hee hee..my mom wouldn't allow me to read them even in high school if they had 'dirty covers'...sigh..this was the age of the 'bodice rippers' so I got  a copy of 'the celestial bed'..think it had a solid green cover; nothing racy and got 'educated', especially withall the masucline pronounts in a love scene and no female ones...whoo eee..I had NEVER seen anything like that in my life!

otherwise Barbara Cartlands were the first ones I was 'allowed' to read with all the wimpy women! make sure your daughter's first roamnce book is with a kicka$$ woman who knows what she wants LOL!

i don't exactly remember how old i was, but i suspect early jr high.  a friend snagged a Harlequin Romance from her older sister, and we took turns reading it out loud to each other.  i don't think remember a whole lot of detail in the book, but it was still more than i'd heard about before! 

i actually still have that book.  the sister didn't want it back, and i ended up with it.

that started me reading Harlequin Romance, which i borrowed a lot of from my grandmother.  she'd exchange big boxes with her sister, and after grandma had read the ones she got in a box i could borrow them.  later i switched to Harlequin Presents.

Does "Forever" by Judy Bloom count?  If so than probably 13 or 14.  If not than I'd have to say 36.  Because I've only been really reading romances for a couple of years.  The one that started my addiction was The Maid of Lorne by Terry Brisbin.  I was looking at it today as a matter of fact.  I kept it because it was my first.  But now I'm kind of bittersweet about it.  I bought it because my husband had left on an unplanned deployment and I was feeling down and thought I'd try a romance book.  Little did I know I'd be planning a possible divorce 2 yrs later. 

Ms Old School here - my first was Jane Eyre.  Which I guess is not *technically* a "romance novel"; I think it's considered literature these days.  I was about 14.   I graduated from there to Victoria Holt - Menfreya in the Morning, and then some others, on to Barbara Cartland (bleh), my first brush with smut being Rosemary Rogers (double bleh), and a few other unmentionables:D  Captive Passions by Fern Michaels was in there somewhere, and probably a lesser known one, Dangerous Obsession by Natasha Peters - a surprisingly not too bad really old-old school romance.  I found Kathleen Woodiwiss at about age 17, and she was the only romance author I would read from then until more recently; just a few years ago when I realized that historicals & the romance genre itself had gone through a lot of drastic changes over the years.  I discovered Connie Brockway and Marsha Canham, and I've been a junkie ever since.

My first were Mary Stewart and Georgette Heyer. Neither forwarded my romantic education, but I still enjoy them today. It wasn't until I got a library card at 13 and discovered Frank Yerby (what was I thinking!?!) that my reading heated up.

I have no idea, it's been that long ago (we are talking 1970's here).  My mom is an avid reader and there were always books around, so it was likely a Harlequin, some bodice ripper or a Regency romance.

I was in 6th grade.  I distinctly remember reading VC Andrews and John Saul during that time.  I'm sure I read some of my mom's romance novels as well.  I couldn't tell you which one was my first.  I was really bad about staying up late and finishing books in the middle of the night with a book light. 

I think it was Captive Bride by Johanna Lindsey.

Sherri

I was about 11 or 12 and I got ahold of some of my friend's mom's romances. I think they were kismet or something like that. Let's just say: I learned a lot more than I bargained for and I became an avid romance reader from then on.

I'm not really sure. My Gram was an avid romance reader and I can remember skimming them with my sister, and in our immaturity, teasing her about the love scenes. I also remember reading the book version of the movie Romancing The Stone when I was a teen.

I was reading teen harlequins at a young age -- can't remember exactly what I age I was.  I do remember "Flowers in the Attic" being the first adult book I read - that was junior high (age 11 or 12).  The first romance to really make an impression on me was "Whitney, My Love" by Judith McNaught.

The first grown up romance novel i read was "Garden of the Moongate", and i was in the 6th grade.  a friend of mine gave it to me and insisted that i read it since it was SO good!  I had NO idea what i was getting myself into.  LOL!  Boy, were my eyes opened!  though it was a harlequin, i think, and didn't have any actual sex in it, it did have a few racy scenes.  as a teen i read the typical teen romances that were more tame, but after high school i really got into the romance.  I just love romance...I even write it, though i write Christian romance...i never could bring myself to write love scenes...**blush**

Hmm.  I read Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre in high school.  Are those romances or classic literature? 

I'm still thinking Forever by Judy Bloom counts as my first romance.

I guess it was probably ninth grade or so when I started reading romances....anyone remember the Couples series??....then I progressed on to real romances, the book I remember the most is Moontide Embrace by Constance O'Banyon--BTW, does anyone out there have a good copy?--I guess by the time I was 16 or 17, I had a subscription to the Zebra monthly romance club.

I was 12 I think. My first one was a Harlequin by Penny Jordan. I can't even remeber the title right now but it was about a guy who had a female friend and she married him to help take care of his neice and nephew and she thought he was having an affair but never saw him as a "man" until later in the book. She just thought he was kind of a geeky friend I think. He was a professor of science or something.

I need to look for that book again :)

Judy Blume books were a big eye opener for me as a preteen!! I don't remember the name of the first romance novel i read, i think it was by Victoria Holt? I found it in our attic, my mom must have gotten it from someone and it ended up in our attic, my mom really was not much of a reader, i was probably around age 13-14 yrs old and have been hooked on romance books since!

I was always reading something.  All the Judy Blume books.  I remember borrowing my mother's copy of Smart Women when I was 12 or so.

My first real romance books I snitched from a yardsale box a friend of my mother's brought over.  I remember fishing out a couple of Harlequin Presents and another one that was pretty racy and hiding them in my room to read.  I think I read them over and over and over again.

Hey I found the Penny Jordan book that was my first romance...it's Capable of Feeling. cool!!

I remember coming across my mom's Johanna Lindsay's when I was about 13-14.  I think the first one I read was Fires of Winter.  From there it moved onto the Malorys and the Nora Roberts she was collecting.  Funny, she really didn't care I was reading them.  My mom wasn't too big of a collecter so I tended to "adopt" all her books after she was finished with them so they wouldn't get lost or abused by my little siblings. 

Shanna, I think in high school and I wasn't impressed. (I think I was 16 or 17)  Wuthering Heights if you consider that one.  Loved it. 

When I restarted reading, I read Outlander (my friend told me it had romance in it but wasn't a romance).  when I went to the bookstore to find the next one, they had them shelved with the romances.  Outlander was what hooked me. 

I read a couple Harlequins at my grandmother's house when I was in early jr high when I visited a couple times a year. Then I would read one every now and then in high school, but I didn't really get addicted until I was about 21.