I don’t know about you, but I started reading romance around the ripe old age of thirteen. I’ve thought a lot about this topic lately because my youngest daughter is fourteen and such a voracious reader I can’t keep her in books! So what do I do? I pass her a romance novel, of which I have a ton on my shelves, and say “go for it!” Actually, that was last year. She’s read just about every novel on my shelf and many more, except the super sexy ones.
I remember my first romance novels. The Barbara Cartlands and Georgette Heyers that kept me entertained through long summer’s between school semesters. My mother would go to the library and come back with a sack full of them at least once a week. She’d read all of them and go back for more. She still does and my sister, Delilah Devlin, and I keep her in a healthy stock of books from the conferences we go to. That’s the price we pay for her to be our “reader”. She instilled in us a love of reading. Not so much from forcing us to read when or what we didn’t want to, but by setting the example. There had to be something to it, if a grown woman could go through that many books in a week! How could I bury myself in a book when the black and white T.V. was filled with magical programs like Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island? I mean really.
I’ll tell you how. I found myself lost in the life of another girl, maybe a little like me or the person I wanted to be. I would lose myself in history, battling bad guys, fighting for true love and finally reaching my happily ever after. How much more satisfying is that? And the beauty of it was that my imagination was even more vivid than any television show or movie at the theater. And I could dig down into the very hearts of the characters I fell in love with the moment I turned to the first page.
So, should I let my fourteen-year-old read my romances? Heck yeah!
What about all the sex? She’s going to learn about it some day soon enough. Why not learn about it where it’s surrounded in two characters falling in love? Does it build unrealistic expectations in her? I don’t think so. I want my daughter to have great expectations of the man she falls in love with. Maybe if more boys/men read romance, they’d have a clue about what women want!
What about you? When did you start reading romance? Do you have daughters? When did/will you let them start?
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I wish setting an example was enough for my kids. Sigh.
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Hey Myla!! I didnt’ start reading romance until I was 21. I read a couple here and there for the next 10 years, but really didn’t dive in until the last five years. I still don’t read it exclusively. But I wish I had learned about sex through romance books instead of porn mags. Me thinks, that would’ve been a healthier POV. :oops:
by Vivi Anna
on August 27th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
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I started reading romance around thirteen, which was when I let my daughters read it.
by Estella
on August 27th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
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I started out with Barbara Cartland and Georgette Heyer as well, and probably at the same age as you. Can remember Kathleen Woodiwiss in that time period as well, and I have been a voracious romance reader ever since. No daughters, just male children, but I would not have discouraged a daughter from romance stories, and how wonderful that your daughter’s love of reading now gives you both something in common to talk about.
by Cathy
on August 27th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
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I started reading romance books when I was a teen and have been reading them ever since. My daughter also reads them, but is not as big a reader as I am…maybe as she gets older…we’ll see.
by Shari C
on August 27th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
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I started around 12 or 13 wen my best friend and I would borrow her aunt and grandmother’s Harlequin Presents.
I loved them! They were like short trips to exotic places as many of them took place in foreign countries.
The first non-HQ I ever read was Sweet, Savage Love by Rosemary Rodgers and I was probably 14 then! It was a lot different from the HQ’s!
by Angie T
on August 27th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
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Around 11 or 12, with a Carole Mortimer Harlequin Presents. I was hooked right then and there.
To be honest, kids know about sex and all that at a very early age. I know I knew a lot at 12, and that was over 20 years ago, so I can’t imagine what kids that age know now. I agree that girls especially should learn about sex when it’s in a positive, independent, healthy relationship, and not something you do just because all your friends are doing it. Peer pressure is hard to beat though.
by Stacy ~
on August 28th, 2007 at 5:44 am
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I was probably twelve when I read my first romance. I have been hooked ever since.
I have a daughter who is eleven and I am still careful about the books she reads. I will let her get books with a hint of romance, but I am careful about the issue of sex. We have a open and honest relationship, so I think by the time she is twelve or thirteen I will let her read some of the tamer books.
by Patty L.
on August 28th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
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I didn’t read romance until I was nearly 50. :oops: My favorite genre until then was sci-fi which is great for showing both men and women as strong and capable. I remember wishing there could be more love relationships, but enjoyed the action to much to switch. Then some friends loaned me some of their romances and I haven’t looked back since. 
by Laidybyrd
on August 28th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
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Interesting topic…I think I started reading romances when I was about 13 or 14 yrs old. My daughters see me reading romances and ask me why I like “those kinds of books”. Whenever they see the covers of hugging or kissing men and women, all I can get from them is yech….lol. Since they are under 10 yrs old, hopefully I don’t have to worry about the sex issue for a few more years. I am not sure I would have them read romances because some of stories are unrealistic to real life and others have too many graphic sex scenes for them (but I like them, lol).
by Lisa W
on August 29th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
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I started out with Zane Gray and other western books when I was in Jr. High. Then after I got married started reading Barbara Cartland, Georgette Heyer and Grace Livingston-Hill and lots of Harlequin books .
by Loretta
on September 1st, 2007 at 11:01 pm
