RedHeadedGirl has been going though the Old Skool romance time travel machine, ever since she found her own lost Help a Bitch Out book. Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about the older romances I’ve read and loved, and whether they hold up to a re-reading now that it’s been years since I last read them.
So I’ve compiled a reading list of my own for 2011, which I’m calling the “Old Skool Favorites”, books that I read and remember enjoying (even if I can’t remember the title or author and have to dig through the webby recesses of my brain to find a clue to track them down) and want to re-read to see what I think of them now. Maybe I’ll ruin a few of my fondest memories, but my re-read of Midsummer Magic, the first romance I ever read, didn’t turn me away or leave me with a “What the hell was I thinking?” feeling when I finished it.
If you’ve been reading the genre for awhile, you probably have some old favorites that you haven’t re-read in a long time. Every wonder if they stand up to a revisit, if the memory you hold is the same as the book you hold in your hands today? Sometimes, the way-back old skool romances we remember aren’t great because they are good stories – sometimes they’re awesome because of the unfiltered crazysauce within them. Sometimes they’re comfort reads, or they’re connected to a time period that is flooded with nostalgia, which then spills over on to the book, whether the book itself was fantastic or not.
With the Old Skool Favorites challenge, I’m going to re-read my old-skool favorites. I’d love it if you’d join me and re-read yours. You can blog about it or email me, but I think it’s important to know where the genre has been (who it’s been with!) and how it’s changed over the years, and how we as readers have changed too. I hereby and eagerly invite you to join me in a re-read of your oldest favorites, whether they are ridiculous or wonderpants.
My reading list so far, which I will definitely add to as I find more books in storage:
What would be on your Old Skool reading list? Want to join me in a re-read?
I don’t if this would be considered Old Skool, but I’m currently reading my first Georgette Heyer: These Old Shades, and am absolutely loving it!
While it’s clearly not as ‘sexy’ as most current historical romances, the tension between the H/H and the pacing and dialogue are just wonderful and have lost nothing over the years.
Define old skool?
And I LOVE Knight in Shining Armor except for the WTF ending! Also I wouldn’t have thought of including Mrs Mike but of course it’s fantastic.
already89: There are already 89 books on my TBR list
Please put Windswept Passion by Sonya T. Pelton on your list! Pleasepleaseplease! I couldn’t do it justice.
OMG, Mrs. Mike. Man, I loved that book in 7th grade. I checked it out of the school library like six times in a row.
And yes, how about “Those Happy Golden Years”? Or “Fifteen” by Beverley Cleary? Those were my first gentle romances.
Just a few weeks ago, my sister and I were watching some cheesy lifetime christmas movie, and she looked at the actor (I can’t remember who) and said “I still think he’d make a great Ian,” and I knew exactly to whom she was referring. That’s how deeply we both still squee over Ian Thornton in Almost Heaven.
On my list I’d have to add Judith McNaught’s Paradise
Catherine Coulter’s The Sherbrooke Bride
and Judith Krantz’s Till We Meet Again Does that count as Romance? It should, and it’s EPIC.
OMG I love Til We Meet Again! I found a copy in a used bookstore last fall and nearly embarrassed myself with a Happy Dance (no one was around, so if a Redheadedgirl dances in a bookstore, and no one sees it, it NEVER HAPPENED).
@Diane I seem to remember a heroine who was called Chlamydia, but maybe I imagined that. I too have read Barbara Cartland, lots and lots of them, courtesay of a very dog-eared collection left behind in the house we moved to when I was 13. I remember a very funny and deliberately bad film of one starring Helena Bonham Carter. I also remember that Babs specialised in the ‘beautiful babe hidden by glasses and a bad dress’ type of plot, and she was also overly fond of pert nipples, but at 13 with hardly any critical faculties, I loved them – and haven’t read any since.
Don’t know if it counts, but my earliest intro to romance was Sue Barton (junior nurse, senior nurse, staff nurse etc etc) and her lovely hunky doctor. Then it was Mary Stewart. Then it was the Poldark series which I read after the BBC series, then it was Georgette Heyer who is the only one I dare read again – and still do again, and again, and agian. I LOVE Richard from the Corinthian, and Max from Faro’s Daughter.
All my early romances were by Georgette Heyer, and since I’ve kept rereading them through the years, I know that they’re still awesome! However, I want to join the activity by reading some of the books on this list; I don’t think I’ve ever read an “Old Skool” in the sense we usually use it, and that’s something I’d like to remedy. Now if only I can find the time to do it in between studying!
@SB Sarah – I’m SO glad you put Silver Angel on your list. It was one of my first and I remember just being blown over by it. Crack is an understatement! Think I read it in a day.
My first romance was: Captive Rose by Miriam Minger. I’ve read my way through three copies of that book. I re-read it about twice a year and still love it – bad Fabio cover and all!
One that stays with me, but can’t remember the title is: pirate romance, Spanish hero, heroine kidnapped/rescued from ‘bad’ pirate, taken to his family’s house in California(?) where his brother starts hitting on her, then he serenades her with a Spanish song and plays the guitar…
try68 – I’m sure there are 68 books I could try just from this blog alone.
Oh wow, the first NR, The Wolf and The Dove…Okay you ladies are pulling out the stuff from my high school years. Would Gothic Romances by such authors as Victoria Holt, and Madeline Brent (Yes I know he was a man, but I loved the story about the girl who grew up in China, was imprisoned they were going to cut off her hand for stealing to feed her ‘family’, and the British man who is there waiting execution marries her…and so on and so on…plot becomes more twisted than yarn after a kitten and a 4 yearold play with it, but that was what made it fun.)
Oh, I know Wolf and Dove was Woodiss, and Irish Throughbred was NR!
I’ve learned the hard way that I can’t reread my favorites, the ones that truly hit me hard, and expect them to read the same way again. It’s more that I keep them as a reminder, so that I can reread them and remember how they hit me the first time. One example is Sarah’s Child by Linda Howard, definitely Old Skool, at least to me. But that story had me weeping (!) the first time I read it.
I couldn’t really explain the phenomenon, and then I read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Not really my type of read, but it was for a book group. OMG! Check this out…This is the main character (a bookstore owner’s daughter) speaking/thinking of her discovery of Miss Winter, a reclusive, famous author.
position45: Oh, yeah. I’ve been ravished by books in at *least* 45 different positions (sitting, laying downing, riding in a car, etc)
Diane, I am not a Cartland fan, but I have to defend her on this! Fenella is quite a common British name, usually with slightly upper-class associations, as one might expect with Cartland. It is an englished spelling of a Scottish Gaelic name, Fionnuala. I imagine that Fiona (also common in Britain) and the Welsh form Ffion are also connected, but I haven’t checked that.
🙂
My first romance (and I use the term loosely) was “Sweet Savage Love.” I ended up reading the whole series, and rereading them if I recall, because anything with that much rapetastic sex in it is endlessly fascinating when you’re 13 or so, but they didn’t really hold up for me once I got a little older (read: actually had sex).
I also remember reading some Johanna Lindsay, Laurie McBain and Janet Dailey about the same time, but couldn’t tell you a single title or plotline.
After about ’82 or so, I stopped reading romance altogether except for every few years when a new Woodiwiss would come out.” The Flame and the Flower” and “The Wolf and The Dove” were two of my favorites back in the ‘70s when I first read them. (@Darlene Marshall – yeah, you’re not alone. Come sit with me on the porch. I have rockers. And wine.) I still enjoy re-reading them now and then, once I get past the rapey bits at the beginning, but they’re no longer my favorites. Like some others have mentioned, I still adore “Shanna” and “A Rose In Winter” and reread them every few years. One of my favorite Woodiwiss’, which I didn’t see anyone else mention, is “Ashes In The Wind.” I can’t help it. I just love feisty females dressing up in boys clothes and insulting Yankees. Too fun.
Ah, Mary Stewart… My eclectic 5th grade reading pile that contained her AND Laura Ingalls Wilder.
And, yes, let’s shout out the late great Laurie McBain. As noted a few topics ago, I pulled “Chance the Winds of Fortune” out from under the bed for a reread over the holidays. Lovely.
Oh man, my first romance was The Wyndham Legacy, by Catherine Coulter. But I’m afraid to re-read it, because as an adult, I find her historicals so rape-y and offensive. PARALYZED BY INDECISION, sigh.
You can’t do Old Skool without some Rebecca Brandywyne, Shirlee Busbee and Virginia Henley on your list!
First romance: Ashes In The Wind-Kathleen Woodiwiss. Which I read when I was in seventh grade, y’all. For real. It inspired me to read all her other works as well, and Flame and The Flower ended up being my second favorite, even in all its rapetastic glory.
And no, I don’t think I could go back and reread.
As for the person who said NR’s Irish Thoroughbreds—with apologies to La Nora, whose books I universally adore, that was the one series I just could not read. Blame bad editing, I think.
Captcha: those65
Yes, those 65 books on the night table ARE my TBR pile, why do you ask?
The one and only romance I’ve read and liked has been Anya Seton’s Katherine. My friend lent me her mom’s copy just after I turned fifteen, saying “you’re going to love it”, and I felt a little skeptical, but I believed her. Of course, she wasn’t wrong.
Hmmm…first romances i read were Victoria Holt—Menfreya in the Morning is the only title I remember. The two that made the biggest impression on me had asshat heroes and some crazysauce plot—one set in Australia, where the hero eventually dies of snake venom (!), and another set in the French revolution that is kicked off by some roofie-abetted rape.
Others that I remember fondly (but am disinclined to read again because I’m pretty sure doing so would ruin them for me): Deveraux’s Velvet series; Lindsey’s Silver Angel; Wilde’s Angel in Scarlet; Rose of Rapture by Rebecca Brandewyne (could you dream up a better romance author last name than that?); and Vixen by Shirley Busbee.
@TaraL:
I have a magnet on my fridge that shows an old granny and says “When I was your age, we had to walk two miles to get stoned and have sex.”
You supply the rockers, I’ll bring the wine.[g]
My first romance was sneaking my mother’s copy of ‘Forever Amber’ by Kathleen Winsor. Amber was a hussy of the first degree. I loved anything by Anya Seton, and reread her books on a regular basis. Rereading Green Darkness currently. I volunteered at the local library in my early teens and the librarian gave my the Purity series, shame, passion and I can’t remember the other one (reviewed by the RedHeaded girl). I don’t have the courage to try those again. Loved ‘Lady Vixen’ and just purchased a copy on ebay, so I will probably read that immediately. Does anybody remember Cynthia Wright? I was so in love with Andre Raveneau from ‘Silver Sorm’, a little rapey nowadays, but squishy when I was 14!
Priceless! I suspect I’ll have something similar on my fridge soon.
TaraL beat me to it! ‘Ashes in the Wind’ was my favorite Woodiwiss book and my overall favorite book throughout my teens/early twenties. I haven’t read it in a while but I do have a copy somewhere.
Others I remember leaving an impression on me ‘way back in the 80s’ were Harlequins or Silhouettes…
A Frozen Fire-Charlotte Lamb
Savage Atonement-Penny Jordan
The Challenge-Kerry Allyne
I remember reading about 2 dozen books all called “Captive Bride” or slight varations thereof. I don’t remember many titles other than Shanna and The Flame and the Flower. Other than that I read a lot of nurse romances, traditional Regencies, and gothics like Victoria Holt. I also read some classic books like Desiree by Annemarie Selinko and Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan.
My oldest romances were Georgette Heyer and Patricia Veryan – and I’m not sure I’d call them Old Skool, but rather enduring classics.
My introduction to Romancelandia proper (improper?) was Nora Roberts and early Jayne Ann Krentz. I’ve just finished a re-read of all my JAK —some of that may qualify as Old Skool, but not like some of the things you’re describing up-thread. I clearly have missed out on a lot. (rushes off to Bookmooch)
Ditto to JoanneF on A ROSE IN WINTER by Woodwiss. I remember reading a Good Housekeeping issue of my Mom’s when I was maybe 16 and the exerpted Rose in Winter was included…my first introduction to romance and its still on my bookshelves for old timey sake. The old Garwoods like Honor’s Splendor and The Bride. Can’t forget Lavyrle Spencer… I think November of the Heart maybe? Damn you, Smart Bitches! Must…reread!
I, too, read “The Wolf and the Dove” and “Sweet Savage Love” way back when I was in High School, and I’m not re-reading them. Enjoy your re-reads but there are too many books in my tbr pile to plan to re-read even old favorites. (Not that TWATD or SSL are on my favorites shelf.) Part of the reason I have so many books on my tbr is because you all keep introducing me to more great books! My shelves are bursting and I’m not sure whether to thank the readership of this blog on not – who am I kidding? Thank you! Thank you! Thank You!
For now the only re-read I’m planning this year is “Lady Be Good.” Currently I’m reading “Fancy Pants” for the first time, next comes “LBG” then Ted’s book. But I love when you re-read and review. Big fun ahead for all of us when those “reviews” appear.
Oh golly, I can’t remember the first one, but I am fairly sure I started with Barbara Cartland when I was about 14 or 15 – all heroines had heart-shaped faces and halting…ways of…speaking…as if they…had run…rather quickly…and…were…all…out…of…breath. And the H/H never kissed until the last page at which point the heroine burst into a million stars. Messy if you ask me!
Then I progressed to M&B Masquerade – lord how I adored them. I would get 5 at a time from the library and glut myself on them. I tried to write one too (and it’s still in a box under the spare bed!), and decided to set it in Cornwall, it’s full of “You’m” and “Missy” and “Launceston”. The fact I had never kissed anyone and only been to Cornwall once was no obstacle whatsoever.
And then I moved onto stronger meat:
Lady Vixen by Shirlee Busbee – I’ve still got this, I will re-read it AT ONCE. I remember that I loved it, it had quite a lot of sex and I don’t recall it being particularly forced or rapey. Let’s hope it lives up to memory…
Others that I remembered:
Forever Amber – Kathleen Windsor
Through A Glass Darkly – Karleen Koen
Wideacre trilogy – Philippa Gregory. I still love these, they beat the tudor ones into a cocked hat.
Danielle Steele – Weeptastic. But she got into a pattern of impoverished young-but-noble girls marrying elderly kind gents, having apparently sexless marriages and then being widowed before finding twue wuv. Which got a little tiresome.
M.M. Kaye – The Far Pavilions – more than ‘just’ romance, but another one I loved and Ben Cross in the tv adaptation was the YUM!
I had a big phase of Philippa Carr and only just this minute found out she was also Jean Plaidy AND Victoria Holt (thanks Wikipedia), both of whom I also read though not as widely.
I read Rosemary Rogers and Kathleen Woodiwiss too, I MUST have read Sweet Savage Love – surely?
And recenly I re-read Wild Bells To The Wild Sky by Laurie McBain. It didn’t live up to re-reading as there wasn’t enough romancin’, and hardly any “woe, I love him, he doesn’t even know I exist”.
Aaaand apart from that I recently re-read Scruples by Judith Krantz but I think I might leave off doing the same with the rest of her works.
Now, has anyone read Pamela Belle? The Moon In The Water, The Chains of Fate & Alathea are just FABBY FAB. Get them, read them, they still live up to re-reading I PROMISE!
spamword: college34. Well, I was 32, but it’s not far off.
Even though a few people have mentioned Harlequins/M&B and Georgette Heyer, almost every book here is a Big Fat Historical. Is that required for it to be an Old Skool Romance?
I picked up a few BFHs at a book sale recently, that I remembered fondly from my youth, but I’ve been reluctant to read them lest they not live up to memory…
Sunflower, Wildflower, and Rose, all by Jill Marie Landis which I remember liking partly because they are set in the American West but pre-Civil War, which is unusual.
Then there’s Fern Michael’s Captive Splendors, with its crazy purple and pink cover and anguish and passion and forbidden love (she’s his adopted sister, IIRC). It’s the third of a series, but the others never engrossed me like this one… The hero, Caleb van der Rhys, has a couple of brothers named Raine and Wynde which even in my youth I though a bit OTT (and not very Dutch, either).
“these39”? Yes, I got these thirty-nine books at the library sale.
I think the definition of ‘Old Skool’ (hate that spelling) being followed here is a bit flexible, to say the least!
I would classify Heyer’s and Mary Stewart’s works as classic British novels that happen to fit into genres that we now call (but didn’t then), ‘historical romance’ and ‘romantic suspense’.
I have the impression that ‘Old Skool’ is usually taken to indicate American novels written specifically for the ‘romance’ market in the 1970s and 1980s, and particularly those that have rather over-the-top plots. But I am probably mistaken.
Mostly, since back in the Old Skool days there weren’t a lot of contemporaries outside series romance like Harlequin. It’s also a style wherein the hero is usually an overly alpha angry boner type who forces the heroine, but doesn’t seem to be able to equate that with rape, continues to treat her badly & toward the end he finally pops up with something along the lines of “How can you not know that I love you?” AFTER he’s forced sex, forced marriage, treated her like a whore, called her a whore, refused to believe that the child who is his spitting image is his and more asshattery along those lines.
The heroine loves him & remains true blue despite all the above and whatever WTF travails the author throws her into. This generally will include things like stalkers, kidnapping and being falsely accused of someone’s murder. This is Old Skool.
I’ll join in as I’ve kind of already started doing it 🙂 So far what’s definitely on my list is Dangerous by Amanda Quick (read last week), Perfect Partners by JAK, maybe one or two other AQs/JAKs, probably a few of my Signet/Fawcett Regencies. I reread one of my absolute favorite Fawcetts last year: The Hampshire Hoyden by Michelle Martin, and it *totally* stood the test of time. Makes me wish MM was still writing as I loved her stuff.
Oh, and if you’re done with the book and describe it as sweet, tender, funny or uplifting, you ain’t reading Old Skool.
The Angelique series by Sergeanne Golan. Strong woman, but very Old Skool.
I’ve always been able to re-read books like I can re-watch movies. I think the first romance I read was (about 17 years ago) Jude Deveraux’s Knight in Shining Armor, which actually left me feeling really sad. I picked it back up two or three years ago, and I had that same melanchology feeling. But I love to re-read Julie Garwood’s medieval books, The Prize, Ransom, and Honor’s Splendour. I love Linda Howard’s All the Queen’s Men, and I love Shannon McKenna’s Hot Night.
A Rose in Winter by Kathleen Woodiwiss. It’s one of the first romances I ever read and still one of the best. A “beauty and the beast” storyline with a dose of mistaken identity and plenty of bodice-ripping hotness…what more can you ask for?
Good Lord, you guys are sparking waaaaay too many memories! 🙂 I read so many Zebra historicals and can’t remember most of them. I do remember loving Janelle Taylor’s Destiny’s Temptress, one of the only Civil War era romances I’ve ever read. I’ll have to re-read that one! Quite a story from what I can remember of it, even if the hero was blonde. LOL
Another book I read several times and still have somewhere is Courtney Alsobrook’s Mail-Order Mistress. I’d marry Justin McCade in a heartbeat.
And, of course, I read every Kathleen Woodiwiss and Jude Deveraux I could get my hands on!
wow. for my whole life I thought the woman’s name was Beatrice. then with this post I thought hey a typo on a cover. lo and behold, her name is BERtrice. mind blown
When I re-read THE WOLF AND THE DOVE last year, I loved it. I actually miss changing POVs (referred to negatively as head-hopping) and wish the newer romance books didn’t just confine me to the hero and heroine’s, one per scene, etc. as though I were too stupid to follow. The older books seemed richer and captured my imagination more than many of the new ones. I don’t mind heroes who screw up, however badly (and they were very bad), as long as they regret it, suffer for it, and make up for it. I thought the hero in THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER should have suffered more, but other than that, it completely captured me for the entire time I read it (for the first time, last year).