh My!

Eloisa James on romantic fantasies with teeth -- and claws. Read more...

Kisses and Killers

This month, Eloisa James explores the unstable chemistry between crime and passion. Read more...

Men in Black (or Not)

The perennial appeal of the "anti-duke." Read more...

Out of the Broom Closet

Eloisa James on spellbinding new romances. Read more...

Growing Up Is Hard to Do

One of the novel's great themes -- coming of age as an adult -- is also one of the most powerful drivers of many tales of romance. Read more...

My Fairy Godmother, Myself

Eloisa James on the many updates of the Cinderella story. Does the slipper still fit? Read more...

Couples in Crisis with Mistletoe Dreams

Eloisa James on the cornucopia of Christmas-themed romances. Read more...

Bite Me, Biker Style

Eloisa James on the literary heirs of Romeo and Juliet -- and the complicated business of young love. Read more...

About the Columnist
Eloisa James is a New York Times–bestselling author of historical romances, as well as a professor of English literature teaching Shakespeare at Fordham University. Her most recent novel is The Duke Is Mine.

May 23: Girolamo Savonarola was hanged on this day in 1498 and then incinerated in the same piazza in which the citizens of Florence had earlier attended more than one "bonfire of the vanities." George Eliot's 1863 novel Romola,

Do you recall the tagline from the very first Superman movie? "You'll believe a man can fly!" Well, I'm tempted to craft such a hyperbolic assertion for China Miéville's…

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Books CDs, DVDs to know about now
Paris, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down

When a job at a French ad agency landed in his lap, novelist Rosecrans Baldwin had the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream of living la vie Parisienne. And though cold réalité intruded -- in the form of financial struggles and the limits of his rudimentary Francais -- the result was a more mature take on the city of his fantasies, flaws included.

Why Cats Land on Their Feet

The feline acrobatics and other mysteries of everyday physics that Mark Levi explores in this charming book are just the beginning. A fun and enlightening workout for your gray matter.

Dead Men

Scott's doomed Antartic expedition and the haunting mysteries surrounding its failure lead to obsession in Richard Pierce's debut novel. As painter Birdie Bowers pursues her fascination with the explorer and his death, she risks both her body and her heart for answers.