the ask@AAR: What was the first romance novel you read?
While the first romance that ever really registered with me is Sweet, Savage Love (and I attribute that to it being the first book in which the sex was varied and, for the time, explicit), the first romance novel I read was–and I have no idea which–one of Barbara Cartland’s 723 books.
I read hundreds of Cartland’s books and they all blend together now in my head. There’s always a lovely young virginal woman, an older slightly rakish and devastatingly handsome hero, a villain who wants bad things to happen, a scene in a carriage, and at least one kiss that renders our heroine into a proverbial butter pat. Many are under 200 pages, so I, a very speedy reader, could read one a day and my library seemed to have an endless selection.
Once I’d read all the Cartlands, I moved onto Harlequin Presents. They too all blurred together. The man was usually older and sexually experienced, the women longed to cut lose but couldn’t feel good about it without L-O-V-E. There were often arch–and to junior high me somewhat perplexing–descriptions of sex and no heroine ever used birth control or longed for anything but having the hero put a ring on her left hand.
When I turned 13, a older babysitter–who had an inappropriate crush on my dad–gave me Sweet, Savage Love, The Wolf and the Dove, and Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen. By the time I was 15, in 1976, sex was a given in many best-sellers and I’d move away from romance and into salacious best-selling fiction. (I still remember being 15 and reading about sex with a Snickers bar because, really, how could one forget such a scene?)
How about you? What was the first romance you remember reading? What do you remember most about it?
Ashes in the wind, by Kathleen Woodiwiss, in a Spanish translation with copyright of 1984, I think. So I was 13 years old. What I loved most was that the main character was a girl, and not some dude. She had adventures! Disguised as a boy or as a young widow!! And of course, the sexy times were very surprising. I had never read anything like that before. I’m still fond of this story.
First romance? So long ago now but I’m guessing it was a Cartland. So cheesy now and why did all the heroines have a name ending in *A*. I seem to remember it was part of the Cartland algorithm, so to speak. I remember seeing her interviewed several times on TV. Always thought she was dreadful.
I also read a lot of Anya Seton, Mary Stewart, Evelyn Anthony, Barbara Ovstedal, Elizabeth Cadell.
But do tell, what book was the Snickers bar in?
I feel like it was Scruples by Judith Krantz.
Hmm…. I didn’t think I had heard of Barbara Ovstedal, but see that she wrote as Rosalind Laker, who I do remember reading. Thanks for the mention. I sometimes like going back and trying books I missed by some of these older authors.
A lot of her books were serialised in young women’s magazines in the UK. I remember Red Cherry Summer being one. Oh, and ditto Christina Laffeaty who wrote some books about turn of the century Africa and such like. Probably very out of date now. These magazines were where I first found Jilly Cooper
My mom was a Good Housekeeping subscriber. Back then (I don’t know if they still do, because I haven’t picked one up in decades) they included a condensed novel in every issue, usually Regencies, but sometimes a popular bestseller (like Jaws, or maybe its sequel). I remember reading a lot of Regencies from that magazine. Some were Barbara Cartland novels. I wish I could remember names of other Regency authors that were featured, but sadly do not. For some reason, I do still have a vague memory of reading one with a hero named Gareth. It’s funny how memory works.
Does anyone remember the paperback racks at your local libraries? That’s where I would find most of the gothics and romances that I read as a teen. A lot of my go-to authors from the library shelves have already been mentioned, but a few I haven’t seen yet that I remember going back for more include Constance Heaven, Frances Murray, and Susan Howatch (I discovered her gothics before moving on to the family sagas). I loved big, romantic sagas back then, which is probably why I still have a nostalgic kind of fondness for them today.
I think the “Snickers bar” incident may be based on a non-event that was hyped in the tabloid press in the 1960s. Singer Marianne Faithfull was in a relationship with Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones when there was a drug bust at a party being hosted by one of the Stones. Everyone at the party was arrested (iirc, the only thing the police found was pot—and it was later shown that the lead detective had probably planted most of that evidence). Anyway, according to Faithfull’s autobiography (which is quite good and I do recommend it), as they were waiting to be taken away by the police, one of the arrestees pulled a Mars bar from his pocket and started eating it. Somehow, this minor incident was blown up to become a full-fledged “rock star orgy with chocolate bar” when the story later appeared in the tabloid newspapers.
No–I really read it! I’ll go look for it!
It’s a love scene in a book between a young woman with very little sexual experience and an older man with a candy bar fetish. He puts it inside her and eats it….
Oh no, I’m not saying the story didn’t appear in a book, I’m just saying that whoever wrote that book probably got the idea for the candy bar scene from the completely outlandish story that was reported in the press after the Stones’ drug bust. Kinda similar to a well-known urban legend regarding a certain actor and a gerbil. If a similar scene showed up in a book (in which case, ugh!), we’d know where the author got that idea.
Got it!
My first adult romance was Wade Dynasty by Carole Mortimer and I still have a copy!! It hasn’t totally held up well over time but I love it all the same. I even sometimes get it out for a re-read. When I was younger I read all the Sweet Dreams and Cheerleaders (still my favourite) which started me downt the path of romance reader.
My first “hardcore” romance was No Darkness For Love by Barbara Cartland. I was about 13 or 14, and babysitting. There was a stash of Glamour magazines and Cartland romances in the closet along with the clothes and diapers. It was a regular weekly gig, and I was told I could borrow anything I liked as long as I brought it back. At first, I was amazed! But it didn’t take very long to figure out that both (the magazines and the Cartland romances) were created by rote formula and I was soon bored. I almost never looked at another fashion magazine or romance ever again (although I did buy my own copy of No Darkness For Love – because a teenage girl can certainly relate to those moments of extreme longing. I just didn’t see the point of reading a different romance.)
Fortunately, years later, I was required to read a category or “marketed as a romance” title for a library class (Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy). I enjoyed it enough that I had to admit I had been (just possibly) short-sighted in judging the entire genre based on one author’s oeuvre. ;-)
I just saw that Kindle Daily Deals for Sat, June 12th include a boxed set of Phyllis A. Whitney books for $3.99. It includes Hunter’s Green, Dream of Orchids, and The Winter People. I don’t remember if I’d read these, but she’s been mentioned several ties in this thread, so just FYI.
There is a link here on AAR’s main page under Steals and Deals.
I definitely remember reading The Winter People back in junior high or so. I can’t say I loved it because to me it wasn’t super romantic but more creepy but I remember being surprised by it because it didn’t follow what I thought of as a romance formula.
The first romance was Anne Stuarts “The Demon Count”, I can´t remember how old I was exactly, about teenagerish I think.
Actually it was due to a school assignment, where we had to compare “classical” (highbrow”) novels with- well, lowbrow or “trivial” books. So my friend and me chose a historical romance, which seemed to fit the bill. Yeah, our teacher was an ass. He meant to show us, that only a special kind of literature was worthy of our attention.
That of course totally backfired for me. I started reading the book, all determined to look for the flaws, I was supposed to find, but ended up devouring the book in one day and -once I finished it- start to read it all over again. I fell head over heals and was hooked on romance novels for life.
I LOVE this story.
Agree! There is a column (in an Amazon catalog) by author Kwame Alexander in which he maintains that there are no reluctant readers, just readers who’ve not been given the right reading material. He shares his own experience about loving to read as a little kid but losing interest by 10 or 11 when forced to read school-assigned books and boring “classics” that his father picked for him. At some point, he stumbled across a memoir by Muhammad Ali (a hero of his), and Alexander’s loathing for reading disappeared. He claims to have sat down and read that 458-page book that day, in what was essentially a single session. What passionate reader cannot relate??
My first romance was a Harlequin Romance but I did read a few… Barbara Cartland books…in my teen years. I would love to go back and read that first Harlequin again just for fun, but I can only visualize the face of the heroine and the deep blue of the cover. I can’t recall the author, but I read that book until the pages fell out.
What called to you about the story?
Up until the time I read that first Harlequin, I had been a mystery reader fueled by my years of reading Trixie Belden as a young reader, and mysteries from my school and public libraries. That book was my first taste of adult toned romance that had the heat of attraction. I was hooked. Like other readers in this thread, I dug it out of a box of give-always belonging to my mother’s friend.
The title probably won’t matter Lea. Any Cartland will likely do . . . she had a very rigid formula for her books.
I went back a few years ago to reread what had been my favorite Cartland. It’s like rereading your girlish diaries: mostly squirm-inducing. It can be fun to go back to those moments in time for a few minutes, but I envy the readers below whose first “romances” were the quality of Bet Me or Mr. Impossible!
An Irresistible Impulse by Billie Douglas (AKA Barbara Delinsky). It’s a Harlequin Superomance and I read a lot of those when i was a teen!
My childhood was in the 70s and my pre-teen/teen years in the 80s. We weren’t that well-to-do and my parents didn’t believe in buying books when they could be had for free at the library. I grew up reading books from the children’s section that would probably be classified as YA now. My favorites were the ones with strong romantic elements – the later volumes of Little House on the Prairie, the Anne of Green Gable series, Constance (which had a love triangle to die for!), and The Witch of Blackbird Pond. I probably read my first romances about age 12-13 years and they were category romances. I remember my library had several of those stand-up revolving carousels full of them. My mother, bless her, never restricted my reading. She didn’t even look at what I was checking out but just patiently sat at a library table while I wandered around picking my books. My library also had these fabulous book sales where you could take a brown paper grocery bag and fill it up with all the books it could hold for one dollar! I remember liking Harlequin series better than Silhouette and my favorites were Harlequin Presents because they were sexier and had more exotic locations. I also liked the Signet Regency romances. I read a few Barbara Cartlands but didn’t care for her heroines and plots. From category romances I graduated on to longer books by authors such as Catherine Coulter, Julie Garwood, and Jude Deveraux. I think my first Julie Garwood was The Lion’s Lady and my first Jude Deveraux was her Velvet quartet. Wow, this question really brings out the nostalgia!
“Constance, A Story of Early Plymouth” was the best book ever! I could practically recite it by heart I read it so many times. Nicolas Snow was the best even though he called Constance a “sweet shrew” after she told him off for singing that pumpkin song, lol. That was a pretty “racy” book for a teen pilgrim book- Constance did a lot of smooching. It forever changed my idea of what the Puritans were like.
Patricia Clapp was great- her book “Jane-Emily” was another favorite of mine with a romance and a genuine, evil and scary child ghost.
I think we are kindred spirits, chrisreader! Constance is a great example of the enemies-to-lovers trope, which remains one of my favorites to this day. Maybe Constance’s influence?
Jane-Emily scared the bejeezus out of me.
I have never read this! I’m going to put it on my “I hope it goes on sale list.”
https://amzn.to/35dEUWZ
You won’t regret it!
We are Manjari! just like Anne and Diana, lol.
I can’t tell you how much I adored that Jane-Emily was actually scary and it wasn’t sanitized for “kids”.
Patricia Clapp was actually married to a descendant of Nicolas Snow which I always thought was cool.
He was real? I didn’t know that!
They both were! And all the “facts” of the story were true. the Teds did have a duel (though I am not sure it was over Constance) and all the family related data and events at Plymouth all happened. Constance did marry Nicolas etc. Of course as there are no pictures no one knows what she looked like (or him or even where they are exactly buried) but a hat supposedly belonging to her is at Pligrim Hall in Plymouth and I was very excited when I saw it there years ago!
http://www.capecodgravestones.com/easthampixweb/snow77cove.html
Oh man I loved Constance!! I must have checked out and read that book dozens of times. Thanks for the warm and fuzzy memory :).
Reading the comments, I was reading books we’d now consider romance earlier than I had thought (Sunfire, Mrs. Mike, Sweet Valley High, really early Robyn Carr historicals), but they weren’t classified as romance. I was reading those by 9 or 10. The first Romance book (with a capital R) I remember reading was a Zebra historical set in Texas in the 1830s when I was probably 14 in the late 80s — the hero and heroine were Matthew and Mariah and it was so Adult. It had the typical clinch cover and I absolutely loved it. I naively thought that all books by the same publisher would be just as great (ha!!), but gradually branched out and discovered other books through my library and many trips to my local Waldenbooks.
My parents never said no to books, and trips to the library were routine (the bookmobile also plugged into our house for a while when I was a kid — heaven!). I was checking books out of the adult section by the time I was 11 or 12.
Me too. I used to go to my grandparents’ house in the middle of rural Virginia each summer for two weeks. The library was across the street and I’d check out 15 adult books each week. It was heaven, having the library so close. At home, my mom was so busy with four kids–we’d go to the library but they had a limit for how many books you could take at a time so I ended up, by the time I was 9 or 10, simply reading whatever my parents were. I also, when babysitting, would always snoop through the racy books there and look for the “good parts.”
Ah, the utterly unsupervised 60s and 70s…..
Same here! I started babysitting in the early 1970s and one couple I babysat for had an enormous quantity of books that I knew my parents would NEVER read (my mom was an avid reader, but murder-mysteries and suspense were her go-to’s): THE SENSUOUS WOMAN, THE HAPPY HOOKER, lots of erotica—right out there in the open on their bookshelves. Quite eye-opening to my innocent 13/14-year-old self! Of course, in a couple of years, I’d be reading MY SECRET GARDEN, FEAR OF FLYING, and SWEET SAVAGE LOVE—all of which I purchased with my babysitting money—lol!
Right there with you, sister!
Yep! I would check out 10-15 books at the library and another 10-15 at the Bookmobile. They asked my mom if it was ok I checked out that many, and she said “yep, she’ll be done with them in a few days!”. My parents were avid readers as well — I taught myself to read when I was about 4 out of self defense.
Me too!!!
When my kids were growing up and I was homeschooling, I was so fortunate to have a branch library literally around the corner in the neighborhood where we live. We walked there several times a week, and when the kids got older, they went whenever they wanted. My oldest even volunteered there when she was a teen. The county eventually build larger, better equipped regional libraries so it moved about 10 minutes away, but still close enough for weekly visits. I’m really fortunate to live in a county that prioritizes it’s library system even though it’s not the richest county in the area.
When my kids were growing up we had a Christmas tradition called “the everything box” (it was usually more than one box) where we put presents that were for the family, like videos, games, and books. Those presents were everyone’s favorite.
Wow, I wish I’d thought of that!
I stole the idea off a homeschool forum! We were always on a budget that limited the “extras” we bought during the year. And we wanted to get things but not have “ownership” issues. We gave other presents to each child, but we tried to make Christmas more about family and birthdays all about the child. Honestly, I loved buying books, movies, and games on sale throughout the year and hoarding them until Christmas! Early on I bought a lot of it at yard sales or library book sales, stuff like that. The kids didn’t mind that it was used. One year I found the Little House on the Prairie series at a yard sale, a little beat up, but still very readable. I was so excited! I only had to buy one or two books to complete the set. We still have that set! :-)
It was so long ago, I don’t really remember what the first romance I read was. I do remember reading a lot of Victoria Holt/Jean Plaidy/Phillippa Carr books as well as Anya Seton, and of course Daphne du Maurer. I was into “Gothic” romance when I was a teenager. You know the ones where the innocent young woman went to work at the isolated and eerie manor house where she met the handsome hero and mysterious things started to happen, usually caused by either the evil step brother or invalid wife. I don’t remember many of the authors’ names (ancient history now). The Anya Seton and Daphne du Maurer books have held up well over time although most people now would not strictly consider them romance. But back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, they were marketed as romance and you could find them in the romance section of libraries and bookstores. I did download the kindle version of a few Phillippa Carr books with the intent of rereading them someday. The Lion Triumphant was always a favorite so I am interested in seeing how well that book holds up after all these years.
Let us know!
My first was that Woodiwiss classic Shanna. I was 10, it was the mid-1980s and the huge doorstop of a book belonged to my mother. She found me reading it and took it away but I managed to surreptitiously finish it anyway. Fifteen years later I came across it at the library and peeked inside out of nostalgia and of course I found it completely unreadable. Even the first page was so floridly written!
But I do remember the feel of being wrapped up in the emotions of the characters, which is what I still seek out in romance today. Unfortunately that feeling is a lot harder for authors to conjure up in my jaded older self (and my standards for the writing are much higher) than it was back in my teens when any old (parent-approved) Sweet Dreams or Sweet Valley High book could do it.
My first romantic novel was Amanda from the Scholastic Sunfire series. The Sunfire books were set during a historical event and the heroine was always torn between two potential heroes. The books only went as far as kisses since the heroines were teenagers.
All the Sunfire books had heroines overcoming adversity to find love and a HEA. I loved those books.
I *loved* the Sunfire books when I was young. My first one was Jessica (my name) and I promptly found as many as I could. I kept them for years, more out of nostalgia, but oh I loved those books — the combination of history and romance *sigh*.
I used to read the “Wildfire” modern teen books that I think were affiliated with the Sunfire ones with titles like “That’s My Girl”, “Dreams Can Come True” and “Dance With Me”. They also had strong heroines who had to learn lessons along the way and a lot of good old fashioned teen romance.
I know I’m an old fuddy-duddy but I feel like young people today have had so much of the romance stripped out of everything. I truly feel this must be the hardest time to be growing up with social media, the internet and this constant comparing of yourself to everyone else- people on Tik Tok, Instagram, you tube as well as movies and TV. It’s just constant overload.
I have faith. My 25 year old daughter and her friends have started a romance book club. None of them were romance readers but they decided to add some light joy into their lives. There first book was A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore. About it, my daughter said:
and she wants to read Hattie’s book! (I’ve read it and it’s my favorite of the three.) And all her friends watch Virgin River and Bridgerton.
I just hope that young people still get the chance to be optimistic, happy, and a bit goofy when they are young. I feel like our generation did them a disservice by pushing so much anti-hero, “cool” behaviors in books, TV and movies. Sometimes a little sappy sweetness is fine too.
I’m so happy that your daughter and her friends are experiencing the fun and joy of romance novels. I think we would all be better off if everyone (especially boys and men) were taught to celebrate romance more. Love is good for everyone.
Yes! Sorry I missed your mention of Constance Heaven before I commented. I still love several of her books today (esp those that took place in Russia, the history is very good from what I can remember). I wish more of hers were digitized.
I won’t rehash everything I’ve written at AAR before about how I originally came to romance from the negative perspective of a mercenary looking for a get rich quick scheme. But, in short, reading my first ever romance novel put me on the positive path of conversion toward respecting the genre as a whole. It was Captured by Beverly Jenkins, a story that kept me up late into the night, turning the digital pages. For that, I’ll always be grateful to Ms. Jenkins.
Everyone comes to romance through their own route and in their own time. If all our stories were the same how boring would that be?
Aw, thanks for the nice reply, Chrisreader.
Skimming through all the comments, it looks like most of the people here (not all) discovered romance in their early teen years and have been hooked ever since.
I think our reasons for devouring romance vary too, which is great. For me, the appeal consists of exploring genres I love, particularly historical fiction and science fiction, with a guaranteed HEA. At this point in my life, I don’t have room for downers. I generally don’t want to read anything that is touted as “edifying” or “meaningful” because that usually translates to “depressing slop.” By “meaningful,” I mean that annoying cultural insistence that anything with a happy ending is somehow less significant or worthy of praise or some other such nonsense. Yes, there’s definitely room for dark stuff with sad endings. But I don’t want it. More and more, downer endings come across to me as nihilist. If the good guys don’t triumph, I don’t even see the point in reading it.
Heh heh. Sorry for the tangent. This is the fairly new romance convert among veterans speaking. ;-)
I was just explaining to my oldest son how I think HBO’s greatest show are The Wire and Six Feet Under NOT Game of Thrones and The Sopranos. The latter have such a dark view of humanity and so glorify violence and discord. By the end of both shows, there was no one I was rooting for. And while The Wire is sad, it has several hopeful storylines and so many characters you longed for them to thrive. Six Feet Under, whose ending is considered modern TV’s greatest, is about connection. Every single lead character, even those like Nate and Brenda who are less easily likeable, is given love and support and almost everyone on the show becomes a better person over time.
I love that about romance novels, I don’t want to have to spend my time anxious reading a book wondering if there’s going to be some jarring ending.
I was so excited for the movie “Last Christmas” a couple (or few) years ago because I really like Emilia Clarke and I think Henry Golding is an absolute dreamboat. He was made to be in rom coms and I was so hyped up for their pairing and a fun Christmas movie. Well I won’t spoil anything here in case people still don’t know, but me (and a few million other people) got suspicious after watching the trailer too many times and sussed out the big “twist” which turned out to be true.
Needless to say the movie was not the blockbuster people were expecting because it was a big old bait and switch. Why drag people into the theatre expecting a happy rom com and hit them with something else? I don’t get it.
Romance novels are my “sure thing”.
The first book in my reading log that I recorded as a romance is Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer (read in August 1992, in my 30s), though I think many of her books were not published as genre romances. I think I read a Heyer book the year before and failed to log it, because my memory is that I first read Heyer on a train trip when I didn’t have any of my usual F&SF handy, and the Sprig Muslin read was nowhere near a train trip. I read F&SF for many years before that, and preferentially enjoyed many F&SF books with romantic threads. Restoree by Anne McCaffrey is (published as) SF, but it could just as easily be called SFR, and my earliest logged reading of that was in 1976, but probably not my first reading since it was published in 1967. I only started my reading log in 1975, and I can’t recall which of many romantic thread SF books might have been my first.
This will date me. The earliest “romance” I recall was in Copper’s Chance and Golden Sovereign, horse stories where the girl had a boyfriend she could count on for help. As a teen, I considered The Moonspinners a romance. The first books actually labeled romances I read were the Cartlands and Signet regencies and a few Heyer, like Faro’s Daughter and Devil’s Cub. I read historicals by Woodiwiss, McBain, Lindsay, Garwood, McNaught. as they were published. I recall reading and just despising Sweet Savage Love and Love’s Tender Fury? back in the day. Historical romance is still my fav genre — Laurens, Balogh, Kleypas, James, Linden, Long, etc.
Forever by Judy Blume and many Harlequin Presents as they were in the unlimited donation bin at my library. Maybe the librarian thought I was getting them for my grandma?
Judy Blume is one of my heroes.
I finally read Forever just this year! After so many decades I got to see what the hype was about.
Forever was the book passed around secretly amongst the fifth graders at my elementary school!
probably twilight-i still have a soft spot for the first book. as for explicit romance-maybe judith macnaught’s whitney, my love or a kingdom of dreams. my copy of whitney included the whipping scene but even then, macnaught’s writing was enough to keep me going. does barbara taylor bradford count as romance? many of her books have romances at their centre
Paradise was my first Judith McNaught contemporary and I loved it. I think my first Judith McNaught historical was A Kingdom of Dreams because I really loved medievals back in the day. It is one of my favorites by her.
Stephenie Meyer gets a lot of criticism but I totally credit her with the renaissance of YA literature in the early 2000s – I enjoyed the Twilight saga and she got me reading YA again. I thought she was especially good at creating a sense of place in that series.
Meyer’s books, especially the early ones, were terrific reads!
I worked in a junior high school library around the time TWILIGHT and subsequent books were released—and I always think of them as “gateway to reading” books, much in the same way that the Harry Potter books encouraged kids to continue reading after they’d finished the series. There were so many girls (not to mention a few boys) who loved those books—we always had a huge hold list for them. Somewhat o/t, but here’s my favorite exchange I had with one of the students who adored TWILIGHT and couldn’t wait for the movie:
Me: “Don’t expect the movie to be completely true to the book. I remember how disappointed I was the first time I saw GONE WITH THE WIND and they changed the book so much.”
Student: “GONE WITH THE WIND was a book?”
Yes to everything about Twilight and Lol to the story.
Totally agree about Stephenie Meyer. I don’t know why she and Twilight annoy so many people. I enjoyed Twilight and I know a lot of people who weren’t “readers” who read all the books.
Even if she wasn’t my cup of tea I would still stand up for her. I don’t know why women are always getting the hard time, there are plenty of male authors who write far worse stuff than she does.
I’m also a fan of the first Twlight movie as well, it has a fantastic look and, as you say about the book, sense of place. Catherine Hardwick did an amazing job on a not very big budget and basically cast and created that whole world that they handed off to male directors after she made it a hit. OK rant over.
Catherine Hardwicke has a great visual style. The Twilight books are very hard to translate to screen, in my opinion, as they are largely internal (a lot of thoughts feelings, not to mention mind-reading).
I bought the book she did about the creation of the movie, her mood boards, design ideas etc. I loved it. The whole blue tint to the movie really works as well to set the mood and tone. I think it’s a really underrated work.
The Girl at Goldenhawk by violet winspear was my very first romance novel ever. Duque Pedro was my ideal man for about 2 years but I moved on.
I loved all Victoria holt/jean plaidy/philippa carr novels too.
Like so many of you, I was around 12 or 13 when I first read a romance novel. I believe it was a Harlequin, very chaste, a small step up from Nancy Drew. My next recollection of a genuine romance novel is The Wolf and the Dove, which my mom had lying around. That was an eye opener! I’m pretty sure I also read Sweet Savage Love. But I did not stick around the romance genre after that— I had a big Shakespeare phase, then Jane Austen, then literary fiction of all kinds with a sprinkling of women’s fiction, biographies, fantasy, sci fi, etc. I went through big LOTR and Harry Potter phases. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I returned to romance during a stressful time in my life. In my re-introduction I chained from Jane Austen to Georgette Heyer to Mary Balogh and so on. It’s been fun discovering the variety within this genre and some genuinely good writing and creativity. It’s really helpful to have this site and all you readers providing great reviews and recommendations!
Although they weren’t labeled romances,I guess I started with books by Victoria Holt and others in high school. But I think the mystery aspect of them was as big a draw as the romance. I was an avid reader of mysteries for decades, like Elizabeth George, Margery Allingham, Anne Perry, Josephine Tey, etc. I always enjoyed the books more if there was a relationship aspect to it, and that lead me to more romantic mystery series (Earlene Fowler’s Benni Harper books) as well as sci-fi and fantasy. I didn’t read straight romances until my 50’s except for Jane Austen who I found in my 40’s. I started reading romantic suspense ie, Linda Howard and Jayne Ann Krent, as well as Stephanie Bond, Janet Evanovich and Suzanne Brockmann around 2008. Since then I’ve moved from reading mainly contemporary romantic suspense to reading wider in the romance world. I read my first Georgette Heyer in 2008, I think. That lead me to try some other historical romances, but while I’ve read quite a few, I still haven’t read the number or variety of historical romances most romance readers my age have. :-) And since I didn’t “grow up” on old skool romances, they’ve never held any appeal to me.
Someone recommended Linda Howard to me as well because I liked Barbara Michaels and other romantic suspense and mystery books. The first book of hers I read was “Now You See Her” which is one of her lesser known books but is a sentimental favorite of mine.
I read Linda Howard in the 2000s as well as Suzanne Brockmann. Loved them both back then although I haven’t kept up with their more recent books. I loved Linda Howard’s After the Night, although really it is not politically correct at all. I also liked To Die For. I liked how Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooters series had multiple storylines past and present.
I was obsessed with Suzanne Brockmann’s stuff for many years. I loved the series then Troubleshooters books. I think Over The Edge and Out Of Control were her two best books.
My mother read mysteries, so my first introduction to “romance” was likely Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt. I confess to reading Pride and Prejudice at least a dozen times before it was assigned reading in school; then I discovered Georgette Heyer and read all of hers, at some point after that (1968ish) I found Harlequin and Barbara Cartland. I can’t remember a specific book, though.
I think the first romance I read was, like Jendownunder, Georgette Heyer’s Powder and Patch. I got it from the school library around the time of my 12th birthday.
I was at boarding school and went on to read a lot of Heyer, Mary Stewart, Frank Yerby and Jean Plaidy from the school library, together with a lot of Barbara Cartland and Mills and Boons that we bought and shared around. The Angelique and Jalna books were also popular with my friends. I had my nose in a book the whole time but the teachers thought I was studying, which was great until public exam time!
I loved all of those Cartland’s at the time but find the writing very florid now. I went for Mills and Boons that were in ‘exotic’ settings, was particularly partial to the ones set on sheep farms in Australia (I don’t know why, I’d have been useless there!) and avoided all the Nurse ones. I can’t remember the names of any of the authors as I don’t think I took any notice at the time.
I did read a fair amount of classics at the time, often in class, but I never liked the Brontes.
In the school holidays I joined my parents in the Middle East and read books off their bookshelves, which were mainly Harold Robbins and Wilbur Smith type books. Looking back, my take on what was happening in the sex scenes in them was a hoot!
I do not remember what my first romance was but I know that early romance reading was a mix of the extremely safe – my aunt would give me bags of early harlequins and regencies that she’d buy at the thrift store, so very chaste really (other then all the longing – and the very not safe, Harold Robbins, Rosemary Rogers, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Sidney Sheldon given to preteen me by my older sister. Lots of stuff in those I had no clue about sexually speaking, but oh the drama!
There is one that I remember buying for myself and just loving – and have not been able to find it to this day. It was titled Kathleen (I think) and had the auburn haired (could have been raven haired) heroine on a black horse on the cover. It was about a wealthy young woman from New York who has family member(s) who want to kill her for the inheritance, so she’s run away out west and taken a job as the governess for a wealthy widower guy. Of course she falls for her boss and he her and someone’s found her and is trying to kill her and widower’s family has some schemers too. I remember reading it all in one sitting and just being enthralled.
Reread it many times at the time and then lost track of it and to this day have not been able to find it again.
I’m pretty sure my first one was a romance story in an Encore Romances paperback, which was a thick mass market paperback reprinting three MacFadden Romances. (Or it might have been in a Treasures of Love book, which was also a reprint line.) Whatever it was, the story was set in England and was very mild. Boy, were we happy to see lines like Silhouette Desire come up as an alternative later! :)
But before long, I was reading The Flame and the Flower and Sweet, Savage Love!
I had read a ton of Barbara Cartland books as well. There’s absolutely nothing explicit about them, it’s all a few kisses and fade to black then the morning after. I read them mostly for the gown descriptions as much as anything which I still maintain are the best parts of the books.
The first romances I read with any “action” in them were very early Silhouette Desires I borrowed from an older relative. That was my introduction to Jayne Ann Krentz when she was “Stephanie James” and young Chrisreader found the books super racy and the heroines very daring- although there were too many vague euphemisms.
“Ashes In The Wind” was the first racy historical I read filled with all kinds of improbable drama and angst by Kathleen Woodiwiss including the old “beautiful young girl passing as a boy trope” and a Civil War background. Although to be fair the heroine isn’t a spoiled southern belle (despite being southern) and spends her time working in a “Yankee” army hospital and falls for the Union army surgeon who thinks she’s a boy.
Compared to modern romances there’s probably very little explicit content but at the time I thought it was wonderfully scandalous.
SWEET SAVAGE LOVE was the first sexually-explicit bodice-ripper I read, but as for first romance, I’m stumped because romance tended to be part of most books marketed to girls and women back then (early 1970s), although not always the central focus. I can remember reading lots of gothics (mostly by Victoria Holt) and historical fiction (Anya Seton’s KATHERINE being my favorite, but many other authors too—Jean Plaidy, Norah Lofts, Margaret Campbell Barnes, etc.); teen romances by writers like Betty Cavanna and Rosamond du Jardin (I still have my Scholastic Book Club copy of WAIT FOR MARCY); the books every girls of my generation read—GONE WITH THE WIND, JANE EYRE, PRIDE & PREJUDICE, etc. Even many of the murder-mysteries I grabbed from my mom’s shelves had romantic subplots. So I can’t name a pre-SWEET SAVAGE LOVE romance that I read—but I know there must have been one. Sort of the Ur-Hamlet of my reading life—there was one but we’ll never find it.
I, too, have never read a Barbara Cartland.
It was so clear to me that Gone with the Wind, Wuthering Heights, and Anna Karenina–all of which I read the summer I turned ten–were NOT romances. I’ve always preferred–in those somewhat female centric stories–ones where love prevailed!
My first was Jane Austen pride and prejudice in school and all her titles after that. but much later Bet me by Jennifer Crusie and after that I read more by her. Bet me was a revelation. Completely compelling to me, still one of my favorite books ever. I then discovered lists via Google of the best romances and authors and tried many.
“Bet Me” has to be the funniest romance novel I have ever read. I literally was laughing out loud reading it. It’s just a treasure.
You are lucky that your first(s) were such great books!
Well, I read Mary Stewart back when her books were new. They weren’t called romance, just fiction. And I read some of Elizabeth Peters’ Amanda Peabody books. They were in the Mystery section. I don’t think I read anything that was officially labeled Romance until after I was retired and looking for something cheerful. A friend said I should try Romance, so I picked up Mr. Impossible. I haven’t stopped since.
That’s a lovely story!
Again, another great first choice!
Great topic! I suppose a lot of responses will depend on your age, where you live (or lived) and maybe what your mother read. My mother (a voracious reader) read to me in the womb I think as I was born holding a book – or so she used to tell me! She belonged to the DoubleDay Book Club in the 1950s and one book of hers in particular stands out in my memory: The Devil’s Laughter by Frank Yerby. Other early romances were Mrs Mike, Jubilee Trail, GWTW, the Angelique books by Sergeanne Golon (behind my mother’s back as they were hers and “naughty”) and, of course, Pride and Prejudice, at age 12 in school. The first “category romance” I recall reading was a M&B copy of Sister Peters in Amsterdam by Betty Neels.
Oh I loved Mrs. Mike. AND Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, all of Judy Blume, and any other books that had girls who fell in love storylines. But I didn’t really consider them romances because, I suspect, society called them fiction.
I have both Mrs. Mike and Mr and Mrs Bo Jo Jones on my shelves too! I’ve read so many romances that just fade into the woodwork. But a handful stand out; and while neither of these were “romances” in the classic sense, they were wildly romantic reads to me. Reread the Bo Jo Jones a year or so ago FYI – just had to see how it stood the test of time. It is very much a story of its time (the 60s) and I doubt any teens today could relate. But it sure worked in its day!
I’d love to read it again. I wish it were on Kindle!
I definitely read novels with a romantic component when I was 11-12 years old, and my favourites were Jane Austen, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and the Anne of Green Gables series. I read my first ‘proper’ romance novel when I was 17, and it was Lisa Kleypas, ‘Secrets of a Summer Night’. I was staying over at my cousin’s house and she didn’t have a huge collection of books. I picked it up out of sheer boredom, and wasn’t hugely impressed (although I later discovered some of Kleypas’ other books and absolutely loved them). I really disliked the heroine and the plot was not particularly interesting. That put paid to my ‘romance reading’ for a while. Then when I was 18 and rushing to make a flight, I accidentally picked up Something Wonderful, by Judith McNaught at the airport bookshop (I meant to read another book). The book was funny and moving, and it sparked my interest in romance novels. Having no idea what books to read, I searched on the internet and stumbled upon AAR. The rest is history!
The best thing about that Kleypas is the scene that’s been cut! (the stolen kiss at the beginning)
I agree. I think that scene’s actually important to how the story pans out. He has ALWAYS been drawn to her, even though she’s so vile to him!
I’ve got the old audio of the book and it is terrific.
I’m so irked that scene is gone!
I honestly can’t remember much of that Kleypas, but I did like the scene in the closet! Overall though, I just thought that the hero deserved much better than the heroine. I got tired of hearing how beautiful she was lol.
I realized that AAR reviewed this book, and I perfectly concur with the reviewer: Simon Hunt is the bright spot in the book, but Annabelle is not likeable.
https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/secrets-of-a-summer-night-by-lisa-kleypas/
Like commenter Lilly, mine was a book with a “strong romantic component” – Pride and Prejudice! And I also remember reading an M&B Betty Neels around the same time, but I’m buggered if I can remember the title now. I was twelve or thirteen. It didn’t really make a romance reader of me though – I was more into historical fiction (I was addicted to Jean Plaidy and maintain to this day that I learned more history from her books than I ever did in school!) – and then into literary classics – Austen, Dickens, Trollope etc. I did read most of Georgette Heyer’s books in my twenties, I read Victoria Holt (aka Plaidy) and I read the odd historical romance (I fondly remember Annette Mottley’s The Quickenberry Tree and in the 80s, I discovered Stella Riley) but I really didn’t become a dedicated romance reader until I was in my forties. And by then (I’m 57 now) the era of the 70s/80s bodice ripper was mostly over, so I never really experienced that kind of “old skool” romances. Also – and I’ve said this before – the romance market seems to be very different in the UK; I’d be surprised if books like Sweet Savage Love were widely available here – they’d have probably been imports and thus expensive.
Of course, we had the bonk-busters of Jilly Cooper and Jackie Collins, but they were never my thing.
I’ve never read a Barbara Cartland either!
The first adult romance I read was my Mum’s copy of Georgette Heyer’s Powder and Patch. I then read all of the Heyer books on my Mum’s bookshelf, and then spent my pocket money on as many of her other titles that I could get my hands on.
I don’t know if it classifies as a romance novel but the first book I read with a strong romance component was Jane Eyre.
I was ten years old and I was reading several books that my grandmother gave me such as “Little Princess” and “Heidi” (I was outraged when the book ended and Peter and Heidi did not get married when they grew up lol) then I found Jane Eyre and my 10 year old heart said “I think I like it when a story ends with a couple living happily.”
Me too! I loved the romance between Laura and Almanzo although years later when I found out the age difference, I saw them differently. And although I never wanted to be Jane, my favorite Gothic as a young person was Jane Eyre due to the romance.
I’ve always wondered if Laura married Almanzo partly because she didn’t like teaching. Having one of her daughters become a teacher was Laura’s mother’s dream—and (until she became blind) Mary was actually the daughter who wanted to be a teacher. Reading between the lines, Laura only became a teacher because Mary couldn’t. So when a marriage prospect presented itself to Laura—viola! I’m not saying Laura didn’t love Almanzo, but it also meant she no longer had to teach—and I suspect that was an incentive.
I think Almanzo was personally very attractive in looks and personality and situation but he also represented a stable man Laura could depend on (compared to IMHO her beloved but kind of flighty Pa).
He was good looking, a local hero for getting wheat for the town, comparatively well off, and he had been “courting” Laura for years really in his own way. I think he showed her he really was a man she could count on.
I don’t think there is just one reason for her decision as you say, and I am sure not having to teach was some factor in a long list of “pluses” on the side of marrying Almanzo.
I loved Laura and Almanzo and “These Happy Golden Years” was a major re-read of mine. I loved that Laura told him off when he let that other girl come buggy riding with them. Laura and her “temper” (compared to perfect blonde, placid sister Mary) was like a real life Jo March except with (for me) a much happier ending.
I think Almanzo was considered quite a “catch” in their town when Laura was a teen. Remember him and his brother Royal all cozy eating pancakes while half the town was starving? He was also a hero for going after the wheat too.
If you look at the pictures of him and Laura they were quite a good looking couple. I don’t find it hard to believe Laura was genuinely attracted to him for his looks and his personality.
I always thought it was romantic that he kept driving all that way every week to drive Laura home when he knew how homesick she was. She even says something to him (I don’t remember the words) but basically says he’s not going to get anything out of driving her so he may as well stop coming but he shows up next week anyway.
I am totally team Almanzo and Laura!
Me too!
I do think Laura disliked teaching. There just weren’t opportunities for her to do anything else. That being said, I am convinced that Almanzo was sexy and I adored the way he romanced Laura.
Yes poor Laura seemed to be the one that had to do all the tough jobs like twisting hay with Pa, hand sewing all the buttonholes for the lady who made shirts, teaching and living with the crazy/abusive couple etc. etc.
LOL, Almanzo **was** sexy with his “blue eyes that stood out in his deeply tanned face”. I remember being so disappointed with the TV show Almanzo who, even as a girl, I knew was goofy and NOT sexy at all.
There were actually several sequels to Heidi. I can’t remember much about the plot of the sequels, but I do remember that she does marry Peter in one of the later books. The sequels were written by Johanna Spyri’s French translator, not Ms. Spyri herself.
Interesting.
Yes! I read one of them I could finally be happy hahaha.
Behold my secret shame.
The first romance I ever read was a historical bodice-ripper called The Pirate’s Lady, by Kay McMahon. I was sixteen, and it was the church thrift store (you always remember where the first time was). Normally I bought science fiction and fantasy novels, but I was hormonal and the torrid blurb made me curious. I still remember the clinch cover where the heroine wore green eyeshadow and a shirt tied off over her midriff.
What I remember about the book are the sex scenes, which were ludicrously purple by today’s standards (a description of simultaneous orgasm was, “They explored the celestial spheres as one”). Then again, my previous exposure to sex was Gone with the Wind‘s fade-to-black, so this seemed incredibly raunchy and exciting in comparison. I also remember the story being a compilation of every cliche imaginable and then some.
Looking back, I’m still not sure why my parents allowed me to buy this. They had the boys-will-distract-my-daughter-from-the-pursuit-of-academic-greatness mentality common to a lot of Asian parents, and were extremely controlling as a result. But maybe they figured it was better for me to read about sex than have it.
I am always fascinated by stories where people had forbidden books. I was allowed to read anything at any age–I wonder if I’d have been different as a person and a reader if I hadn’t read all these super adult books as a child.
My parents always let me read anything I wanted. My mom got mad at teachers who wouldn’t let me read adult fiction for special book reports. They and my pastor called my romance choices “purple passion” books. I never felt shamed for my reading choices.
My parents were very strict about going places, sleepovers etc. but from the time I could read, I read whatever I could find and whatever I wanted. They said no to about 90% of the toys I would ask for but I don’t ever remember them saying no to a book, even once.
Our family vacations that involved cross country driving was punctuated by frequent stops at any book store I spied in our travels as I was always trying to hunt down books in whatever series I was plowing through at the time.
I think my parents knew it was a good deal for them because I was the kind of kid you could toss a new book at and I would be quiet for the entire many day drive as long as I had fresh reading material.
Another reader whose parents (really, Mom) let me read anything I wanted, whenever I wanted with one exception: The Exorcist. It was hugely popular, I was about 13, and my Mom was concerned that the portrayal of the devil would give me nightmares (I’ve never liked horror stories). Of course, I found the book hidden in her sock drawer and read all the salacious parts while she was at work. I didn’t get what all the excitement was about but at least I was “in the know”.
That movie was genuinely terrifying.