The Best Netflix Romance Drama + Romcoms You Might Have Missed

In order to see if your idea of “best” is similar to mine, let’s take a brief look at my personal criteria for a stand-out romantic movies, films and mini-series:

• The main characters are not cardboard cutouts, they have personalities.

• Any sexy scenes are well earned (I have a preference for slow burn romance over the hot n’ fast kind).

• Similar to above, I don’t have an issue with some steaminess, but I love it when I find romances that show the friendship and the sacrificial sides of romantic love in a way that seems like it will be a positive picture for, say, my 14 year old niece who may be forming ideas of what healthy relationships look like.

• The plot has more going on than just the leads’ romance. Give me some mystery, suspense, travel, or even education on the side!

OK, now you’ve decided how much salt to take with my suggestion. Let’s move on.

Ready?

Perhaps you’ve already discovered them but if not, I recommend trying one (will you be able to stop?!) Kdrama on Netflix.

I’d overheard other authors confessing to Kdrama binges (the “K” stands for Korean), but I didn’t realize how to my taste they would be until I watched one. Not only that, my cool kids (including my 20 year old son) and my husband sit and watch them. It’s not like we just sit around watching the telly, but an episode a night gives me/us something to look forward to. It’s like the old radio shows if you want to put an old-fashioned spin on it.

Historical Romances

I’m still a newbie on Kdramas, but my favorite so far (have watched 3x as I spread the addiction to my husband and mother-in-law) has been Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung.

image from Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung

I don’t want to spoil it, so I will only say that while it may begin like a purely fluffy, even silly romcom, there are Shakespearean elements and loveable secondary characters in it that slowly move forward.

Currently, I’m enjoying Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency.

A highly-rated historical is Mr. Queen. It’s on my must-watch rom-com historical list but I haven’t gotten to it yet.

Contemporary Romances

If you look up “best Kdramas” you’re sure to find Crash Landing on You (or CLOY, as those in the know call it because they talk about it so much that they don’t have time to say the full name in every sentence) in the top 5.

Here’s a link to the trailer for CLOY on YouTube and here’s an article from 2020 The Guardian (UK).

One of my wonderful aunts insisted that I try CLOY and yes, it’s fantastic! It’s a romantic suspense and action story. It can be scary at times, but it’s rated (like most or all I’ve watched) at PG-14.

I’d say they generally they all have some violence, but not as much as most American-made shows. There is very little, if any, foul language, and the romances are quite tame by our standards at the PG14 level.

You’ll learn about culture, history, and some of the communication and societal nuances as you watch. It may be difficult to discern truth from fiction, but there are always ways to cross-reference details you’re learning about to fact check.

I’ve watched:

• Behind Your Touch (funny, suspenseful, serial killer trigger warning, romantic)

• Rookie Historian (3 times and counting)

• Crash Landing on You

• Secret Royal Inspector & Joy (suspenseful, fun characters, romantic but the female lead I found a bit annoying)

• Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency

Now for a some silly tips!

You’ll start noticing all the Korean grocery items at Aldi.

You’ll learn to watch for signs of love everywhere… Oh, the Crash Landing on You couple are a family now in real life much to fans’ delight!

A Review of my Book Review by The Historical Fiction Company

“ It is a lighthearted and endearing tale that is filled with both emotions and humor. ”

— The Historical Fiction Company

This is perhaps a strange subject for a post, but I just received a (paid) editorial book review for “Time Will Tell” from The Historical Fiction Company.

While I was pleased that they gave the book a 4 out of 5-star review, I must say I’m a bit disappointed that they didn’t edit the review very well. For an editorial review, I feel there are more than the acceptable number of formatting errors, misspellings, a repeated phrase, etc. that make the honor of 4 stars feel a little underwhelming.

That being said, you may read a couple of highlights from the review below, or follow the link to read the full review on their site. It’s a great place to find other historicals to enjoy.

**If you’re an author, it’s April of 2023 now so perhaps they’ll tighten up their editorial process and do better for you:-).

https://www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/post/matchmaking-gone-wrong-an-editorial-review-of-time-will-tell

“The ability to write a book that is both a part of a series and can also be read alone is often the sign of a good author and so is the case with Time Will Tell: Winter in Cherrybrook....

The characters ... are well-written and developed. Each one is respectable and endearing. The protagonists of the book are more advanced in age than is typical for a Regency romance but it is a very interesting take on the romance genre. The characters’ respectability also goes as far as to keep the novel free of detailed intimate scenes which many readers find uncomfortable or unpleasant to read. The pure, clean relationships between the characters are incredibly refreshing for a romance novel. ”

— The Historical Fiction Company

The Best Romantic Books with Quirky Heroines

I wrote a book recommendation list at The Book Shepherd! Please give a quick read!

Did I mention one of your favorites? Let me know you share my enthusiasm for it. Book friends forever!

While you’re there, you may as well look at the BIG book list for Romantic Love. There are other lists by other authors. One that caught me attention was “The best historical romance books with heroines disguised as boys”. Also, “The Most Swoonworthy Historical Romances to Warm your Heart” list looked good.

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Charlotte B's "Cover Story"

I was invited to be a guest on lovely Four Foxes, One Hound authors’ blog by fellow sweet historical writer, Patricia Kiyono, and I thought, why not share this here, too? Perhaps it will help another author who’s in the forest of indecision, or be interesting for a reader who is curious about the reason I’ve (kept) changing the covers!

Charlotte B’s Cover Story

We all know the pain of sunk costs, right?

Yep.

After two years of trying to improve my original covers for my first book series, I finally made the decision to change them significantly.

This was a tough decision for me to make for two reasons.

The first was, because I am a professional artist, I was proud of the fact that I could make my own book art based on actual scenes in my stories. It was fun being able to paint the dogs, the seasons, and accurate protagonists’ clothing and hair colors. Besides… I was so tired of seeing countless books in my genre with the same basic look, and oftentimes the same cover model. Yawn.

I thought it would be too easy to get lost in the shuffle if I followed the crowd.

Speed forward one year later and see me lamenting my poor sales numbers. During that year I realized that, in the advertising world, high impression rates that don’t lead to clicks means that either the cover or title are lacking, or they are too far off track for the genre. Readers aren’t recognizing that the book is their kind of book. I noticed that my books looked nothing like other books in their sub-genre. While some readers and authors told me that they liked my book covers because they were different, in the end, I decided that they stood out too much. They were too different.

When a reader knows what they like, they want more of the same (Bryan Cohen). More than one marketing element that’s different from all the books they already read and liked is usually considered a high risk purchase. They’ll pass the new, chancy book over and take one that looks just like all the others! It struck me forcefully that what’s inside the book has no bearing on whether or not a reader takes a chance and buys my story. All a book shopper has to go on are three or four things that they absorb in a second or less: cover, title, then blurb and tagline. 

The second reason bothered me more, because it affected others. I balked at changing the covers in a big way because the books are in a series. An incomplete series. And there are readers who have the first 3 paperback books in one or two former cover iterations! Oh, how sad for them and embarrassing for me!

In the spring, I had hired cover designer Nancie Janitz to work with me to rebrand the series, and it was her idea to add the jewel-toned color banners to unify them. She also came up with the unique book back and spine using my original artwork, which I love. Nancie’s great to work with, and is an all-around lovely person. 

I began selling books with the new covers, but I still had misgivings. I increasingly felt that I was holding onto an idea that just wasn’t going to work, and now I had just invested more time and money (as well as Nancie’s time) into them. More sunk cost and effort.

Just before my re-release of Book 3, Nancie had a family emergency and was unable to finish the 3rd and 4th book, so she kindly passed the cover files to my daughter to finish. Together, Majken (my daughter) and I started setting up the last two books, and I thought, “It’s time. Change them now or never!” I stayed up late that night, scouring for options, and came up with public domain or paid photos that could easily be tweaked to look like my story protagonists. The next day, with me hanging over her shoulder, my daughter worked the photos into Nancie’s designs. We covered up just the centers of my original book art so that the settings are painted, but the figures are from photo sources. My daughter manipulated the colors and clothes, etc. and “Voila!” I love the results!

Even though I no longer felt self-conscious about being indecisive (that band-aid had been ripped off), I did still worry about readers who had purchased older editions and wouldn’t be able to get matching covers to finish their collections.

I decided that there was a silver lining to low sales. I have posted a notice offering to replace physical copies at cost if a reader can show me that they own an older edition. If they cannot afford the small cost, and it’s important for them to have a matching set, then they are invited to contact me privately and “I’ll see what I can do”.

Within this first month, my sales have risen, and other authors in my genre are more eager to recommend my books in their newsletters. I’m really happy that I decided to keep trying and listen to my inner critic.

https://books2read.com/CharlotteBrothers

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/charlotte-brothers

https://www.amazon.com/Charlotte-Brothers/e/B087ZSZ89M

Charlotte B - A Quick "Get-to-Know-Me" List

framed print made from my painting Friday's Child - Mixed Daffodils

“They” say that authors can’t help but write the same book over and over again, our voices tend to echo in our characters. Of course we know that’s a generalization and exceptions exist (or DO they?), but it may be true enough to enjoy musing about!

Certainly you’ll find many of these elements of me blended into the characters in my stories.

• I’ve always loved animals. Did anyone else try to hatch eggs in their heated waterbed as a child?

• I use a pen name, a combination of my grandmothers’ names (secret identity!).

• I’m a professional, 18th-19th Century-style painter.

• I enjoy romances of all sorts but I can’t relate first hand to the casual encounter kinds. My husband and I were pen pals, so I think I had an experience more like some historical heroines than modern ones!

• Chocolate=my caffeine source and what keeps me going. Fair trade and super dark.

• While I am not keen on cooking or baking, I do enjoy gardening (and most of my book characters do, too).

• I consider myself a highly-sensitive person, which means I’m pretty observant and don’t like loud noises.

• I’m a fan of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, L.M. Montgomery, and Robin McKinley.

• Brooding heroes, please! Thank you.

Pretend March 31st is October 31st with book, A Bird in the Hand!

A Bird in the Hand eBook available after March 31, 2021

At the end of the month, the third book of the Cherrybrook series is being released in eBook format. Pre-orders are available now and the book will be delivered to your device 3/31/21.

While it enjoys a autumn finish, much of the story takes place throughout the year of 1839 so I don’t think you need to hold off until leaves are falling to read it. That is, naturally, my unbiased opinion as the author :-). I AM working towards getting the whole series of four stories in paperback by the end of April or May at the latest. Book four is nearly finished, and when it is, it’s GO TIME for print!

I really enjoyed the company of Cherise and Christopher, your story protagonists for this book. They both love something that I do, fine art. I can’t keep parts of me from creeping into my stories, so I’m sure this won’t be the last artistic character or flower gardener you’ll meet. I could make the joke that so far I don’t have a cooking protagonist and that it’s for a good reason, but I am thinking my current heroine of book four just may have a penchant for baking despite my own apathy for the activity…. Anyway, without further ado- here is the ‘blurb’ (could there be a less attractive marketing word than ‘blurb’?? I think not).

My imagination runs something along these lines….

A Bird in the Hand - Book Three: Autumn of a Year in Cherrybrook

A Sweet Regency/Victorian, stand alone or book 3 in series: 106 pages

An Inconvenient Love

Miss Cherise Hamblin is nothing if not passionate about art, so when a new minor masterpiece is anonymously donated to a neighboring church, she rushes to see it. While there, she catches a glimpse of Mr. Morton, the new vicar, and meets his delightfully outspoken mother. This chance encounter only increases her curiosity about the mysterious Mortons. When Cherise is finally introduced to Mr. Morton, unexpected sparks ignite a secret friendship and she risks losing her heart to a man beneath her station; a man her parents will never accept.

Christopher Morton thought he would be content as the vicar of Wellsey. Discreetly wealthy, he settles into local life, but he finds money, friendliness, long walks and fine art won’t make up for his illegitimate birth when it comes to falling for a titled lady. With rumors about that she is to marry the son of his benefactor within the year, Christopher understands how hopeless it is to become attached to Miss Hamlin, and if his head could only convince his heart to let her go, he might yet be happy.

With pressures mounting, can art and fate bring them together or are Cherise and Christopher doomed to remain star crossed lovers?

FUN EXTRAS!

Church setting in Dorset website of interest

Allhollowtide holidays

Music YouTube playlist

A Bit About the Writing of Book One/Spring "Creatures of Habit"

original cover art for Creatures of Habit

The mellow yet playful plot of Creatures of Habit popped into my head pretty much whole cloth while I was on my return flight from the 2019 Historical Romance Retreat.  Plots don’t come to me in quantities, so when one shows up, I start taking notes! I spent the entire six hour flight writing the beginning of Lawrence and Eugenia’s story, filling up the small stenographer’s notebook I had brought along.

I admit that the cheery hours spent in Cherrybrook, the fictional late Regency or early Victorian country town where this young couple lives was a welcome distraction from my seventh or so edit of a medieval novel which I’m still working on.

It’s also fair to mention that reading and writing are havens from the fear and unrest that the current world conditions are bringing to the forefront. Without  doubt, Cherrybrook gives me a place “away”.

Any lovers of Lisa Kleypas’ Love in the Afternoon here? It’s my favorite book in her Hathaway series. I think a seed of Lisa’s protagonist in that book, Beatrix, as well as Beatrix Potter, landed close to dreamy British actor Rupert Penry-Jones and they blossomed into animal loving Eugenia and quiet, steady Lawrence. I should warn you however, there are no dukes in Creatures of Habit, and while my lovers flirt when they’re smitten, the action stays at sitting room/kisses only level.

A small bit of Lawrence and Eugenia also subconsciously came from “Little Women”. Certainly I felt the boy-next-door energy coming from my Lawrence, as well as a bit of Jo’s tomboy nature in Eugenia.

Creatures of Habit is my first published story. I owe a debt of gratitude for the pleasure I get from writing to my mother, who resurrected my love of fiction by gifting me a vintage copy of I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, and my loving husband, who bought me my very first genre historical romance written by a contemporary author, and all my writing friends who have given me community.

Lawrie was influenced by Rupert Penry-Jones as Captain Wentworth

A Bit About the Writing of "A Fair-Weather Friend"

detail from original cover art of “A Fair-Weather Friend” August 2020

About the Story

For those of you who read “Creatures of Habit”, A Fair-Weather Friend is a pleasing summer sequel which settles the romantic fate of Eugenia’s friend, Marian Lyle. One of the eligible men that the ladies saw at the Militia Dance has stayed on in Cherrybrook and is now the focus of Marian’s attention.

Reading subtexts and motives have never been a strong suit for Marian, so finding true love is not without some missteps!

Marian is a talented seamstress and assistant to her vicar father. Today, we might guess that she’s on the neurodivergent spectrum. I sympathize with Marian. She has the tendency to be compliant to a fault, and she’s so unlike her friend Eugenia, that there is a very real chance that love on her own terms may be out of her reach.

My mom gave me the nugget of the idea for this book, and so I have happily dedicated it to her. When I was thinking of new book ideas, she mentioned always having liked the movie classic, While You Were Sleeping and before long, a pair of brothers popped into my head and began to argue. I can do something with you, I said. “Pray continue whilst I take notes!”

Some photos are ahead, but here’s a bit of plot:

Can the wrong brother be the right man?

When Marian Lyle, the local vicar’s daughter, believes she’s just about to receive her first and only offer of marriage from charming Cherrybrook newcomer Jonas Talbot, when he leaves town suddenly and without explanation.

Soon, his curmudgeonly older brother John arrives. After an uncomfortable introduction, John persuades Marian to stay with his mother and younger siblings while together they seek to discover Jonas’s whereabouts.

Despite John’s initial coldness, it doesn’t take long for Marian to fall in love with the Talbot family.

If Jonas returns and secrets are told, will Marian be willing to risk it all to win the right husband?

About the Cover Art

I painted the original cover art myself, and in the newest edition as shown above, you can still see it in the background behind Marian.

I chose a favorite scene from my story and spent a weekend happily painting while listening to English cottage gardening videos and (YouTubers) Kirsten & Joerg, a darling couple of Germans living in England. Once in a while, I dashed into the kitchen for my decaf Earl Grey and honey and then back to peaceful work time until I was finished.

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Day One - sketch and get inspired by Gordon Beningfield

The old, original book cover with full art

Here is my vision of Mr. Talbot. I think he’s a bit of Phillip Glenister and Richard Armitage:-). On the right is a painting that caught my eye after I’d written A Fair-Weather Friend. The house and setting is very much how I imagine the Talbot family home.

British actor, Phillip Glenister

British actor, Richard Armitage

A detail of a Helen Allingham painting that looks like how I imagine the Talbot House

Thanks for your interest in “A Fair-Weather Friend”! Shop Here!

“The End”