Bitchin' Blog Posts
Harlequin Mills & Boon: Lesbian Virgin Fiction?
by SB Sarah | by SB Sarah | August 13, 2009 | Thursday at 9:20 pm | 49 CommentsFrom very alert reader Cora comes this bit of HILARITY. This month’s Mills & Boon Newsletter highlights some of their recommended titles, including Kathleen O’Reilly’s Sex, Straight Up, which is being released by M&B as Intoxicating!
That’s all well and drunken fun but… what’s this? Looks like The Virgin Secretary’s Impossible Boss got a whole new workplace problem.
OMG VIRGIN LESBIAN CATEGORY ROMANCE. WHY didn’t I think of THAT?!
Ari Thatcher said on 08.13.09 at 09:29 PM • [link]
OMG! Maybe it’s only a D/s thing they have going on, with roll reversal.
June said on 08.13.09 at 09:56 PM • [link]
Holy sh*t, Carole Mortimer is still writing Harlequins? Those were some of my first romances. Back in like the late seventies or so
.
God I’m getting old.
JenB said on 08.13.09 at 10:11 PM • [link]
Ok, I feel really stupid for asking this, but what makes y’all think she’s a lesbian? I’ve stared at the cover and the book description for 10 minutes and still can’t figure it out. :(
Lynette said on 08.13.09 at 10:14 PM • [link]
Don’t feel bad JenB, I’m doing the same thing. LOL.
June said on 08.13.09 at 10:15 PM • [link]
The actual title is the Virgin Secretary’s Impossible BOSS. But the promo sent out says it’s the Virgin Secretary’s Impossible BRIDE.
Maybe the boss is a tranny.
JenB said on 08.13.09 at 10:15 PM • [link]
Lynette - Oh, good. Hopefully someone will come along and enlighten us soon. I feel so dumb! lol
Arresi said on 08.13.09 at 10:17 PM • [link]
It’s the title.
JenB said on 08.13.09 at 10:17 PM • [link]
June - OH!!! Duhhhhhhhhh. I didn’t even see that. Wow. I’ve been picking apart a book for unnecessary commas all day and didn’t even see a giant word like BRIDE. *headdesk* Thanks!
Snakeling said on 08.13.09 at 10:21 PM • [link]
Maybe it’s the guy who is a secretary and a virgin, and the woman who is the hot’n'sexy billionaire boss. I’d love to read that, actually!
June said on 08.13.09 at 10:35 PM • [link]
I would totally read that book too, Snakeling. In fact, I would prefer it!
mingqi said on 08.13.09 at 10:48 PM • [link]
JenB, I was also staring at it for the longest time trying to figure it out! I guess the publishers were using a computer-generated program to make up a title and it went awry.
Carin said on 08.13.09 at 11:10 PM • [link]
OK, I was totally stuck, too, til reading the comments. And, Snakeling, I’d read that book, too!
Anna the Piper said on 08.14.09 at 12:47 AM • [link]
Man, I would TOTALLY read The Virgin Secretary’s Impossible Bride, and I am disappointed to hear that this book does not in fact exist.
I don’t know about the rest of you folks, but I’m smelling contest fodder here. I’m thinking 100 words on what exactly the impossible bride is!
shewhohashope said on 08.14.09 at 01:46 AM • [link]
I would read that other book! Both the one with the guy virgin and the one with the women!
The current version, not so much.
[Also, thanks to you guys, I’m getting a copy of PREGNESIA to love and cherish forever]
marley said on 08.14.09 at 02:19 AM • [link]
is it just me or does that title remind you of the “random romance title generator” a little too much?
Courtney Milan said on 08.14.09 at 03:00 AM • [link]
I think this is one of those things where the punchline is “The doctor is a woman!” Men can be both virgin and secretaries, and most men are the first for somewhere between ten and ninety years of their lives.
But this gives me an idea…
Lizzie (greeneyed fem) said on 08.14.09 at 04:19 AM • [link]
June, I just wanted to let you know that some regular readers of this site know and love trans individuals—I’m one of them, and encountering the casual use of the word “tranny” can feel very threatening and ugly.
I’m sure your comment wasn’t meant meanly—but it’s just as easy to say “trans man” or “trans woman” as it is to say “tranny.” It’s an incredibly loaded word, and it can be incredibly triggering, especially for trans women who have been the victims of hate speech or violence.
I don’t want to derail this thread, but this is the second time in two days that I’ve seen this word used in a non-trans online space, and it’s really jarring and awful to be on a website I love, and suddenly get jolted into feeling unsafe.
For anyone who’s interested, a good read on this topic is “Is ‘Tranny’ Offensive?” on bilerico.com (I tried to link to it, but the link was getting blocked for some reason).
/derail over.
June said on 08.14.09 at 04:33 AM • [link]
Lizzie—- my apologies. I didn’t realize that was a loaded word. I have actually heard it used by friends in the GBLT community. Oddly, I don’t think I had ever heard the term “trans man” or “trans woman.” But thanks for enlightening me. Knowledge is all!
Lizzie (greeneyed fem) said on 08.14.09 at 04:40 AM • [link]
Thanks for the reply, June. It means a lot that you heard me and responded.
It is a sticky word—like the n-word, it means different things to different people and communities. I know some trans folks do use it, but it’s not a universally “okay” word for everyone. There’s even contention about when trans women v. trans men use it, never mind non-trans folks. And I’ve definitely heard LGB folks use it in a really oppressive way. There’s no easy answer to “Is it ever okay to use?” but again, I highly recommend the bilerico.com piece as a good overview/personal perspective.
Thanks again.
Jocelyn said on 08.14.09 at 05:19 AM • [link]
Snakeling, you beat me to it.
Gender equity in employment and virginity and HQN titles for the win.
nekobawt said on 08.14.09 at 05:41 AM • [link]
“the virgin secretary’s impossible bride”? couldn’t that be an alternate title for “the proposal” (starring ryan reynolds and sandra bullock)?
MichelleR said on 08.14.09 at 05:50 AM • [link]
June,
I wrote Carole Mortimer a fan letter somewhere in the 80s. I remember she responded and seemed nice. Anyhow, I still remember some of her books from back then and actually remember her as the first Harlequin Presents author I’d ever read—the book was Yesterday’s Scars. That I remember this amazes and confuses me.
molly_rose said on 08.14.09 at 12:19 PM • [link]
The only thing i found off about all that was that the hero’s name is “Linus”... imagine moaning that on the Big O :/.
Lizzie (greeneyed fem) said on 08.14.09 at 01:25 PM • [link]
Of course, the virgin secretary could also be a man. If only men in romance novels were ever virgins. Or secretaries.
Has anyone ever read a romance where the hero is a virgin at the start? I’m really interested. Even more interested in if the heroine was, too, in that situation. And I guess I mean non-inspirational.
Lynz said on 08.14.09 at 01:30 PM • [link]
Yeah, the name “Linus” doesn’t exactly make me think ooh, that sounds like an attractive man. In fact, it makes me think of security blankets and Charlie Brown. Not. Sexy.
HeatherK said on 08.14.09 at 02:03 PM • [link]
I think one of Diana Palmer’s books had a virgin hero, but for the life of me, I can’t recall which one right now. And she’s got a LOT of books I’d have to comb through to figure it out. Just don’t have time for a project that big right now, though now I’m dying to remember which one it was. So much to do, so little time.
Elizabeth Wadsworth said on 08.14.09 at 02:59 PM • [link]
Has anyone ever read a romance where the hero is a virgin at the start? I’m really interested. Even more interested in if the heroine was, too, in that situation. And I guess I mean non-inspirational.
Well, there’s Laura Kindale’s The Shadow and the Star. The guy is sorta/kinda a virgin (damn, I really wish this site had spoiler tags.)
And I seem to recall that Mary Stewart’s Touch Not The Cat had a virgin hero.
Randi said on 08.14.09 at 03:55 PM • [link]
Jaime Fraser fron Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” is a virgin.
I think there needs to be a list of virgin heros. Anybody with me?
Cat Marsters said on 08.14.09 at 04:01 PM • [link]
Well, he’s not at the start of the book, but in Nicola Cornick’s Confessions of a Duchess the hero lost his virginity to the (older, married) heroine four years ago. Refreshing to read it that way around.
Also refreshing to read a historical where the servants and locals didn’t talk like Dick Van Dyke or Rab C Nesbitt (especially so because it was set in Yorkshire, where even local, practised attempts at rendering accurate dialect on the page are usually impossibly painful). Am developing a phobia about badly written regional dialect.
Lizzie (greeneyed fem) said on 08.14.09 at 04:02 PM • [link]
Right, The Shadow and the Star! I guess it didn’t leap to mind because the heroine is so much MORE virginal that the hero in that one—like, she doesn’t even know what sex IS. So even though he’s a sorta-virgin, she’s, like, a MEGA-virgin. And the traditional dynamic of man-being-more-experienced is preserved.
I guess I’m curious about books where the heroine is more sexually experienced than the hero. I read historicals, though, so it’s not easily found.
(Also, I think the set up of a female boss heroine and a virgin secretary hero could be super hot.)
Nadia said on 08.14.09 at 04:10 PM • [link]
I just finished Nalini Singh’s “Caressed by Ice” and the hero is a virgin in his late 20’s/early 30’s (never did figure out his age). It’s a PNR, the hero is of a race that is emotionally stunted to control their paranormal abilities. He finally gets the hot sexxoring when he throws off the mental controls.
Anna the Piper said on 08.14.09 at 04:18 PM • [link]
Re: virgin heroes, the Patricia Gaffney that Candy posted about a few posts back, Wild at Heart, has a virgin hero in it. For reasons that should be generally obvious, i.e., the dude was raised by wolves. ;)
(Very fun and charming read, though! First love scene, perhaps because of the hero’s innocence and honest straightforwardness, played very nicely for me.)
DianeN said on 08.14.09 at 04:47 PM • [link]
I haven’t read it myself to verify, but I understand that Jo Davis’s Under Fire also has a virgin hero, and he’s a firefighter. Gee, from reading romances, I thought those guys were born knowing how to please their women!!
HelenK said on 08.14.09 at 05:13 PM • [link]
Eloisa James had a virgin hero and a very experienced heroine. He lost his virginity to her in one book (Her husband died that night?) and they had their HEA in another. I don’t think any of the books were really about them, but those are the 2 I remember from the series. I loved him.
I can’t remember the names though!
Castiron said on 08.14.09 at 05:17 PM • [link]
Reminds me of the time (many years ago) Publisher’s Weekly listed one of our books, The Dirt Doctor’s Guide to Organic Gardening, as The Dirt Doctor’s Guide to Organic Publishing. We spent a bit of time wondering what that’d look like—paper from organically farmed trees?
Re: virgin heroes: I’m finally getting to read Pamela Morsi’s Simple Jess which has a virgin hero and is also an extremely interesting read.
Re: Linus: My first thought is a blanket; my second thought is an operating system, which does seem to create a great deal of passion, though not necessarily the type rendered in romance novels….
Elizabeth Wadsworth said on 08.14.09 at 08:31 PM • [link]
Oh, yeah—it’s not really romance, more steampunk fantasy, but Caroline Stevermer’s A Scholar of Magicks has a virgin hero AND heroine. Somebody described this as what Jane Austen would have come up with had she written fantasy; not really a bad description.
Suze said on 08.14.09 at 09:08 PM • [link]
I read a Harlequin Category in the early 90’s (I think it was a Presents) in which the tycoon was a virgin, and the heroine didn’t know until after they’d had sex. She thought his extreme reactions were the reason he had such a reputation as a stud muffin, he was SO into it.
IRRC, both his parents were total sluts, and his virginity was his rebellion. There might have been some molestation in his youth?
Truthfully, that’s all I really remember about the book. He had INTENSE reactions to sex, ‘cause he was a virgin. A rich, powerful, self-assured, somewhat arrogant virgin.
SonomaLass said on 08.14.09 at 11:52 PM • [link]
@HelenK The Eloisa James books you are thinking of are in her older Duchess quartet—Esme (the experienced one) and Sebastian (the virgin marquess) are the ongoing secondary couple in the second and third books, Foor For Love and A Wild Pursuit. I can’t remember if their storyline is resolved in those two—it may continue into the fourth book, Your Wicked Ways. I liked the reversal of experience a lot in those books, although Sebastian struck me as a VERY fast learner!
mistry89 said on 08.15.09 at 12:48 AM • [link]
Susan Napier’s Secret Admirer has a virgin hero (M&B romance released Dec 1992). He had had a rapacious step-mother ......
KJsGrrl said on 08.15.09 at 02:13 AM • [link]
@ Nadia - IN Nalini Singh’s Caressed by Ice, Judd is supposed to be 26 / 27 years old. Funny, I immediately thought of the same book when the question about a male virgin as the hero came up! :) Totally love that book.
Suze said on 08.15.09 at 02:15 AM • [link]
OMFG, Mistry89, that’s the exact book! You astound me! Imagine being able to find the book based on the single scene I remembered.
HelenK said on 08.15.09 at 06:07 AM • [link]
@SonomaLass:
That’s it, thanks. I loved Sebastian. Truthfully, I don’t remember the stories they were in (the main couple in each book) but him as the gardener really sticks with me. I haven’t read the last book in that quartet, so it must have finished off Esme and Sebastian in the 3rd book.
Thanks so much!
Lynz said on 08.15.09 at 01:22 PM • [link]
Oooh, that one! Didn’t he buy her apartment building and practically stalk her in it? And I seem to remember him being one of the “You wanted my punishing kisses, whether you knew it or not!” types, which confused me once I found out that he was a virgin.
mistry89 said on 08.15.09 at 11:55 PM • [link]
@Suze
You described it really clearly (usually I have these “Oh, it is at the tip of my tongue” moments).
@Lynz
That’s it! He is very much an alpha male - just ended up waiting (the attempted seduction thing messed with his adolescent mind and then bull-headedness set in, IIRC) until he found The One.
I should re-read it (although I seem to have retained a fair amount of the story *g*) as I’m fairly sure he gets all “over-come” in the lift ....
Deb said on 08.16.09 at 02:11 AM • [link]
Late to the party (as usual), but one of Lavyrle Spencer’s books had a virgin hero. I don’t remember the name of the book, but the hero was an immigrant from Sweden and the heroine was his mail-order bride who had sold her virginity to a man back east to get the money to travel out west and become a bride. She really wasn’t much more experienced that he was, but she was no longer a virgin.
Lynz said on 08.16.09 at 06:16 AM • [link]
Oh, there’s also Anna Campbell’s Untouched. (heh)
The heroine’s a widow, but still really isn’t all that experienced. Because if you can’t make your widow a virgin, you’ve gotta make sure she’s never had an orgasm. *sigh*
Elisa said on 08.24.09 at 06:30 AM • [link]
There’s Barbara Metzger’s book Snowdrops and Scandalbroth, with a virgin hero (and heroine). Haven’t read it for a long time, but it was funny, and he had a good reason for being a virgin still.
thanks for the Wild at heart cite…raised by wolves? I have to find this!
abc said on 08.25.09 at 05:45 PM • [link]
I think it’s a little 20th century to automatically assume a secretary is a woman.
On the other hand that wonderful “reviewer” Harriet Klausner has written an absolutely delightful Amazon “review” of Pitch Black:
Alas, poor Harriet may have confused some readers into assuming Pitch Black is a different type of romantic suspense.
Leslie Parrish graciously pointed out the mistake in the comments. I’m glad she wasn’t too hard on poor old Harriet. When you “speed read” your way through a book, you’re bound to make a few minor mistakes, such as mixing up the gender of the male lead.
Francesca said on 09.19.09 at 05:52 AM • [link]
It was The Endearment. Our hero also had to deal with the fact she couldn’t cook, keep house, look after animals or do anything that a prairie bride would need to do. She also had a younger brother with her, which meant another mouth to feed, etc. and could definitely get in the way of a wedding night in a one-room sod-house.
One can’t help but think these things should have been far greater liabilities than lack of virginity, so after the first reading I found the the book pretty annoying, but I recall some pretty good descriptions of prairie life in that era.
Care to comment?
Comments are now closed for this post.
Subscribe to These Comments