I was going through my closet to clean out books for charity and found some of my OLD books that I could not get rid of. They were some of the first romances I read and I couldn't part with them.

Here's what I kept:

The Duchess (Montgomery, Bk 9) by  Jude Deveraux (I cut my teeth on Deveraux)

Knight of a Trillion Stars (Matrix of Destiny, Bk 1) by Dara Joy (my first erotic book)

& Paradise (Second Opportunities, Bk 1 by Judith McNaught (my first contemporary)

what was your "gateway" book(s) into your love of romance novels?

I went my through all my teenage years reading horror and true crime. Then I started reading YA, then onto YA romance. From there, I have an awesome aunt that introduced me to adult romance. She brought me tons of it, and I couldnt read it fast enough! LOL

So my first adult romance was PNR......Night Embrace by Sherrilyn Kenyon. It didnt turn out to be a keeper for me. Out of the 20 something books in that series I have 5 on my keeper shelf.  Vane, Wren, Zarek, Acheron, and Valerius....cant get enough of these guys! Their freakin' perfect.

I cant for the life of me remember which contemperary was my first, although i'm thinking it was something by Erin McCarthy.  Or maybe it was Lone Rider by Lauren Bach?  If it wasn't the first, it was very near there. And I still love it....its on my keeper shelf.

And I definitely cant remember my first erotic romance. Man their've been so many!

What a great question. I read Twilight (yay Missy) and was so excited that books could have a happy ending that I ran out and looked for others. I bought The Immortal Highlander by Karen Marie Moning and went on to read the rest of that series. Then came Sherilyn Kenyon Fantasy Lover and the rest was history. I was so surprised in the Highlander book when Black (think that was his name) grabbed his crotch. Guess my naivety wore off rather quickly.

I always was a reader.  Read quite a variety of stuff as a kid but as a teen discovered the YA romances and those were my favorite.

My first foray into adult stuff was when we had a yardsale and someone brought over a box of Harlequin type romance books for the sale.  I snitched 3 or 4 of them for myself, they were the Harlequin Presents.  I started buying the category romances then, all different types.  I would have been in HS then.

Discovered erotica when I got on PBS.  Joined a game for unpostables and ended up with For Her Pleasure by Maya Banks.  I haven't looked back since!

oh boy..  i don't remember whether it was during Junior High or High School, but my friend had snagged a Harlequin Romance from one of her 3 older sisters, and the two of us took turns reading it out loud, and i was totally hooked.  i still have it - Master of Comus by Charlotte Lamb, as well as a couple of my other early favorites, and then probably 100 more Presents split between read that i kept and unread.  i read Harlequins for years - mostly the old colorful cover Harlequin Romance ones, then later switched to the Harlequin Presents where they didn't necessarily have to be married to have sex.  ;)

it was easy to find them - my grandmother and her sister in law traded *huge* boxes of the things back and forth (and put their initials inside the cover so each would know if the other had already read them) so i could borrow some of those, i could buy them at garage sales and Goodwill for a quarter a pop, and there were some on the library 'grab a book' shelves.

read those all through high school, and for a while after college (no reading time during) when i was even buying them new, but when i found paranormal i switched genres.  eventually that slid over into reading paranormal romance too, and i was back in romance.  now my romance & erotica shelves have mostly paranormal, some contemporary, and a smidge of historical

I cut my adult romance teeth on Harlequins. My aunt used to read them by the boxload. On a visit to her house around 17 or 18 I discovered them and voraciously read several while visiting (I went to Toronto every summer). From that time on, she'd read her new set (she had that subsription where she got "x" amount each month or so) and then mail them to me - much to my mother's horror who was into more of the classics.

From there I discovered Danielle Steel in the late 70s and used to love her  books until they go too formulaic ... or rather, until I realized they were so formulaic. I also liked early Nora Roberts, Fern Michaels, and one who dropped off the radar, Janet Daily. Come to think of it, she might be that Harlequin who was my favorite.

Oddly enough, I did not like historical romances back then. These days (35 years later)  I don't much care for contemporary romance but love the historicals!

My aunt used to read Harlequins by the boxload. She then sent them to me, much to my mother's horror. My mother was more into the classics than "mindless" reading. I, on the other hand, enjoyed those books. I was 18 when she started sending them to me. That was after a visit to her house and I voraciously read several of them in her vast "collection." So, I'd say that was my first step into adult romance. I had a favorite author but can't remember her name.

A  couple years later (late 70s), I discovered Danielle Steel ... before she pumped the formulaics out like bunny rabbits. (Or before I noticed, is probably more accurate). I loved early Nora Roberts and Fern Michaels; another favorite, who dropped off the radar, was Janet Dailey. I'm thinking now she was that favorite Harlequin author I can't remember.

My mother used to get Good Housekeeping.  I found the colored novella excerpts there.  So I had a strong diet of those combined with SF from a very early age.  That must have been before Jr High.  My mother did not read romance.  She read cookbooks.

That said, we had some excellent librarians in town.  

My grandmother used to give me Barbara Cartland books but my first real romance was Kathleen Woodiwiss's Shana. I read all of her books but these days I hardly read any historicals.

I always used to read a lot when I was younger.  Mostly books like little house, the box car children, or the babysitters club.  Until I ransacked a shelf of old take a book's my grandma used to keep when they owned a resort here at the lake.  Mostly they were old western's and mystery's but there was one romance The Fires of Brimstone by Patricia Gallagher (1971 printing).  I was only 14 at the time and I think I picked it up because the cover was so provocative I'd never seen anything like it before.  My mom was more of a mystery reader, and by that time my sister was more in to finding romance than reading it.  So I secretly read this thing front to cover at least twice before I finally got caught with it.  It was kind of graphic at parts.  My mom read it and found it lacking. I believe this book brought fourth the discussion of sex and the problems with some of the sex in the book.  It was a long awkward discussion, which ended with a trip to the library.  At library she pointed me to the Christian fiction which I stuck with for a long time.  At least until they started publishing more YA, and I picked up twilight.  I still have a very beat up copy of The fires of Brimstone by Patricia Gallagher that I reread last year and still found it pretty good!  Though looking at it with adult eyes makes it easier to understand why my mom was so peeved!

i used to read babysitters club books too! I knew that I liked romance when I would pick up the Logan Love MaryAnne book over and over. 

Oooh I used to read tons of Babysitter Club too. And all the Sweet Valley books. Started with Sweet Valley Kids and worked all the way up to Sweet Valley University!

I used to read all the YA teen romances they had back in the early to mid 80s.  Can't remember the name of the line but they usually featured the teens on the covers.   My first adult romance was Captive Bride but I swear I can't remember the author, just the name of the book.   I also heavily read the harlequins and silhouettes.

Oh yes, I loved the Sweet Valley High books way back when!  I remember when they first came out and I just devoured them as each new one was issued.  I think I was in 6th grade.

The book that got me into romances was Susan Mallery's Hometown Heartbreakers, the 3 stories in 1. If any of you has those books individually please let me know as I would love to get them. My original version of the 3 had seen better days plus it was too bulky for my liking. I remember seeing it inside a Waldenbooks and not even knowing at first it was a romance. I got caught up in the story of the sherriff (Travis) being such a good person to the stranger (Elizabeth) and her young daughter, Mandy. I confess when I realized it was a Harlequin romance that stopped me in my tracks for a few seconds because I had preconceived notions that romance books were probably not too well written and all right trashy. I was wrong and have enjoyed many a romance book since. :) To others who have shared, I am a Babysitters fan too and actually am looking for 8 last Little Sister books if any of you has any for trade. 78, 79, 81, 83, 84, possibly 90 (I requested this title but it doesn't look like the member is going to reply tomorrow is the last day), 115, and 116. I do have I believe 8 Special Editions on my shelf and any of you are welcome to them for 2 credits.