to wonder who still reads Mills and Boon books

[lostsoulsunited]

I keep seeing them come up on Amazon but I'm surprised they are still being published as they seem so outdated in this day and age - woman meets man, falls hopelessly in love, lives happily ever after.

They aren’t what they used to be! I used to borrow them from my aunt. Certain authors, Anne Mathers for one, used to be quite explicit and I remember as a teenager being really shocked. These days, they’re more vampire/werewolf/Shades of grey/very graphic sex scenes. It used to be near the end where you’d find any sex references, now it’s a much quicker arrival at that.

@silenceofthemams

Omg, so true! Everything you wrote is absolutely bang on! Lots of ‘he grated’ as the man spoke to the woman and lots of breasts that ‘she’d always thought were too big’. Hilarious and compelling reads.

She just won't try Dostoevsky!

HAHAHAHA!

I picked up a Mills & Boon on one of those shelves in a hotel where people swap books, years ago. It was a sub-imprint called Black Lace and the book was called Pride and Prurience (same time period as Pride and Prejudice, see?). It was both unintentionally hilarious and extremely saucy. So much so that I brought it back for all my friends to have a go at. We still laugh about it now!

@bridgetreilly thank you! I'll get some on order to try now.

Love this thread!

Loved Point Horror too. And Point Romance.

sighs wistfully

@Iamthewombat I've read loads of Black Lace.. 🤣

Sorry, I didn't mean to de-rail the thread about my mum.

Don't be, it made the thread a lovely place to be and there isn't enough of that on Mumsnet

@hedgehogspike
Of course!

Some of my current favourite authors are Kate Hewitt, Dani Collins, Kelly Hunter and Maisey Yates. Here's a few books I've really enjoyed (the titles are uniformly dreadful, but you have to get past that):

One Night... Nine Month Scandal
Wife for a Week
Shameless Playboy
The Maid's Spanish Secret
The Darkest of Secrets
Powerful Italian, Penniless Housekeeper

These days, they’re more vampire/werewolf/Shades of grey/very graphic sex scene

That's... not really true. There are some with explicit sex scenes in the Dare line, and a bit in the Modern line. There's nothing that's like 50 Shades. And nothing with vampires or werewolves from Mills and Boon.

I love the high angst of the 80s and 90s M&B.

Current M&B offering is crap, all billionaires Mediterranean princes with their virgin brides.

These are my favourite authors from the 80s and 90s. I’m in my 30s so didn’t read them at the time but started in the late 90s.

• Robyn Donald
• Margaret Pargeter
• Charlotte Lamb
• Sally Wentworth

Also, current writers in the category of 50 Shades just cannot compare.

My iPad iBooks app has hundreds of M&Bs.

I worked for five years in a public library before moving to the far cushier gig of an academic library.

Old ladies used to borrow them by the armful. My colleagues insisted I read a couple. One had the immortal line that went something like she had the body of a jockey and the sexual sophistication of a hedgehog or maybe I am misremembering, I hope so.

I love erotic fiction
Excellent escapism

My husband also enjoys the consequences of me marathoning them in a holiday

Are people meaning actual Mills & Boon here or are you conflating M&B with all romance novels?

That may be why people are saying things like These days, they’re more vampire/werewolf/Shades of grey/very graphic sex scenes.

Mills and Boon is a brand. A very very successful brand that I wish I could write for. I write conventional contemporary romance, and my M&B author friends make far more money than I ever will!

It's not so much a formula, as the books tend to concentrate very much on the couple and their relationship, whilst other romances will have side plots and other characters, and therefore be more broad. M&B has a very American definition of 'romance'. In America, my books are called 'women's fiction'.

@Zaphod may I ask how much they earn? I’m tempted to write one, been reading them for 25 years, I reckon I’ve got one M&B in me

I can't comment on other authors earnings,Highonpot, but I would just say that M&B like their authors to have a 'writing career', so they would be unlikely to pick up an author who only wanted to write one book - they want you to build a track record with them.

They sometimes have competitions for new M&B authors, where you submit part of a book and the winner will get a commission, keep your eye open for those - and get writing!

@Highonpotandused www.millsandboon.co.uk/pages/aspiring-authors

Thanks Zaphod

How did you get into writing? I imagine it must be so much harder than it looks.

When my nan died, my sister said at the funeral "watch out for the dip - in M&B share prices..."

made us all laugh

I love them!

I only read the historical ones though, and nothing beyond that's set after the medieval era, so the Celtic age to 1485/1500.

History is my passion and I read loads of "serious" books too.

An historical Mills and Boon is a light, easy read.

Can anyone recommend one of the marriage in trouble type M and B? Or tell me the name of the category?
Thanks

@RoseyPeas

Marriage Under Fire by Daphne Clair
The Ultimate Betrayal by Michelle Reid

Some more on good reads

www.goodreads.com/topic/show/638768-cheating

Thanks @Highonpot
I'm going to invest in a couple of titles - I'm thinking of it as research for my new career

@TonytheDog - lovely comments about your mum
I enjoyed Mand B as a teenager . It definitely helped me with my English vocabulary

Some of the titles...
Powerful Italian, Penniless Housekeeper
I want to read it! They're great escapism