Bitchin' Blog Posts
HaBO: Reminiscing Over Romance
by SB Sarah | by SB Sarah | October 20, 2009 | Tuesday at 7:41 pm | 57 CommentsBitchery reader Tamsin (Gosh I dig that name) writes:
I’m searching for the title and author of a book I read about ten years ago as a teen. My mother and I were discussing romance novels recently and both recalled this one but it has either been lost or trashed. As far as I remember, it would have been published in the early / mid nineties, likely as a Harlequin or Silhouette title. The book starts out with the heroine kidnapped and being held in some isolated cabin…. somewhere. Enter hero who has been sent by her family to rescue her. He may have been a hero of the clichéd Native American tracker kind, but not sure. He rescues her and they then start the journey away from wherever she has been held (if I recall correctly, a very remote, rural and I *think* snow-covered location) back to her family home.
I realize that this description is not all that detailed right now, so I offer up the very few random details I DO remember: at some point in the journey, they stopped at a diner and ate burgers. And apple pie. Also, once back at heroine’s family home, they get frisky in the stables (or barn?) and heroine’s brother walks in on them (the relationship was kept secret from her family). The threat to heroine and her family does not end once she has been rescued - I recall some ongoing mystery / suspense once back with her family. So yeah, this bitch would appreciate any help / hints / suggestions you smart bitches can come up with based on my very flimsy description… would love to find this again for my mother so we can reminisce.
I love that she and her mom are comparing notes on romance. Anyone else share a love of the genre with their parental unit? I love books as bonding items.
Filed: General Bitching, Help a Bitch Out
Tagged: silhouette, romance, mystery, help a bitch out, harlequin, habo
Karen said on 10.20.09 at 08:50 PM • [link]
No help with this one—but my mother got my sister and I hooked young (5th grade, I think) because “The stories are just so good!” and being a careful mom, she paperclipped the sexxx parts together… Still makes me smile to think of it!
Kate Jones said on 10.20.09 at 09:03 PM • [link]
I remember when I snuck Johanna Lindsey’s The Present home and tried to hide it from my mom. When she found it she scowled and announced that I couldn’t read it… because I had to start at the beginning of the Malory saga. She then handed me all the books in order. It was the start of something magical.
Oh yeah, and I have no idea about the book. Sorry!
SheaLuna said on 10.20.09 at 09:16 PM • [link]
No idea about the book, sorry.
And oh, dear lord, my mother read romance novels? With sex scenes? Not at chance. In fact, if she knew I read them, she’d think I was on a fast track to a Fiery Burning Hell.
HOWEVER, my mom and I do share a love of Agatha Christie. She introduced me to Christie when I was 10 years old. To this day when I call her on her farm in Idaho from my flat just a few miles away from where Agatha Christie once lived in London, we get a kick out of comparing the latest installment of Poirot (TV series) with our recollections of the original novels. We do the same with Jane Austen. It’s been an amazing bonding experience with my mom. Something I’ll always treasure.
Randi said on 10.20.09 at 09:35 PM • [link]
I don’t have any idea about this book either. But holy books, Bat Man! My mom and I totally gobble up romances. Generally, we have the same taste, although every once in a while we differ. But we spend lots of money sending each other books back and forth (I’m in Philly, she’s in the Twin Cities). I keep a pile of books that are: To Be Sent To Mom. They don’t even get shelved.She just sent me 4 Loretta Chases and am currently imbibing The Sandelwood Princess. Yay mom!!!
eye74: Yup, I have about 74 books that I am eyeing to send to my mother.
SonomaLass said on 10.20.09 at 09:44 PM • [link]
My dad gave me my first romance, Jane Eyre, and my favorite, Pride and Prejudice. He also gave me Tolkien and T.H. White and got me hooked on fantasy. My mom reads mostly mysteries, and we share some faves there. I know that I passed my taste for fantasy reading on to all four of my kids, to some extent.
I only started reading romance again a few years ago, as a result of the recommendations here and at DA. My other kids joke about it, but my oldest (CupK8, she’s around here somewhere), is the only one I share this with. We swap books, compare notes on authors, even keep a shared spreadsheet of titles we’re looking for—I never go to the bookstore without taking her list as well as mine. We have very similar tastes; always have had. It’s a very special aspect of our relationship.
And I don’t think I’ve read that book. I’m usually no help with these HABO requests.
wendy said on 10.20.09 at 09:46 PM • [link]
This sounds like an old Linda Howard. Too lazy to look it up though.
Meggrs said on 10.20.09 at 10:05 PM • [link]
I was perfectly happy to gab romance novels with my mom—until she started reading the Black Dagger Brotherhood and classified them out loud during a family get-together as “erotica.”
My sis and I looked at each other, started screeching, and stuck our fingers in our ears.
To be fair, this is a failing on OUR part, not hers. It’s just….no. I specifically read the BDB because of the over-the-top characterizations and sexuality, and gab with my girlfriends for hours about it, but apparently I cannot pull the caber out of my ass when it comes to discussing the sexxoring with the mom.
heathero said on 10.20.09 at 10:11 PM • [link]
My first thought was Linda Howard too. The one about Zane Mackenzie, but when I looked it up, he rescues the girl from Libya… so probably not the book you’re looking for.
AgTigress said on 10.20.09 at 10:17 PM • [link]
I’m pretty sure the book is not a Linda Howard category romance. Other than that, I am no help, I fear.
Gail said on 10.20.09 at 10:58 PM • [link]
My dad is the one who got me hooked on romance novels, he’s a professional computer geek and he started reading them because he was looking for happy endings and no computers to relax with. Enter Amanda Quick :)
I remember one day we were eating lunch at a restaurant and I had one book from a romance series and he had a different one from the same series (we were glomming), the waitress thought it was great and said “I hope someday my daughter and I are reading the same books!”
But I have no clue what the book being searched for is.
Jan Oda said on 10.20.09 at 11:05 PM • [link]
It reminds me of a Harlequin I have in Dutch somewhere around.
He was a rodeo cowboy and she was a rich girl who ran away to lead her own life. Her brother sent some muscles after her because he didn’t think she could be safe on her own, the overly protective knows it better magnate brother type. She lost her purse and everything else whilst trying and ended up borrowing the cowboy’s motelroom. He plays reluctant hero and buys her some food. Next day, the muscles show up, she hides in his truck and he ends up taking her with him.
They have burgers on the road, but the muscles arrive there by pure luck so they sneak out. They split in the town where the next rodeo is held. She wears a shirt without a bra for the first time. She calls it dancing breasts. Hero gets horny because of the dancing breasts, gets angry and leaves. Big Misunderstanding Go!!!
Hero gets hurt in the rodeo, she drives him to his ranch, which he left because of dead wive and child.
They finally get it going on in the field, where they pull out lots of flowers mid-action. Next morning they are having breakfast, younger brother walks in. Brother tells about teh wife, girl feels sorry, hero get’s angry, girl leaves, younger brother fights hero to smack some sense in him, hero goes after the girl. They make up.
If this rings any bells I’l go look for it in the attic, if not, I won’t.
I think the hero was called Brody, not sure though, and translations often change names.
Nicole said on 10.20.09 at 11:42 PM • [link]
Prince of Lies by Robyn Donald? It’s a Harlequin Presents category romance that has at least some of those elements (rescue from kidnap, brother…no apple pie that I remember).
Jess said on 10.20.09 at 11:42 PM • [link]
Is it The Princess by Jude Deveraux?
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZIl50IrYq3oC&dq=jude+devroux+the+princess&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=RDDXkCG23W&sig=dZKPtZ2aLLPUqMO4Q4s28d_oQnY&hl=en&ei=jS7eSvqxOI3l8QabybVb&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CA0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Hope this helps :)
Laura said on 10.21.09 at 12:23 AM • [link]
It’s not “Deep in the Heart of Texas” by Linda Warren, is it? It sounds very familiar! (Although, to be honest, quite often plots sound familiar because there are at least twelve very similar books, varied only by the heroine’s hair colour or the hero’s occupation of soldier, sailor and sexy duke. :) Or, in this case, mountain hermit.)
Kathy said on 10.21.09 at 12:31 AM • [link]
I give my romance novels to my mom to read, but the first 2 questions out of her mouth are “Does it have sex in it?” And “How far into the story do I have to read before there is sex?” Like I mark the pages….okay, I do, but damn. Look up the sex on your own.
Tina S said on 10.21.09 at 12:59 AM • [link]
No idea about the book, but Mom gave me “Frankly My Dear” by Sandra Hill to read when I was about fifteen. After I finished it I asked for something ‘meatier’ and she gave me “Outlander”. I haven’t looked back.
Anna said on 10.21.09 at 01:03 AM • [link]
I do remember this book. I read it a couple of years ago, but I cannot remember the title at all. At the time, I wasn’t keeping a list of books that I read. I know that my comments aren’t a lot of help. I can add a few details though, that might help someone remember the book. It took place either in Wyoming or Montana and it was wintertime. The hero and heroine got caught in a storm, blizzard, probably. She had several brothers in her family that were VERY overprotective of her and the hero was either a friend to one of her brothers or kept getting into arguments with them (which was why they kept the relationship secret).
The mystery/suspense angle had something to do with her father, who was a very rich man. I think he had died recently in the book, though I am not 100% sure.
I know that might not give a lot of detail, but I hope it helps!
Suze said on 10.21.09 at 01:41 AM • [link]
I am so totally stealing that line!
The book sound familiar, but it could be a number of them. I’m thinking Elizabeth Lowell, Outlaw or Granite Man or something? Some guy named Cash?
Vicki said on 10.21.09 at 01:56 AM • [link]
My parents wouldn’t let me read fiction, let alone romance. So I don’t discuss books with my mom. I did buy all the Susan Elizabeth Phillips for my younger (25) daughter and have no problem with either of them reading anything I am reading. SEP was the first romance my daughter had read, now she wanders around with one of them open in her hand while she fishes in the frig for something for supper with the other.
OTOH, I am sitting here with my mouth hanging open after clicking Jess’s link above. I had heard about Google books before but hadn’t realized the breadth involved. Thanks for the link.
not92 - no, I am not, not by a long shot
Stephie said on 10.21.09 at 02:18 AM • [link]
I’m pretty sure this is “C is for Cowboy” by Lisa Jackson, part of her Love Letters trilogy about the McKee family. The hero and heroine in “C is for Cowboy” were Sloan and Casey. There’s also “A is for Always” about Max and Skye and “B is for Baby” about Jenner and Beth. Took place in a little town called Rimrock, Oregon, following the ‘mysterious death’ of the family patriarch.
Kelly C. said on 10.21.09 at 03:02 AM • [link]
I started reading romances by pilfering my mom’s HP’s and/or HR’s in the early 1980’s.
I now like to refer to myself as my mom’s book-pimp. LOL
She reads whatever I recommend.
However, I cannot / do not / will not let her read any of my *smut* :-D Some things, afterall, are sacred.
WorthaFortune said on 10.21.09 at 03:36 AM • [link]
I used to sneak them out of the linen closet where my mom would hide them. I’d usually sneak 5 or 6 of them. I thought I was being subtle. I knew my mom would flip if she knew I was reading about sex before I was 13. I’d devour them to the point where I was reading one a day behind my social studies book in 7th grade. Finally I stole whatever book she was reading, one time too many and she opened up the closet and said, “help yourself. Just stop taking whatever I’m reading at the moment.”
Now we share books all the time.
The book to me does sound like Jude Deveraux’s Princess. But I don’t think she had brothers. And I’m SURE she was in the wilds of the Washington rain forest.
Theresa said on 10.21.09 at 04:21 AM • [link]
Oh my gosh! My mom used to paperclip the explicit pages too! Not that romances were that explicit in the early 90s. I thought it was funny because it was obviously easy to unpaperclip them if I wanted. But what was even funnier was that my dad let me read his scifi books. Well, when everyone thinks they are going to die, end of the world scifi books can devolve into orgies. I think he just forgot about what was in the books.
Alyssa F said on 10.21.09 at 05:08 AM • [link]
Nope, I don’t know the book described, but it is very definitely not Outlaw, Granite Man, or any of Elizabeth Lowell’s other Rocking M ranch series books.
Wendy said on 10.21.09 at 05:11 AM • [link]
Wait, what?
Jojo said on 10.21.09 at 05:27 AM • [link]
I must confess that last week, as a 22 year old, independent woman, last weekend I hid off of my romance novels because my mom was coming to my house and I couldn’t bear the disapproving looks. I kept telling myself I was going to be brave and leave them out, but… that didn’t happen… On the other hand, I can’t wait until my younger sister is old enough (and out of my parents house) that I can share my romances with her. :P
Donna Marie Rogers said on 10.21.09 at 05:29 AM • [link]
I used to think my mom was nuts when she’d hole up in her bedroom to read the latest Kathleen E. Woodiwiss instead of joining the rest of us in the front room to watch a horror flick…LOL But it was her love of KEW that started my own obsession with romance novels, so I forgive her. ;-)
I’d bought used copies of The Flame & the Flower and The Wolf & the Dove while vacationing with my boyfriend (now husband) and his family in the U.P. Planned to surprise her with them since our house had burned down several years before, and we’d lost everything. It was a 4 hour ride home, so I decided to read The Wolf & the Dove. I barely understood half of it, but man, by the time we arrived home, I was hooked. Thankfully, my MIL had a stash of romance novels, so I spent the next week reading pretty much non stop. :-)
Tracy said on 10.21.09 at 05:29 AM • [link]
I share the romance luuuuurve with Mom AND Gramma, although Gramma’s taste tends toward the more G and PG rated. Which is OK, as thinking about parental and grandparental units reading about sex and liking it kinda makes me throw up a little in my mouth….
Ash said on 10.21.09 at 06:34 AM • [link]
I have never posted on this site before. But I just had to say THANK YOU to everyone who literally made me cry with laughter at their “parents + romance novel” stories…
April said on 10.21.09 at 07:11 AM • [link]
I started reading early and voraciously. After I started picking through some of my mother’s books, she suddenly had two bookshelves, one in the living room… and a small one in the top of her closet. And for a couple years I never thought twice about it.
Then when I was about nine my grandmother (father’s mother) made a snide comment about my mother reading romance novels (spoken in the those books voice). After that I had to know what romance novels were, and of course if they warranted the italics voice, those must be the books in the top of the closet.
I ended up with “Flowers in the Attic” and “Searching for Mr. Goodbar”. It was probably a decade before I figured out my mother had probably left the “romance novels” in the living room and I’d gone straight to the extremes. In the intervening time, I had this scary impression of incest and abuse and drug use to go with the romance genre.
Himani said on 10.21.09 at 08:02 AM • [link]
It does sound like C is for Cowboy by Lisa Jackson. I can’t remember if there’s a burger scene, but I do remember the snowy wilderness and a tracker hero…
My parents were huge on encouraging me to read. My mother and I shared a love of mystery novels and whenever I was reading them, she’d join in, too. We read Nancy Drew together, then Agatha Christie novels, and eventually Clive Cussler. My Mom doesn’t really read romances, which has always surprised me, because I think she’d love them if she gave them a chance.
Leslee said on 10.21.09 at 12:07 PM • [link]
My story is a combo of some of the stories above. My parents encouraged my reading as they were both readers. Around the age of 10 or 11 I discovered Barbara Cartland (I know, but she was great when I was that age, have a lot of fond memories and learned a lot of history). Around the age of 12 I started sneaking my mother’s catagory romances. She never noticed. Then I got bold around the age of 14 or so and started getting up in the middle of the night and reading her historicals (lots of love via rape and/coersion, gotta love the 80’s). It was sometime around age 14-15 that my mom sorta gave up and let me pick out whatever I wanted. Now, I am in my 30’s and I am offically Mom’s book pimp.She reads some stuff I don’t but it is awesome to share books, talk books with her.
LizzieBee said on 10.21.09 at 12:56 PM • [link]
The romance reading skipped a generation in our family. My Mum doesn’t read them (hardly reads books at ALL, it’s discouraging), but my grandma does. She loves the LARGE print books (mostly sweet Harlequins) from her Library, and the first book she shared with me many years ago was a Danielle Steel. I love her so much. (I lent her Nora Roberts’ Irish trilogy years ago, and if I could find more of Nora’s books in LARGE print, cheap to buy for normal people not library’s, I reckon I’d probably buy more for her. She’s 85 this year :D) Mum read Barbara Taylor Bradford’s years ago (the Emma books) and I read the first two (or so) of that, as my first romances. Sadly, can’t encourage my Mum to read anything I can recommend!
SheaLuna said on 10.21.09 at 01:50 PM • [link]
I just realized I have to retract my statement about my mother and romance novels. After some of the above comments I realized my mom DOES read Barbara Cartland and Grace Livingston Hill (Christian romance novels in the vein of BC.). No sex, lots of manly (read bossy) heros and completely useless heroines who flutter their hands a lot. I read them too. When I was about 12. My tastes are a little more, ah, extreme now. lol
I had also forgotten my grandmother reads romances. I know she reads Nora Roberts and some of the more “PG” type Harlequins. Hmmm… maybe that’s where I got it. Though pretty sure grandma’s books don’t have any vampires in them…
Deb Kinnard said on 10.21.09 at 03:04 PM • [link]
I’m thinking the incomparable Eileen Wilks before she went all paranormal on us?? Can’t come up with the title, though.
Corrine said on 10.21.09 at 03:06 PM • [link]
My mom and I have a mutual love of Jennifer Crusie and Suzanne Brockmann. When I read Bet Me I immediately gave it to her and told her it was a must-read. When she expressed an interest in some of the Troubleshooters series, I was there to hook her up with the entire thing. She’s actually read more of them now than I have! I also used to share romance novels with my grandma (I borrowed Paradise by Judith McNaught from her when I was 18) and my mom’s oldest sister, who love Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb.
Weasy said on 10.21.09 at 03:28 PM • [link]
My mother is responsible for getting me hooked on the Outlander series. (Also, Lord of the Rings and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, among others.) Neither she nor I are big romance readers, but both of my parents are prolific readers and encouraged reading at a young age. My mother was very picky about what movies I could watch at a young age but she never restricted my reading (the worst she would do was roll her eyes at the covers of the books I picked up, but she’d get them for me anyway). My mom has successfully turned most of the living and dining room in my parents’ house into a library now and whenever I go home she usually has a small pile of books waiting for me.
ashley said on 10.21.09 at 05:06 PM • [link]
my mother and I share books, although our tastesaren’t always teh same. I even share books with my mom’s friends!
Maura said on 10.21.09 at 05:14 PM • [link]
It’s most definitely C is for Cowboy. It was one of my favorites and I read it many times!
Danielle Yockman said on 10.21.09 at 05:24 PM • [link]
No clue on the book.
My mom and definitely share a love of reading however, I think I was already breaking int o YA type stuff before I discovered my mom’s book shelf. She introduced me to Judith McNaught and Johanna Lindsey. Now I have introduced her to Tessa Dare and Eloisa James. We used to share books but now we live too far apart. But when I win copies of books I already have, she is where I send them unless they are too explicit.
Oh and I too love that Caber comment…that was fantastic!
Spam word: idea69…well, nah not even gonna go there. 8-)
Nadia said on 10.21.09 at 06:40 PM • [link]
My mom had never been much of a reader until her most recent job required some travel and she needed something to do on flights. She discovered Nora Roberts/JD Robb and we’ve had some nice conversations about those books.
Mom’s contribution to my early love of romances was driving me to the library regularly. It was my grandmother’s best friend who fed my addiction when I was in high school. She had subscriptions to several category lines, and passed them on to me when she was done.
Sarah said on 10.21.09 at 07:20 PM • [link]
My mum doesn’t read romance, but after my great-aunt died we found a big box of old 1960s romances under her bed. She was a very severe old lady, never married, and used to tell my cousins and I off for wearing skirts that were too short. I wish I’d know the younger, romance reading version of her!
I’ve now got her collection of old books in a box under my bed. I’ve read them, though none of them grabbed me enough to warrent a second reading.
Maura said on 10.21.09 at 09:56 PM • [link]
Here is a synopsis of C is for Cowboy. Sounds like the winner to me.
“Bent on destroying her powerful family, someone had abducted pampered Casey McKee and stashed her deep in the snowy Oregon wilds. Only one man could possibly save her: ruthless tracker Sloan Redhawk.
The brooding cowboy swiftly hunted Casey down-and the headstrong heiress made the blood sing anew in his icy loner’s heart. But Redhawk knew evil still stalked the mighty McKees, and Casey remained an all-too-tempting target. For a killer as well as a cowboy ....”
Karen said on 10.21.09 at 10:58 PM • [link]
I’ve been thinking about this one… and while I’m not sure it is it, there are some similarities. Kiss and Tell by Cherry Adair?
mrs.mj said on 10.22.09 at 12:34 AM • [link]
I share books with my Grammie, but lately they need to be PG or even G. So she keeps giving me Christian books, and I give her Beatrice Small just to keep her on her toes ;0) I do remember my mom talking about how much she loved to read, and would mention her John Jakes series with reverence. Now I feel the same about my SEPs and Kinsales and Crusies, all neat and tidy on the shelf were I can admire them just like she did, and my Grammie does, and next to the tiny shelf that holds all my daughter’s Sandra Boynton books! I think reading should be made into something you can pass down from generation to generation, a passion for stories you instill in your children.
PK the Bookeemonster said on 10.22.09 at 01:01 AM • [link]
I started reading romances in the 5th grade. My mom had huuuge piles of gothic romances next to her side of the bed and it was easy to pull one out of the stack, read it, return it, move on to the next. The first one I read was THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER. I didn’t necessarily understand all the physicalness of the sex scenes but I read them, then, for the love stories. By the time she allowed me to read them, I had already moved on at that point in my reading to SFF and then mystery. I came back to romances a few years ago when I was doing research for a bookstore I wanted to open (and didn’t happen).
Reading in general comes from my Mom. She took us to the library regularly and read out loud to us. Dad wasn’t a reader though came to it later in life after retiring and I have heard him say he was glad she did that for us. Coming full circle, I somehow married a non-reader, just wasn’t done or valued in his family and to this day. We don’t have kids and the dog just doesn’t seem to like to be read to so reading is just for me. :)
Maggie P. said on 10.22.09 at 02:09 AM • [link]
As mentioned, I am pretty sure it is ‘C is for Cowboy’. I read that one too, and it sounds about right.
I remember finding Elizabeth Lowell’s “Winter Fire” at the tender age of 11 and being very curious about it, especially after mom told me not to read it. Naturally my friend and I stood watch for each other and read it within the week.
Corrina said on 10.22.09 at 05:54 AM • [link]
You know, this sound like a Dallas Schulze category book called Snowbound. He’s older, and she went out to the cabin when she shouldn’t, and he retrieves her, and I believe they get involved while at the cabin…
And then there is drama back at the ranch with the brothers, as she’s the youngest. I liked this book a lot. Dallas had a lot of good category, full of emotion. This one might be Snowbound or something like that.
Beki said on 10.22.09 at 06:00 AM • [link]
My mom had Harlequin subscriptions from the time I was little until I married and left home. I was the oldest child and when I was younger, she would get the Harlequin Presents and the like. I would openly take them off her shelves when I was eleven or so and she never said a word about it. A couple years later, she switched up to the Super Romance line and then another year or two later, the Temptations came along. WOW, those were an education.
And it only occurred to me when I had to have the sex talk with my boy-child that my mom did that so she could avoid the same with me. I would almost swear on it. Though now she kind of hints around that I should send her any erotica that I thought “appropriate” for her. What do you suppose THAT would be????? I’m still looking.
LollyBrubs said on 10.22.09 at 10:42 AM • [link]
Dont know anything about the book, sorry.
My mother is not much of a reader but I come by my love of romance honestly even if I didnt know it till I was an adult. Both of my grandmothers lived romance novels. My paternal grandmother who was blind would get recorded books through a program with the state of Indiana and I was always recommending books to her that she loved. My maternal grandmother who passed away when I was to young to know this also loved romance novels as did her mother. There is a story in my family about my great grandmother being ill and having a bunch of romance novels on her bed that and the family’s minister stopping by to visit her and she threw them all under the bed before he could see what they were.
I also have made many friends by seeing some one reading a romance and asking them how the book is. Right now Im living in Cairo and have found several fellow romance lovers and we are passing books back and forth all the time since they are so expensive here.
Buffy said on 10.22.09 at 06:10 PM • [link]
My Mom isn’t a romance reader at all. However, in middle school I had a friend and her mom had boxes and boxes of Harlequin Presents. I think they must’ve been early to late 80’s versions. Back when Nora Roberts wrote for them.
We barely saw her mom, she’d be spending most of her time reading the Presents books. Eventually we snagged some and that’s history. I recall most of the books featuring Alpha Males who were extremely mean and sometimes slapped the heroine. (I recently picked up some old Penny Jordan reprints and they feature the same sorts of heros).
I took a long break in my 20’s from romance novels and am back reading voraciously. I’d love to share some of my favorites with someone so we can talk about them. But it seems I’m alone in my Regency, Harlequin Presents favored genres.
Kristina said on 10.22.09 at 06:46 PM • [link]
My mom started me on Romances very young. I was about 5th/6th grade also. For some reason I had Boxes full of these little magazines that had shortened versions of what I later found out was a Harlequin-esque monthly publisher.
My dad’s reaction was priceless though. The cover of one of the books was rather racy (for a 11 y/o). He took the book from me and with a finger pointed in my face told me how my mother would have a talk with me later. (ominous dad voice implied) Mom’s reaction was “yeah? so? I bought it for her”
kinseyholley said on 10.22.09 at 09:41 PM • [link]
My SIL and her mother share romance books, including the steamy stuff, and I think that’s so cool. My mom’s an avid reader but way too prudish to read romance - I remember her reading Judith Krantz (remember Scruples? Princess Daisy?) and being appalled at the sex. She insists that my sister and I read porn. If she’d only known what I was reading back in junior high, in the 70s - I read ALL the Old Skool stuff.
Mom wants to read my book, no matter how many times I’ve told her - no, you really don’t. Everyone knows that whoever tells Mom my pen name is gonna regret it. Cause holy shit, I can’t even begin to imagine her reaction.
Sorry can’t help with the book. I only just recently started reading contemporaries.
Glynis said on 10.23.09 at 03:58 AM • [link]
My grandmother and I shared romance novels.
She used to volunteer for her local library in Rutherford, NJ. She’d help with the book sales back in the 1970s. Her particular specialty was romance, which she called birdbrains. One of the romance sub-genres (and marked as such) was “Women in Nightgowns Running from Castles.” I think she gave me a leg up in the Smart Bitch realm.
A few years back, I visited her at her new place in New Hampshire. We made our regular pilgrimage to an almost all romance used book shop in Concord called ?Annie’s? It was near the capitol building. We hit the ground running and ended up looking at the same shelf. She asked if I’d read a particular novel. I had, and added that it was rather explicit. She said, oh, and put it back on the shelf. Next time I came around, the book wasn’t there and Grandma looked mighty smug.
That rocks.
Security word? defense81. Yeah, I think she was about 81 when the Annie’s incident happened. :)
Elysa said on 10.23.09 at 04:39 AM • [link]
Count me in as another voracious reader—while other kids were carrying around stuffed animals and “Linuses”, I always had at least one book with me, preferably all I could carry. My introduction to Romance came via my maternal grandmother, who only had an eighth grade education. The shelves of “my” room were stacked with all kinds of 1965ish through 1980’s Romance…Harlequins, bodice rippers, smutty bestsellers like Peyton Place, and the aforementioned Women in Nightgowns Running from Castles (the last being a favorite genre for me—but they’re hard to find anymore!) We never talked about the books though or passed them back and forth—they were more like a household supply, like food or toilet paper, if that makes any sense at all.
Abbie said on 10.23.09 at 09:55 PM • [link]
My mom started me off on romances when I was 8 or 9 years old. I was always a voracious reader, and by that age I had already read most of the kid books in our small town library. That young she started me on definitely G or PG books, like Phyllis Whitney, (I’m named after one of her heroines) and old ones like Elswyth Thane. (fantastic author, by the way) When I was in high school, Mom got me hooked on Regencies with the Zebra Regencies. I’ve moved on to a love of paranormal, and slightly, or not so slightly, smutty romances. Mom still keeps hers pretty PG. She learned her love of romances from my grandmother, who for as long as I can remember has kept hundreds of old Harlequins around the house. I even have books that I’ve kept just to pass on to my daughters someday.
Heather said on 11.01.09 at 06:04 AM • [link]
My mom caught me reading her historicals when I was 10 or 11, and pointed me in the general direction of Victoria Holt as an OK alternative. I loved Holt, but kept sneaking mom’s more hard-core romance novels when I could. I remember loving Woodiwiss in particular. We still share and talk about books—I love it.
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