AAR

[baseballmom5]

I'd love to talk about this. Based off of another post in RPF on getting bored.

I read them sometimes, and if I do, it's only the Blaze line.

I am trying to do a poll for yes... no... sometimes. I guess you'll see if I'm successful!
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www.cindyreadsromance.blogspot.com

[baseballmom5]

Okay, so I almost did it.
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[Margaret]

A few years ago I read many Harlequin/Silhouette books...still have many keepers, but I have gradually quit reading them.

[Linda in sw va]

No, too many secret babies- babies in general, virgin and multimillionaires, ridiculous titles, etc. I cringe when I pass by them and try to avert my eyes.

Linda
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"The Bookshop has a thousand books, all colors, hues and tinges, and every cover is a door that turns on magic hinges." ~ Nancy Byrd Turner

[janet w]

Because Carla Kelly and many, many terrific, must-buy/must-read historical authors I fancy, are published by Harlequin Historicals. In fact, Harlequin Blaze just published a sizzling historical, very accurate and amusing too, by Betina Krahn, about the Prince of Wales and how he went about adding another mistress to his retinue. The best laid plans of princes don't always work out.

It will be a frosty Friday before I'll buy a Sheik, Billionaire or Lost Baby at my local Safeway but that doesn't mean I'm so closed-minded that I don't think that there might not be more than a few diamonds in that vein: I just rely on the fine reviewers of AAR, DA and SB etc. etc. to mine for me.

Lastly, here are just a few OOP Harlequin published books that are on my keeper shelves. And altho I will fully admit to mocking titles (which I still think and will forever think stop people from buying what may indeed be terrific books), excluding all books from a certain publisher? What's with that? I'm not even counting the tons of Anne Stuarts/Nora Roberts that I have and will never relinquish that are OPP Harlequins. I'm doing this from memory so forgive me if a non-Harlequin is on the list (I wrote this list originally for a great blog on AvidReader):

1. Vel­vet Bond, Archer … bought because it’s sup­pos­edly the best grovel evah
2. The Boyfriend School, Sarah Bird, haven’t read: bought because of BWOM (blog­word­of­mouth)
3. Sweet Lul­laby, Lor­raine Heath … every­one said it was great and it was.
4. Just an exam­ple: Mackenzie’s Mis­sion, Linda Howard, could they be bet­ter? NO!
5. Mad Dog and Annie, Vir­ginia Kantra (see above!!!)
6. A Scan­dalous Pro­posal, Julia Justiss … AAR gave this an awesome review.
7. Light­ning Strikes/A Soldier’s Heart (PTSD story), Kath­leen Kor­bel … why aren’t they re-issued?
8. Do-Over, Dorien Kelly, this is a fan­tas­tic look at lawyers, part­ner­ship and the deci­sions we make when we’re young.

[dick]

Like Janet W. I read a number of Harlequin Historicals both current and OOP. Elizabeth Rolls, Patricia Frances Rowell, Julia Byrne, Mary Brendan, Nadine Miller, Gain Ranstrom. In addition, some of the contemporary suspense--formerly Silhouette Intimate Moments?--are quite good. Some authors seem to thrive on the strictures these lines impose.

[Kristie(J)]

Yep - I do and voted so! I read mostly the Historical and Blaze and some Nocturne lines. There are some real gems there.
Sometimes I'm in the mood for a quick, light read and Harlequin is great when I'm in that mood.

[Tee]

When I was reading them years back, I seemed to gravitate toward the Silhouette Special Edition and Intimate Moments lines. The authors and stories in these particular set of books appeared to bond with my kind of writing and reading. I'm not exactly sure why and when I stopped reading them. I think it was probably around the time that I began to venture out of romance and into women's fiction, suspense and similar stuff. With only a few exceptions occasionally, I no longer read them.

[Katie Mack AAR]

I cut my romance teeth on series/category romances, I still read them quite a bit, and I'll probably always read them to some extent -- although now I read more single-titles overall. When I'm really busy I love the shorter format of categories, and like other posters have said, there are some real gems out there.

In the early 90s I was reading mostly the Temptation, Desire, and Intrigue lines, but now I read the Blaze line almost exclusively. Although, I do have some Harlequin Historicals by Carla Kelly and Elizabeth Rolls in my TBR, and some of my favorite Blaze authors now also write for other lines like SuperRomance, so I'm sure I'll pick those books up as well. And I have quite a number of categories from various lines sitting on my keeper shelf.

[despr8housewife]

Nope, i never read them. The titles are too silly and the books are too short!
If I'm going to read a book i want depth and character and plot development and I never want the book to end. I won't bother with a book under 300 pages!
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despr8housewife

[Anna B]

I find some very good reads in the Harlequin Historicals, Love Inspired Historicals and the Blaze Historicals. Can you spot the theme here? Plus they fit perfectly in my purse.
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Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead.

--Lucille Ball

[KayWebbHarrison]

Over the years, I have read books in many of the Harlequin/Silhouette, Loveswept, Candlelight, etc. category lines. Loved most of Jayne Ann Krentz' Harlequin Temptations; Nora Roberts wrote lots of great Silhouette Intimate Moments and Special Editions, as did Linda Howard. Sandra Brown, Kay Hooper and Iris Johansen wrote for Loveswept.

Now, I explore what is available on eHarlequin.com and order books whose story lines appeal to me. I choose mostly Harlequin Intrigue, Harlequin Blazes by Cara Summers, and various authors in the Silhouette Romantic Suspense line, the new name for Intimate Moments. One of the best in that line is Marilyn Pappano. Her series set in Copper Lake, Georgia is especially good. Scandal in Copper Lake from earlier this year is one of my best books of 2009. It combines small town motifs, mystery, unearthing past secrets, ESP, and an engaging interracial couple.

Kay

[dreamweaver]

[Niftybergin]

I used to read them. Back in the 80s and 90s, when Linda Howard and Nora Roberts still wrote for Silhouette, I read tons of them. And I enjoyed them. I still have a great many -- a hundred or so -- on my keeper shelf.

But the primary store where I buy books doesn't sell categories, and the quality of the books always varies, and there are too many "lines" out (each catering to a different "hook"), and the covers and titles sometimes embarrass me and keep me from purchasing them.

[willaful]

I read mostly Presents and I love 'em! Lots of times I feel too stressed out to concentrate on a really deep book and they just fit the bill. And I freely admit to reading about sheikh's and virgins and secret babies and all that crazy stuff. Though honestly, I prefer the older, less formuliac books. '80's-90's are the best, IMO.
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"I say, don't read the classics -- try to discover your own classics; every life has its own." -- Rudolf Flesch, _How to Make Sense_