Also a big fan of historical fiction. A woman co-worker, who also likes this genre, turned me onto Sharon Kay Penman. She focuses on the Middle Ages period and everything I've read from her so far is pretty good.
You caught my attention with the Middle Ages books talk. So I just looked up Sharon Kay Penman on Amazon and all her books have pretty good ratings and look really good. Did you co-worker recommend any special ones? Or have you read any of her books in particular you would recommend to start with?