Talk of Mary Stewart in another thread made me think of the authors I used to read just starting out.

Mary Stewart "This Rough Magic" was one of my favorites. I still have a copy of The Master of Blue Mire by Virginia Coffman that I haven't read in years I might have to go back to. Besides Kathleen Woodiwiss and Rosemary Rogers -- other old time books I started out with were ...... Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt, for mystery/suspense.

Janet Louise Roberts was popular in regular romance and she had one book "The Devils Own" that was probably early paranormal way before its time.

Emilie Loring, Lucy Walker, Grace Livingston Hill, and gasp! Barbara Cartland!! were all early favorite of mine. Before or at the same time as early Halequins (Betty Neels anyone...) there were Candlelight  ecstasy...I remember them having a lot of nursing romance titles even back then...

Just wondering what else everyone started out with???

Barbara Cartland is my earliest romance memory (I think junior high was when I started).  Before that I was on a Stephen King kick!  After Barbara, I think it was Jude Devereaux and Kathleen Woodiwiss.

Oh, yes, most of those.  My mother brought them home and I read them too.  I still have a few on my keeper shelf that I just can't let go -- The Shadow Of The Lynx and King Of The Castle by Victoria Holt, Bride Of Chance by Lucy Phillips Stewart, The Blue-Eyed Gypsy by Janette Radcliffe (aka Janet Louise Roberts) La Casa Dorada by Janet Louise Roberts, The Solitary Horseman by Emile Loring, Wife To Order by Lucy Walker.

Yes I read Barbara Cartland and No I didn't keep any when other stuff (almost anything really) came along, LOL.

I think I worked my way through almost all of the Candlelight Ecstasy and Ecstacy Supreme books back then and still have quite a few on my shelves. 

And of course Kathleen Woodiwiess sp? was my introduction to full length novels with lots of sex and heroes who weren't 100% jerk.  Though I didn't keep any, I moved on.

I wouldn't want to go back to the days of just having those choices, but I certainly remember them fondly. 

I remember one of Janet Louise Roberts books where the H was a devil, or the devil, or something.  I'll never forget that scene where the h mentions God and his skin moved like a ripple of waves on the water.  His version of a shudder.  And the h ends up with him in his damned state as I recall.  I'd like to find that again if I only knew which one it was.  it was one of the thin Candlelight Regencies, I remember that.

Oh yes i remember Barbara Cartland and her kisses that taste like ambrosia. It always made me wonder what ambrosia taste like bu then i was just in highschool. The one who started it all for me was Jude Deveraux. Closely followed by Johanna Lindsey, Georgette Heyer, Victoria Holt, Elizabeth Lowell... i never stopped after that. xD

My grandma passed on to me a lot of those same. I've done my time with Grace Livingston Hill, Barbara Cartland, Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt. The only one I've kept is Victoria Holt's Pride of the Peacock, actually I saw it a couple years ago and snapped it up because I wanted to have it. I also cut my teeth on early Harlequins, Loveswepts, etc. Early full-lengths include Jude Deveraux, Johanna Lindsey, Judith McNaught, Sandra Brown, etc. I used to hold onto everything but now I'm trying to thin out a lot. I can't imagine anyone else caring about what romances I've read so there's no sense in keeping them all for posterity. I still have a lot of Lindsey and McNaught but mostly for sentimental reasons. Haven't gone back and reread in a long time.

Barbara Cartland, janet dailey, mary wibberly, rosemary rogers? think that's her name, various bodice rippers like nadine crenshaw, nora roberts

For romance, I started with Diana Gabaldon, then moved on to Karen M Moning, then Melanie George, then Galen Foley.

Oh yeah I remember Rosemary Rogers - her and Heather Graham Pozzessere.  Johanna Lindsey was another good one - I still have her Mallory Series on my keeper shelf.

I did the squeaky-clean Barbara Cartland, Victoria Holt thing when I was a pup, and then some really bad Fern Michaels, Rosemary Rogers, and a few other assorted best-forgotten unmentionables when my tastes started to *ahem* mature a little:P  Then I discovered Woodiwiss and stuck there, thinking from the other crap-o-rama I had been reading, it probably didn't get much better than that.   Everything else, even good stuff written back as far as the late 80's, I've either read within the last 3-4 years or so, or I'm still catching up with assorted backlists.  I literally washed my hands of romance for years due to a run of truly bad books.  Didn't think there even were any good ones out there anymore until I gave romance a second chance a few years ago, so I'm still making up for a lot of lost time.

When I was a teenager, I was all over Violet Winspear, Charlotte Lamb and Janet Dailey.  Then my cousin introduced me to Constance O'Banyon.  I moved on to Johanna Lindsey, A Gentle Fueding was the first book of hers that I read.  Now I go through phases, right now I'm in a Johanna Lindsey phase again.

I started with Georgette Heyer, Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt, Anya Seton, Mary Stewart, Frank Yerby (for the buzz).

All of Victoria Holt, Janet Dailey Calder series, some Judith Krantz and Danielle Steele, Judith McNaught.

Other than that, I was reading VC Andrews and John Saul during my teen years. 

My very first book was a Betty Neels

Read everything I could back in the teen years, Violet Winspear, Charolette Lamb, Janet Dailey etc.

Went through reading every Betty Neels book I could get my hands on until I was so sick of her plot formula I couldn't stand it anymore. Now I am reading them again.....just make sure I don't o.d. on them. Intersperse the modern stuff inbetween.

In college a friend hooked me on the Loveswept novels. Our favorite author was Joan Ellliot Pickart. She would make me laugh out loud. Her heroines were certainly eccentric.

I absolutely fell in love with The Song Cycle by Mary Burchell and have used this site to get copies of them to reread.

Actually I love this site because I have found wonderful copies of the old 70's and 80's novels to get and reread. Only I am not letting them go this time.

Did anyone have a thing for Dr. and Nurse romances. That was hugely popular for awhile, not just Betty Neels.

I had one book that was so racy, we dog eared it and passed it around the class. Years later I went back to reread this erotic book. The racy part..., "He left her suitcase inside the door and carried her up the stairs." Seriously..., boy have our lives changed.

I read my mom's copy of Woodiwiss's Shanna at 12. I think I read it 5 times that summer, then moved on to Valerie Sherwood's Rash Reckless series, and I adored Jennifer Wilde's Love Me Marietta, and Once More Miranda. I also read a bunch of Johanna Lindsey and Janet Daley.

I started out with a Harlequin Presents I snitched out of a box someone brought over for a yardsale.  It was by Carole Mortimer and I read a lot of that genre, Charlotte Lamb, Anne Mather, Sally Wentworth, Janet Dailey to start out with.

The first book that I read that had sex in it was Judy Blumes Forever.. lol I recently reread it and the scene's were like "are you in? are we doing it yet.." lol.I was around 12 too I think. My friend was a big prude and showed my mom the book and she confiscated it right away. Then I moved on to Kathleen Woodiwiss and Catherine Coulter...Then I took a break from romance because I had kids and no time to relax...

I just thought of something else that actually came after Nancy Drew but before The Flame and the Flower....

Did anyone read the romance comic books??? Sigh! Sob! Oh No! ---- My girlfriend and I used to read them over and over again at each other's houses --- To top it off - my parents moved about 5 years ago and in the attic wrapped up in a plastic bag was over a dozen of them --- and yes I still kept them -- Actually I think some of the hair styles are coming back...... Just had to share.

Early on I read Agatha Christie and gothics - Victoria Holt, Dorothy Eden, Phyllis Whitney, Daphne DuMaurier, then went through all of Anya Seton.  My aunt gave me Danielle Steel to try (her earlier books were better, then I stopped after awhile) and Rosemary Rogers  bodice-ripper (the never-ending Ginny and Steve saga, lol).  I was working two jobs after I graduated and started reading the Cartlands for something quicker to read as I'd tend to stay up all night reading, though sometimes I'd speed through two in a night.  Then a friend at work said try Woodiwiss - The Wolf and the Dove and I looked for more historicals, Georgette Heyer, then Garland and Lindsey, and veered aways from Rogers and those like hers.   Celeste DeBlasis was another recommendation, another good author, Swan trilogy was very good. 

I'd mix the romance with mystery/suspense thriller, which most of the family was into, more legal and political thrillers, including Cornwell's Kate Scarpetta series, Stephen King (though I stopped reading him around Pet Cemetary), Robert Ludlum, and a little sci-fi.   For a time I stopped with romance and more into the suspense and mystery, then found myself back into historical romances and some paranormals and fantasy.  Now the romance and paranormals are really what I'm into, and t he mystery/suspense when I can fit them in..