Back in 1999, when I first started reading romance novels, I read only historicals. It was what my sisters read and since those were the only books around my house, it’s what I read. I fell in love with the Duke of this and the Earl of that. I loved the lifestyles of the Duchess of this land and I wanted to be like the Marchioness of that land. Their lives were so different from my life that it was interesting to read things that I didn’t know anything about.

My imagination went crazy with the glamorous lives of those people in the ton. I loved the descriptions of the balls, the dresses that the women wore and I loved the rules and the scandals. All of these things combined with the journey to true love between the hero and the heroine made me love historicals like I had never loved anything before.

The first book that I ever read was Something Wonderful by Judith McNaught and I was so in love with Jordan Townsende that I thought about him long after I finished the book. I remember thinking that that was the kind of man that I wanted to marry. Someone who was strong, strappling and stubborn. Someone who would protect me from harm and cuddle me close at night. Someone who wasn’t perfect but perfect for me. I remember I loved Jordan so much that I would sit in Church and replay certain scenes from his book over and over in my head. The day him and Alex had their mock fight in the glade, the night he begged Alex not to die on him, the speech he gave her when he thought she was dying at the end…those are the things I thought about in Church and it was historical novels that got me so addicted to romance novels in the first place.

I remember, reading my first contemporary, Paradise by Judith McNaught and thinking, wow this was another great book. Matt Farrell was so hot damn yummy that I wanted to eat him up. I remember liking contemporaries enough to try another and another but my first love remained with the historical romances.

I guess you could say that as much as I liked contemporaries, I was a contemporary snob. If given the choice to read a contemporary or a historical, I would always without second thought go for the historical. I loved getting lost in a world that would totally be in my head and totally be whatever I made of it since I didn’t know first hand what these places looked like. I loved the language and the protectiveness of the men back in the day. With heroes like Royce from The Prize by Julie Garwood doing swoonworthy sweet things for their heroines (like the black queen thing *sigh*) it was no wonder why I loved historicals.

But then things changed.

I found myself reading sub genres I never would have read when I first started reading. It was like historicals was sooo last season and I had moved on to bigger and better things. Me, Rowena, reading a paranormal? Never that. Rowena, reading chick lit? Oh heck to the no. But that’s what happened. I started reading romantic suspense and my love of historicals started to slowly diminish until years had passed and I had only read a total of 2 historicals.

When did my taste change?

I’m not sure.

But these days, I have to be in the mood to read historicals and even then, it’s only a fleeting feeling I’ll get to read a historical and I know that I’m missing on some really good books by not reading historicals but I can’t help it. I’m into sub genres I never would have read when I first started reading and some of the authors I loved before, I’m not so wild about anymore. I used to jump at the chance to read Julie Garwood, she was one of my ultimate favorites but I haven’t even read her latest book because I’ve heard so many bad things about it and even though I say that I’m still going to read it because it’s a Julie Garwood book, every time I pick it up at the bookstore (and I’ve counted back in my head, there have been a total of 3 times that I have picked this book up at the bookstore in the last couple of months) and when I get to the register, I always put this book back.

I just can’t be bothered to read it anymore, I’m not excited about it anymore and it’s a JG, that never would have happened to me had this been 2000.

So my question is this, Your preference in genres..has it changed from when you first started reading romance? Are they the same? What authors did you used to love and just don’t anymore? Are there any?