Help! I'm looking for recommendations for some great harlequin romances from the 70s-80s. 

I've just recently started going through some of Carole Mortimer Harlequin Presents and now I'm ready to move on to Penny Jordan and Charotte Lamb.  If you're familiar with these authors, could you tell me what kind of writing I should expect from them, or other authors you're recommending.  I don't care if the hero's are not PC, I am actually looking for non-PC hero's for once!  Yes, I am so bored with PC romance ( ...ZZzzzzz) !!... BUT please, NO cheating in the romance you're recommending.   

Hmm, I  actually have a couple of Presents laying around the house right now, books like Dark Dominion by Charlott Lamb but I am not sure I want to read it yet.... how was this book?  Does the hero/heroine cheat on each other?  There are NO info's about this book on Amazon, ugh!  I am going to wait for someone's comment about this book before trying out this author......

I miss the days of non-PC hero's in  a comfort reads, and authors like Julie Garwood and Johanna Lindsey who wrote them so well...*sad*

Cheating is pretty rare in those old Presents. Not real common in the new ones either.

Penny Jordan is fun if you enjoy a really awful hero. :-) The kind who says everything bitterly and always thinks the heroine is a tramp.  They start to all seem the same after awhile, though. Margaret Pargater is another who does a great over-the-top cruel hero.

Those are some of my favorite Presents authors!  I also enjoy Emma Darcy and Diana Hamilton and Sally Wentworth and Anne Mather.  You'll find the Presents books follow pretty much the same formula, non-PC heros like Willa described.  I have to admit to an addiction to them also.  I don't read them all the time but I've always got a stack around for a quick read.

Either tonight or tomorrow I'll be adding about 200 books mostly harlequin and ALOT of Harlequin Presents books :-) It seems like those are what you're looking for, so let me know if they interest you!

I love Anne Mather and Sara Wood for oldies.  Lavyrle Spencer has 3 Harlequin oldies that are great, too......Spring Fancy, A Promise to Cherish and Forsaking All Others.

I've already read those by Lavyrle Spencer  ( that woman couldn't write a bad book if she tried!). I am going to bookmark this page so I can keep track of  the recommendations... thanks so much, guys!  I'm definately going to try out everyone has suggested.  Boggles me why I never bothered with  Harlequins... I missed out so much.

I just finished reading FRUSTRATION by Charlotte Lamb; cruel hero, sugar sweet romance  that was to the point... I actually loved it because it didn't drag on. Not to mention, the whole story wasn't about just sex, sex and more sex.  Just loved this author. 

"Penny Jordan is fun if you enjoy a really awful hero. :-) The kind who says everything bitterly and always thinks the heroine is a tramp."

Willa,  your comments always cracks me up.. LOL. 

I just tells 'em like I reads 'em!

I have some of these on my shelf, and I will be willing to cut you a deal on them

Thanks so much for all the offers but I don't think I'll be ordering any more as of right now.  I was able to get 20+ harlequin  presents from eBay and another order of 24  for only 6 credits from someone on here ( awesome deal). 

As you can see I will be swimming in Harlequins for awhile LOL. 

Well, I think we really need a 'rant/whine" thread.... because I just HAVE to rant right now...What was I thinking ordering 40 harlequins... after reading 8 of these one after the other, I had to stop because I could feel my blood pressure going up!  These heroines in these 70-80s romances drives me absolutely CRAZY....   God, the things these witless,doormats put up with... Really! You know, its not the awful hero's that actually ruin the stories...its the way the heroines behave that actually put most people off these books.    Heres an example, the hero is running around with some  mistress/ex girlfriend/the woman he dated after he dumped the heroine the first time around,  actually getting written up about it in the papers (this is the day after her wedding), and the heroine who's his wife doesnt say or do anything because she loves him.... and when he gets home (weeks later) and wants to talk to her about stuff, she dreads talking to him because she's afraid he might ask for a divorce... OMG!! *ranks out hair* Whats wrong with you?!!.....

Heh,,, one of those "be careful what you wish for" situations?  It's funny, I just read a Presents where the hero blackmails the heroine into bed... I've read dozens of those without being bothered before, but this one really grated on me for some reason. The true ickiness was unusually apparent.

However, I have to agree, with all of that old stuff you have to watch it or you o.d.

I love most of it...it was pretty racy for the time. Some of the hero's are such jerks. Not all that real. Seems like now the formula is cultural jerks, Italian jerks, Greek jerks, Arab jerks.

Ya, just gotta love 'em..but don't read them with out something else inbetween.

Or the heroines who are just going to love them until the figure it out..wil drive you mad.

I do like the ones where the heroine has enough and leaves, or the ones where she's fights him over everything but the sex is really good.

Formula I  also get tired of the uncle/aunt trying to fight out custody. After their siblings die in a car crash just read a modern version. I still find it creepy. There was no kid invovled but not big on tradgedy playing a major role in my romance.

Unless it's a good old fashioned memory loss and they have to pretend to live together until hero gets his memory back. Haven't read one where the hero was blind and had the miracle operation to see in quite awhile. Those were always good. Guess they don't hit to high on the believeable scale anymore.

I enjoy the amnesia stories, too.  There's always a big secret!

The really dated casual sexism  -- even in fairly recent books -- is something that I find very tedious. References to "women's libbers" - my God, didn't that phrase go out about five minutes after it came in? But stereotypes take a LONG time to die in Presents. I couldn't believe it when I read a reference to Chinese people being "inscrutable" in one that was published in 1991!

Sometimes I want to kick my own ass for reading these things.

My absolute favorites are second chance love stories(not because somene cheated, of course)... especially, when you find out the hero has been pining away for the heroine..even though he's a total jerk (usually because he doesnt want her to find out how miuch he cares)... thats SO romantic....  *sigh*

I can't read too many in a row either, they do start to get to you after a while.  Sometimes I just wanna slap the heroines upside the head and tell them to grow up and get a backbone!

I know this is insane but I read this book many years ago and can not remember the title to attempt to find it again.

My memory of the plot summary goes like this.  Woman is nurse who has fallen on hard times.  working at a companion for woman in England.  Doctor meets and shows interest.  When companion job is over, nurse moves to work at hospital where pay is bad, doctor finds her and rescues her.

Or something like that.

If anyone has any ideas, please help!  I have tried all sorts of online searches with nothing!!

Thanks

Speaking of Presents, Daily Lit - http://www.dailylit.com/ - is offering a new one free. You don't have to register with the site - just request the book and they'll send it to you in 56 daily installments. I got my first one this morning but haven't started it yet..... not sure how to read it, since I always read my Presents in the hot tub... ;-)