The last (and only really) historical fiction I read was Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth and the sequel World Without End, both of which were made into miniseries. There's kind of a funny story to how I got into it, considering I'm a sci-fi guy and to me sci-fi and "hi-fi" are a little bit like oil and water, although I have seen the two genres hybridized with some degree of success.
So about 6 years ago there was this lady I used to work with who would read all of these romance novels. Sometimes we would talk and she and another lady kind of liked to be my "mother" sometimes and were concerned about how I wasn't really interested in meeting girls. I would kind of roll my eyes and think to myself, "You read too many of those silly romance books," and then reply that the dating pool was too small, my interests were too eclectic to really be understood by anyone anyway, and I didn't want to be subjected to someone who was going to tie me down in a place I didn't really want to be. Most of the time you end up having sex with someone you actually can't stand and relationships devolve into fighting and arguing and a sort of mutual parasitism, so why even bother? "I'll fall in love the same day I win the lotto," I thought. A few days later she brought in this book and was talking about how good it was. I looked at it and it didn't appear to be a romance; knights, castles, a corrupt church and nobility, and people trying to defend their dignity...My interest was piqued, and since it was the summer slow season and business was slow as molasses, I thought I might as well read a book to help pass the time.
The book turned out to be a real page turner. Unexpectedly, the book had several romances in it, which were all intertwined into the main plot, and the romance between the main protagonists was a major secondary plot element. I was not prepared for the numerous naughty scenes which popped up, some of which were tasteful, some depicting how depraved some of the characters are, with a couple more gratuitous ones thrown in for good measure. Mrs. Romance Novel could tell if I was on one of the "good parts" by my facial expressions or the way I was breathing. After one part which was depicted in so much detail that it felt like I was actually there, I threw down the book and was like, "My God! This is as explicit as anything one might find on the internet." She giggled and said, "Yeah, but you can't stop reading it can you?" "Well, I have to admit..." I was rather enjoying the love story around the main protagonist, Jack the Builder, as much as the knights and castles, politics surrounding the town and church, and other "guy" stuff. I could really admire his character and his life as depicted in the novel actually spawned a couple of dreams with some strongly sexual parts. For about three months afterwards I was actually somewhat interested in finding a girlfriend and acting out some of the events in the novel in some small way, but was fortunately able to subjugate the urge before it got too far out of hand.
I never thought I would be discussing such things on the Cassiopaea forum because it is kind of a naughty novel, but I can recommend it to guys who don't want to go into a full-bore romance novel. The series actually tones down the X-rated content a bit and the novels are so lengthy that they still have to omit details and truncate certain subplots, but they tried hard to keep the main story arc intact. I don't know if I could really handle a novel where the romance is front and center; if the characters are interesting and the sex is cozy it just sounds like a way to get me all hot and bothered while longing for a connection that's pretty much impossible to forge in this environment. It's like an unattainable and somewhat anachronistic ideal that's a special kind of torture for a young single guy. Nevertheless, there are good stories out there and I do dabble in them from time to time, they can be quite inspirational, but fiction reading is not a priority of mine.