AAR

[Sira]

Hi there everyone, I've been reading romance novels for years. I can remember my first novel was a Mills and Boon, over the years the covers changed with which I couldn't keep up with and still can't.

As I'm searching for past novels that I've read, I cant find them based on the covers i remember them from.

Are the M&B, Harlequin and Silhouette all the same ? When i visit the harlequin website I see Silhouette and M&B titles there.

[KayWebbHarrison]

Hello, Sira,

I am not sure of the exact business relationship that connects Harlequin/Silhouette with Mills & Boon. Harlequin and Silhouette books are published by the same company, but they have individual lines that I believe are well-described on the eHarlequin site. However, they usually do not have listings for older books.

Fiction DataBase has extensive listings of series romances. Many individual books have synopses and pictures of the covers. You may use the research feature now without subscribing to the site.

Hope this helps,
Kay

[Elizabeth Rolls]

Sira, the short answer is; yes. They are all under the one umbrella these days and have been for quite a long time. Harlequin always published out of Toronto, Silhouette out of New York and M&B out of Richmond, London. I would not care to bet my upcoming advance on the chronology, but I think Harlequin first bought out Silhouette and then later bought M&B. There is a certain amount of cross over between some of the various lines. For example M&B's Modern Romance is published in North America as Harlequin Presents. M&B Historicals and Harlequin Historicals are essentially the same now and handled out of Richmond although not all books go to North America. I write Historicals for them.

If you are looking for very old M&B titles then you are not going to find them retail even on the Harlequin website. Only used. HM&B have a very limited shelf life - like one month. You could try Amazon for used copies if you can remember titles/authors, or you could try Googling authors and titles. Be warned; some titles and authors are highly collectable, but Ebay could be another place to look. Sometimes you can get a huge cache of books with titles you want for very little if the seller doesn't realise one of the titles is worth its weight in gold! I have a box of very elderly M&B titles under my desk that I inherited from an aunt. I think they originally belonged to my grandmother and I was tickled to find my first M&B read in there. I must have been all of eleven.

Elizabeth

[dick]

In my experience, most UBS's--especially the traders--keep as complete a collection as possible of nearly all the Harlequin series. All but the most sought-after titles can usually be found in one.

[Sira]

[[quote]Fiction DataBase has extensive listings of series romances. Many individual books have synopses and pictures of the covers. You may use the research feature now without subscribing to the site.
[/quote]



Thanks, I tried the site but it wasnt much help, but if only there was a sight that had all the books of the past publishers that would be a dream come true. However I don't think it can.


[quote]I must have been all of eleven. [/quote]


I was too!!! Mine was Designing woman by Candace Schuler. At that age the things I read in that book I thought were hot at that age and when I read them now I'm like this was a book i used to hide to read.... but little did I know there were even steamier things out there that practically singes and burns my retina. [/quote]

[Elizabeth Rolls]