This week we’re talking about the first romance novels we ever read. That one book that sucked us in and lead us down the road to perdition that brought us to the writing of smut.
My beginning was innocent enough. My mom gave me a brief synopsis of a book she was reading, so when she was done I stole it and read it. It’s set in the Reconstruction era, deals with suffrage, western settlement, Southern plantations, gamblers, cancan dancers, and millinery. Very cool, no?
It’s the ultimate opposites attract story. A charming Southern gambler who owns a bar ends up with a suffragette milliner. They adopt a kid, start a resort, and put to rest his dead daughter’s ghost.
Still love that story (and pull it out to read it occasionally)… Scott Gandy is just *sigh* and Agatha Downing is sassy, opinionated, brave and just made of awesome. The secondary characters are sweet, too.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
LaVyrle Spencer is the first romance author I ever read. I’ve read all her books and loved every one of them.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Me, too! I own them all. Most of them I read to the point that they’re yellowed and falling to pieces.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Julie Garwood is the first romance author I’ve ever read.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I’ve read most of hers too. I love The Bride the best.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I’ve only read LaVyrle Spencer’s contemporary books. Thanks for letting know about this one.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Georgette Heyer is the first romance author I ever read. I have read several LaVyrle Spencer’s and really enjoyed them.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Oh, The Gamble! Not my first, but definitely an early favorite. I’ll have to reread that sometime. Thanks for the memories!
November 13th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
It’s amazing how where I started and what I ended up writing are so different, but I did love me some regency, medieval, westerns, and civil war romances for a while there!