Yes, yes, it’s the 15th. But awhile back, Hubby and I decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day on the 15th, rather than the 14th, and not because the candy’s on sale, though that’s a perfectly good reason. So this year, I’m doing something similar: we’re celebrating on the 15th – with vintage romances.
I recently had an email from a reader, DM, who found a Laurie McBain title she’d loved years and years ago on sale in the bookstore’s romance section – and she was so very happy to be able to buy a new one, as her old copy was long lost:
I just got back from my lunch break sweep through Borders. While snatching up the new Alice Hoffman, the latest Guildhunter & Loose Ends, a familiar and beloved name caught my eye from the new release rack: Laurie McBain. Yes, it was a soft cover edition of “Devil’s Desire.” I thought to myself, this is HUGE. Did I miss something? The bitchery should know this! There’s a whole generation out there who’ve missed out on the awesomeness that was Laurie McBain; the woman who started the hero as not such an alphhole rapist trend. One can only hope that the rest of her books are soon to receive similar treatment. Not that I’ll need to shell out for them I still have all the originals including the carrot topped fleeing virgin covered “Devil’s Desire.” I keep them away from the sun in a box marked “my precious”… Anyway, just wanted to share.
I admit, I never read a McBain, and DM says that among her favorites are Moonstruck Madness and Devil’s Desire. Woo hoo! Books to add to the romance re-read pile.
McBain’s books are being reprinted as part of the Sourcebooks Casabalanca Classics line, which is headed by Leah Hultenschmidt and brings new editions of classic romances to the bookstore. I asked Leah a few questions about the line, and about the books she’s looking to publish as part of Casablanca Classics.
What makes a good classic romance that you think has to be republished to reach a new audience?
We’ve been primarily concentrating on romances that helped define the genre in some way, yet still have an irresistible hero and heroine. They might not fit as neatly into today’s “romance” mold (if such a broad genre can be said to have a mold), but that’s what’s been so exciting about bringing them out again. To me, they’re “The Godfather” of romance—so much has been based on these works and the ideas have been adapted in a number of ways, but the original never feels old.
What are some plot points or characteristics that speak to readers today, and which ones do you think should be avoided?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “I wish they’d like romance like they used to.” These readers aren’t missing the potential does-she-want-it/doesn’t-she? sex scenes, the purple euphemisms or insipid heroines that you sometimes find in early works of the genre. Thank goodness we’ve evolved a lot in that respect—and the really good writers never bothered with them anyway. But there is a scope missing in a lot of today’s books, that epic sense since you used to get in historical romance that page-count requirements and the drive for pacing have often eliminated in the current market.
For example, in Laurie McBain’s TEARS OF GOLD (Aug.), we’re more than 100 pages in before the main characters are even in the same state. I’d not likely let a newer author get away with separating the hero and heroine so long. But in Laurie’s book, it absolutely works and by the time they do come together—HELL-O! The anticipation leaves the reader begging.
And in LEGACY (March), Jeanette Baker does what we’ve been calling a timeslip—a modern-day hero or heroine going through a similar struggle as counterparts in the past. No one actually goes back in time a la Diana Gabaldon (another favorite), but you get a great sense of how a historical conflict is still immensely relevant today.
What authors or books would you LOVE to republish, and which of the books released so far as a Casablanca Classic do you adore the most?
I’ve always been a huge fan of Laura Kinsale, so having those books on the list has been a dream come true for me. Same with Roberta Gellis—her historical detail is stunning.
As for who comes next, I’d love to hear what your readers have to say! Anything out of print at least 5 years but preferably 10 is fair game. And if they’re bestselling award-winners, all the better.
OK, then, let’s tell them what to do. Leah and the Sourcebooks crew have a few sets of the Classics line to give away for your guys. Yay! Books! All you have to do is leave a comment and tell us what book you’d like to see as part of the Casablanca Classics line, a romance from long ago that would rock our house today, and you’re entered to win. If you don’t have a book to suggest but you love the older romances, tell us something you love about them that you don’t see so much in romances published today – good or bad.
I’ll draw five winners, and each winner will receive a set of the following books:
Disclaimer: I’m not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Black socks, they never get dirty. The longer you wear them, the stiffer they get. Open to international entries, though the shipping will probably take awhile. Any resemblance to any persons living or dead will probably be remarked upon on some blog somewhere.
So, tell us: what vintage romance should be back on your shelves, all shiny and new?
I’ve only been in the romance genera for 8 years or so – I started with Julie Garwood, and haven’t read many books older than that. But when I do stumble across an older book (generally at the library), I really enjoy just comparing the writing styles and story telling styles to the more contemporary books (as in publication date, not time period of the story). I just really love reading anything in the genera I can get my hands on, so these books would be awesome to introduce me to some new (old) authors!
Another romance newbie here (just about one year), and I’d love to see anything with a strong heroine and an awesomely hot hero! Long live the romance genre!
example88=looking to read 88 examples of good romance writing
I’d love to see Carla Kelly’s old books come back into print, especially eprint. But more than that, I want to see Stella Riley’s books in print again. I think she wrote 4 in total, and I’ve read 2 (The Marigold Chain and Splendid Defiance). They are magnificent.
Add me to the list of readers who would love to see Laura London/Sharon & Tom Curtis’ books back in print. I have a very fragile copy of the Windflower and most of her/their other books but they’re so old that I’m afraid to read them! Whatever happened to them anyway? I remember writing to them and asking about a sequel focusing on Cat and getting a very nice reply in response. I’d also second the Patricia Veryan requests – I loved her books!
I am so excited to see Jan Cox Speas on the list! I’m waiting with almost hysterical fever for Bride of the MacHugh. And add another vote for Roberta Gellis; my copies of the Roselynde books are falling apart from being read so many times.
Can I win if I’m the one who started it all? Yes, it was ME having that nostalgic squee in Borders. And for the next week while I reread the three Dominick books. I’m saving “Tears for Gold” for summer tanning season. Of course after stalking Sarah on email, I had the “OMG, I just gave someone with a public forum permission to totally trash my taste!!” moment. I’m happy to see it had such a delightful result.
I would love to see Roberta Gellis back on the front rack. And Anya Seton.
Judith Ivory, by all means. Some are being reprinted, but I haven’t found Dance anywhere. Also, Carla Kelly’s backlist, especially Reforming Lord Ragsdale. And I’ve never read The Windflower, so bring it on, please.
I like older, sweet romances like those of Carla Kelly.
Don’t enter me in the contest.
I just had to say:
Laurie McBain reissued? *swoon*
On my Kindle? Oh yes. Downloaded and squeeing now.
Thank you!
Katherine B. you get your wish! STG I just saw this in Barnes & Noble a couple weeks ago.
Laura London’s THE WINDFLOWER! It would never get published today because the language is a little flowery and the plot moves slowly…..but oh, sooooo lovely.
You might also publish earlier titles by Jessica Bird (aka JR Ward) Those titles are becomming very collectable as people snap them up.
I would love to see the Windflower reissued! I would like to be able to buy a copy AND afford next semester’s tuition. Older Laura Kinsale would be great too, and definitely the True Romance line of teen books. My best friend and I had a great time with those! How about some Betina Krahn? I haven’t read many of the classics, but really anything with a non-British setting would be welcome.
I have to say no to the Catherine Coulter though. I read Rosehaven back in middle school and was slightly traumatized.
No need to enter me in the contest, but I do have a couple of authors I’d like to see reprinted.
Another fan of Elsie Lee’s work—in addition to the excellent Regencies already mentioned, her romantic suspense novels usually took place in wonderful locations, and the heroines were the kind of intelligent women with whom I was not ashamed to identify (which I found almost more important than ROWRness of the hero). These are regular rereads.
There are a couple of authors who wrote about the same time and in the same tradition as Stewart, Whitney and Holt I’d love to reread: Anne Maybury, Theresa Charles, Jane Aiken Hodge.
I’d have to say that my favourite classics are, quite simply… The Classics.
Give me an heroic but tortured Mr Darcy, or the upright and sensible Mr Knightly, or the original tortured hero of Mr Rochester. Even Heathcliff. I know it’s cliched, but without these heroes we’d never have such a good template for the heroes we read today. And if I’m being perfectly honest here, I don’t think we see enough really morally good heroes, like Mr Darcy who ALWAYS does the right thing. Or the quiet intelligent bookish types. That said, I’m speaking entirely as a new reader to romance, and as someone who has a preference for Regency-era Romance.
On behalf of my BFF, I have to mention Constance Gluyas. We LOVED “The King’s Brat” & “My Lady Benbrook”.
I am also happy Laura Kinsale’s books are getting redone and also was glad Kat Martin’s Necklace Trilogy was reissued. I’d love some of first Jude Deveroux and also Barbara Cartland’s books. Oh and what about Kathleen Woodiwiss and Rosemary Rogers?
Carla Kelly. Please!!!!
I hate reading a book that’s art of a huge long series and then realizing I can’t get the rest of the series. Johanna Lindsay, Mary Balogh, etc. have series like that. I will buy the whole thing at once just to avoid the disappointment. Publishers, how about some boxed sets like that?
My favorite romance novelist is Heyer, but her stuff was all just reprinted, so I don’t at this moment feel such a need for it. Also, my mother-in-law has an amazing collection of romance novels going back to the 30s, so I selfishly have less of a need for a lot of the great authors mentioned, such as JAK or Kleypas, although they obviously need to be out there.
I’m going to be super original and request The Windflower, because I never have read it and I have had it recommended a time or two. Million.
The lady is right – Kinsale is my fav! Love to see some reprints with the nostalgic Fabio covers – (Prince of Midnight, Flowers from the Storm) I admit to really loving those…and I lent out my Fabio-esque copy of Shadow and the Star years ago and never got it back.
Add me to the long line of readers wishing for the Windflower. I look for it every time I’m in a UBS, but I haven’t had any luck finding it.
Laurie McBain’s Dark Before the Rising Sun was the first romance novel I ever read. I have fond memories of reading that book.
(back again after having read through all the comments this time)
I’ll second whoever suggested “Red Adam’s Lady” by Grace Ingram for a reprint. I wore my library’s copy out when I was a teen.
My copy of Moonstruck Madness is somewhere in the packing boxes awaiting my imminent move, but I’m sure it’s that book that has the awesome (Regency?) heroine using her ill-gotten gains as a highwayman to buy a pair of spectacles for her short-sighted sibling. How awesome is that?
As for wanting books back in print, my first choice is Random Harvest by James Hilton – possibly the very first amnesia romance of them all, and the book is even better than the film. Otherwise, something really obscure that I read in the library years ago and then lost track of, but which has stuck in the memory – Sea Spell by Caroline Fox. She wrote a couple of romances that I know of, but this the only one I can remember, It’s a historical, and has the hero sailing a yacht round the coast of Brittany, France. Does anyone else know it?
I’d have to say The Windflower. So many people recommend it so
It’d be great to see it around so I can finally get my hands on it!!!
Pat Wallace’s The House of Scorpio. A world ruled by astrology, where careers, marriages, even clothing, are determined by one’s birth sign. The story follows six sisters whose parents infamously broke the rules. Awesome.
Mary Luke’s The Nonsuch Lure. Not time travel, but reincarnation, from Williamsburg to Henry VIII’s England, a man falls in love with a woman in a portrait and begins to search for her.
These other titles can usually be found in reprints:
The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart
The Master of Blacktower by Barbara Michaels
The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser
Forever Amber.
Because it is AWESOME. And because my mom read it secretively in high school. I read it secretively in high school. And I hope my daughters will read it secretively in high school.
Stella Riley’s Marigold Chain.
Actually any of her books, but particularly that one.
Dinah Dean would be good too. Maybe some of the early Sharon Penman books. But definitely, my first thought was Marigold Chain.
Patricia Veryan wrote wonderful Regency and Georgian romances that deserve to be back in print. Elsie Lee’s The Wicked Guardian
is a charming Regency with lovely characters.
Ooooh, I second (third, fourth, …) Patricia Veryan! She’s so wonderful, and yet so hard to find.
Back when I read books based on covers, I had an impressive collection of Fabio covers. Now, they are in re-print, alas, without Fabio.
I would really like some good old-style late 80’s early 90’s romance novels, Lindsey, Kleypas, all with their *original* covers.
Fabio. Sigh.
I think I’d have to go with something by Mary Balogh or Catherine Coulter!
Celeste De Blasis, please! I was reading The Proud Breed when my almost 31 year old son was born so that’s my sentimental choice, but I also remember really loving The Tiger’s Woman.
Add one more vote for “My Lord Monleigh”! As to others, everything by Inglis Fletcher is great, especially “Bennet’s Welcome” and “Lusty Wind for Carolina”. Another romance that I love is “An Episode of Sparrows” by Rumer Godden (though the hero and heroine are kids, the story is spellbinding, and I can just imagine when they reunite as adults!)
Oh my, Laurie McBain and Jan Cox Speas – I Loved “Bride of the McHugh”. Seconding Gellis Roselynd series and the older Carla Kelly and Joan Wolf. And my all time favorite from the library when I was in high school – Anya Seton’s “Katherine”. A great book that should be discovered again.
Hey.
I know this probably isn’t out of print but I can’t stop thinking about it. I read “A Rose in Winter” by Woodiwiss when I was 14 and loved it totally. I’d love to read it again!
I’m relatively new to romance as well. My first was a battered copy of Almost Forever by Linda Howard from the 80’s and I loved it (despite the alphole hero).
I’d love to read anything classic. I read a bunch of authors now and when I go to talk about them or read reviews of books there is always someone bemoaning how much better the backlist is.
The best books should be in print, not just the newest ones!
Add me to the Stewart/Holt/Jane Aiken Hodge/Barbara Michaels/Madeline Brent camp. That’s where I started reading romance thanks to my Grandmother. I left for about 20 years and came back to reading them thanks to this site. I’d love so see some of my old favs again.
I love (most of) Madeline Brent’s books for their strong, capable heroines. These are my all time favourite comfort reads. In fact, I’ve just finished The Capricorn Stone for the umpteenth time, and the scene where Bridie learns the funny walks she needs to perform in music-halls still cracks me up.
I don’t tend to like old skool romances because of the alphhole rapist trend (ugh! ew! *shudder*!), but I like the idea of reading the “godfathers” of the genre. And seeing what the first books who started the trend away did.
@HRWriter said:
OK, I understand about page count requirements and the drive for pacing in modern novels, but here you have a whole page of people squeeing about the “lost” romances of the past—the epic scope, the years-long character developments, the angsty stuff. That tells me there there’s an audience out there that might just be glad to find NEW authors who write that way, given half a chance. Who are the writers of THIS generation that we’ll be squeeing about 30 years from now, longing for reprints?
And @J.C., I’m with you on the love of Zebra gothics. I have an extensive collection, re-read every summer, and I’m always looking for ones I don’t have. Give me a gloomy castle on a remote island any day!