AAR

[Elaine S]

Although I attributed my romance reading to Mrs Mike in an earlier post, on reflection I wonder if Little Women didn't contribute to it as well. Do young girls read it anymore I wonder?

[SandyCo]

"Wild Melody" by Sara Craven was the first category romance, and the one that really got me hooked on the genre in general and Harlequin Presents in particular. I still have a copy, and I reread it a couple of years ago. It has withstood the test of time rather well, although it features an "all alone in the big, bad city for the first time" naive heroine.

I read "Gone with the Wind" when I was in 5th grade; of course, it was very romantic. Much of it went over my head; I was only ten years old, after all!

I read "Little Women" when I was a child, too, and I loved the way John and Meg got engaged.

I've always been a sucker for romantic movies, too, starting with "Lady and the Tramp" and "101 Dalmations" as a child!

[jenks]

@ Ash
When I first started reading for fun when I was 8, I only read Horror and Sci-fi...but one day many years later my uncle who knew I loved to read dropped off three really large moving boxes of books to my house, that he picked up after a garage sale. At first I was excited, the first several books on top of the one box were books and Authors I had read before and loved. To my 'THEN' dismay the rest of the boxes were nothing but romance novels...but one day I was bored with all my books and decided to go give those boxes a try and picked up the very first book out of the box sight unseen. To my delight that book started my romance with romance and also like you that book was a Judith McNaunght novel... mine was "Almost heaven". I devoured that book in about 12 hrs of non stop reading...after that I was hooked, so I just went back and picked up another; that second book I read, cemented Romance into my daily reading material...that book was "Remembrance" By: Jude Devereaux...I never cried, while reading a book before. After that book, I just couldn't stop, I had read all three boxes of books in 3 months. That was in 1997 and since that day I have been the proud owner of the 200+ romance novels my Uncle gave me and the ones I had added to them over the years. ")

[Luvfly]

The book for me was Whitney My Love by JM. It's funny because I loved it from the start, of coarse I couldn't imagine the controversy attached to it. Regardless I have read the different endings and still LOVE the book. I then collected and read all her book historical and contemp. It was the beginning of an insane habit. I have moved on to so many other greats Eloise James, Hoyt, Klypas and many more. I do remember since my summer of 6th grade and every summer there after reading the The Secret Garden that had to be the real beginning.

[SandyH]

I read The Flame and the Flower and The Wolf and the Dove when they were first released; however, the book that really sold me on romance was Roberta Gellis' Bond of Blood.

[IdlesseOblige]

The first romances I read were gothics by Phyllis A. Whitney and Mary Stewart. I enjoyed them, but didn't find them addictive. The ones that reeled me in were Wuthering Heights, which I first read when I was 12, and The Three Musketeers, which I found a few years later after seeing the 1973 version 4 times within a week (at a movie theatre.) While the books wouldn't fall into the romance category these days, they made me want to read stories with similar passion and adventure, but with traditional happy endings. Where a Cathy caught up with her Heathcliff on the moors, and either coaxed him home or hit the road with him. Where an Isabella could find a Heathcliff who actually loved her. Where an Athos and Milady could reconcile, never mind that she's one of those villainesses who doesn't normally get to reform...

[peajay]

My first true book in the romance genre was Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers. I was 15 when my girlfriends and I were passing that ragged book and it's sequel around. It was an eye opening read, like nothing I'd read before, and we discussed it endlessly.

Before writing this, I looked to see if I remembered the title correctly, and I'll be damn if there aren't SIX books in Ginny and Steve's story by now. My taste has changed a bit since those days, so I guess I'll never know the ways those two beat the crap out of each other for 1000s of more pages.

[Sandlynn]

JudyZ6666, I thought your avatar looked familiar.... I have a hard copy version of it tacked up on my cork board right by my computer. It's been there for years!

[brwneyedbeauty]

The first romance that I remember reading was Eternity by Jude Deveraux. My cousin gave it to me. I think I was about 15 yrs old. But the book that really got me into Romance, especially Historicals, was Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas. After that I never looked back

[Leena]

I think I always liked lovestories in book, at least as long as I can remember reading I enjoyed something like that, but the book that got me hooked was Anne Stuart: The Demon Count. I got it from the library, for a school project as an example of "bad fiction". I think our teacher wanted to drill us into reading only 'high' fiction. Turns out it had the opposite effect on me.
I remember reading the first pages and trying to find out why this was "trivial", but I ended up gobbling the whole thing up, and reading it again the other day. I was devastated that I couldn´t keep the book (it was already long out of print) and had to give it back. But that´s what got me interested in the romance genre.

I don´t read romances constantly after this one, but it opened me for the genre in general.

The next romance that was important for me was Laura Lee Guhrke´s "Guilty Pleasures", because after reading this book I started to hunt for romances and collect the ones I read before and loved (among them my beloved "Demon Count"). This was the next book that convinced me that the romance genre is just perfect for me.

[booklover87]

Angel by Johanna Lindsay

[southplains]

I used to be one of those who made fun of both romances and the people who read them. Then I checked out The Lion's Lady by Julie Garwood from the local library, not realizing I had one of those books in my hand.

I was thoroughly hooked and converted to a romance lover with that one book. I haven't read it in many years, so I don't know if it would stand the test of time for me, but it was the book that opened up a whole new world.

[mirole]

All my life I considered myself an 'intellectual' reader and despised romance genre and looked down on the women who read them (needless to say, I am very, very ashamed of these views now) but I'd always loved some sort of romantic strand in books. I had read The Pride and Prejudice at least 10 times.

Then after being stressed out not only by all the usual things like work but by my favourite tennis player and by endings of some general fiction books that made me feel depressed, I made a conscious decision to start reading romance but I first did my research and compiled a list of romance books that I thought I might like.

The first romance book I borrowed from the library was Georgette Heyer's The Convenient Marriage which I loved, but mostly because of the brilliant writing. The second book was Linda Howard's Cry No More which to this day is my #1-2 romance of all times.

I cannot stress enough how much happier I have become since I started reading romance, how much more confident as a woman and much happier my husband is as my partner. It truly is a liberating experience.

And I am not ashamed of reading romance and freely admit to it at work.

[veasleyd1]

[BarbaraSD]

Woodwiss's The Flame and the Flower and the Wolf and the Dove. Love, love, *lived* those books.