M

I am Lover of romance, who indulges in the romantic adventures of literature

My name is Renee, and I am the host of this site. I am a 34 year old woman, on the prowl for her mate, searching out the best of books, exploring the wilds of the imagination and delving into the heart of a beautiful love story.

 

Historical Romance 101: A Look Into the Past: How We Started Reading Historical Romance

by | Apr 4, 2016 | Historical Romance 101 | 13 comments

[divider]

Welcome to another month of some great historical romance delights!! I am so thrilled that we will be doing another April of some great features. Along with three other ladies Jennifer @ Feminist Fairy Tales, Amanda @ On A Book Bender, and Quinn @ Quinn’s Book Nook. These ladies are awesome…so make sure you visit them and see their stories into how they got hooked into romance like I have. This month, every monday and friday, we will be doing posts on a variety of topics dealing with historical romance. We will also be including some giveaways, a group buddy read for Indigo by Beverly Jenkins, and a Twitter Chat at the end of the month. Which I highly recommend you participate in. Such fun.

I have only been reading romance for almost fifteen years. It started when I was fifteen, my father had me start reading a author called Anita Stansfield. She is a christian author, but I loved her books. Very real romance, with realistic scenarios that brought a couple together, or made them stronger as they overcame certain struggles. Such as rape, becoming paralyzed, cancer, abuse and depression and even a kidnapping story (which is my favorite—historical romance lovers will really like that duo series).

But I wanted more than what I had. Since I had read her books multiple of times. And Christian romance wasn’t huge back then, it was still growing. So I went to my high school’s library. Where I found some treasures such as Shana Abe and Meg Cabot who write YA romance. Then I found a certain selection of teen romance, a series that Avon Books did many years ago.

Now for those that don’t know about this series. Let me explain a few things about it. One its geared toward Teens but any age can read these. The only heat in these books is a little kissing and embraces. Nothing sexual at all. Avon had a group of select authors, join forces and write stories from various sub genres in historical romance. These books is what made me fall in love with romance novels. The style of writing and plot lines are very similar. I adored every book, and man the humor!!! These books can still make me laugh when I need a good one. I loved the adventure, history and the sweet romances we see happen in these books!! I would highly recommend these books. After I read this series, I went to my local public library, and looked some of these authors up. And read their adult versions and I was instantly hooked and addicted and I couldn’t get enough. I read every adult romance they had in stock hehe My First authors into this genre were Johanna Lindsey, Karen Hawkins, Sabrina Jeffries, Lisa Kleypas and Lorraine Heath. And to this day they are still some of my favorites to read!! I love this genre just as much as I did then. What I have loved about it the most, is how much you can learn from historical romance. In fact, I think you learn more in historical romance than any other genre of romance. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love just about any genre in romance but I have a special place for my historical romance. You learn about history, cultures, strength of character and the courage and resilience people had to have back then in order to survive and find some joy and fulfillment in life.

Questions For My Readers

What have you loved about historical romance?

What were some of the first books that made you fall in love with this genre?

Giveaway:

So as part of Historical Romance 101—we are offering a giveaway. There will be five winners. 1 Grand Prize winner, 2 Runners Up and 2 Second Runners Up. One entry per day per person through April. Winners must live in U.S.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You May Also Like…

Historical Romance 101: Much Love For Endings

Historical Romance 101: Much Love For Endings

Welcome to another segment of Historical Romance 101. Today we will be discussing what we love about endings and what we love about them and share some personal favorites. Please join in and visit the other fabulous ladies: Jennifer @Feminist Fairy Tales, Amanda @ On...

13 Comments

  1. Sophia Rose

    Wow! I can see the appeal in those. Taxing my brain a bit, but I think the first historical romance I read was Dana Fuller Ross’ Wagons’ West series and Donald Clayton Porter’s White Indian Series. Loved them. My first traditional ones set in England were Victoria Holt romantic suspenses that were heavy romance and light suspense. I then tended to prefer either medieval romance or western fiction or historical mystery with a romance element. I didn’t get back to historical romance for over fifteen years when I started reading Jo Beverley and Mary Balogh. It has only been the last two years that I’ve read anyone else. This is why I tend to say that I haven’t tried all those great ones you talk about. πŸ™‚ But I’m getting there.

    Reply
  2. Quinn's Book Nook

    I’ve never read those Avon romances for teens, but I actually own one of the Meg Cabot books. I keep meaning to read it, but haven’t gotten around to it.

    I love that you started reading romance when you were 15. I was about 19, I think. And I agree, we can learn so much from historical romance.

    I’m realizing now that I forgot to include information about our twitter chat in my post. I might need to go fix that. I’m so excited. This month is going to be amazing!

    Reply
  3. Jennifer_FairyTales

    Someday I want to check out those Avon teen romances. It would be interesting to see Karen Hawkins, Lorraine Heath, and Beverly Jenkins’s voices in YA. I’m not really into Christian romance, but those Anita Stansfield books do sound interesting.

    Reply
  4. LilyElement

    Oh wow, I don’t think I had seen those Avon teen romances. I do remember back in middle or high school I read some that were kind of similar though!

    Reply
  5. Blodeuedd

    Teen Avon, why not, as long as they are not preachy in any way
    What I loved was the sweetness, yes I started with Barbara Cartland πŸ˜‰ They ended with a kiss and nothing more and I loved that. I still prefer HR without any smex since I have been brainwashed by Cartland

    Reply
  6. L.

    I look forward to these post as I enjoy reading your thoughts! The authors that I would have to credit for my love of historical-romance would have to be Linda Lael Miller (mostly her 80 and early 90’s novels) and Lorraine Heath. Miller has my love for her highly impressive time travel novels such as Knights and Pirates to name a few. Historical-romance will always be my favorite genre alongside paranormal-romance. I simply cannot get enough!

    Reply
  7. kimbacaffeinate

    Wow I had no idea about the Avon teen books, although 15 years ago I was a soccer mom..LOL

    Reply
  8. Amanda @ On a Book Bender

    I didn’t know about the Avon teen series! I bet they’re totally awesome.

    Reply
  9. Lola

    It’s always interesting to hear how people started reading a certain genre. Great post! I read some contemporary romance books by some dutch authors when I was a kid, then took a long break from anything romance and only read fantasy books for a long time. Then eventually I did started reading paranormal romances, after I read twilight I got more into that genre. And then one year everyone was raving about this book called Pushing the Limits and I eventually decided to give it a try and I loved it and it made me realize there were things I loved about contemporary romances as well.
    Only since last year I am branching out into historical romances, I always thought I wouldn’t like them, but never actually read them. And then last year I decided to try and read more historical romances. So far what I like about historical romances is learning a bit about that time period and seeing how different things are then and getting a good romance alongside it. I am still pretty much a newbie to the genre though.

    Reply
  10. Carole's Random Life

    I love learning how other readers discovered the books that they love. I probably started reading historical romance when I was 15 or so. I don’t even remember what I read. I would just pick up one of my mom’s books and read it. I don’t think that I really looked for any particular author. Great post and thanks for the giveaway!

    Carole @ Carole’s Random Life

    Reply
  11. Cyn @ Bookmunchies

    OOOH MY GOSH! I remember loving those Avon teen books sooooo much! Gwyneth and the Thief was my first, and than I proceeded to request the rest from the library. Oh the memories, haha.
    The authors I really remember being my first into HR was Julia Quinn and Lisa Kleypas, definitely super hooked after that.
    Awesome post!

    Reply
  12. Bookworm Brandee

    My first HR isn’t really considered HR but made me fall in love with the time period, characters, etc. It’s Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. I went on to read books off my mom’s bookshelf from authors like Kathleen Woodiwiss and Lorraine Heath. I adore HR and wish I read more of it. I need to inject more of it in my reading diet. πŸ˜‰ Thanks for sharing how you got hooked on HR, Renee!

    Reply
  13. Blodeuedd

    I used to love medieval, but then I read too much history and got annoyed when they got it wrong πŸ˜‰ So now I love regency

    Reply

Leave a Reply