Ask A Wench—My First Romance Book

Andrea here. In this month's Ask A Wench, we're all dishing on the first romance book we ever read. The answers and musings are so much fun, I won't waste time on a flowery intro—let's just jump right into the stories! (But be sure share what YOUR first romance book was in the comments!)

Anne: The first romance (in the sense of a love story) I read was These Old Shades, by Georgette Heyer which I borrowed from my local library when I was eleven. I didn't really think of it as a romance at the time, just a really good book with a lovely happy ending. I loved the various characters and the brilliant humor and the story, which contained so many things I later discovered were popular tropes in romance. The story contained elements of the "chick-in-pants", "Cinderella," "The Lost Heir," "The Secret Identity," the "Innocent and the Jaded Rake" and more, which all made for an enticing and engrossing read. I went on to read (and reread) all her other books.

The impact it had on me is pretty obvious. Georgette Heyer is the reason I write Regency-era historical romance. I don't try to imitate her — that would be impossible — but because of her, and because I discovered her books so young, I almost feel as if I grew up in that particular Regency World and it feels a bit like home to me. It wasn't until years later, when I was setting out to become a writer,  that I learned that there was a whole genre devoted to historical romance, and when I discovered that publishers were publishing Regency-era romance, I knew then it was what I wanted to write. And so I did.

Pat: First, I’d have to define “romance.” I thought when I read Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice that I was reading English literature. The books came from the Scholastic Book Club after all, and I was only 9. I wore those books out—not because of the language or any high-falutin’ themes but for the romance. Even at that age I was thrilled by the romantic relationship of these totally unsuitable couples, but I’d never heard of “romance” as a genre.
 Once I reached high school, I dived into real classics, the heavy duty tomes of British and Russian literature plus the 20th century American classics. Theodore Dreiser anyone?

Not until I was almost thirty did I stumble across what we call genre romance today—through Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower. Sex in a book! I’d been reading heavily for over two decades and had never read sex in a book. I didn’t know Silhouettes and Harlequins existed. But Woodiwiss gave me both rich historical detail that fed my Brit lit soul plus my Jane Eyre obsession.
After that, I was off and running!

Christina: I’m guessing we don’t count fairy tales, although even as a child I was always desperate to get to the romantic bit where the prince gets his princess and they have their first kiss. (Rapunzel is and will always be my favourite!). I also remember being very excited about the fact that Tom Sawyer kissed a girl, but it was hardly proper romance and sadly a one-off occurrence. There were no romantic teen books when I was that age, so I had to move on to adult novels. I think the first real romance I read was Gone With the Wind but it was extremely disappointing as I hated the ending! I later discovered Victoria Holt’s gothic novels, which had some romance, but still not enough for me. It wasn’t until I came across Georgette Heyer in my high school library, and soon after discovered Johanna Lindsey, that I found what I’d been looking for. Heyer’s witty proper stories and Lindsey’s more sizzling ones couldn’t have been more different but I loved them both instantly!

Mary Jo: I can't remember the first romance I ever read, though I always loved the romance subplots in mysteries and historical novels.  If I have to chose a formal starting place, I'll go with Mary Stewart's The Ivy Tree.
 I read a lengthy condensation of the novel that was in my mother's Lady's Home Journal, and it was riveting.  I was pretty young, so I was totally blown away by the surprise twist. (And without knowing it, I was learning how to do twists of my own in my books decades later. <G>)  
I went on to read a lot of romantic suspense: Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, Barbara Michaels, paperback Gothics with covers showing women with insanely long hair that was blowing in the wind as they fearfully contemplated a haunted looking castle. <G>  
Later, my first encounters with genre historical romance were so awful that I never got beyond the second chapter: love at first rape, heroines who defined 'too stupid' to live. Ugh!  
It will surprise no one if I say that I made my way into genre romance via Georgette Heyer.  My first Heyer read Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle,the gateway drug to the world of Regency Romance, which is where I live to this day. <G> 

Nicola: The first romance book I read was Katherine by Anya Seton. I found it along with lots of other novels in the back of my grandmother’s wardrobe when I was about eleven years old. What a magical world it conjured up for me of history and romance! That was it – my lifelong love of history was ignited. Before that I’d read everything from children’s books to sci fi; whatever was on the bookshelves at home. Now a whole new world opened up to me. Historical romantic fiction! I read my way through all my grandmother’s Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney books, Jean Plaidy and of course Georgette Heyer. She also had what were called “sex and shopping” books by authors such as Judith Krantz, and “clogs and shawls” sagas by Catherine Cookson. I learned about sex from those books, rather an eye-opener to a teenager in those days.  But my favourite books were always the romantic suspense and the historical romance, although of course at that age I didn’t know anything about the different genres. I just knew I liked heroes with integrity, heroines with gumption and happy endings.
 
Susan:  I loved romantic stories long before I discovered romance fiction - Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and the rest were a great launchpad, though I preferred the original fairy tales over homogenized, where heroines were tough and independent, heroes didn't always sweep in to the rescue, and life and magic presented interesting challenges. Then one evening my sisters and I watched The Moon-Spinners -- the Disney movie -- on TV, and my little girl's heart was utterly lost. Then I found not just one novel, but a whole stack of Mary Stewart books in the library, and my love of romantic fiction truly began. These were heroines who were on their own, smart, kind, and curious, facing crisis and fear with a cool head--and the heroes were strong, intelligent, respectful, and beautifully understated.   

So I gobbled up Mary Stewart, along with classics like Jane Eyre and Little Women, and went on to Victoria Holt, Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Anya Seton, and more. Though I craved history in my reading, Regency never quite caught my interest. On to college, art school, and grad school to study medieval. But I had not explored the historical romance genre, which was huge in paperback fiction. 

Then I was put on bedrest for months with a high-risk pregnancy, and academic books were physically too heavy to read, so a friend brought paperbacks--including The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen Woodiwiss. Woh! What was this! Medieval, juicy fiction, story action, strong characters--and a sexy, challenging relationship. Bring me more! Soon I was reading all the romance fiction I could find. And one day I realized this was a great direction for my own writing--so I gave that a try.  

Andrea: I was a voracious reader as a kid—the kind whose Mother did occasional “flashlight-under-the-cover” checks to make sure I wasn’t staying up way too late with a book. And my tastes were eclectic . . . stories about knights in shining armor, quirky animals forming eccentric friendships, kid and dog stories . . . But looking back, they all had common themes—heroes and heroines who were braver than they thought they were, the power of friendship, loyalty, honor, a sense of justice, and that Right should overpower Wrong.

So I think it’s no wonder that when I discovered my first romance book in my early teens I fell in love. Okay, it wasn’t a traditional romance. Adventure, danger, and mystery were a a big part of the slow-burn romance between the hero and heroine. Hmmm, no wonder I write what I write! Mary Stewart’s The Moon-Spinners really took my breath away. And then I grabbed This Rough Magic. Fluttery sigh! An exotic location, a brooding hero, Shakespearean references, a mystery to solve and villain to thwart. Yeah, I was hooked. I then found Austen and Heyer, and, well, started a love affair for a lifetime!

So now it's your turn! What was the first romance book you read? Please share!

Comments

[Janice]

Wow. I almost can't remember. I grew up loving science fiction and reading as much as I could find of that, partly because it did not have personal relationships in it much; it was focused on science, exploration and general strangeness. I kinda scoffed at those girls in my school who were reading the young adult romances of the time; I knew those weren't real life! I didn't know anybody in a happy marriage, and so I thought romance writing was just silly fantasy. Life wasn't like that.

I also had a love of ancient history, and one book I read over and over again was Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, because Ancient Egypt fascinated me -- and then I found myself reading the romance parts especially. I had also discovered Dorothy Sayers and the Harriet Vane books, which I loved for their between the wars ambiance - but I also read the romantic bits over and over again. I read Jane Eyre and the Austen novels in college, but I thought of them as English Lit. Same for Lord of the Rings. My friends read gothics by the dozen, and I liked those, but I didn't take them seriously. I'd see Harlequins in the grocery stores and sniff.

It was Pierce Brosnan, really, who caused me to read my first genre romance book. I loved the Remington Steele series and the off again/on again relationship between Laura and Remington. I wondered if there were contemporary stories with that sort of humor and electricity. One day in the discount paperback store at Venice & Inglewood, where I'd often stop on the way home from work, I saw a rack of romance paperbacks. There was a Jayne Krentz Silhouette title in the display, so I bought that, and then I noticed that they also had these things called regencies in the rack next to it. I wondered if they'd have the flavor of Jane Austen. So I picked up half a dozen of them - I can't remember which ones, but they were Signet trads. I was hooked. Elegant prose, a time when manners and erudition were considered a plus, and stories in which (most importantly) the woman was the central figure. The woman wasn't just an accessory for the hero -- she mattered in her own right.

I no longer read much contemporary romance (it doesn't seem contemporary to me, not like the young women I know at all), but I have never lost my love of the regency era.

[Mike]

I have to say that I admire the quality of your collective memories. My early book reading is pretty much lost in the mists of time and my failing memory – my parents belonged to a couple of re-print book clubs, and from the age of nine or ten I read every book that entered the house. Other than giving me a good knowledge of World War 2 this introduced me to multiple fiction genres, and I do recall getting extra enjoyment from those with a romance subplot. I would not call “The King Must Die” or “The Bull from the Sea” romances, but I do recall enjoying and rereading the romantic/tragic subplots (plus the very mild sexual references, though it was only on later readings that I understood these). There was also a collection of classics, so I ended up reading Lorna Doone, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and the like, probably when I was too young to appreciate them.

So, there is no way that I can say what was my first romance book, but I suspect that it would have been one of the usual suspects covered in your posting. Maybe Georgette Heyer’s “The Quiet Gentleman” (Companion Book Club version) or something by Mary Stewart, the first of hers I read being “Madam, Will You Talk”; I recall that my parents actually went out and bought the paperback. However, it could have been Anya Seton’s “Katherine”, which was certainly in the house when I was very young, or something from Frank Yerby (once immensely popular and appearing in the reprint clubs but now long forgotten). What I do remember is my first romance purchase: Heyer’s “An Infamous Army”, which may have been influenced by the cover image of red-coated soldiers in the aftermath of battle (and thus a more acceptable image for a teenage boy buying from the school bookshop).

[Gail]

I can't say which book was the first romance that I read. I saw so many of my early favorites in everyone's memories. Stewart, Heyer, Holt, Austen were all some of my earlier reads. I still reread them periodically because they are so well written and entertaining.

[Mary T]

The first romance that I remember reading as a teenager was CELIA GARTH by Gwen Bristow. I didn't realize at the time that romance was actually a genre. In my younger days I read mostly best sellers and classics that I felt I "should" read.

In my mid thirties, when I was going through a dark period in my life, I discovered a book on the reading rack in a Jury Duty waiting room. It was THE WOLF AND THE DOVE by Kathleen Woodiwiss. Wow! It didn't take me long to realize that romance books all had happy endings. And this was a period in my life when I didn't want to waste my time on any book that didn't end well.

As I got busier with life I read less and less, but when I retired the first thing I did was renew my library card and head for the romance section (smile).

[Andrea Penrose]

Janice, I think so many of us came to "romance" through books in other genres that featured really interesting relationships—like Wimsy and Vane.

And so interesting about the Signet Regencies. I so remember seeing that rack for the first time and trying some (it's where I discovered Mary Jo and Edith Layton!) I was totally hokked . . .and began dreaming about writing one of my own. So I did. It was such a thrill when I sold my very first book to the Signet line.

[Andrea Penrose]

Mike, thanks so much for sharing! As I said above, it's so interesting how so many of us came to romance novels through being drawn to the strong relationships depicted in other genres.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and other classics were a huge influence on me, too. And Heyer of course. I can see how An Infamous Army would catch the eye of a teenage boy!

[Andrea Penrose]

Gail, it's so fun to see that so many of us came to romance through "non-romance" books. Love is such an elemental part of human nature, so it's a part of so many genres.

[Andrea Penrose]

Mary, that's such an important observation about happy endings. Hope, optimism and resilience is a core message in romance, and I think it's a big part of why the books resonate with us.

[Shelagh]

I’ve been a Georgette Heyer fan since I read The Black Moth at about age twelve. The idea of a highwayman who is actually something else entirely captivated me. I devoured every one of her books after that though a recent reorganisation of my library shows I’ve also bought more than a sprinkling of Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Johanna Lindsay and Sandra Brown. Clearly I have eclectic tastes.

[Alison Y]

I didn't come to romance until I was in my forties. I had read Jane Eyre, Gone With the Wind at a much younger age, but never really thought of them as "romance". In fact I kind of looked down my nose at it.
I preferred mystery, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham.

Then as I was about to embark on a lengthy road trip, I got an audio tape to play along the way. It was Amanda Quick's "The Paid Companion". That opened my eyes; mystery and romance and I fell in love. I read that genre non-stop and realized how great the romance part was and thus found historical-romance. Though mystery-romance is still my favorite, I now read both genres with great pleasure.

[Denise]

Love this post. I was a voracious reader as a kid and my mother gave me Anya Seton’s Katherine when I was 13, so that was probably my first romance. Throughout my teens and adult life I also was a more eclectic reader of fiction and non-fiction and a weekly library trip fed my habit. That was where I found a rack of “take one, leave one” Harlequin and Silhouette paperbacks and was instantly hooked. I was so bad I convinced the librarian to let me have first crack at any new donations and she despaired of my reading habits. As I have aged I crave the happy endings that romance provides but a good non-fiction in a subject I am interested in is always welcome. Thank you to the Wenches for feeding the habit!

[Alice Mathewson]

Dare I admit that my first romance books might have been Barbara Cartland?! Good heavens she churned them out - almost identical stories with just the names and locations changed if I remember rightly! I moved on very quickly. The historical romances I read in my teens that really stick in my mind are The Shadow of the Moon by MM Kaye, Katherine by Anya Seaton and The Marigold Chain by Stella Riley - and of course Georgette Heyer. I was so pleased when I found that Stella had not only written more books but had started writing again. I went to boarding school and the books we shared round all fell open at the naughty bits - very educational really! Stephanie Laurens' Cynster novels led me to 'modern Regency romance' about 10 years ago and I haven't looked back.

[Andrea Penrose]

And clearly your taste in books matches ours! All of us have Heyer on our keepr shelves.

[Andrea Penrose]

Ha! Romance is sneaky! It's wonderful when you suddenly realize it's part of so many great books. Glad you're enjoying it!

[Andrea Penrose]

So glad you enjoyed the post, Alice. And how fun that you came to romance through many of the same authors that we did!

[Andrea Penrose]

Thanks, Denise!

Wow, Katherine is being mentioned by a lot of people. Somehow I missed it way back when. Must rectify that!

Love your story of the library rack!

[Kareni]

I'm another who was a voracious reader as a child, yet I also have a poor memory as to what I read when. My first romance might have been by Georgette Heyer, but it might have been an Angelique book. (It certainly wasn't The Godfather which I read at about age 12!) I know that I loved books by Barbara Cartland; I'm not joking when I say I owned about a hundred of her books when I was a teen.

Romance reading has been a near constant for much of my life. I do like s happy ending!

[Nicola Cornick]

Oh, Shadow of the Moon was beautiful and so very romantic! Thank you for reminding me of that, Alice. I think i have it on my keeper shelf along with MM Kaye's suspense novels which also had romance in them!

[Nicola Cornick]

It is interesting that Katherine is mentioned so many times! Some of Anya Seton's books were a bit dark for me as a teenager - Green Darkness scared me! - but I remember being swept away bu the romance of others of them. Wonderful!

[Pat Dupuy]

When I was a sixth grader, Dad was temporarily transferred to southern California for 8 months. We all came along. I was looking at Mom's Readers' Digest Condensed Books for something to read, as I did not have a library card to use in our temporary digs. I picked up a volume with Victoria Holt's Mistress of Mellyn. I was hooked. Besides her books I read Helen MacInnes, Phyllis Whitney, Mary Stewart, Victoria Coffman, Dorothy Eden. All stories with romance, adventure, mystery, and sometimes ghosts!

[Janet Murdoch]

I read anything and everything as a child and when I was 8 my Grandad started a secondhand bookstore so my scope of reading material was huge! First romance I encountered was a kid's series called Trixie Belden and she had a crush on her best friend's brother. My heart ached for her through the whole series and I think at the end she got kissed - I was hooked! I read all the Whitney's etc. from that time and when I took over the bookstore after my Grandad died I read literally anything! As I got older it definitely started to narrow down to happy ending only - I don't want to cry over a book anymore - I want to laugh and be left feeling happy, happy when the book is finished. That's why I so love Anne Gracie - the books are full of love and humour - thank you so much!

[Andrea Penrose]

Kareni, I think I'd probably swoon at the length of your reading list from childhood. Voracious doesn't do justice to the depth and breadth ofyour reading!

The Godfather at 12? You were far more sophisticated than I was! Happy to see Heyer was an early read, too.

As for happy endings, I'm with you on that!

[Andrea Penrose]

Oh, I loved Mistress of Mellyn with I discovered Holt in my earl teens, Pat. Mystery, adventure and romance really appealed to me—and still does!

[Christina Courtenay]

I was fascinated with ancient Egypt as well - read anything I could find about the pharaos!

As for Signets, I've still got some on my shelves :-)

[Andrea Penrose]

What a wonderful story of you snd your grandad, Janet. Thanks for sharing.

And yes, aren't Anne's books magical! So glad you enjoy them.

[Christina Courtenay]

Oh yes - I used to read anything I could lay my hands on, but these days I refuse to read anything that doesn't have a happy ending, even if it is romantic otherwise!

[Christina Courtenay]

I've got every single Heyer, Holt and Lindsey on my shelves too - all great!

[Christina Courtenay]

I don't think I ever read it either, although I could be wrong - it's certainly not on my shelves.

[Christina Courtenay]

The Shadow of the Moon is one of my all-time favourites, absolutely loved that book! And I read Barbara Cartland too :-)

[Patricia Rice]

I remember Remington Steele! I would have watched just for Brosnan but the scripts were good too. Heck of a way to get to romance but I'm all for it!

[Cryssa Bazos]

I also gobbled up romantic suspense by Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt. The book that really got me started on historical romance was Shanna by Kathleen Woodiwise and then I devoured everything else she wrote. Oh to have Ruark Beauchamp jump out of the covers of that book! Lisa Kleypas wrote a forward for Shanna and she called Ruark one of the most magnificent of heroes ever written. Cheers to that!
PS: Count me in for the Remington Steele Fan Club :)

[Quantum]

At school I didn't read much fiction at all, being absorbed in sport and a fascination for chemistry. Later at University in London, playing sports was not as easy and convenient and I started reading fiction. Initially I chose Nobel laureates, particularly enjoying Pearl Buck and Herman Hesse. Later I stumbled on the chivalric romances of William Morris and gleefully read them all. Later while looking for 'quality romances' I stumbled on the Eloisa James web site with the many enthusiastic romance readers blogging there and was led to my first Romance in the sense employed here. It was Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series. I was hooked and haven't looked back!

[Patricia Rice]

Isn't it interesting how certain types of stories and heroes simply click? I read Stewart and Holt for the mystery more than the heroes but Woodiwiss... wow, she knew how to make it hot!

[Patricia Rice]

and we're so glad you finally found us! I think it's a great idea for young minds to read the great literature and expand their world. But once we know our way around a bit, reading becomes a form of entertainment and relaxation. Romance is ideal!

[Anne Gracie]

Janet, I was reading your comment and recalling how one of my childhood fantasies was to work in a bookshop—preferably a secondhand one so I could read the books first. But my oldest sister became a librarian and she brought home any books they were tossing out that she thought might appeal to me. I still have a lot of them — I had to fight to keep them each time we moved, but they included Mary Stewart and Catherine Gaskin.

Thank you for your lovely comment about my books. It's how I feel, too, when I read a book — I want the ending to make me feel happy, or at the very least, good.

[Sue McCormick]

The very first romance that I remember reading would be Jane Eyre and then Jane Austen. I read Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest so there must have been others, but I do not remember them. So my genre first must have been either Mary Stewart or Georgette Heyer.

[Andrea Penrose]

Cryssa, I'm loving how so many of us got into romance through Stewart and Holt.

I never watched remington Steele, but judging by the fluttery sighs I'm seeing here, I need to go check out where they can be streamed.

[Andrea Penrose]

Quantum, chemistry and classics are wonderful, but I'm so glad the physics of the universe somehow brought you to Eloisa's site and the world of romance. The Bridgertons were a lovely place to start. (Much as I was amused by the Netflix version, I do hope people who watched it then read the book.) And we're so glad you found us!

[Andrea Penrose]

Sue, I can't think of a better place to start than with those iconic books! And of course Stewart and Heyer are classics, too.

[Zarrin-Taj Reynolds]

The first romance I remember reading was The Cutting Edge, by Linda Howard. I was 13 and it was Christmas Eve...I stayed up all night reading that novel. I always remembered the book, but not the title or the author. Decades later, long after I thought I'd read every book Linda Howard wrote, I rediscovered The Cutting Edge and found it pretty ironic that my love of Howard's novels went all the way back to the beginning. Rereading the book as an adult I was slightly shocked that I'd read something so titillating at such a young age, and vaguely horrified by the "hero" who I wanted to beat black and blue.

When I got to high school, our small town library carried very few romance novels, and mostly older ones, but I was totally hooked by Kathleen Woodwiss. That led me to Zebra Romances (the yummy bodice rippers of the 80s with the flashy covers that I hid behind my Algebra book). In my late 20s is when I started reading modern romance novels voraciously, and fell head over heels for Anne Gracie, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, who introduced me to the Regency Era that I'd only begun to see in Jane Austen movies. 20 years later and I still love my romance novels (and belatedly discovered Georgette Heyer novels).

[Zarrin-Taj Reynolds]

I saw a movie made of one of her novels, A Hazard of Hearts, and was so in love with it that I haunted used book stores until In found a copy. I think I was about 15 at the time. That was a very impactful novel for me!

[Anne Hardy]

My mother was a children's librarian and had a degree in history and a taste for English murder mysteries by writers like Dorothy Sayers and Georgette Heyer. She introduced me very young to some extremely good books like the Narnia series, but had no popular romances. The library in my high school did have several shelves of them. I found 'Frederica' by Georgette Heyer, whose name I recognized from her mysteries, and was hooked. I then read everything else in the library, including my first books by Jane Austen, 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Persuasion', and Mary Stewart, 'Nine Coaches Waiting' and 'The Moonspinners'. Those books became life long favourites that I reread frequently.
There also were a lot of poorly written biblical histories and books about psychedelic drugs by Timothy Leary that shouldn't really have been in a high school library. Looking back, I'm not sure who made the selections.

[Sophie Weston]

My first romance in which I was actually aware of the romance was a book called Sweet Witch by Richard Llewellyn. (He also wrote How Green Was My Valley, an entirely different kettle of porridge.) It was about smugglers and secret Welsh independence fighters in, I think, Georgian times. I read it for the adventure but the romance just blew me away.
Haven't read it since, so I don't know how it stands up. But I can still remember walking round in a daze after discovering it. Heroine, I'm almost certain, was called Sarah. I think of the hero as a young Peter O'Toole - think How to Steel a Million. No idea why. Must try to find a copy.

[Decca Price]

"Forever Amber!" I first read it when I was about 16 and reread it a couple of years ago. It holds up well. It's amazing the things that turned up on our grandmothers' bookshelves, isn't it? I'm sure she would have been horrified when I found that one among the Thomas B. Costains, Victoria Holts and Edna Ferbers.

[Jan]

When I was in high school, I started reading my mother’s Good Housekeeping magazines for the romance story in the back. Those were contemporary romances, and I don’t remember any of the authors, but I remember some of the plots. Then, my mom’s best friend lent her A KEW book (A Rose in Winter), which I picked up, and became hooked. History and romance? Yes, please! I also read a lot of mystery growing up (still do) and enjoyed many slow burn relationships, such as Wimsey + Vane, Charlotte + Thomas Pitt, etc.

[Andrea Penrose]

What fun progression, Zarrin-Taj! When I re-read romances from sveral decades ago, I sometimes wince, too, about what was thought "manly" in heroes! Thank heavens the times have changed. And I'm smiling about the Zebra romances—loved them, too.

Glad you found Regency romances! And what a treat to have discovered Heyer!

[Andrea Penrose]

Anne, your mother introduced you to some wonderful writers! When I first found Sayers and Peter Whimsey and Harriet Vane, I was over the moon—those are on my keeper shelves and I re-visit them, reveling in having old and dear friends.

LOL on the other books on the library shelves! High school libraries can have some very strange stuff—go figure!

[Andrea Penrose]

Oh, that sounds delightful, Sophie! You really do need to track it down. (A younger Peter O'Toole hero? Fluttery sigh!)

I think so many of us fell in love with romance through mystery/adventure because the heroines were usually plucky, strong women, rather than helpless peagooses.

[Andrea Penrose]

Ha, ha, Decca! Grandmothers tend to forget that kids are very curious!

[Andrea Penrose]

Oops—typo on Wimsey. I haven't had my second cup of morning coffee!

[Andrea Penrose]

History and romance? You're in good company here, Jan! I, too, love the mystery series that you mentioned for the slow burn and character development.

[Diane Petersonn]

In seventh grade I discovered The Forgotten Daughter by Caroline Dale Snedeker. Its setting in ancient Rome & Greece set off my passion for historical romance. I even took Latin in high school because of the book!

[Margot]

Interesting topic and very telling as to the age of the writer. As a teen I was only able to read Jane Eyre, which was so romantic for me. It was not acceptable to read romance novels in my restrictive group/cult. I got my excitement in bits and pieces in various books I was able to read and these I would read over and over.
In my 20's I found mysteries which often had a touch of romance - Helen MacInnes was my favorite. When I married a lover of British mysteries, I had lots of books to enjoy - there was not much romance in them but always a love interest.
I got into Romance late in life. I was kept busy with work and raising our daughter. Owning your own business keeps you so busy and tired. Since I retired I have been catching up - I love Mary Jo Putney, Anne Gracie, Mary Balogh they started me into the Historic Romances. I now have also enjoyed some of the contemporary authors. My bookshelf is now bursting with a great assortment of authors of romance novels. I see that I have many more to go.

[Annette N]

As a young reader,I read everything. My father was a member of the Book of the Month Club and I read about WWII while I was in elementary school. I read nearly everything I could find. Adventure, history, in short, I became a book addict.

I always sneered at "romance books".

I lived in a small town and we wanted to get a certified library. We needed an employee...that would be me. We raised money for some things and asked for everyone in town and around the county to give us books. I cataloged and shelved. I was shocked to see so many women were reading romance. This made no sense to me. How could bright women sink so low....(yes, I know and I did get my comeuppance).

Time passed...Mr Wonderful got up on a Monday morning and had me served with divorce papers half an hour after he left for work. I had no money = no lawyer. In short, life was not good for a time.

I moved to a strange city, bought my first car with a credit card, found a very cheap counselor and found a low paying job. I went to a small neighborhood library and just wandered around.

I found a book by Judith McNaught. Until You. Had no idea what it was. But, I was bored and lonely so what did I have to lose?

I was blown away.

There were aspects which made me uncomfortable, but the character development was wonderful. Ms McNaught writes a heck of a story.

Since then, I have become quite a fan of well written romance - historical is my preference but I do modern by some authors too. I have one major requirement, I need humor in the stories. I have developed a sort of PTSD from anxiety,so I can't do thrillers anymore. I can't deal with tension in books or films or anywhere. And absolutely no blood and guts. Makes what I can read very different than my past, but I read wonderful books - romance, mystery and history.

I believe that I owe Ms McNaught a great debt. And if I lived back in that small town, I would go door to door and apologize for my former snobby attitude.

Life is filled with surprises.

Hope everyone is well and safe.

[Margaret]

How wonderful to read all the different memories and see the many similarities. I, like Jan, remember reading the short romances in my grandmother's Good Housekeeping magazine. But I think my first addiction to romance probably started with Nancy Drew! I so admired her intelligence and ingenuity, but I LOVED the brief interactions with Ned. This was in elementary school, of course, because by the time I hit junior high I was discovering Victoria Holt, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Rosemary Rogers, Mary Stewart, and Anya Seton. It's funny, I remember absolutely LOVING Katherine (and Green Mansion), but I cannot remember a single detail from that story. I bought a new copy a few years ago but still haven't gotten around to rereading it. I truly count myself blessed to have been able to read so many wonderful books in my life, and I'm enormously grateful now, when my time is limited, to have access to an enormous library of audiobooks.

[Margot]

Just a quick add on - I learned much by listening to Operas and reading the stories they tell. Those are filled with romance and so much more. As a teenager I was permitted to do this as I had a class in Music while in High School, so I studied it well.

[Malvina]

I’m pretty sure my first romance, the one I adored the most, was A Man Called Masters by Lucy Walker. I borrowed it from the school library, and would take it back then immediately borrow it again. And again! Pretty sure I read it a million times. Finally my sister gave me a copy of it which I have to this day. I recently reread it and yes, it’s dated and such, but still a rather lovely sentimental favourite.

[Jeannette Ruth Halpin]

I loved Peter Wimsey and the "slow burn" and admire Harriett's fortitude immensely. There are 4 "new" ones based on Dorothy Sayers's work, by Jill Paton Walsh, that satisfy my longing for the rest of their story. The first real romance I ever read was Mary Jo Putney's "No Longer a Gentleman", found on the library paperback giveaway shelf a few years ago. I have never looked back! Thank you Mary Jo for opening a whole world to me. I remember reading "Forever Amber" when I was about 13. My mother was horrified and took it away from me and I couldn't understand why she was so upset! haha.

[Andrea Penrose]

That's a great story, Diane. I love a book can really spark a passion—like an interest in ancient, which leads to Latin. I think I learned my love of history from reading books on King Arthur, etc. as a kid. Books take you to such magical places!

[Andrea Penrose]

Margot, that's a wonderful story on how books have become a part of your life. It's interesting how many of us like mysteries,which aren't traditional romances, but often have a romance element.

And have no fear—you won't run out of fabulous romance books!

[Andrea Penrose]

Oh, very cool!

[Andrea Penrose]

Annette, thanks for sharing your story. One of the many very special things about romance novels is they really inspire readers to believe in hope, resilience and the belief in a happliy ever after even when Life feel very grim. They been a source of support and solace to so many people in times of trouble, and I'm so glad they were of help to you.

Humor is is wonderful in books, and I don't blame you on not wanting blood and guts. Real life has enough of that.

I'm so glad you found our community of romance writers and readers, and have become part of the family!

[Andrea Penrose]

Margaret, I love that you've mentioned Nancy Drew. A strong, clever female heroine had a real influence on a lot of girls when it wasn't consider "cool" to be smart.

I really need to get a copy of Katherine! I can't believe I never came across it in all my reading.

[Andrea Penrose]

What a lovely story, Malvina. And how wonderful that you still have the book you sister gave to you.

[Andrea Penrose]

Ha, ha on Forever Amber, Jeannette! Yes, mothers could get a little nervous about romance books!

How fun that you discovered romance through Mary JO. You started with the Master!

[Anne Gracie]

What a lovely adventure in reading, Zarrin-Taj. And I'm so glad you discovered regengies and especially Georgette Heyer, as well as the more modern writers. And I'm very glad you read my books. Thank you.

[Anne Gracie]

Anne, my oldest sister was a librarian and provided me with lots of books that were being thrown out. She knew what a bookworm I was and brought me home both adult and children's books. I discovered Mary Stewart through her and I still have those battered old ex-library editions.

[Anne Gracie]

I've never read Sweet Witch, Sophie — I'm going to try to track it down. I know How Green Was My Valley of course. Richard Llewellyn was an interesting man.

But YOU introduced me to Eva Ibbotson, for which I'll evermore be grateful.
I recommend her and Heyer to everyone.

[Anne Gracie]

Margo, I have several Helen McInness books on my shelves here. Haven't read them for years. I'm going to have to cull my books, so maybe I'll have to reread them all in order to decide the keepers. (Hmm procrastination, much?)

Thanks for liking my books. I'm honored to be in the same company as Mary Jo and Mary Balogh who are both auto-buys for me.

[Anne Gracie]

Annette, don't worry — I too was quite snobby about romance in my early adult years. It was quite a shock to discover I not only enjoyed it, it became my reading of choice.

[Anne Gracie]

Oh yes, those Lucy Walker books. I discovered them in my teens, when I used to travel up to Queensland to stay with my oldest sister in school holidays. She had all the Lucy Walker books, and once I'd run out of my own books (that I'd brought with me on the train) I read all of hers.

She was having a clean out a while back and was going to toss her old Lucy Walkers (which makes me suspect we're not actually related!) but luckily she asked me if I'd like them. Naturally I said yes, and now I have a lovely stack of Lucy Walker books — including A Man Called Masters. I think my favourite was The Moonshiner..

[Mary Jo Putney]

Margot, you may have come to romance late, but you've been very thorough! I also enjoyed those Helen MacInnes books--even a little romance was good! I'm glad you enjoy my books as well.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Annette, what a journey your life has been! I love how your town worked so hard to get a library and you became the librarian. I was another who turned up my nose at romance. To be fair, the first couple I tried to read were pretty bad. It was Georgette Heyer that lured me over to the Dark Side, where I've dwelled happily ever since. *G*

[Mary Jo Putney]

Jeannette, I'm delighted that NO LONGER A GENTLEMAN was your gateway drug! I also loved Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane stories, including the Jill Paton Walsh series extensions.

[Vicki L]

I honestly don't remember what my first romance was. I too grew up reading EVERYTHING.... My mom got the Reader's Digest books so ...I read everything in them. Well, most everything. Looking back I'm amazed at some of the books I read. Magazines...read whatever came in the house and the serialized stories in them.

We had all the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books as well.

When I was in Junior High I started at the beginning of the A's and read everything in the Jr High library. Also started in the A's and read everything in the Public library. SciFi, Fantasy, romance, adventure, romance, contemporary, historical, biography, horse stories, everything.

I do know I started reading Georgette Heyer when I was between 14 and 16...because I remember reading the Infamous Army when I was home with mono and crying my eyes out. There were already 5 or 6 by her on my shelf. I know my youngest sister started reading GH when she was 10 or 12 because that was what we were reading.

Read and collected Whitney, Stewart, Holt, Barbara Michaels, Elizabeth Peters, Etc. etc.

As for Lucy Walker books...I discovered them in a used bookstore in Tuscaloosa Alabama!! in 1980/81. Also found some in a used bookstore in St. Petersburg Florida. At one time I did own all of them but had to reduce Still have A man named Masters..

There was a thing called the Coventry Book Club (I think that was the name) that I joined while I was still in high school. Every 6 weeks or so I'd get a new infusion of romance novels - mainly regency's thought there were also Georgians, Edwardians, Victorians - authors like Mira Stables, Laura Matthews, etc.

Also loved going to the bookstore and looking at all the new Signet Regencies. It was always exciting when I found a new Mary Jo Putney.. Catherine Coulter wrote some really good ones as well.

Looking back over the years...I've basically avoided the "you should read/good literature books" because they were too heavy. Though I did make a concerted effort to read War and Peace about 30 years ago...but finally gave up on it. Grin.

[Kareni]

You're in good company, Vicki. I've yet to make it through War and Peace either!

[Amy J]

I too recall working my way through the Victoria Holt and Jean Plaidy's at the library, along with some Georgette Heyer's....and perhaps Barbara Cartland. But, I feel like my first historical romances were what would probably be considered YA today and bought from the book list flyers at school. They had girls' names as titles (Caroline, Hannah, etc.) and a series look to them (Sunny-something?), but I must have donated my copies to my nieces and so can't come up with the details from my shelves.

[Jeanne Behnke]

Wow - I loved Green Darkness! I loved Katherine too but it didn't hit me the way Green Darkness did. I think I need to re-read it - AGAIN.

[RsReadingCorner]

My first romance novel was Beauty and the Beast by Taylor Ryan that I checked out from the library. My mom would have had a conniption if she had seen it.

After that, I found my way to the Cynster books from Stephanie Laurens and the Carpathian novels from Christine Feehan. Decades later, I still bounce back and forth between paranormal and historical romance.

[Andrea Penrose]

Thanks for mentioning YAs, Amy. There are some really wonderful stories, especially by today's writers, that resonate with younger readers.

[Andrea Penrose]

That's a good point about paranormal having very strong romance elements. Again, it's all about the relationships, no matter if they are between not-quite human creatures!

[Natasha D]

My first romance novel was The Masquerade by Brenda Joyce. A friend in school gave it to me and said I had to read it. Prior to this book I only read various fiction with little romance. The Masquerade was my turning point and I haven't looked back since.

[Susannah]

Mine was Thunder and Roses! I picked it up on a whim at the grocery store, because the beautiful peacock cover caught my eye, and when I read the back, the synopsis sounded intriguing. I was 17 and completely unaware of the genre at the time. To this day, it's still one of my all-time favorite books.