Welcome to Day 25 of our Back-to-School Giveaway. We’re giving away a prize a day this month. Today we want to know about your first romance novel.
Close Contact by Katherine Allred
Hunter’s Need by Shiloh Walker
Born to Be Wild by Christine Warren
Spell Crash by Kelly McCullough
Dead Matter by Anton Strout
What was the first romance novel you ever read? How old were you?
This is a 1 day contest that runs until 11:59 p.m. tonight. Winners will be announced Sunday.
The first one I remember was Gypsy Lady by Shirlee Busbee – I think I was about 12. Hooked me good.
I had read a few of my sister’s Georgette Heyer romances in my teens and i used to love them, but until my late twenties i read mainly thrillers/crime. Then I picked up Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Match Me If You Can from a supermarket and i have never looked back. Now i read mainly Romantic suspense and historical romance.
My first romance novel was pride and prejudice and I was 13 I think:-)
forceofstars(at)yahoo(dot)dk
I honestly don’t remember, I do know it was a gradual thing, as in I didn’t just decide one day to pick up a romance novel. It was more I was reading one author that lead to another author that eventually lead me to romance. I think it may have been Nicole Jordan’s ‘The Passion’ and I was 16?
i guess the first romance book for me was The Promise by Danielle Steel. i was 21 yrs old 🙂
First romance eh?Hmmm….it was Old Magic by Marriane Curley. If it can be plashed into romance category. And i was 16 i think. If Old Magic doesn’t count, then it was at the same age, Pride and Prejudice i believe.
It was a Harlequin because my mother had piles of them but I don’t remember the name at all.
My earliest romance reads were Regencies by authors like Georgette Heyer and Barbara Cartland, and gothics by Victoria Holt and Phyllis A. Whitney. The book that really first grabbed my young, impressionable romantic mind was “Marry in Haste” by Jane Aiken Hodge.
Woe, thanks for bringing back some awesome memories! It was Victoria (Sunfire, #13), it came out in 1985 and I am sure I did not read it too long after that. Loved that whole Sunfire series, read them all.
Growing up, I read a lot of Sweet Valley High, Dean Koontz and V.C. Andrews. I think the first romance I picke up when I was 12 or 15 was The Thorn Birds. I grew up watching the made for t.v. movie with my mom any time it was on. Once I heard it was based off a book, I had to grab it. I couldn’t believe it was so thick, and probably the thickest book I have read up to that point. The story captivated me and I fell in love. I thought it was much better than the made for t.v. movie. I just recently bought the book and can’t wait to read it again through adult eyes. The next romance I picked up after that was The Bridges of Madison county. Once again, I fell in love with the story and I’ve been hooked ever since. I still read some Dean Koontz, but romance is by far my fav.
I can’t remember my first romance but I can remember my first romance authors – Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt.
I am so old that I can’t remember my first romance, but I think I was about 11 and that it was a Barbara Cartland or Georgette Heyer.
Wow, ancient history. I can’t remember how old I was, but probably a teen. I can’t remember the exact title, but it was a Georgette Heyer book, and I devoured every one of her books that the library had.
Barbed1951(at)aol(dot)com
I was around 12 and it was [gulp] Barbara Cartland. Something about a lord and a gypsy (only of course she wasn’t really a gypsy, it turned out.) — willaful
The first romance I read was Gone With the Wind, when I was 12.
When I was in junior high school, I sneaked one of my mother’s Katherin Woodweis books and read it.
I think one of my first romance novel i read was by Jane Green, took the book from my older sister. I was probably going into my freshman year in high school..so 14 years old.
my first romance novel was a Harlequin, but I don’t know which one – my firt book I can remeber was by Susan Elisabet Phillips 🙂
Chris
Aside from the few Harlequins I read in college because that was all the books left by former dorm residents (and I was decidedly a mystery and scifi gal), the first romance I read was Jennifer Crusie’s “Anyone But You” a couple years ago (it had a dog on the cover).
ironss[at]gmail.com
I don’t remember the name of it.But I know it was a Harlequin and I was 15.My older sister had given it to me to read.
E. M. Hull’s The Sheik, the novel upon which the Valentino film is based.
I was eleven, and my mother would have had a litter of kittens if she had known what I was reading–she thought that Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers was too risqué for me at that age, can you imagine her reaction to The Sheik???
The first romance novel I ever read was A Quick Bite by Lynsay Sands. My friend bought it because she was obsessed with vampires. We didn’t know it was a romance novel, but we enjoyed it a lot!! I was 15 back then.
I remember reading “Bridget Jones’ Diary” when I was 15.
My first romance was a book by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. I think it might even have been Shanna and I was about 13 or 14. I was hooked and have read romance novels ever since.
Sea Swept by Nora Roberts. I was in grade 12
I don’t remember the name of the book, but it was by Barbara Cartland.
I was 12 years old.
You know… I don’t even remember. I know that when I was younger (like 11 or 12) I would read my grandmother’s old Harlequin books. I vaguely remember a cowboy one, and a pirate one, but no specifics.
It was Dream A Little Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, but I can’t remember how old I was 🙂 I know it wasn’t to very long ago, though! I’m not one of the lucky ones who found romance novels early on, though I wish I was! 🙂
I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance novel.
iii.141592653589793238462643383[at]gmail[dot]com
My first romance was at the tender age of 11. My older sister must of thought I looked bored that summer so she gave me a copy Kathleen Woodiwiss’s A Rose in Winter. What a amazing book. I probabbly did not even realize half the stuff the characters were doing but I knew I liked it! LOL! Over twenty years later I’m still hooked on romances.
eric250r@coosnet.com
I can’t remember my first, but I do remember it was a HP. I THINK it may have been Lynne Graham. I had read plenty of teen romances by this stage, anyway. I was in my early teens.
would have to be a Harlequin presents. Now sure which but that is what my granny read and I got it from her. I was either 11 or 12.
My first romance novel was Gone With the Wind and I was eleven.
mittens0831 at aol dot com
I was about 12 or 13 and I snuck my mom’s copy of Clan of the Cave Bear – not sure if it would be romance but I can remember sifting through to get to what I considered at the time the good parts.
That was a long, long time ago and I can’t remember exactly, but I but I know one of the first romances I read was Sweet Savage Love, the “classic” bodice ripper by Rosemary Rogers.
My first romance was Julie Garwood’s “The Bride.” I was 16.
I was 12 years old when I read my first romance novel. I was sick at home with no homework to do. Luckily I found a really interesting book on my mom’s bedside table that I borrowed. It was Kathleen Woodiwiss’ A Rose In Winter and I absolutely adored it. From then on there was no holding me back! Thankfully my mom wasn’t upset that I borrowed her book, and actually gave me some more Woodiwiss books she had in the closet.
joderjo402 AT gmail DOT com
Paradise by Judith McNaught.
My first romance was at 16 years -Friends and Lovers By Diana Palmer – the only romance book I could find at my school then and it was by accident! No one knew *g*
The first sweeter romance I read was Witch of Blackbird Pond when I was 12. The first erotic romance came many years later, and was Sweet Savage Love.
I don’t remember the title of the book, but the author was Essie Summers (sp?). The book was a birthday present from a friend when I was 11 or 12. After all these years, 30 or so, I can still visualize the cover!
I don’t remember the name of it but it was a Harqulin when I was 11 or 12 ( That was 40 so yrs ago)
jellybelly82158 at gmail dot com
It was a Danielle Steel, and I think it might have been Fine Things after seeing the made for TV movie. Something in high school or whenever they made that movie.
well technically my first taste was the sweet valley tween/teen romances at 9 or so, then around 12 I would get my grandma’s harlequin’s and barbra cartlands and such lol.
Pam S
pams00 @ aol.com
Oh, wait, I vaguely remember reading a book titled “Blue Ribbon Romance” when I was going through my horse books phase about 12 years old or so (Jane McIlvaine’s “Copper’s Chance” was republished as “Blue Ribbon Romance” although it was mostly horses with just a smidgen of romance).
Hey, two of the books have Paul Marron on the cover! Yummy!
Mine was Gone With the Wind when I was 17! tWarner419@aol.com