When Did You First Discover Romance Novels?

brainstorm77 · Jun 15, 2009

I think this will be a fun, interesting thread. I want to hear your stories about when you first discovered romance novels.

It was in the mid eighties for me. I remember going into my mother's room to get something and seeing a box with books in it. It was filled with HQ Presents novels. I remember that she had joined their book club. I was totally enthralled with the painted covers at that time

The glamourous women and handsome men :tongue

I was addicted from that moment on.

Lainey Bancroft · Jun 15, 2009

brainstorm77 said:
I think this will be a fun, interesting thread. I want to hear your stories about when you first discovered romance novels.

It was in the mid eighties for me. I remember going into my mother's room to get something and seeing a box with books in it. It was filled with HQ Presents novels. I remember that she had joined their book club. I was totally enthralled with the painted covers at that time The glamourous women and handsome men I was addicted from that moment on.

Mid 80's?!? Gah, you make me feel so old. I got married late 80's.

My mother read more women's fic and I can remember sneaking Judy Blume's "Wifey" and Erica Jong's story with the "zipless fu..." ah, yeah, never mind. I had two maiden aunties that visited regularly and they always came with bagfulls of the circa-late 70's early 80's Har/Sil romances and I always read what they left behind. The real 'addiction click' for me was 'Forever Amber'...I couldn't believe an author would leave that 'romantic but not' sh*t dangling, and I read and read and read, and now write, and write and write, aiming for the 'blalance' that keeps peeps reading for more.

Greenify13 · Jun 15, 2009

I was in 10th grade, I believe. Anyway, I got into trouble as I always did, but my Mom was fed-up and decided to make me sit down on a chair and read a romance novel. I was grounded until I was done with it. The book was For the Roses by Julie Garwood. It has been my favorite book ever since, even now I have the original book that I was "grounded" to that day. That grounding was a blessing and turning point in my life, I don't know if she will ever understand that. Anyway, I took the book with me when I joined the Army and five years after I joined it is in a box full of all my "favs".

For the Roses I still want the entire series, I only have the first one, and One Pink Rose...I think.

sunandshadow · Jun 15, 2009

I knew romance novels existed in high school, but I didn't start reading them until my third year of college when I had started to run out of science fiction and fantasy novels I wanted to read and been pulled in a romance direction by reading slash and yaoi fanfiction. At that point there wasn't much in the way of sff romance so I started reading historical romances.

AuburnAssassin · Jun 15, 2009

I think I started with Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney and Mary Stewart which were more gothic type romances then I moved on to Harlequins cause they were cheap and/or plentiful at the library.

I never read any Kathleen Woodiwess (or however you spell it) until 2 weeks ago. I've tried a Danielle Steele novel (think it was Zoya) as excerpted in Good Housekeeping back in the day when they put novels in that mag, and literally threw it across the room. Never read any Jackie Collins' type stuff or the real randy stuff until fairly recently. I must admit to having a soft spot for Betty Neels' G rated romances although every one of her books (practically) is about a nurse and a large, stoic Dutch doctor who already has a fiance or love interest until the heroine comes along.

I like the sexy stuff as much as anyone but it's also nice to find a sweet romance (not YA) these days that makes you warm inside and not really notice that there's no sex in it...well for me anyway...because it's all about the MC's falling in love, not in lust. Yeah, I'm old.

wannawrite · Jun 15, 2009

Puberty. I discovered myself, then, too.

Margo_U · Jun 15, 2009

Yikes. I started reading romances much earlier than most of you. I think I was 13. My grandparents read them (yup, grandpa too), and that was all of the reading material they had around their house. I spent a lot of time there. I got bored enough one day, and picked one up. And then another, and another. My mom wasn't thrilled, but she never said anything. All through high school, my grandmother and I (and by that point, my younger sister, too) had a trading ring. Somewhere, there is even a picture of my grandmother, grandfather, my sister, and I all sitting on a couch, each of us with a harlequin novel in our hands.

Robin Bayne · Jun 16, 2009

I was reading Barbara Cartland in the 6th grade, but then read nothing but horror and mystery until I was finishing college. I discovered a time travel romance and I was hooked.

Ardelie · Jun 16, 2009

Although not technically a romance, the first romance-related book I read was Wifey by Judy Bloom. I remember my girlfriend and I giggling over the hilarious sun/erotic scene. I was probably 12.

The next time I picked up anything even remotely classified as romance was after college. Having a somewhat feminist mother, I shunned them before that but now I read them all the time.

Lorreign · Jun 16, 2009

Well, I'm not entirely sure. The first romance novel besides harlequins that I can remember reading is When Darkness Falls by Shannon Drake. I was probably in the 7th or 8th grade.

jennontheisland · Jun 16, 2009

At 14.

My friend's mom had a shelf of Harlequins. She tried to get me to read them, but I couldn't do it. Didn't like them at all. And then she found another shelf. Way in the back of her mom's closet. Those, I could read.

Skye O'Malley was the first one. There were others, but a girl always remembers her first.

Jersey Chick · Jun 16, 2009

I was 16 and at a boyfriend's house when his mom and I started talking about books. My mom reads nothing but mysteries (Agatha Christie, PD James, that kind of stuff. I don't think she's ever owned one romance novel that isn't one I wrote.

) Next thing I knew, she was loaning me her copy of Kathleen Woodiwiss' The Flame and the Flower. Can we say hooked?

And you know what? I still have that book. I wonder if she remembers what happened to it?

From there, I got hooked on Johanna Lindsey (she's still my fave, even though her books aren't quite what they used to be.) and I love Jackie Collins' Lucky Santangelo books - they are soooo cheesy and it's so painfully obvious who she based those characters on.

I wish I had that kind of time to read these days, it takes me weeks to read what I used to read in a day or two....

dottigirl · Jun 16, 2009

A pile of multi-coloured Penny Jordans in my mother's bedroom when I ran out of Enid Blyton and Christine Pullein-Thompson.

She always tried to get me to read her Georgette Heyers instead. Which I did after a while.

brainstorm77 · Jun 16, 2009

It's funny how Harlequins are so wide spread : )

daehedr · Jun 17, 2009

I think I began in around 5th grade with Jean Plaidy and Victoria Holt I was really really into the Tudors. My mum was a massive historical freak and I was a voracious reader I couldn't find anything in the YA category at that time (around I think 69/70). I then moved into mum's Harlequins the Regency Romances and Barbara Cartland. I read these for years well into highschool and then out of highschool moved into Fantasy and Sci Fi. Returned to "romance" a few years ago.

sunandshadow · Jun 17, 2009

Now that I think about it, I did sort of accidentally read some 'romance' (defined loosely) before I really knew that romance novels as a genre existed. When I was in 4th-5th grade I loved books set in ancient or tribal cultures, so I read things like The Clan of the Cave Bear and I remember there was a series set in Egypt with a eunuch as the main character, and one with pre-eskimos and something about twins being considered to have the same soul and required to marry the same person, and one where the heroine ended up pregnant with twins by different fathers while the tribe was trying to migrate to the americas over the land bridge from asia. Also I loved shakespeare's much ado about nothing, which is IMO a romantic comedy.

LorelieBrown · Jun 17, 2009

The second half of 1993. I was 13. My best friend Debbie's mom read 'em and would always leave them cracked open on the arm of her chair. So Debbie and I snuck one and giggled over the naughty bits. But then I systematically cleared out the tiny town library of anything resembling romance and it was all over for me.

I don't remember the title of the first one I read cover-to-cover but I do know it was a western. And the heroine lost her virginity on the wood floor of a cabin. And I think the front door might have even been open? Might be conflating that with a later scene in the book though.

BeluvdLily · Jun 24, 2009

I always loved to read but as far as I can remember Harlequins were probably my first romances, back in the early 80's i'd guess. then on to things like Skye O'Malley and tons of historicals. I also loved the Phyllis A Whitney books. But my favorites to this day are Victoria Holt.

What about the confession mags though? True Story, True Love, True Romance, etc. I can remember my aunt had stacks of them and while my mother was visiting her, I'd head out to the porch and read them. I was prob around 12 or 13. OMG I thought they were so risque. The first thing I had published was in True Romance. I told my aunt it was thanks to her and her stack of mags.

brainstorm77 · Jun 24, 2009

BeluvdLily said:
I always loved to read but as far as I can remember Harlequins were probably my first romances, back in the early 80's i'd guess. then on to things like Skye O'Malley and tons of historicals. I also loved the Phyllis A Whitney books. But my favorites to this day are Victoria Holt.

What about the confession mags though? True Story, True Love, True Romance, etc. I can remember my aunt had stacks of them and while my mother was visiting her, I'd head out to the porch and read them. I was prob around 12 or 13. OMG I thought they were so risque. The first thing I had published was in True Romance. I told my aunt it was thanks to her and her stack of mags.

Amie

My mom use to read those mags.

funidream · Jun 24, 2009

Before the advent of the modern romance novel, I always liked books like THE THREE MUSKETEERS, or THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO - or those great Errol Flynn movies like Robin Hood and Captain Blood - swashbuckling adventure and romance.

Way back in 1978, I picked up SWEET SAVAGE LOVE on a rack at the train station based on the cover copy - it promised adventure and romance!!! That was the first modern romance novel I ever read. I tore through it, and more by Rosemary Rogers. Then I then discovered Katherine Woodiwiss - books like THE WOLF AND THE DOVE or THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER. And as time marched on I read a host of other authors like Bertrice Small and Judy Garland, I easily fell into to series like CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR or OUTLANDER.

It is no wonder that many, many moons later, when I decided to try my hand at writing, the stories popping into my head always have a strong historical base, and I can't help but add a good dash of romance the story

Funny coincidence - my wonderful literary agent happens to have been the young editor at Avon who "found" SWEET SAVAGE LOVE in the slush pile, and is often credited with helping to get the modern romance genre on its feet.

Deb Kinnard · Jun 27, 2009

Oy! Must I confess to being, well, older than some folks?

Some of my early 60s classmates had discovered Sergeanne Golon's ANGELIQUE. I sneaked it out of the library and because it had a very tame cover, Mom didn't know how risqué it was. I think I was 11 or 12. I didn't "get" some of it but it was the first romance novel I read.

And I read some Harlequins lent me by a friend in the early 70s. I thought they were lame, and at that time they probably were. Of course, I was measuring them against Victoria Holt, Anya Seton, Taylor Caldwell, Agnes Sligh Turnbull and quite a few others.

And is SWEET SAVAGE LOVE's Steve the worse hero romance has ever produced? I think you could make that case. Not that he isn't hot, but come ON...

Bubastes · Jun 27, 2009

Does anyone remember the Sweet Dreams teen romances from the 1980's? Those were my gateway drug into romances. Silhouette Desires were next, then other contemporary romances.

suedenym · Jun 27, 2009

Bubastes, I do remember the Sweet Dreams romances - I think there's probably still a box of them out in my garage somewhere!!!

Sundaysaid · Jun 27, 2009

The bookshelf had a row lined with my mom's Barbara Cartland novels. I was in my early teens when I started reading them.

LorelieBrown · Jun 27, 2009

Bubastes said:
Does anyone remember the Sweet Dreams teen romances from the 1980's? Those were my gateway drug into romances. Silhouette Desires were next, then other contemporary romances.

Or Sweet Valley High books! :ROFL:

When Did You First Discover Romance Novels?

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