Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

The first romance novel I ever read was in the eighth grade and I bought it off of a bargain rack at the local used bookstore for 50 cents.  I felt pretty proud of myself for getting it into the house, but looking back it was relatively tame.  In fact, it was really tame.  It was called “The King’s Doll” and is by Elizabeth Chater.  Looking back, I don’t think it was that great a book.  The plot was jumpy, the characters lacked depth, and at the end of the book I had to go back and read it again because all of a sudden the characters were “in love” and I totally missed it happening.  It holds a place in my heart anyway.

I love Regency Romance and those got me started in college. I notice that it’s getting to be tapped out and I’ve seen a few authors move into other historic times.  Not that I have good examples off the top of my head.  I would like to see some early 20th Century stories.

Harlequin Presents was what got me hooked on romance. It was an Anne Hampson title called Hills of Kalamata. The plot line was the heroine was going to kidnap the Greek Millionaire (I guess million was like a billion is today in 1977) and she ends up being his prisoner instead. It belonged to my great-grandmother and I had finished it at her house over the weekend. When I went to go home I reluctantly handed it back to her and I guess she saw my pout and handed it back to me and said I could keep it as a gift. I still have the book to this day. It is very fragile and worn because I had read it so many times. Thanks Granny Jones, you ROCKED!

I did read Harlequin back in the day, my sisters and I used to trade them back and forth. But the authors I always scouted for at that time (late 70s, early 80s) were Glenna Finley, whose books were Signet I believe, and Nora Roberts for Silhouette. I loved her books from the first one she wrote (Irish Thoroughbred), and have read her ever since. I haven’t been reading categories in recent years, and moved more from romance to mystery in my reading tastes, but I thank both those authors for my good memories that have me still with a soft spot for romance.

The first romance I bought was a Barbara Cartland. Did she write for Mills & Boon?  The bookstore had racks and racks of BCs and I picked one with Leopard in the title because I had a cat.  It was a wonderful story about reincarnation and and had some exotic scenes of India in it.  I wore out my copy.  I’ll always remember the Leopard with fondness though subsequent Cartlands have been hit or miss.

Wow.  That was a very long time ago!  I was always a sucker for anything with ‘sheik’ in the title.  If it involved dudes in white with full head dress, I’m there.  Absolutely.  I can STILL remember after probably 20-odd years a Harlequin Romance standard that was probably written by Penny Jordan.  PJ had a way with words that made you think there was just a touch of sarcasm going on there.  The TDH in question was actually an engineer.  He fixed the air conditioner and she ogled his buttocks in blue jeans.  Very, very cool!

What got me hooked was my mum’s Georgette Heyer collection. First one, Regency Buck. I’m sure I read some Cartlands but she’s pretty silly compared to Georgette.

For me, nope, I can’t understand the concept of buying by group or line or meta tag* (unless, of course, it’s Regency Marriages of Convenience ... then you can sign me up for a monthly package, sight unseen :D) ... when I buy older Harlequins, usually at a UBS or a library, it’s because I want to see what an author I now enjoy was up to years back. The other day I bought: This Time for Us by Elaine K. Stirling, The Dream Comes True by Barbara Delinsky and Circles by Lauren Bauman.

I do like many of their historical authors, like Cheryl St. John, Betina Krahn and, Of Course, Carla Kelly. So great to see Miss Kelly in print ... I’m sure there are others I’m forgetting: there are some wonderful historical writers that are part of the Harlequin family.

* not even sure what that is—oh well!

Linda Howard’s Silhouette Intimate Moments! I was hooked from my first read, which was Against the Rules. I got it from my local library, then spent YEARS searching for it at used bookstores and garage sales. I remember finding it at a garage sale probably 10 years later as vividly as I remember the first time I read it. I loved the Mackenzie series, too.

When I was about 10 or 11, I was cutting my romance teeth on Rosemary Rogers and the like because I was filching books out of my stepmother’s Brown Paper Bag o’ Books.  (The Brown Paper Bag o’ Books was what she’d bring back every month or so from the Paperback Exchange—an awesome place of wonder and treasure, completely crammed full of books and comic books that were shelved in no particular order).  I didn’t actually start reading category books until I was 13 or so.  I think the first Harlequin that I ever read was by Charlotte Lamb.  I must have liked it a lot, but I recall looking for her titles when I bought more.

Way back, I was on a category romance jag, but I was finding a lot of them rather ho-hum. Then I stumbled into a book by someone named Erin St. Claire. Stunningly good. I found another. Then another, until I couldn’t find any more. For years I thought she’d stopped writing. Then one day years later at the Sleepless in Silverdale conference, I found out she’d turned into Sandra Brown.

As for what got me hooked on romance to begin with: old medical romances, like those pubbed in the 60s. I can’t remember which one in particular, but whatever it was, was a natural segue from the Cherry Ames nurse mysteries I grew up on. And I’m sure it must have been a Harlequin.

And I’m commenting about medical romance and my Captcha is well97. lol

Meta Tagging would be awesome! I’ve got a customer that is a huge Presents fan that loves all things Sheikh, Greek, & Italian, with a smattering of Spainards and Aussies. She has a great story of teaching her daughter’s Girl Scout troop how to savor the words of a romance when reading out loud after they found a Lynn Graham in her van.

I started series romance with The Law is a Lady by Nora Roberts in Silhouette Special Editions that I picked up at a church rummage sale at the age od 13 or so, but quickly became a fan of the Desire line. Every time I was sick and stuck home from school I would drag myself out of bed to walk a mile to the closest grocery store so I could pick up an new Desire. My mother would have killed me if she’d known. Not that the romance part would have bothered her, she always encouraged reading, but going to the store when I was too sick to attend school would piss her off no end!

Wow, this topic takes me back.

I cut my teeth on Harlequin Presents back in middle school. My stepdad had written a satire of a Presents (long story). He wanted my mom to read it and had gotten the “four free books!” so she could see how they compared. One by one, I slipped them off the shelf, hoping no one would notice the gap. I want to say there was a Penny Jordan in the bunch.

Soon after, I discovered Rosemary Rogers and Sweet Savage Love and longer romances (Zebra books with the little hologram!) But through it all, I would bring home Presents by the armful from the library (20+ at a time). It’s also what started my judging a book by it’s cover. lol I couldn’t bear the ones where the hero had gray hair, even at the temples, because my young heart was squicked by that.

That’s also about the time that my folks started shaking their heads at my reading choices (romances and comic books…oy!) and my desire to write romance. They still laugh, but in a good way.

I started with Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon, Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books, and anything Mercedes Lackey.  Later, I realized what I really loved in those books was the romance.

My first true romance was The Sherbrooke Bride by Catherine Coulter.  I read that one and the other two bride books many times.  For me, though, once I was more well read, they (and their marriage bed rapes) were not worth the rereads.  It makes me feel icky to think about it now, and I wonder how I didn’t end up with a really warped idea of what sex should be.  Yikes!

Julie Garwood is who I really remember really liking early on.  In college I would forbid myself from reading romances.  But once I met a goal (test, paper, project, etc) I’d go to the library and check out one of her books.  Then come home and stay up and read the whole thing.  Aahhh.  Still makes me smile!

I’ve already bought my ecopies of October’s Harlequin Presents.
The First Romance I remember reading was The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer while I was in High School. My next door neighbour lent it to me when I was home sick in bed with some infectious disease. Unfortunately the last page was missing.
Then in my last year at high school my old Infants teacher lent me all her hard cover Heyers. Bliss! I’m now collecting e and audio versions as fast as I can.

Then I stumbled into a book by someone named Erin St. Claire. Stunningly good. I found another. Then another, until I couldn’t find any more. For years I thought she’d stopped writing. Then one day years later at the Sleepless in Silverdale conference, I found out she’d turned into Sandra Brown.

This. I started reading romance at a fairly young age—-6th or 7th grade. I was a voracious reader and had long since gone through all the interesting YA at our public library. Then I discovered the huge collection of Harlequin’s and just got sucked in. That library had 3 or 4 long shelves of them. To this day I’ve never found another library with a collection to rival it.  Erin St. Claire was my first “crack” author. There is one book of her’s that I still look for every time I’m in a UBS.

As time went by I started looking for longer romances and basically stopped reading Harlequins, so I was thrilled to discover that Erin St. Claire was Sandra Brown. Oddly, I’ve liked a lot of SB’s books, but never as much as I loved Erin St. Claire’s.

I’ve since started reading some Harlequins again and I’m enjoying several of the authors that others mentioned.

I’m not even 100% sure what line it was, MIRA?, but Elizabeth Lowell’s Blackthorne Brothers got me so hooked, it was ridiculous. I must have read OUTLAW, GRANITE MAN, and WARRIOR at least fifty times each. Just looked them up, they were Desires. Man, I wonder if I still have copies? Thinking about them makes me want to reread.

His Lady Mistress by Elizabeth Rolls is the reason I’m hooked on romance. Anything by her is an auto-buy.

Sticking to Presents and Desires (because this list would get waaaaaay too huge otherwise) my autobuy authors are: Olivia Gates, Annie West, Jennie Lucas, India Grey, Maya Banks, Emily McKay, Abby Green, and Kate Hardy.

The category that got me into romance was definitely Regency/Historical. Waaaaay back in the early 70’s as a pre-teen I started in on my Mom’s Heyer collection, though that far back I can’t remember which title was my “first love.” Miss Heyer’s books are still the most likely romances to be “keepers” for me and The Grand Sophy is my all-time-favorite romance. I also surreptitiously read several of the Woodiwiss books as a teen; they seemed SO racy at the time. The Wolf and the Dove was my favorite of hers, but I haven’t read it in decades and may never again in fear it would ruin a fond memory. I know I read a lot of Harlequin back in the 80’s, but most were not all that memorable to me.

In the UK, Presents are known as Moderns. I’ve read both, and there’s no difference apart from the spelling, and sometimes an author is exclusive to one line or the other.
But in the UK, there is a sub-line called Modern Heat, which in the US is put out as a regular Presents, and I love that line. The heroines aren’t as wimpy or doormatty, and the heroes are a little less like immovable objects. You get to travel some of the journey with him, and if there’s anything I miss, it’s knowing the hero a bit better. Romance is something that should happen between two people, after all.
Authors who have Modern Heat books include one of my very favourites, Kate Hardy, and Trish Wylie, both of whom also write for other lines, so take care.
Oh, and I forgot Abby Green. I like her books, too. And Olivia Gates - she has a very distinctive style, but she’s an Egyptian, a doctor in Cairo, so her sheikh books have a touch of reality. Just a touch, mind.
There are some disasters, and sometimes they can be funny, they’re so awful.

It’s only been just over a year since my category deflowerment. But once I read Emilie Rose’s The Millionaires Indecent Proposal, Silhouette Desire #1804 . I was a true beleiver. I so admire writers that can produce such wonderful stuff in such a restrictive frame work. Not to mention do it over and over again.

Going into my first Category I was cautious and a little naive much like laid off accountant, Stacy Reeves. Thank goodness my first experience was sexy and oh so very satisfying. Kinda of like Franco Constantine, millionaire heir to a chocolate covered empire.

This book shattered all my misconceptions.

Cheesy titles aside that the author has no control over, I was wrong about everything else. And there was nothing choppy or simple about the writing. It was tight yes, but without losing any sense of the gorgeous setting or the deep emotions. Although the sex scenes were short they had great impact in those few words. The sexiest scene of all isn’t even on the page. He mentions his plans for the night beforehand and she mentions it again briefly after the fact. I couldn’t get the scene out of my head and technically it was only ever in my head. And there is no denying the vocabulary was rich and varied and the whole thing was intelligently written.
Luckily me, my first time was magical.

I have a feeling though that all categories, like all men, are not created equal but there are ones that can rock your world.

The first romance category to get me well and truly hooked was Belle of Portman Square by Clarice Peters - and I liked it mostly because it was hilarious. The heroine ends up dropping volumes of Shakespeare on the hero from the library stairs and they have many witty exchanges over crab patties.

The lines that kept me happy were the romantic comedy lines - Harlequin Duets, Flipside. I’m really sad that those lines always seem to falter. I love laughter in my romance!

I was probably around 10 or 12, and I bought a Harlequin Romance at a local thrift store, Leigh Michaels’ “Baby You’re Mine” and was utterly hooked. 12+ years later, and I still haven’t stopped. I will always have a soft spot for category romances. And I would LOVE it if Harlequin would have meta tags - if I see a sheik romance, or an inherited baby (NOT secret baby) romance, I’m THERE!

I liked the Silhouette Intimate Moments for their Romantic Suspense.  I found Justine Davis (She wrote about cops and had wounded heroes, including a parapeligic hero) and Maggie Shayne (her first book pre-vampire was one of my faves- had a latina heroine).

I also found Jenny Cruise in the categories.

My older sisters used to read Mills and Boons, and I just HAD to read them because they were forbidden.  But the books that really hooked me were the Loveswept Romances.  It’s too bad they stopped publishing that line.

I still remember reading books by Fayrene Preston and Kay Hooper.  I liked that their storylines weren’t as ridiculous as the Mills and Boons.  To this day, one of my sisters LOVES the ‘high intensity’ storylines, where the hero and heroine basically hate each other throughout the book, right up until the last five pages where they miraculously fall for each other and live HEA. 

I despise those storylines just as much as I did when I was 12 - I’m all about laid back, fun and flirty romance, which is what the Loveswepts delivered.

The first romance I read was in the 5th grade, THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER by Kathleen Woodiweis.  The category line I followed semi-regularly was Loveswept.

For me, it was A Song Begins by Mary Burchell, published by Harlequin and Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer. They both made my adolescent heart swell.

I read my first few Harlequins when I was in 5th or 6th grade (thus about 15 years ago) but they dated back from the 70s and 80s, methinks. I was reading them in French back then so I’m sure the series name are different, but one I still remember very fondly is the one with the nanny/cooking lady who moves to New Zealand and falls in love with the Owner of a sheep herd. The angst! I remember the angst, and the sweet, sweet ending. I remember my mum had quite a few set in exotic locations (South America, New Zealand, Sierre Leone, Greece, etc.)  and I loved that.

OMG - meta-tagging the Harlequin catalogue?  YES PLEASE!!!  I can’t even start to reminisce about my ‘first’ romance novel because I’m too excited about the possibilities of being able to search for, oh, say, pregnant/amnesiac/former marine.

The first romance I read was Storm Winds by Iris Johansen. I found it at a friends house and read it in one sitting. The hero is still one of my favorites. I think I was about 12 or 13.

The first romance I bought was I think To Sir Phillip With Love by Julia Quinn. The title is what made me want to read it. I love titles that play on movies/song/books.

Shockingly I haven’t read more than 2 or 3 Harlequin books. I tend to stay in either Regency or Contemporary romances.

I love all these comments.  I got into romance reading by being a horribly awkward 13 year old on vacation in Key West (circa 1995) in a rental house that was stocked with Jane Feathers and Catherine Coulters.  I’ve always wanted to try category romance, but I find it all so overwhelming, and ... dare I say it as an out and proud romance reader ... I’ve fallen prey to the idea that category isn’t as “good” as full-length novels.

This has been super awesome and educational and I am definitely going to be making a list of categories to try.

Thank you Smart Bitches and Bitchery!

My first “grown up” romance was The Gift by Julie Garwood.  It set me off on a pirate binge.  I found it on a friend’s mother’s bedside table and spent the better part of the day ignoring my friend and reading.  It was a natural progression from the Sunfire YA romances that I devoured from about 10-13.

I haven’t read many catagories lately, but in the mid- to late-nineties I read one, sometimes two a day.  (Working as a receptionist left me a lot of time to read.)  I loved the Temptation line and Love & Laughter, which morphed into the Duets line.  I know at the time I had some favorite authors, but it’s been so long it’s hard to remember who they were.  I know I discovered Jenny Crusie and Vicki Lewis Thompson in those days.

I do feel obliged to point out that Georgette Heyer was never published by Harlequin. It would have sent her spinning in her grave.
She refused to join the RNA (Romantic Novelists’ Association) so two formidable ladies were left to claim the Queen of Romance title - Denise Robins and Barbara Cartland. The stories of these two and their rivalry are legion in the UK, and someone should really write them all down.

I started reading Woodiwiss, Rogers, et al when I was 10 or so, out of my mom’s stash.

Then, when I was 12 or 13, my school pal Martha gave me two Harlequin Romances as a birthday gift.  They were A Rainbow for Megan, #2020 by Jane Corrie; and Summer Rainfall, #2019 by Kerry Allyne.  I was hooked. They were a product of the 1970s, so they came with the requisite TSTL helpless yet feisty female and the overblown alpha male who dragged her around by the hair, but I loved ‘em anyway.  I still have them.

Most of the categories at that point were written by British and Australian authors, and I loved the ‘far away’ feel to them… so different from New Mexico, where I was from.  Lots of tales from the Outback, or South Africa and of course England and Italy and Greece.

Most of my favorite authors went on to become best sellers—Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, Jennifer Crusie, Jennifer Greene, Elizabeth Lowell, Janet Evanovich, Barbara Delinsky, Kathleen Korbel, Emilie Richards, Suzanne Brockmann, Jayne Ann Krentz, etc.

I love all the Noras (she’s kindof in a class on her own, IMO—there’s Nora, and then there’s everyone else) and my favorite Noras can change with my mood, and have their own list.  But there are a handful of other category books that are always in my Top Ten All Time Favorite Books Evah:

Night of the Hunter, SD481 by Jennifer Greene
An Officer and a Gentleman, SIM 370 by Rachel Lee
Manhunting, HT463 by Jennifer Crusie
Anyone But You, HLL4 by Jennifer Crusie
A Rose for Maggie, SIM 396 by Kathleen Korbel
Dragonslayer, SIM511 by Emilie Richards

Other great category authors were/are Cheryl Reavis, Cheryl StJohn, Tanya Wood, Carla Kelly, Judith Duncan, Diana Palmer, Ruth Wind, Sharon Sala, India Grey, Julie Cohen, Lori Borrill, Kathleen O’Reilly, Iris Johanssen, Katrina Britt, Margaret Way, Sandra Canfield, Sarah Craven, Anne Mather, Carole Mortimer, Anne Hampson, Helen Bianchin, yadda yadda.  The list is endless, really.

Diane ;o)

The first category book I remember reading, and I’m pretty sure it was the first “adult” romance book I read, was Strictly Business by Leigh Michaels. It was a Harlequin Romance set in my hometown of Chicago, and the lead characters worked for a cosmetics company. Actually a pretty damn good story that I should go back and re-read to see if it holds up 20 years later. I now have 2 copies of it that I’ll hold on to forever.

Folly To Be Wise by Sara Seale was my very first Harlequin. I started reading them in 1976. The bookmobile lady would bring me about 40 every 2 weeks and I’d read them all!

In the 80s for a short time I had the monthly subscription for super romances. My favorite thing to run across was a book set in an area of America I was familiar with. European settings weren’t as interesting to me. For many years I quit reading them because they seemed so similar but in the past 2 years I’ve been reading some WINNERS. It’s fun to be in the bookstore and talk to snobbish readers who poo poo HQN then pull a book off the shelf that I liked and maybe commented about on my lil blog and talk them into buying it. Even more fun when I get an email saying they were so surprised that they liked the book and ask for more recs!

I can’t remember the storyline of this book but I think the young girl in pigtails is the 18 year old heroine and the man was like 36 or so. LMAO that age difference would piss me off big time now days!

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My first romance was a Virginia Henley in 10th grade that my classmate gave me. My eyes were sure opened there :) Then around that time (before or after I’m not too sure), I read A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Devereux. But I was a moron in high school and didn’t read any more romance until after I graduated and we moved and I found both a great used bookstore and a library. The first category line I discovered was Harlequin Temptation and I think the first one I read was by Jayne Ann Krentz. Then I discovered the Silhouette Intimate Moments line and was mad about those books for years.

One of my all-time favorite category books is Loose Ends by Justine Davis (SIM 391). I will not part with this book for love or money. It’s an unrequited-love storyline that still works well after all these years.

Lately though, sad to say, I haven’t read a lot of category. I’ve tried to get into the Silhouette Romantic Suspense line (formerly Intimate Moments) but it just hasn’t had the same feel that IM did.

It’s fun to be in the bookstore and talk to snobbish readers who poo poo HQN then pull a book off the shelf that I liked and maybe commented about on my lil blog and talk them into buying it.

The thing that amuses me to no end is when someone who considers categories to be inferior raves about a book they just read by Nora, Brown, Palmer, Howard,  etc—and it’s a reprinted category! Why is it an acceptable book because it’s now been printed in HB or trade size and costs $20, but it was unacceptable pulp fiction when it was a PB for $1.85?

I like to think I’m ahead of my time, since I had the good sense to read them all those years ago—and more cost-effectively too! LOL It can also be a lucrative side biz if one is so inclined and knows the ‘demand market’ ... some of those original first ed categories can be worth big bucks on eBay these days.

Diane :o)

The new and improved search on eHarlequin.com does find you secret babies, marriage of convenience, sheikh and locations! “Forced proximity” pulled up 207 results alone.

And we (Harlequin) have published Georgette Heyer!

My two favorite lines are Super Romance and Blaze. Janice Kay Johnson is always a solid choice. I am also a fan of the now defunct Harlequin Flipside line.  I have only been reading category romance steadily for the past couple years… and I am sad that it took me so long to realize how good it can be!
I think my romance reading started with Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz when I was a teenager.

I got addicted when I was a preteen by reading the First Love from Silhouette line. They were really naive little books compared to what teens can read today, but I ate those puppies UP. And this is going to sound cheesy, but they really groomed me in a way—I started to think about what I really wanted in a boyfriend all the way back at age ten, eleven, and twelve, at a time when girls that age didn’t do anything with boyfriends than pass notes and maybe rollerskate together holding hands. I was thinking about how a boy should and shouldn’t behave—what behaviors were signs that he wouldn’t be a good boyfriend, what a girl should or shouldn’t do to get a boy’s attention, what to put up with in a relationship. To read First Loves in 2009 is an crash course in corny, but they were extremely earnest. The women writing them (Elaine Harper, Veronica Ladd, Doreen Owens Malek, Beverly Sommers, Andrea Marshall, Patricia Aks, Sharon Wagner, Maud Johnson, Deborah Kent, Marilyn Youngblood to name just a few) were certainly writing to guidelines, but with a kind of gentle, non-preachy wisdom. Most of the books end with a first kiss, but occasionally the books had pretty intense, almost passionate relationships. (Those rare ones were my very favorites.) I still pick these up at used bookstores whenever I see them.
Ahem. And then I got a little older, I got a bagful of Candlelight Ecstasies at a yard sale. And there went the naive!

Harlequin Presents.  There’s just something about those foreign alpha heroes doing their secretaries that gets me.

Rawr.

Eleanor from eHqn here - Malle’s right, we very recently (as in two scant weeks ago) launched our new Search feature which includes all the juicy meta-data stuff you guys are looking for.

It’s not yet perfect - but I think (hope!?) you’ll find it easier to find books that you like.

I didn’t really like most of the Harlequin line back during the 1960s-70s.  I really started loving series romance when the Loveswept line came out, particularly Kay Hooper and Iris Johansen.  There mixture of romance, mystery, and dollops of paranormal aspects appealed to someone who was deeply into both the mystery and science fiction genres.

I preferred Silhouette Romances to any of the Harlequin line.  They were more robust to my mind.  Harlequin Presents were too violent, the relationship between the hero and heroine bordering strongly on abuse, both physical and emotional.  There were some authors worth reading, but none really made it to my “must buy” list.

It wasn’t until I discovered Betty Neels, Jayne Ann Krentz, and Nora Roberts that I began reading more Harlequin.  Ms. Neels did have very gentle, almost tame romances, but her love of language drew me back again and again. 

If I was looking for something just a bit different, with a streak of darkness, I would read Anne Stuart.

My must have romance authors to buy, synopsis unseen, are Nora Roberts (and J. D. Robb), Jayne Ann Krentz (in all her various pseudonyms), and Stephanie Laurens.  Add to that David Weber’s Honorverse in science fiction and you’ll see how pared down my list now is.  W.E.B. Griffin is fast joining the ranks, but not quite yet.

I enjoyed Nora Roberts early Silhouette books, but it was Silhouette Intimate Moments that really got me hooked on category romance.

My all-time favorites from that line are the first three books in a series by Marilyn Pappano called Southern Knights. I still have them somewhere and go back and re-read them occasionally. For me, the series just got better with each book. The last one - A Man Like Smith - still ranks as one of my favorite books and favorite heroes.

I forgot to add that the three authors who got me truly interested in reading romance were Emilie Loring, Glenna Finley and Lucy Walker.

Well, Heyer is my one, true, lasting love of the romance novelists, and I did start reading her pretty early.  But… if I’m being totally honest, what got me hooked was Barbara Cartland.  Even at 13 I knew they were appallingly badly written (her punctuation has to be seen to be believed, and she began a new paragraph for literally every sentence) but I adored them all the same, for their ludicrous plots and their guaranteed happy endings when the heroines were always transported to some mystical seventh heaven of happiness.  In fact, I might just have to go and see if I still have some in the attic…

The first romance novel I read was The Flame and the Flower (Woodiwiss) when I was about 11.  Then I read all her other books I could find.
I vividly remember loaning out my stash of Woodiwiss novels in junior high and one of my friend’s moms confiscated them because they were dirty books!  My mom had to call my friend’s mom and politely request she return them.  Too funny!

(her punctuation has to be seen to be believed, and she began a new paragraph for literally every sentence)

Oh,yes, Ros, and…those ellipses…

They started to annoy, and…I counted thirteen sets on one page in the last one I started…and didn’t finish…

I’ve been reading Harlequin/Silhouette for at least twenty-two years.  Some of my first authors were Diana Palmer, Linda Howard, Susan Fox, Emma Goldrick, Violet Winspear, and Sara Craven.  Lynne Graham and Susan Napier came a long a little later, but I still adore them. 
My favorite lines were Silhouette Intimate Moments, Harlequin Presents, and Harlequin Romance. Harlequin Presents is still one of my faves. I also love the Harlequin Historicals.  I take a lot of flack for loving the HPs and very few people seem to recognize the quality of writing in the Harlequin Historicals when I suggest authors and titles from this series. I am addicted.  I can’t give them up.

I so admire writers that can produce such wonderful stuff in such a restrictive frame work. Not to mention do it over and over again.

Oh gosh, me too! Sometimes I get into an argument with someone (usually online, usually a SF/F reader) over romance novels—the person’s argument is that romances, especially categories, are too formulaic to be any good. My counter-argument is that most stories of any sort follow a formula, and most importantly, category can be a restrictive genre, but many art forms of writing are restrictive as well—sonnets, haikus, all sorts of poetic forms, and on down to other fiction genre categories, not to mention essays, papers, articles…. But that doesn’t mean the content can’t be spectacular. (Usually the other person ignores this counter-argument and just starts repeating themselves about how stupid romance novels are, refusing to address any of my refutations. Blegh…)

My very first romance ever was A Rose in Winter by Kathleen Woodiwiss, stolen from my mother’s bookshelf. I was really young, but even then there were parts that annoyed me, and parts that bothered me—and yet I still read it over and over again. When it was good, it was soooo goooood! I read that book until the cover fell off and I had to get a new one.

My very first Harlequin, I cannot remember the title, the author’s name, or even when it was published or really what it was about. But I do remember it had to do with a woman stuck back in the home of the man she’d once loved, and I swear it had something to do with Helen of Troy’s jewelry. It was a contemporary. I’ve been trying for years to think of what that book would be, I’d love to read it again. I still remember it fondly, over fifteen years later.

I may not remember the title or the line it was in, but I do remember how engrossing it was, and how I had to get more.

Dammit, the internet ate my post!  Here we go again….  I’m one of those who has to admit to getting hooked by Cartland, though I soon graduated to Heyer and others in the 1970’s era Avon Regency line—one of my all-time favorites is Joan Smith, who produced some almost Heyer-level comedies back in the day.  Aunt Sophie’s Diamonds is one of my favorites, and I still have my old Avon copy with the lurid Alan Cass cover art.  Never really got into categories, unless the above mentioned Avon line counts.

(And in all fairness to Cartland, it’s possible that some of her grammatical oddities were not deliberate, but rather the fault of whatever secretary happened to be transcribing her words that day.  The ellipsis-laden dialogue, in particular, could be the result of Ms Cartland’s natural pauses that were wrongly interpreted as part of the story; after all, I can’t imagine that anyone dictating a book into a tape recorder never pauses to catch her breath or think about what to say next.  If I were dictating a book, it would probably come out as mostly um…um…um…)

I was 17, and sick in bed. When my dad went for the RX I asked him to pick up something for me to read. I was a big reader of SF/F and just about everything but romance.
My dad picked up Kathleen Eagle’s Priviate Treaty A. because I didn’t read romance so he knew I hadn’t read it. B. I think it had the least embarassing cover.

I did like it, but I think the tall kitchen garbage bag full of Loveswepts & Desires my mom found a week later cinched the deal.

I was totally hooked on Silhouette Intimate Moments during the ‘90’s. My favorite book was Prince Joe by Suzanne Brockmann. I remember the cover had the hero with an awesome mullet. It kills me that I gave away all my category romances during a book purge in college. Then about a year or two ago I tried the Harlequin Presents line and I just could not get into any of the story lines. But I will always have good memories of those fun action/adventure Silhouette Intimate Moments. Sigh.

Lynne Connolly—so glad you love the Modern Heats! (I do too, but then I’m a little biased since I write them :grin:).  But, just so you know, Modern Heats are released in the US as Presents (two every month), so you can get your MH fix in this country too!

First romance novel would have been Mary Stewart’s Nine Coaches Waiting when I was around 11-12 in the early 60’s.  Then her The Moon-Spinners and anything else I could find by her.  For a while my mom actually had to go to the library with me so she could check out the books I wanted (stupid library had a rule that one had to be 16 to read “adult” books; another reason why I ultimately became a librarian - to do it better).  But I was more into SF/Fantasy so McCaffrey’s “Pern” books and Norton’s “Witch World” - all with elements of romance - were favorite fodder.

I never really got into the Harlequin books although I remember reading a few at my grandmother’s for lack of anything else.  Not until sometime in the late 1990’s did I discover Betty Neels (recommended by my uncle of all people) and devoured everything I could find by her.  She is the only author I followed and I still don’t read HQ’s or Silhouettes, etc. unless it is an author who has gone on to longer, better work and I am checking out the early stuff.

I think my mom used to leave her romances laying around specifically for me to find so she wouldn’t have to explain sex to me.

Tiffany White was my favorite by the time I was in high school and reading the Temptation line.  But the first category I ever read was Dangerous Marriage by Mary Wibberly, published in 1980, so the heroine was very young, the hero was incredibly mean and closed mouthed, and the bad guy was her FATHER…. dun, duh, duuuuuuun.  I still have it, though.

Also loved Jennifer Crusie, Carla Neggers, and Cathleen Coulter (I think?)

In the seventh grade, I volunteered to sort books for the school book fair. When “Season of Enchantment” by Emily Elliott, a Dell Ecstasy Supreme, crossed my path, I had to have it. It was the first clinch cover I’d every seen and the suggestive bulges had me feeling all tingly.

I’m ashamed to admit I stole that book, and still have it to this day. It’s horrible, but it was my gateway drug.

My first romance novel was Partners by Nora Roberts. I believe it was for Silhouette but I’m not sure which line. I LOVED it and continued swiping categories out of my mother’s library bag for years. She finally figured it out and I was allowed to read them out in the open:-)

My first romance novel was Savage Conquest by Janelle Taylor—not sure what I would think if I re-read it now, but at the time, I was hooked.

I read a lot of Harelequin and Silhouettes, and don’t really remember what my first one was—but two of the earliest that I remember were Embers which I believe was in the Special Edition line, and Double Vision by Sherryl Lynn (I think?)—which I believe was an Intrigue. I think at one time or another I was hooked on all of the various lines, but right now i mostly ready the Silhouette Romantic Suspence (used to be the Intimate Moments) and the Harlequin Intrigues.

I’ve always been a category fan.  I started gobbling up Harlequin Presents from the library when I was about 10, and never went back to the kids’ shelf after that.  At that age, growing up in a blue collar mining town, I think I was more interested in the exotic settings and interesting jobs than the love stories, frankly.  Through the years I’ve been an SE, Desire, Temptation and Blaze fan, but strangely enough, most of my category keepers are at least a decade old, with some verging on the quarter century mark!  Nora’s MacGregors, Stanislaskis, O’Hurleys and Calhouns are dear old friends.  Leslie Davis Guccione’s Branigans?  Still to die for.  Lindsay McKenna’s Love and Glory series featuring the Trayhern family, for SE, still has a special place in my heart.  And I reread one of my favorite category books of all time, “Quinn Eisley’s War” by Patricia Gardner Evans, at least once a year.  Gawd, I love that book. 

I have to admit I can’t for the life of me read ‘Presents’ books now - but they were my gateway drug, fer sure.

I am not really a category fan, but reading Lori Foster Temptations? And while not a fan of Nora Roberts some of her earlier silhouette series, these two would probably have opened my eyes as a kid to start looking around at the genre.

Category romance… I’m sure I started with Anne Stuart.
Her name on the cover got me buying it and reading it (oh, I remember once getting confused at the store and buying an Anne MacAlister book instead, a book about a younger man and an older woman that was good but no Sister Krissie novel).
I also liked Day Leclaire. And Doreen Owens Malek’s The Eden Tree, and a couple of her YA books (That Certain Boy and Where The Boys Are).
Haven’t read categories for years now, but still look through them (flip through to the *good stuff*) at the library.
So many books out there to read!

Thank you, Kelly and Meghan, for reminding me of two favorite books. I really enjoyed writing BABY, YOU’RE MINE and STRICTLY BUSINESS…

Yes, I’m still out here—though these days I’m writing single-title historical (Regency period).

There are so many familiar names mentioned here—it was like old home week to read through all the favorite authors and titles.

Leigh

“Winner Take All” by Brooke Hastings (Silhouette Romance) might have been the first.  The storyline is a little fuzzy after all these years, but I think it was marriage of convenience for business purposes.  After that, no stopping.  My parents would make fun of me returning from the library with a bag full of “purple books”.  Then I moved on to the white ones (Presents) and the red ones (Desire) and it went on from there. 

I, too, had an early fondness for Roberts and Howard.  Also Tracy Sinclair and Brittany Young.  I still have every Iris Johansen Loveswept.  And I back glommed Alicia Scott (Lisa Gardner) when I discovered her categories.  Reformed prostitute heroine?  I am so there!  Also have a fine collection of old Anne Stuart, Glenna McReynolds (Tara Janzen), and in process of tracking down old Merline Lovelace.  I’ve read (or have in the TBR closet) about 90% of the Bombshell line.

Current books, I will make the effort to find Cindy Dees, Jo Leigh, Leslie Kelly,  Maggie Price, Tori Carrington, Catherine Mann.  I’m gradually picking through the Nocturnes as I see them at the library, but I’m pacing myself to avoid PNR burnout.

ok, books that hooked me -
Nora Roberts, the very first MacGregor title.
With Anne, the doctor in 1950s america.
SOLD!

ARRRRRGHHHHH.
how could I have been so fickle??? So forgetful of our love?
BLACK MOTH
and a consolidation with her mysteries Behold Here’s Poison - not a romance, but still featuring scintillating description, speech, ALL.
And Randall, in a symphony of brown…

I got hooked by “A Question of Trust” by ...someone, I don’t know who, when I was just a wee kidlet. It was one of a pile of books left in a motel for our reading pleasure and I may possibly have lifted it in order to find out what happened in the end - how naive. But that got me started :) and I still have a soft spot for my Mills and Boons….particular for those by Essie Summers set in New Zealand. They are hilarious.

I cut my teeth on my mother’s Mills & Boons novels - my favourites were by Emma Goldrick. She wrote a book called Summer Storms where the heroine is called Charlie and she has a pet pig (!). Good times. I loved the Sweet Dreams teenage romance line too, especially “That Certain Feeling” which I recently found online and read again - it’s just as cute more than a decade later…

I think my first romance was Mary Stewart’s “Airs Above the Ground” - excellent book.  I still have most of Mary Stewart’s books.

Willa - I think the book you mentioned is “The Jewels of Helen” by Jane Donnelly

Some of the first romances I read were Harlequin Presents books.  My grandmother gave me bags and bags of them when I was a teenager (this was in the 80’s).  Most of the books were from the 70’s or early 80’s from authors like Janet Dailey, Charlotte Lamb, Penny Jordan (my personal favorite), Anne Hampson, Anne Mather, and Lillian Peake.  There are others, but I can’t recall the names.  I still have some of my favorites from that time. 

I even have some really old Harlequin Romances from the 60’s which I haven’t read in years and years, but I keep since they are so old.

KellyMaher said on…
09.03.09 at 10:28 AM

The first category book I remember reading, and I’m pretty sure it was the first “adult” romance book I read, was Strictly Business by Leigh Michaels. It was a Harlequin Romance set in my hometown of Chicago, and the lead characters worked for a cosmetics company. Actually a pretty damn good story that I should go back and re-read to see if it holds up 20 years later. I now have 2 copies of it that I’ll hold on to forever.

This was one of the Leigh Michaels books that hooked me, too, and I went on to read all of her books I could get my hands on from the ages of about 12 to 21. I also glommed Debbie Macomber at an early age—especially the Orchard Valley trilogy, Ready for Romance and The Forgetful Bride (still reread the last two). Penny Jordan was another early favorite.

Now I’m feeling nostalgic… I REALLY wish I hadn’t given into my roommate’s urging to part with most of my (very large) Harlequin collection when we moved a few years ago :(

I have never read a category.  i would not know where to start.  I started reading romance with Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton books when I was a freshman in college and I’ve pretty much followed the line of Amazon recommends ever since ;)

Nora Robert’s two-book collection The Stanislaski Brothers. The first one, with the artist Mikhail, was fabulous. The second one, with the spunky, feisty journalist Beth, was retarded (I’m a journalist! I fit the profile of serial killer victims! I know - I’ll get kidnapped by the killer for my big reporter break!). I still have the collection so I can enjoy the highs and lows of romance in one convenient volume.

Psst, Lisa!  Stanislaski sisters Natasha and Rachel get their own HEAs in “Taming Natasha” and “Falling for Rachel.”  Also check out “Waiting for Nick” (Rachel’s hero’s stepbrother and Natasha’s stepdaughter) and “Considering Kate” (Natasha’s daughter).

Willa - I think the book you mentioned is “The Jewels of Helen” by Jane Donnelly

tis, thank you so much, that’s it! Your powers of recall/deduction/however you knew that are amazing! I’m off to buy a used copy.

Oh! I forgot to mention Bethany Campbell. I loved her too.

I didn’t know I liked categories until just a few weeks ago, but i’m suddenly quite the fan, especially of Silhouette Desires - the perfect length for a quick read before bed or between other tasks. Still getting a feel for different authors, but I’m crazy about Catherine Mann.

Janet Dailey, That Boston Man circa 1980.

I’m with Sarah McG on the Silhouette Intimate Moments from the 90s.  That was definitely what got me hooked on category.  The two I remember reading that I’m pretty sure sealed the deal were Keeping Annie Safe by Beverly Barton and one of Marilyn Pappano’s Southern Knights- I think it was Convincing Jamey.  It was one of the few lines that my local library carried, but I was soon buying most of my categories because there weren’t enough at the library to keep me happy.

I’ve tried other lines- Desire, Blaze, Superromance, Intrigue, Special Edition, Presents- but I really haven’t found much staying power in those lines as I have with SIM (now Romantic Suspense) in terms of my reading interest.  I was also a big fan of Bombshell, but they ended that line sadly.

I started with Harlequin Presents when I was in 8th grade.  Someone had given my mom a bunch of them.  They sat unread on a shelf until I started sneaking off with them.  Then I started scouring the local libraries for any books I could find.  I moved onto longer books with Johanna Lindsey, Julie Garwood, and Jude Devereaux.  I also read most of the books by Philippa Carr/Jean Plaidy/Victoria Holt.

I haven’t picked up a Harlequin Presents book in a long time but recently thought about trying them out again.

For me it was the opposite. About 12 years ago I read a novel by Marilyn Pappano. Upon visiting a used book store to look for other books by this author and striking up a conversation with the owner, I learned that many of the authors I was reading had started out writing category romances. I was like a kid in a candy shop. I spent a couple of years hunting down these books written by many of my favorite authors. And, of course I found new authors along the way. I’m finding more misses than hits these days though.

False Colors by Georgette Heyer in high school.  I read everything by her and went on to other Regency authors like Joan Smith and Clare Darcy.  I think I started reading Harlequin and Silhouette in college, where I discovered Nora Roberts and a host of others.  I was obsessed with Nora for awhile.  I tracked down all of her old books by going to every used book store for miles around.  I don’t read her anymore , but I still remember my quest.

My first book were the orginal Harlequin Romances for 60 cents, and I started reading them in the 7th grade. My favorite author was Mary Malcomn. I lover her books, and couldn’t wait for the next one to come out.