If you’ve spent any amount of time swimming around the pond, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that more than a few of us have mad love for Harlequin. We read ’em, we review ’em, we love them with the kind of slavish devotion usually reserved for stalkers. So when we learned that Harlequin editor, Marsha Zinberg was doing a blog tour in honor of Harlequin’s Famous Firsts collection, we jumped at the chance to have her stop by for a visit. OK, in truth we just about fell all over ourselves. But Marsha is made of some stern stuff, and we’re happy to report we didn’t scare her off with our borderline rabid fan girl behavior. So, without further ado – here’s Marsha sharing with us the romance novels that got some of Harlequins “Famous Firsts” on the path to romance super-stardom!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the creation of excellence or the achievement of success usually stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before.
There was little hesitation when I asked the Famous Firsts authors about the books that had turned them on to romance, or the authors that they had particularly loved. As you may have guessed, I fell under the spell of Jane Austen in high school, and a much-thumbed school edition of Pride and Prejudice still holds pride of place on my bookshelves.
I discovered that I shared that early delight with Stella Cameron, who also loved the Whiteoaks series.
For Carla Neggers, it was The Moonspinners, by Mary Stuart, which she read when she was twelve. A short dozen years later, she had produced her own first novel.
Anne Stuart was only ten when she fell under the gothic spell of Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt. She asked her grandmother for the hardcover for Christmas, and thus began her romance reading career!
Joan Johnston loved Jude Devereux’s Velvet series. She was thrilled to be the winner of an autographed copy of Velvet Angel when it was raffled off at the second annual Romantic Times convention. She only had to pay the postage! She also mentioned that Roberta Gellis’s Rosalynde series taught her to bring dimension to her characters by having them say one thing and think something else entirely.
Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Wolf and the Dove hooked Debbie Macomber. She also loved early Harlequin romances by Ann Mather and Violet Winspear.
Linda Lael Miller wasn’t a southern girl, but she fell hard for Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. (Another favorite of mine, too!) And Judith McNaught’s Whitney, My Love followed close behind.
Lori Foster claims that school never gave her a huge love of reading, but historical romances, such as those by Johanna Lindsay, really engaged her. Then she moved on to early books of Linda Howard and Jayne Ann Krentz, and the rest is history…..
Her journalism background caused Vicki Lewis Thompson to approach an early romance by Tate McKenna as a research project. What was all this fuss about romance writing? Could she do it? She sure could, and she sure did.
Now here’s a lovely story that I just learned. Lindsay McKenna met her husband in 1972, when she was in her late twenties. Her husband-to-be took his betrothed to Genevieve, Ohio to meet his mother, and the thing she most wanted to share with her soon-to-be daughter-in-law was her Harlequin romance novels. She was particularly fond of doctor/nurse stories. Lindsay dutifully took home ten or fifteen, read them, enjoyed them, but thought she could do better. So she decided to try writing one herself. She credits her mother-in-law with introducing her to the romance industry and starting her career!
What romances do you consider “classics”? Please share your favorites with me. I’d love to know what book or author initiated your romance reading habit!
Please be sure to come visit me at Pink Hearts on Thursday, June 18 and at The Misadventures of Super Librarian next Monday, June 22! I’ve had great fun on this tour and your comments have been fascinating.
My previous blogs stops include: Bookbinge, Plot Monkeys, Blaze authors blog, Romance Junkies, Romancing the Blog, Dear Author, Cataromance, and Teach Me Tonight – a different Harlequin Famous First story at every blog.
Don’t forget that you can enjoy 16 free Harlequin novels by downloading them at www.HarlequinCelebrates.com.
Contest Alert! We’ll be giving away two Harlequin tote bags, filled with eight (!) books by some of Harlequin’s Famous Firsts! Share your favorite classic romance in the comments, and one lucky winner will be chosen at random. Contest ends Monday, June 22!
Favorite classic romance? The first two to pop into my head were Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase and Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas. Both had unforgettable characters and storylines.
Classic romance for me has to be The Soldier and the Baby by Anne Stuart. I just love this category romance so much – my copy is literally in tatters. I would also have to include Lord of Scoundrels. This book is so well written that it will defintely be considered a classic for a long time.
A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux will always be a classic to me.
The romance classics that come to mind for me were The Flame and the Flower, The Wolf and the Dove and Ashes in the Wind, all by Kathleen Woodiwiss. I also loved books by Laurie McBain, like Tears of Gold and Moonstruck Madness, and Shirlee Busbee who wrote Gypsy Lady. All these authors wrote true “bodice rippers”. I haven’t picked them up in years and I’m not sure I’d want to, but I remember them fondly!
The first romance I read was Shanna by Kathleen Woodiwiss. The classics that I’ve enjoyed over the years were written by Judith McNaught, Laurie McBain, Marsha Canham, Julia Quinn, Susan Elizabeth Phillips and many, many others.
I started with Nora Roberts, Kim Cates and Heather Graham with their Silhouettes and then followed them when they began writing full-length novels. More recently, I’ve discovered Jessica Bird’s Harlequins. Any chance that she’ll be writing more?
I’m another Harlequin junkie! I’m a woman of a certain age, so I cut my eye teeth forty years or so ago with bags and bags of Mary Burchell and other classic Harlequin writers. My best friend’s mom was from England…and she had a subscription to Harlequin Romance and a whole library full of those colorful paperbacks. She let me take home shopping bags full of those treasures…I remember the summer of my 12th year reading one Harlequin Romance after another! Such bliss! But my favorite harlequin Romance of all time has to be BLUE JASMINE by Violet Winspear…ahhh…
I love anything by LaVyrle Spencer. I could re-read all of her books and never get tired of them. And like Anne Stuart, the first romance I read was by Victoria Holt. Loved those gothic historicals!
For me, romance classics is Danielle Steel books. My first book was actually Star by Danielle Steel. Other classics are anything by Nora Roberts or Judith McNaught.
My first and favorite romance is “The Bride” by Julie Garwood. I also read a lot of Jude Devereaux.
My first romance was Stranger in My Arms by Lisa Kleypas. I was hooked from that point on. 🙂
I will need to go back and read it to see if has stood up to the test of time, but one of my favorites from a classic author is The Flame and the Flower by Woodiwiss. It is a traditional bodice ripper and yes it’s not for everyone but I remember when I first read it I absolutely loved it and kept it on my keeper pile (which has very few titles on it). I haven’t re-read it in a very long time but I’m sticking with my fond memories of this one.
I really love some of the eighties Harlequin Presents, before they were all Greek Tycoons having Secret Babies. The Call of Home by Melinda Cross is the sort of story you just don’t find anymore.
I loved Harlequins in the 80s, and devoured romances set in Australia or the Continent. Then I found Roberta Gellis and her magnificent Roselynde Series – still in my bookcase.
The first romance book I read was also The Flame and The Flower. I even remember when/where I bought it–the summer of ’72 as my mom was shipping me off to college. Egads! Boy did that book save my sanity. I at least had something familiar(TF&TF) in my awful dorm and I must have read the book 5 or 6 times that summer. But for Harlequins, nobody can top Linda Howard.
My first romance’s would be by Johanna Lindsey,Nora Roberts,
Catherine Coulter and Diana Palmer.
I can’t remember which I read first.
The first true romances I ever read were Harlequin Presents, but I don’t remember any of the titles…the first romances I loved were by Mary Stewart, in particular TOUCH NOT THE CAT and THE MOONSPINNERS. Mary Jo Putney’s ONE PERFECT ROSE got me into historical romances as an adult.
My favorite Harlequin category author is Janice Kay Johnson.
I really like The Winston Brothers by Lori Foster. The classics are the ones that stand up well with the passage of time and multiple re-reads.
Penny Jordan was one of the first Harlequin romance authors I read. MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE gives me the warm fuzzies to this day.
Diana Palmer’s books are classics for me.
I wish I could remember the title. It was an old Harlequin from the early 70’s. There were a bunch at our old family camp and it was raining. I had nothing to do, had read all my books. I was 12 or so and reading sci-fi/fantasy at the time.
I remember the heroine had gone on a cruise and came back fit and trim and no one recognized here.
Also in the stack was The Wolf and The Dove. At 12. That did it. I was hooked.
Never did tell my mother I had read it although I doubt she would have cared.
I absolutely LOVE historical romances, I’ve read so many different theme books, and styles of romance novels, that I don’t know where to begin. They’re all classics to me, The first series I ever read though was about a family of scottish warriors.. “Rory, Conor, and Brianna”by Ruth Langan. were the first romance novels I ever read. Their stories, captured my heart, and I was glued to romance novels ever since to this day, I still read romance novels, they’re my escape from a bad day, from days where I fight with my father, and when i’m just flat out lonely bc none of my friends are around at the time being, I can sit down and read a book and escape to another time, place and world. Romance novels have always been there. Even today as new categories come out, or I discover NEW books and authors that I love, I enjoy reading books.