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I've never read any romance novels. I guess maybe if they put some action scenes in for guys I might try one :) But actually I'm trying to build a romantic subplot into the novel I'm writing in order to make it more interesting for female readers, so I should probably brush up on that. Any of the ones you mention got any swordfights or anything?

Read Outlander.

I can never recommend it enough!

I'm off to bed! Good night Hobbit Hole!

Some of us ladyfolks prefer the swordplay to the romance anyway. Well, I do. But then I've always been a slightly odd person. Which is probably why my own 'romantic' scenes usually come out flat, or take forever to write.

Hmm, maybe "write what you know" is true after all.

Well, go pick up Roberta Gellis' Roselynde series (Roselynde, Alinor, Joanna, Gilliane, Rhiannon, and Sybelle), if it's English knights and medieval swordfights you want. Lots and lots of sieges and jousts and melees; the male characters in these books follow Richard to the Crusades, and John on his interminable kicking-butt tours, and Henry III at the end. The books are highly prized by us readers, and often go on eBay for more than list price; but Harlequin is about to reprint the series, and she's writing a new book for it!!! Hoooooo-wheeee! I'm on pins and needles!

For the Napoleanic Wars, it's Roberta Gellis again, this time the Heiress series and the two add-ons (The English Heiress, The Cornish Heiress, The Kent Heiress, Fortune's Bride, and A Woman's Estate). This series spans the Wars, from the exploits of an English gentleman gunsmith trapped in Revolutionary France (300winmag, what do you know about Lorenzoni quick-loading pistols, circa late 1700s?), to another English gentleman soldier fighting the Corsican in Russia, to the Peninsular War. The Corunna retreat in 1809 is personalized, and if the privations of that forced march don't get you, nothing will. But give A Woman's Estate, which concerns an American woman in England in 1811-1812, a miss if you're looking for good fights --- it's a murder mystery more than anything.

If you like guns and the Old West, pick up Elizabeth Lowell's Reckless Love and her Only series (Only His, Only You, Only Mine, and Only Love). Set in the wild times directly after the Civil War, each book is a snapshot of the various folks who came West, and why. I especially like Reckless Love because of the horses, who are secondary characters.

Sheesh ... and you asked a simple question! I'm sorry ... I get verbose!