Mills & Boon - just loaned my first one from the library

[SecondUsername4me]

I've only ever heard women I know read these who are 60+ so I'm not sure if it's a sign that I'm ageing prematurely (35) or just because I'm looking for quick reads and the walls of books at the library are overwhelming to sift through.

Any good? Are they still writing them? If I enjoy them is it feasible to read the back catalogue?

I've been through the Richard & Judy Book Club back catalogue and am fully up to date on the Reese Witherspoon Book Club back catalogue, so looking for another stack to work through.

Any particularly good stories I should look out for?

Thank goodness Catriona is the tidy type so that Partick was not faced with a sink full of washing up and kitchen work surfaces piled high with a year's worth of junk mail.

The film Leopard in the Snow [1978] was another Mills & Boon originated effort I seem to recall.

By the way, I can definitely see Catriona as a woman who wears 'vulnerable sleeves' - a trend recently identified on MN. 😅

"Vulnerable Sleeves"? This is a trend that has passed me by, can you please enlighten me.

I was going to write a long message pointing out that you are making fun of a genre mainly written by women for women, that many of you have clearly either never read a M&B or haven't read one in the last decade, that they have been groundbreaking in terms of women's sexuality and articulating women's desire, and that the women who write them are skilled, and many write in multi genres due to the woeful state of author renumeration across the board. But I don't have time. I'm on deadline for my 30th (possibly) M&B and sadly I was never furnished with a formula/computer programme etc.
Defensive? Of course. I am used to my work being denigrated and laughed at, I somehow thought better from a site also mainly for women. Silly me.

I did this as well 😂. That is probably why I developed a Jackie Collins habit in my 20's lol

@LardoBurrows

I hope you like it!

This is another one, I haven't watched it yet.

Leopard in the Snow

@DancingOnMoonbeams Ooh, Oliver Reed. Thank you.

Replying as the second Mills and Boon writer and sighing, wondering what happened to women supporting women.
Hands up, I joined Mumsnet for the ROKA Lucky dip which I love.
I work full time as a nurse and write around 4 to 5 books a year. There’s no formula and if I was allowed to swear I would say I wish to f* there was. Two of my books have been made into Hallmark movies which I love and would never have happened for me if I wasn’t writing romance. When you’ve seen what I have at work over the last few years I can tell that you writing a happy ever after when I got home after a 12 hour shift was the thing that got me through.
I’ll happily say that Mills and Boon aren’t for everyone, neither are the teen sci fi books I’ve also written, or the crime books I read by the bucketload.
But there are multiple lines, modern, medical, historical, suspense and many more, and you never know, you might actually find something that you like ❤️

😄It was in a thread in Style & Beauty - I've forgotten the MNetter's name but she said that someone had come up with this name for the cliche of wearing a fluffy jumper with sleeves covering the hands [probably in a pastel colour and worn while sitting eating chocolate and staring through a rain-spattered window].

@Churningishardwork @Rosieringlet For what it's worth: I've read hundreds of M&B, from all sorts of imprints, from the 50s through to the 2020s, and I love them. I'm glad there are still people writing them, because I still buy them!

@Churningishardwork and @Rosieringlet I don't disparage them at all - in fact I'm going in hospital for a surgery next week and am planning on taking one with me to read while Im there - something relaxing, escapist and entertaining.

In the last M&B I read, decades ago now, the steamy consummation was actually a rape. The horny heroine never recognised it as such, she was too busy emoting. It made me really cross!

This was my experience in the ones I read in my teens / 20s. I think in those days (80s) there was much less choice in reading material. The heroine was always an innocent, the hero always much older than her with something cruel about him. The number of times he seemed to kiss her to punish her . I had to stop reading them . (Moved on to the bonkbuster genre where the heroine seemed more willing !)

I imagine they have changed in context a lot now . I hope so anyway .

My mum used to LOVE them and ended a weekly trip to the market with a visit to the book stall who used to buy read books back from you, she could consume 2-3 a week. She gets them on kindle now.

You could always tell when she’d got to a steamy bit cos she was smiling 😂

Churningishardwork Rosieringlet

I don't think we're is really denigrating them although I'd say there's a bit of an affectionate teasing. I loved them when I was younger and this thread actually made me think I might give another one a go.

OK Mills and Booners, I have a task.

One of my absolute favourites from the mid 70s to 80s had a hero who I think was called Peter and a heroine who was really good at invisible mending. (As someone who can barely sew that really impressed me. )

I can't remember anything else about it but it was by a writer who I thought was really good ( so good I forgot her name 😂) and I read a couple of her other novels. I thought it might be Jacqueline Gilbert but I've had a look online and it doesn't sound like any of it it fits any of her novels. It was contemporary, not too sexy but not too chaste either.

Does anybody have any idea? I appreciate this is beyond "needle in a haystack".

Hope your operation goes well @MissMarplesNiece and you find something suitably escapist to read and lovely to hear that you still enjoy them @PudgeControlsTheWeather

I think the issue for me @StarbucksSmarterSister is that amongst the affectionate teasing is a lot of snobbery and people thinking that because they read something in the 80s it's representative of the genre today. Unfortunately a lot of things were rapey in the 80s including workplace culture! Some bonkbusters were, lots of genre fiction was, TV too - especially Dallas/Dynasty which both had a lot of forced kiss turns to steamy sex type scenes. Doesn't make it right, but that culture is certainly not representative of the books today and definitely never in the line I write for or in my books.

Too often Mills & Boon is used as a lazy shorthand for purple prose, and the writers looked down upon even within the industry. Romance, despite being a multi multi million pound industry and enjoying a huge renaissance amongst younger readers, is never accorded the same respect as other genres (unless written by a man, but let's not go there). Over the years I have become hardened to it thanks to being on the receiving end of a lot of mockery, especially in my non-writing workplaces, but it is disrespectful to me and my fellow writers and so insulting to readers who just want some escapism!

Do pick one up and see what you think - the Medical line which @Rosieringlet writes for or True Love which I write for may just surprise you. Our heroines aren't wide eyed 18 year old virgin PAs, and our heroes are no power-hungry, striding borderline abusers. We want to give our readers a well written enjoyable read which takes them on an emotional journey to a guaranteed happy ever after, all in just 50,000 words, and we want you to love our books so you come back for more. That takes craft, not churning to a formula.

And now I need to stop procrastinating on MN and go and finish the book that's due in today...

Previous generations version of Love Island I think! 😂😂😂

I loved Sam Starrett! A hot gorgeous ex SEAL with a Texas drawl, what more could a woman want in a fictional hero?
My favourite writer of this kind of stuff was Linda Howard right from the early 80's.

MissMarplesNiece Get well soon and enjoy your book!

Churningishardwork

I do see your point and I will give a new one a go. I appreciate it must be very galling when you work so hard if people sneer at them.

Unbelievably I have found this! I found a list of M and B authors from the period, recognised her name (Jane Donnelly) then found a list of the books she'd written. Even better it's available in an online digital library so I shall see if it really is as good as I remember because it's the one book that really stuck in my mind.

Well done! I hope you enjoy reading it again!

Obviously I shall now also have to read this!

LOVE M&B!

I share the fascination with invisible mending.

Apologies to the real M&B authors that have popped up. Obviously, appreciate your craft but M&B did send out guidance!

@Manicule you must be a real M&B author! You really hit the the jackpot with
"she’d settled on a simple but flattering woollen dress whose rich amber tones flattered her colouring and heightened the subtle green of her eyes, with a gleam of gold at throat and ears." Plus licking of lips - superb!

I ran a charity stall for 'save the children' - probably late 70s. We were gifted loads of M&B - no Drs (obviously male) or nurses genre. There were common themes; young, innocent (ie virginal) in need of a much older protector (pulsating throat and remarkably rich).
Another was the yet another young, virginal girl (but country bumpkin) who was happily helping her widower brother with his kids whilst keeping an eye on the mansion next door; the one that belonged to the elusive millionaire who lived in 'forrin' ie London and engaged to incredibly, glamorous supermodel. He retreated, licking his wounds to the sanctuary of aforesaid mansion on learning fiancée had accidentally shagged his sworn enemy. Might as well keep unpaid housekeeper/ bumpkin on but just marry her to appease brother (who goes on to marry the paid nanny or something). Bumpkin marriage not consummated - old fiancée turns up and Bumpkin flees in distress. This ignites millionaire's smouldering passion and they shag in front of a real fire (the one she has had to rake through, build with kindling she's ensured dry and fed with massive logs - axed by her teeny hands and only lost one toe in the process).
Also, lots of Argentinian Gauchos (remember, before Falklands!) who in reality, owned zillions of acres.
Common theme was the disparity in ages.