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Rike
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Rachel
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Lisa
Liz
Leigh
Jeanne
Thoroughly Creeped Out by Beloved Reads...But Still
It ain't pretty, those books I loved when I was a kid.
It started when AAR reviewer Jane Granville offered to look for any books staffers wanted at a library sale at which she was working. I immediately piped up, asking her to look out for anything by Violet Winspear, my favorite writer from my pre-teen and teenage HP days. Surprisingly, since I've never seen them around here, Jane came up with two. It was a start, but my appetite was only whetted.
I went online to look for the title I'd always remembered as being my mostest favorite ever - The Burning Sands - and my pal Lavinia's favorite The Honey is Bitter. Both arrived just in time for my little staycation.
But the Violet Winspear glom was just the start of my little cruise down memory lane. I also gobbled up three of my favorite titles (books I never, ever gave away) from the Great Tracy Sinclair, prolific Silhouette and Silhouette Special Edition author from the 80s and 90s - Never Give Your Heart, Castles in the Air, and The Tangled Web.
So, what has my little retro reading binge taught me?
- That men were bosses and women were not.
- That every now and then women need to be spanked, even if the hero can't bring himself to go through with it.
- That I really didn't seem to have a problem back then with "I hate you" as the chief emotion displayed by the heroine until the final moment when the hero persuades her that she really did love him all along.
- That those books really did come closer than I'd like to so-called "forced seduction." Which is rape, BTW, euphemism be damned.
Still, guilty though I may be about it, there is something big about these short little romances that I think is in short supply in romance today: Fantasy. These heroines were so far removed from my daily life (and, okay, my age, too) and the heroes so Larger Than Life that I had Big Fantasies. Something I kinda sorta miss.
I used to devour those Silhouette Special Editions at such a clip that I knew the name of the series editor from the short letters to readers that appeared in every title. She's now an agent and I introduced myself to her at an RWA party once specifically to ask her if she knew what had happened to Tracy who last published about 2000 or so. (For the record, she wasn't very friendly.) She said that she thought Tracy was quite "elderly" these days and that she had contacted the agent a few years ago to ask her if she would represent her. The agent declined.
That's too bad because I think Tracy knew something most writers and editors and agents don't these days: A whole lot of readers want to escape. Especially these days.
I've tried to read HPs today and they just seem...well, kind of sloppy and short. Not to even mention that I can accept the sexism in older books, but not in new ones - hey, I want my fantasy, but I'd also like it cleaned up for my 21st century sensibilities. My sampling has been hit and miss, however, so if anybody has any suggestions for writers I might try, I'd welcome them.
(And, BTW, in my glom I didn't come across one typo or language error. How refreshing! Books back then were like actually...well, edited!)
As for me, I know where my reading glom is going to go next. I've got a few favorite Iris Johansen Loveswepts carefully stowed away and I think it's time to pull them out. Heck, if I'm going retro, I might as well go in deep.
Will you share a few titles of those Johansen Loveswepts? I have never
explored series books from the 80-90s. However, I can't abide a heroine
who spends the entire book hating the hero. Is that representative of
these books even if you move into the 90s?
Lea
Lea, I loathe the "I hate you" thing, too, but it was just the thing back
in the 70s and 80s and into, I think, the early 90s, per your question. I
stopped reading series romances back when they discontinued the Loveswept
line. If you're looking into exploring this period (and why not since they
can be had so cheaply at most used book stores), that's where you might
begin. A lot of authors we know today got their start in this line (Sandra
Brown, Kay Hooper, and Tami Hoag are three who come to mind) and starting
sometime in the early 90s they started taking on a far more modern
sensibility than other series. Fayrene Preston was one of my favs, as was
IJ. It was a good line and I mourned its passing. At some point in the
early 90s, I'd had enough of Silhouette, though I continued to buy books by
Tracy Sinclair long after.
One of my "keeper" reads from adolescence was an old Silhouette by Tracy
Sinclair, Designed for Love. It's about a Californian girl next door type
who comes to New York City for the excitement, works for awhile at the
boutique level of a famous young studly designer known as much for his
amazing couture as for his reputation with the ladies. One day, while
contemplating a line of clothing for shorter women, he spots her and drags
her into his office to drape expensive fabric over. One thing leads to
another...sort of...and mid-way through the story they find themselves in a
strange sort of marriage of convenience in which he wants her, she wants
him, but they both are jealous of numerous third parties that keep butting
in.
LOL, Rachel, I remember that one! One of my favorites is set in the
advertising world and she gets wrong just about every single thing that
it's possible to get wrong (something that normally drives me nuts), yet it
remains a total guilty pleasure for me. Her writing was clumsy - and I
know this - but there is something about the way she constructed a fantasy.
I can read them today - and I sort of think of them in a time warp - and
still enjoy them.
Have you tried Anne McAllister's books? She writes HP -- sort of -- and
heroes are wonderfully larger than life, while you just have to love her
heroines.
No, Liz. I haven't. But, based on your recommendation, I will. Thanks!
I've revisted some of my childhood reads in recent years (Nancy Drew,
Trixie Belden, The Pink Motel), but have intentionally avoided my
adolescent and young adult reads...way too painful. When I first started
reading romances in the early 1990s, I read a lot of Loveswepts. I really
miss that line. I'm going to have to go back and see what some of the books
were that I really liked.
LG, I was a big Nancy Drew fan, too. And when I was a little, little kid
I loved reading the old copies (from the 1930s, I think) that my library
had of The Bobbsey Twins. Actually, I'm thinking that was my first series.
Oh, the Bobbsey Twins. They were probably my first series as well. My
father bought very old copies for me at a Salvation Army store. They're one
series I haven't tried to revisit. I have a feeling they might not stand
the test of time. But, I remember very fondly one book where they poured
maple syrup on snow and ate it as a special treat.
LG, remember the one where the little girl fainted from too much jumping
rope? My mom had to carefully calm me down by explaining that it wasn't
really something that I - a real jump rope fiend - had to worry about. I'm
sure that after all these years, that Danny Rugg remains the meanest of the
mean boys!
Some years ago I discovered several boxes full of old, old, old Harlequin
novels in the English bookstore in Mainz (definitely one of the advantages
of several decades of US army presence after 1945! *g*). Among these old
Harlequins I found Winspear's The Honey Is Bitter and it became one of my
favourite older romances. Another favourite among these older books is Anne
Weale's Castle in Corsica from 1959, and -- ooooh! -- Valentina Luellen's
The Devil of Talland (wonderfully dark and brooding hero!), published in
the Masquerade Historical romance line of M&B in the 1980s (I don't know
whether it was ever translated).
Sandra, gee, not even Violet at her woman-demeaning best (and, gee, but
having read a few of them in a row it's really clear she didn't care much
for her own sex) resorted to the s and w words. And the "betrayal" plot is
one I absolutely loathe - and, yes, Elizabeth Lowell, I'm talking about
you. Thanks for the Kate Walker rec. Now I have two authors to try.