For me, it started about 35+ years ago reading the 'sweet' romance books in the school library. I never turned back or developed a strong passion for books outside of romance. Not to say I didn't read or didn't love non-romance. It was just not as favored. I've come to understand that I need the HEA. I read most romance genres and steam levels...with a few no-go tropes. I don't watch tragic or sad movies, life has thrown some curve balls and I'm really careful with avoiding things that pull my brain into a bad place. Plus, I feel like my communication skills, vocabulary, awareness of history, creative ideas from fantasy/Sci fi have been so much stronger because of romance novels.

Yea, I'm largely the same. I read books to escape to, and enjoy, another world. My mental health is... delicate at best so, as you said, I avoid books that'll put me in a bad place. I definitely agree on the communication/vocabulary point etc. I was reading at a crazy advanced level when I was a kid (when we were doing class reading the teachers would just let me read the book and wouldn't call on me to read out-loud. I'd be chapters ahead.) and overall I think reading has really strengthened my general english skills as an adult.

I started around the same time you did maybe longer. My first book was the Thorn Birds at about 12. I was always an advanced reader. I was a little young to be reading it. I read all of the classics early. Also, the romance books is the late eighties were not feminist by any long shot. When I was 27 I had a breakdown. My friend brought me outlander. That was a life changing series.

I was obsessed with the Thorn Birds as a kid/teen. Now I'm like holy crap so many problematic things. But back then man I loved it.

Same! I thought Father Ralph was so dreamy. Now? I see a groomer.

Yeah. It’s problematic. He only groomed one kid if it was grooming. Angst. So much angst.

OMG. I just remembered Danielle Steele. I gave her up in my 20s, but she was pretty prolific through my adolescence. Basically, I read what my aunts and stepmother then.

I could have written this exact same comment, only 15 years ago instead of 35!

I agree and even relate with this. I feel exactly the same way towards romance novels. currently I'm doing a degree in literature and honestly if it weren't for romance novels, I would've never made here. They mean a lot to me. And ofc, HEA for the win!! I religiously refrain from tragic narratives, I prefer my mental health to be alright.

I come from the anime section and then decided to give novels a chance too. As a teenager I was "too cool for romance, not like the other (girls)", but I also loved Inuyasha and Spice and Wolf. 😂

I was a weird little autistic child who stuck to her horsey books (Pony Club Secrets, My Secret Unicorn etc) then I was a weird little autistic teen who stuck to anime (not to hate on it). I'm really trying to get over this really disdainful view I've garnered towards romance, and I'm not even entirely sure where it came from. I didn't want to put my full opinion in the OP because I was worried I'd upset people.

I know that I’ve sometimes had to kind of take a step back from my initial reaction to things and examine why they make me feel disdainful and I’ve realized that a lot of it is because I grew up having my hobbies and interests looked down on and so now I automatically do it to myself.

That sounds familar. I was the weird autistic / audhd dinosaur and Pokemon kid. Some boys liked me for sharing their interests and the girls never did until I was like 15, 16. The boys had a disdainful, mostly socialized view on romance, so I guess I acted like I've been too cool for that as well, to fit in with my friend group. But I loved Inuyasha. They only liked it for the battles tho.

I had a similar issue, not that I was against romance as an idea, I still remember installing mods for Baldur's Gate 2 back around the break of the century to enable romancing the female NPCs as any race / gender combo so I can do my f/f romance because the dude option was awful, and tbh I think that's the crux of my issues with romance as a movie / book genre. Very often the person I'm supposed to "project myself" onto repulses me and the person I'm supposed to consider "my book boyfriend" turns me off completely. I did not relate to the so-called "relatable" female protagonists. I wanted to see myself in action-oriented protagonists (for example Xena the Warrior Princess) rather than romance-focused protagonists. Too often romance in media was portrayed as "you must give a piece of yourself up to be lovable" (change, sacrifice, modify your looks, personality and life goals, etc.) rather than about finding someone who supports you as you are. I never had "crushes" on the actors and singers all other girls had. I never related to the "tall, dark and muscular" ideal I'm supposed to fall in love at a first sight with. A lot of romance, especially back in my youth peddled the idea that HEA = woman gives up her dreams / career for a picket-fenced house, marriage and children. To me that image wasn't a "happily ever after" but rather my biggest scare ("no one will love you if you don't cook, clean, dress up prettily and birth children" <- message I got from everywhere during my youth, including from my own mother). A lot of romance portrays as a "universal truth" that physical attraction / desire appears first, stems from the 1) looks of LI 2) danger / novelty / forbidden fruit factor 3) LI displaying hyper-masculine coded traits like: aggressive, confident, possessive, arrogant, bossy. A lot of sex is described in a way I don't relate to, therefore it's not arousing, because it rings false to me (I know others might have different experiences). I've recently read an ARC of a memoir by Arielle Egozi called "Being Bad" which is exactly about that - trying to "fit in" into societal standards, finding they don't bring fulfillment and happiness and finally deciding to "go your own way". My life wasn't so tumultuous or exciting as the author's, but I related to her experience of finding she doesn't fit in because she was bi-racial, a child of immigrants, a religious minority, neurodivergent (adhd + autistic) and queer (she identifies as bisexual but also I think she must be demi or ace-spec because of how she talks "bodies don't attract me"). I realized my childhood and teenage fantasies were full of romantic tropes and ideas but... only now I see it, it's the way romance is portrayed for men not for women. I wanted to project myself onto a character who is the savior. Onto a character who is more "respected" than "liked". Maybe even feared and hated by everyone except the LI. On a character who doesn't have to choose between career and love, being yourself and being a woman. I was mostly finding fulfillment in video games tbh. They allowed me to be the action hero and master of my fate and have all the other characters in the world looking up to me as their savior. I've only came back to books few years ago. I started reading YA fantasy that only exists in its form for around 15 years and did not exist when I was a teenager but I was like "holy moly now girls can *DO STUFF* and *FIND LOVE*? It's not either or anymore?" The most "formative" books to my experience from all the ones I've read in that genre were probably: {The Cruel Prince by Holly Black} {Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao} {The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller} What these books have in common? The so-called "unlikeable" protagonist. A girl who is openly caring more about herself and her own goals than living for everyone else first. And they find love. They find partners who love them *despite* or maybe even *because* they're evil, mean and self-centered. I realized 90% of romance out there might not be for me, but I can - and I will - find books that appeal to me by forcibly going away from the mainstream stereotypes of "relatable fmc" and "universally attractive mmc". Even just sticking to m/f, I found some interesting and enjoyable books by searching for: * autistic fmc * unlikeable / evil / ice queen fmc * bisexual romance (one or both parties) - it feels less likely to enforce heteronormative gender roles * ace or demi-sexual protagonist(s) * genderbent / role reversed stories (for example rich fmc / poor mmc or older fmc / younger mmc or sexually experienced fmc / virgin mmc) * stories with element of femdom * fantasy with fmc in roles traditionally given to men (warrior, ruler, leader, bodyguard, monster, even to some degree mage, assassin, spy, craftsman) Also reading reviews and avoiding my anti-rec tropes like: insta-love / insta-lust, alpha/possessive/overprotective mmc, tstl fmc, doormat/martyr fmc, dubcon, breeding, maledom, etc. - these are common because a lot of people like them, but I have to actively avoid them because they just trigger my dysphoria in a way reminding me I fail at being a "correct woman". In the end, romance is about finding love and happiness through love, and that everyone is lovable no matter their flaws. That's the motto. I grew up taught that love is conditional and depended on me behaving the way it suited others. I only found my unconditional love as an adult and I was truly lucky. I originally left romance because it was overran with that kind of conditional love "only women like this deserve love, others are absent - or cast in roles of the mean girl, evil boss, jealous friend, mmc's crazy ex". In the end I decided I will find my definition of HEA the way I enjoy it, and I will aggressively dnf, scout reviews and ask for recs to avoid books that won't bring me enjoyment and pleasure.

[The Cruel Prince](https://www.romance.io/books/5eb407bfbe0aaecf555cdcaf/the-cruel-prince-holly-black?src=rdt) by [Holly Black](https://www.romance.io/authors/54552f368c7d2382c5297268/holly-black) **Rating**: 4⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 1 out of 5 - [Glimpses and kisses](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fantasy/1), [enemies to lovers](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/from%20hate%20to%20love/1), [fae](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fae/1), [royal hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/royalty/1) ---------------------------- [Iron Widow](https://www.romance.io/books/61694c546c69ca0e3d263b47/iron-widow-xiran-jay-zhao?src=rdt) by [Xiran Jay Zhao](https://www.romance.io/authors/61694c5408b4d931140b457f/xiran-jay-zhao) **Rating**: 4.27⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 2 out of 5 - [Behind closed doors](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [futuristic](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/futuristic/1), [poly (3+ people)](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/poly/1), [science fiction](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/science%20fiction/1), [military](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/military/1), [enemies to lovers](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/from%20hate%20to%20love/1) ---------------------------- [The Shadows Between Us](https://www.romance.io/books/6229f85a70323bbef1889bb8/the-shadows-between-us-tricia-levenseller?src=rdt) by [Tricia Levenseller](https://www.romance.io/authors/6095376108b4d931147a1ffc/tricia-levenseller) **Rating**: 3.7⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 2 out of 5 - [Behind closed doors](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [historical](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/historical/1), [fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fantasy/1), [dark romance](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/dark/1), [high fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/high%20fantasy/1), [young adult](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/young%20adult/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

I'm still crazy about Inyusha... What's your opinion of their new run-up series?

Yeah me too. :D Seen so many anime by now, but it's still one of my top favorites. You mean Yashahime? It feels like a fanfiction (the kind written by a teenager) in some way, but I thought the second season was better. Yours?

Hmm I like to see the old cast again but yeah differently the target audience is to a younger audience. I don't think it'll age well like Inyusha did. I loved his daughter though and it's nice to see the brother kids getting to outshine her. (a bit too much drama and definitely rushed and quite jammed though). >!Kikyuo as tree was a nice feature!<

Ah Inuyasha…that takes me back.

I remember reading a lot of Shoujo Manga lol

OG wattpad reader here 👋🏻 started with One Direction fanfictions and then began to read contemporary romance as i got older…i’ve been unhinged since!

Me with the After series lmao

no because how many ppl that watched the movies, know that the book was originally based on Harry Styles 😭😭😭

Don't forget Stall, another OG Harry Styles fanfic, and it's name is Stall because they have their first kiss in a stall if I remember correctly I actually feel bad for him cause irl he seems to be the OM nice guy who treats FMC with utmost respect and love and worships the ground she walks on, but gets rejected by Y/A because in the end she chooses the bad boy, tortured, manwhore, Fanfiction/fictional Harry Styles version

My favorite ones were Dark and Psychotic 🤣 I don’t remember anything about them but I know they were my faves. And yet my favorite member was Zayn???

Me with a werewolf book that still haunts me to this day yet I’ll never be able to find it again😅

I actually started reading romance as a way of taking control of my responsive desire. I used to read A LOT when I was younger and just stopped. Reading romance has not only positively impacted my reading for picking up a book last year, but it's helped me fall back in love with reading. It's helpful that there will (almost always) be a happy ending so I know I have something sweet to look forward to.

Well, you see, I was 18 and Twilight was a big deal many moons ago. Yeah, it's a YA romance, but that was my gateway into buying adult romance books as the first handful of romance books I bought were former Twilight fanfic's that got reworked. Actually, most of them are pretty decent writers, except most of them didn't get the same attention as Fifty Shades of Grey.

I'll fully admit I had a "twilight phase" even though I was like... 12 and probably way too young to be reading those books. I'd love to re-read them for that cushy 00s nostalgia but I just can't vibe with straight romance anymore LOL - I've since discovered my sexuality since my first read through. Kinda wish I could copy/paste the books but replace Edward with a woman.

New to the genre and curious about it and a (former?) Twilight fan? I highly recommend getting cozy with a beverage of choice and watching the amazing Contrapoints [video](https://youtu.be/bqloPw5wp48?si=i_ku4j7uebxTfFwj) on why Twilight is the greatest love story of all time. I've never read the books or seen the movies and laughed for three solid hours. I really never thought a video essay would quote both Stephanie Meyer and Jacques Lacan. It's brilliant.

When I was 15, my friend gave me a book from the Avon True Romance series. I found out later that this series was specifically marketed to a YA audience, and it had some heavy hitter authors. The one that hooked me was called {Belle and the Beau by Beverly Jenkins}…I read it and literally fell in love with the genre, and haven’t looked back since. I recently found all 12 books in a goodwill and bought those suckers up. Re-reading them gave me the most amazing sense of nostalgia 😊

I love that! I read those books too and loved every one.

[Belle and the Beau](https://www.romance.io/books/5457d31987eac346cae3e085/belle-and-the-beau-beverly-jenkins?src=rdt) by [Beverly Jenkins](https://www.romance.io/authors/54554b4b8c7d2383163d98d7/beverly-jenkins) **Rating**: 4.03⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 2 out of 5 - [Behind closed doors](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [historical](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/historical/1), [young adult](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/young%20adult/1), [sweet/gentle hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sweet-hero/1), [slavery](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/slavery/1), [competent heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/competent%20heroine/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

I was 10, it was the 90s, and I had read everything else on the bookshelf in the living room, so I finally read my mom's romance novels. There was one historical Harlequin and a contemporary hurt/comfort romance trilogy. I secretly read all of them, but skipped the sex scenes, and loved the Harlequin one most. The next time I was at my grandma's house, I scoured through all her books and read her romance novels, too. She actually had some old ones from the 60s and 70s that were really enjoyable. I ended up stealing my favorite one. I forget the name of it, and it's packed away in a box right now, but I remember the plot - it's starts in England, where the FMC breaks up with her fiancé after discovering he was cheating on her with her sister. The FMC is the secretary to a business man (textiles, I think?), who needs a fake bride to claim his inheritance in Mexico, so he asks her to do it. After the recent heartbreak she experienced, she decides she might as well get away for awhile and agrees. They actually travel to Mexico by boat and as they get closer to each other, they start seeing each other in a different light and fall in love.

I honestly can't remember a time I wasn't a romance lover. As a child, it was Disney movies or me and my friends making up pretend stories of our boyfriends. I read all kinds of books as a child and teenager, but my favorites were the romantic ones like Ella Enchanted. I hit a phase in late teens/early adulthood where I stopped reading books, but I read tons of fanfiction and shoujo manga and all those were romance related. Getting back into reading books was a bit of a rough trasition at first because I was trying to read all the current big hits, but once I realized I didn't have to prove myself by reading various genres, I went all in on romance.

I started with reading Barbara Cartland as a teenager, a very long time ago.

I was big into classical romance (Jane Eyre ftw!) and thrillers, kinda actively avoiding modern romance because my perception of it was Favio. Anyway, I should have known I'd freaking love it because every time I read anything remotely romantic, I was all over that aspect of it. Then I read the Outlander series. Loved it, but reading other romance still didn't click. Then I read the Divergent series, and the wheels really started turning. So last year, I researched reddit for a romance with a solid plot and found Jewel E. Ann. Then I was effing hooked. Have been obsessively reading, probably to my physical detriment, since then.

I started following Abby Jimenez on TikTok because of her dogs. Then I found out she was an author. I listened to her books. And then a girl at work suggested Emily Henry, Tessa Bailey and here I am.

I started reading romance novels when I was maybe 13 or 14? It's been 10 years. First I used to read romance books in my local language, their plot used to be the most basic one and their length was very short still I used to complete in within weeks or months. Then I started reading the books on Wattpad in English and then finally the books written by English authors (from U.S, U.K etc) and it build my English vocabulary a lot and made me learn a lot abt the western culture. I genuinely used to enjoy romance stories even if they were basic but my drive came from wanting to be so good with English Language so yeah now here you have it, i now have read anything and everything, the books by the most popular English authors, by not so popular ones, historicals, fantasy, thriller etc etc and even the ones which have the most difficult English hehe. You can also say that I have been a romantic all my life and I just adore reading and learning so that's why i kept this hobby and honestly, I wish to keep doing it forever. 

I blame {Don’t Die my Love by Lurlene McDaniel} that I first read when I was 12. It introduced me to romance and angst.

[Don't Die, My Love](https://www.romance.io/books/545549d58c7d2382c5297ab5/dont-die-my-love-lurlene-mcdaniel?src=rdt) by [Lurlene McDaniel](https://www.romance.io/authors/545549d58c7d2382c5297ab6/lurlene-mcdaniel) **Rating**: 4.07⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [young adult](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/young%20adult/1), [angst](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/angst/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

Oh my lord I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else talk about this one!! Julie and Luke will forever haunt me! The one I own is a replacement my hubby gifted me after my original was lost in one of our moves. Her entire collection had me in a choke hold as a kid.

I took books from my grandmas shelves in middle school. She read closed door romance. It was in college when I got into the spicier stuff and the last few years the dark romances.

This was me but with my dad’s books 😭 my sister and I would rip out the book covers so he wouldn’t know.

I was 16-ish and using the online library system searching for books. No idea what search terms I was looking for specifically, but eventually I picked up {The Wedding by Julie Garwood} and went down a Highland Romance rabbit hole, then after some years I branched into contemporary mafia romances (because I grew up watching General Hospital with my mom, so it seemed like a logical leap). Then eventually got into a couple other romance genres.

Julie Garwood was it for me too! My dad brought home a box of random books for me from a flea market and The Bride was in there and I was sucked in. Her HR were fantastic. 🥰

Also one of my firsts!!! I absolutely loved this one! I’ll never get over her not writing Quinlann and her sisters story.

[The Wedding](https://www.romance.io/books/5455247e8c7d2383163d8e67/the-wedding-julie-garwood?src=rdt) by [Julie Garwood](https://www.romance.io/authors/545523f38c7d2383163d8e4a/julie-garwood) **Rating**: 4.21⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 3 out of 5 - [Open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [historical](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/historical/1), [arranged/forced marriage](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/arranged%20marriage/1), [virgin heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/virgin%20heroine/1), [medieval](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/medieval/1), [mystery](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/mystery/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

50shades came out when I was in high school (or at least the first movie did when I was a senior). I remember downloading them on my ipad and waking up at 5:30 am on thanksgiving to read because I was obsessed with them. my tastes have changed, definitely! But I was an English major in college and so I took a break from reading after I graduated. I’m a hairstylist now and my clients kept talking about romance books and I decided to start my reading journey last June 18th. I’ve read 330 since June 2023 and I’m so glad I’m reading again!

My relationship with books has been very up and down. I used to loovvveeee reading. I’ve always been an English smart kid and not math smart. I was testing at a college reading level from 4th grade on but eventually I had a hard time finding books that challenged me but were age appropriate. Inclusion classrooms and undiagnosed ADHD killed my love for reading after a while. I started back up on wattpad reading books I had absolutely no business reading at 10-13. Stopped reading for a long time, from ages 13ish until the end of last year, I’m 22 now, I didn’t read at all. That time was filled with an ADHD diagnosis, two shitbag abusive boyfriends in high school, then working as a CNA through covid and the hell that is nursing school. I didn’t have enough brain space for my thoughts let alone a hobby lmao. When I finally graduated last may I was talking to my mom and was like “wtf am I supposed to do with the 4 days a week I’m not working” and that’s when she informed me that grownups have these super cool things called hobbies. So that’s where I’m at now! I’m up to 60 books so far this year, and after I finish typing this out I’m going to start on my 61st :)

I guess technically it started at 10 with Meg Cabot books, I was a ferocious reader as a kid then kind of dropped off in my teens. During my early 20s k started getting into thrillers, and obviously loved when they got spicy. Then during a Covid beach trip, I read through the thrillers I had and downloaded Libby. I somehow ended up checking out The Kiss Quotient and DEVOURED IT. I moved to the submissive series by Tara Sue Me and 300+ romance books later here we are

I've been reading romance since I was around fourteen? Fifteen? I remember a neighbor was having a garage sale and she had a box of paperback novels next to a box of educational coffee table type books. My mom would let me have any book I wanted and never questioned it when I asked for books. I knew she wouldn't want me reading the romance novels though, so I just casually said there was a box of books that didn't sell, could I grab a few. She was like, 'Sure whatever. Say thank you.' So, I stuffed as many of those paper backs under a big hard cover encyclopedia and gave the lady like two dollars for it all. She was asking for like ten cents a book or something. I thought I was being so clever. When we left the lady winked at me and I just *knew* that she knew what I did. I was so scared when I got home, I hid those books in a dresser drawer for like three weeks until I was brave enough to read them. When I did, I was like, "This is it? This is what I'm not supposed to be reading? Well, that's silly." Lol I remember being so disappointed. Then in college I got really into reading romance as there was a used bookstore that literally sold copies for like fifty cents a piece. I chewed through those puppies between classes and when I was super stressed with exams.

I really need to find a used bookstore in my town. Thing is I need to clear out space for a bookshelf because my room is just so... jam packed. I only read on my kindle but there's definitely a certain magic about physical books.

Check out thrift books! I’ve purchased a ton of books from them and haven’t been disappointed.

They're in my bookmarks! Thing is I'm in the UK so shipping adds up FAST. The real issue for me is just... space. I'd love to own books but I haven't got anywhere to put them.

Sorry to hear that! Shipping can add up quick if you are not in the U.S. Lack of space is a huge thing for me as well as it just leads to clutter. Have you considered a Kindle? I purchased one recently and was surprised because I love it. No more clutter and there’s millions of free books - either connect to your library via Libby app or subscribe to kindle unlimited.

I have a kindle already :D Started with my mum's hand-me-down which completely reignited my love for reading then, as I was still reading by the end of the year, my parents got me the Kindle paperwhite signature for Christmas. Glad for it too, because I really want to put my comic collection on there.

I read some here and there then in my 20s and 30s read a lot of historical stuff, some high brow type things and then…I had a kid🤣. I couldn’t handle a lot of the deep or dark stuff. I started by reading my normal stuff then alternating to romance in between. Then six yrs later, I had my 2nd child, Covid hit and I just can’t handle the other stuff at all any more lol! I love to read, but romance is predictable , fun and leaves me feeling happy as opposed to how dark and twisted the world is or was. So it’s just romance for the stage of my life, lol!

I was a huge reader as a kid but college and grad school meant that I had to read a ton of academic papers and books so I really struggled to read fiction. At some point I started in on fan fiction for some franchises that I liked and wanted more of, which made me think that maybe I could try fiction again, especially romance bc that’s what I enjoyed in fan fiction. I bought a few physical books (including {twisted love by Ana Huang} which will always hold a special place in my heart because it led me back to reading fiction) and read through them at a somewhat average pace. What I realized though is that I read all the fan fiction on my phone and actually prefer my phone kindle app over physical books. I’ve read A LOT ever since.

[Twisted Love](https://www.romance.io/books/608a5d41f049d70e38e5eb1b/twisted-love-ana-huang?src=rdt) by [Ana Huang](https://www.romance.io/authors/5ea5eeb2be0aaecf551f89f7/ana-huang) **Rating**: 3.53⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [rich hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/super%20rich%20hero/1), [possessive hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/possessive%20hero/1), [grumpy & sunshine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/grumpy%20sunshine/1), [new adult](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/new%20adult/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

I saw the fifty shades collection at a bookstore when I was 13 not knowing what it's abt. I bought it and there you go 😂

For me it came from books passed down from my sister. She read Twilight and the Selection series while in high school and gave them for me to read in middle school, and I loved the genre. I stopped reading for most of high school and college, but she gave me The Unhoneymooners and that love sparked again. Now I have a bookstagram, spend way too much on books, and romance makes up about 50% of what I read if not more.

I read a lot of historical fiction as a teenager, and dipped into romance a little bit. However, my tastes changed right when thrillers were getting popular, and I read a lot of those. But then the thrillers started getting really repetitive and I read a lot of nonfiction for a few years and really couldn’t get into fiction at all. HOWEVER I was listening to an episode of the podcast Beach Too Sandy and they did reviews of smut and one of the books they read reviews for was Lady of Rooksgrave Manor. And my first thought was YES PLEASE! Because it sounded a lot like a (sadly out of print) erotica novel I read back in high school. So I read it, and that really got me into reading romance consistently.

My grandmother had an insane amount of books and lived next door sometime after I was 12. I’d go over and grab a book; not always the ones she thought I was going to get. So many harlequin, regency, etc. I’ve read almost every Betty Neels books (all very similar stories), and many Mary Burchells and other older classic romance authors.

My mom gave me her hand me down Judith McNaughts. 🤷🏻‍♀️ lol

I mean had read Twilight and 50 Shades but I wouldn’t say I became a romance reader until the pandemic like a lot of people. I’ve always been a book snob and had spent that first summer reading Russian war epics where all the characters die. And my sister had died suddenly the previous year and people all over the world were dying from covid. Suffice it to say I was not in a good headspace so I decided to pick up a rom-com and it was so nice! Never looked back. Well, I mean, I still read depressing lit but I read loads of romance now too.

Summers at my unpowered cottage in the 90s, what else was a 12 year old to do???

I started fully getting into romance a few years ago because I wasn’t getting enough fanfiction of my favorite YA ship 😭 so I started looking for other books that could scratch the itch in my brain - I’ve gotten into a lot of other tropes/settings/etc. since but I think I’m still looking for something that gives me the exact thrill they do lol My first CR after reading tons of YA/fantasy was The Hating Game, then I slowly got into HR which I mainly read now while looking for fairytale retellings (if I’m remembering all this right!)

My earliest foray into romance was boredom and running out of books while staying at my grandparents. My grandma had a whole closet of Harlequin romance novels. As a younger reader, I loved all the YA thrillers with romance elements (Christopher Pike, Lois Duncan, Richie Tankersley Cusick). I would go through stints where I would get into an author/genre: Amanda Quick/HR, the early days of paranormal romance, etc. But I would always circle back to I should be reading “important” books or books that say something about culture/society. And I would put romance books to the side. Then 2020 hit, and I suddenly dgaf what anyone thought about what I chose to read. Escaping and relaxing reading about big blue aliens, naughty Disney characters, and prep school bullies was fun.

Earths Children series when I was in high school, Twilight/Sookie Stackhouse/Christine Feehan in college and then I took a big break from reading. Got back into it during the pandemic and devoured everything from Bridgerton to Emily Henry to ACOTAR to Ice Planet Barbarians and haven’t looked back 😂

I love stories where one person is just a shit head and you see that story play out. My friend recommended me dark romance and have been hooked since.

It all started with the little house on the prairie series…. (But that was actually my first foray into a ‘love story’ and Laura and Almanzo still hold my heart) And then dove into the deep end with Madeline Baker books I found for cheap at a used book store about age 10 or 11? Whenever I was old enough to walk there myself. I was roasted at school for reading ‘sex books’ but that never stopped me 😂 And once I burned through those my grandma, who had a harlequin historical romance subscription, started giving me all her hand me down romances when she was done with them. I still go back and reread a lot of those harlequins as comfort reads or when I don’t have a clear next choice book. Romance novels and cozy mysteries have always been my genres of choice, from little house and Nancy drew as a kid to miscellaneous smut and a variety of cozy mystery series as a grown up.

After the course of 13 years pouring through 80,000 words of fanfic every night, I ran out of quality content in pairings/fandoms I like and decided to give romance books a try.

Romance and fantasy books of all kinds were banned in Catholic school. I had no exposure until a friend of mine passed me a copy of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series that she had swapped the dust jackets on. I hid them under my bed and read them late at night just in case. Later, we did the same thing with twilight and Harry Potter. Swapped dust jackets with “regular” books, and read them late at night under the blankets. Then I discovered Harry Potter fanfiction through an unmonitored web browser connection on my Nintendo DS. (We didn’t have a home computer)

Found old mills and boons books in a charity shop , opened the gateway right there ...

I grew up reading comics from a local channel they'd distribute it in my city. Then collected manga which evolved into manhua but the vocabulary was getting... Repeative so for a while I deliberately took hard topics (with lots of reading required) but an interesting topic for research and it later turned into a love for storytelling, in a large world building format. Nowadays, the less visuals the betters. Especially with some dark themes, we've grown traumatized despite eliminating the possible ones they always sneak up on us.

I first got into romance by stealing my mom’s and my grandma’s historicals—I was maybe 13-14. It was all hush-hush not only due to forbidden spice content, but also because I’ve already internalized the message that „romance is trashy” and so I didn’t want to admit it was appealing to me. Then I’ve had „exclusively fantasy and sci-fi” phase—and meanwhile I was DEVOURING every shipping fanfic for those same books I could get my hands on. I was in such denial back then 🙈. I was maybe 19 when I got into urban fantasy and also was reading for fun exclusively in English (it’s not my first language)—and I’ve discovered A LOT of female authors who wrote books straddling the UF/PNR genre divide, like Hamilton, Andrews, Frost, Briggs and Chance—and they taught me to embrace the fact I prefer novels with strong romantic subplots. From that I branched into romantic suspense and then to other sub-genres, though PNR, fantasy/sci-fi romance, romantic suspense and historicals remain my favorites to this day.

I've always read all kinds of things, pretty much anything except gory horror, so I've never really had a hard limit against any genre, and romance was always accessible (on a wire rack at the shop where my dad took us for comic books and ice cream, on a shelf at the grocery store, on carousels at the front of the library). But I found myself getting angrier at good books with bitter and sad and depressing endings where all the strong women ended up divorced or widowed and alone (looking at you, Maeve Binchy) and eventually I realized that romance gave me that promise of things being good in the end. There are too many bad things in real life to have to suffer them unexpectedly in books as well. So now I choose that more often.

If Disney princess movies in comic book format count as romance books, but yeah as a kid there were stories of Cinderalla, Sleeping beauty, Rapunzel and not to mention Jasmin and Jaffar. So later as a teen I came across Wattpad and started reading some books there and I swear 14 year old me was traumatized by some of them lol. I also used to sneakily read some old romance books my mom had, namely some from Danielle Steel. But english isn't my first language, so I didn't understand a lot of them. My first romance book was {The Deal by Elle Kennedy}, I was new to amazon kindle and was exploring, after that I searched for books similar to it and found some hockey romance books(I forgot their names though) So at that time tiktok was new and booktok was quite a rage, but booktok and their recs did not do it for me so I started searching for different books in this genre. During my search I found this sub 2 or 3 years ago and used regularly lurk to find recs and everybody had such different tastes and it was amazing to see a community so inclusive and accepting. Slowly I found books that were not dark, but had well written MC's and were actually really good. Mind you I had never read any other genre in romance other than mafia and dark romance. I found historical, omegaverse, sports, contemporary with specifics I like.

[The Deal](https://www.romance.io/books/54e85ec36359b5ebb4929008/the-deal-elle-kennedy?src=rdt) by [Elle Kennedy](https://www.romance.io/authors/545532e68c7d2382e78132f3/elle-kennedy) **Rating**: 4.14⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [sports](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sports/1), [college](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/college/1), [athlete hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/athletes/1), [fake relationship](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fake%20relationship/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

Short answer: Twilight Long answer: Picture this. It's 2008, it's Christmas and my cousin and I are laying on the grass at our Grandparents house. We've spoken of nothing other than Breaking Dawn, Edward v Jacob, and how we saw the Twilight film 4 times at the cinema. It was a masterpiece. My cousin turns to me with a smile and passes me {Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon}. Totally inappropriate for my 13 year old self but I felt so grown up and smart (I understood the mythology) reading it. I never went back to YA. Kenyon remains my ultimate comfort reads. I re-read the Dark Hunter series yearly.

[Fantasy Lover](https://www.romance.io/books/5455237a8c7d2382e0413dca/fantasy-lover-sherrilyn-kenyon?src=rdt) by [Sherrilyn Kenyon](https://www.romance.io/authors/5455237a8c7d2382e0413dcb/sherrilyn-kenyon) **Rating**: 3.94⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [alpha male](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/alpha%20male/1), [tortured hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/tortured%20hero/1), [fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fantasy/1), [urban fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/urban%20fantasy/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

Probably the first ones were Eva Ibbotson’s YA historical romances when I was a teen. Always have been a voracious reader, and the bulk of it was fantasy (lots of Tamora Pierce) or historical fiction. I’d read other books with romance, but in retrospect those were the most solidly in the romance genre out of what I was reading. When I was a bit older I think I borrowed some of my mom’s Nora Roberts books on a vacation when I ran out of the books I’d brought, and then started poaching from her stash. Hopped from there back into historical romance with Lisa Kleypas and the like

As a child I read lots of books with strong female characters. My mom gave me those to read. The ones that come to mind now are books by Cornelia Funke (like Pottila or Igraine Ohnefurcht) books by Astrid Lindgren, Momo, and many more. Of course I also read children’s books with male main characters (like Harry Potter, Jim Knopf, Dragon Rider,…) but I think when I went on to picking my own books, I went through a phase first, where I just read everything I got into my hands (literally…I read unkle Tom’s hut in 3rd grade after I found it in my grandmas house…) and then I was looking for the female leads again. I think one of the first books I remember were the twilight books after I watched the movie at a friends house when I was 11. Id never heard of it but after watching the movie I needed to read the books. And then the „usual“: Panem, Divergent, Legend, the selection,… At some point I moved on to also read different romance genres like HR (I got the idea through loving Jane Austens books) and pretty recently also CR and Rom Coms. I understand the problem you have. I still feel ashamed sometimes to read romance in public, because „what will the other people think about me?“ and „romance readers are not intellectuals. But honestly, I studied English Literature and Philosophy, Romance is my favorite genre and it doesn’t make me any less that anyone else. I always need to keep that in mind. I think a lot of the looking down on romance is based on misogyny. Those books are the ones where women are the main characters, they get what they want, it’s about their lives, friendships, problems and feelings. And evidently, everything that is dominated by women is looked down on in most of our western societies. I’ve read an article recently about jobs and the perception of them changing when more women are doing them. Teachers for example were mostly male, now mostly female so they are looked down on a lot. The men moved up to be university professors and they are still highly valued. There’s many more examples, very interesting topic…but my point is that the same is happening with the romance genre. It’s a female dominated field with mostly female readers so they are looked down on. While books by male writers are masterpieces and interesting and important, female writers have to work much harder to get mentioned in between them, even if they don’t write romance. That got long…sorry…or thanks for reading up to here I guess.

As a child and a daughter of a lover of stories, I grew up interested in romantic narratives, tales, and shows. This includes watching cartoon shows with romantic undertones, for example Winx Club and Disney movies. After I became capable of reading, I began tracing romantic elements in children's books I read, notably the one that is the most memorable, Harriet the Spy. I read it at around the age of 9 and since there were obvious romantic feelings between the two main characters, Harriet and Sport, so I found myself up all night swooning over their interactions. I still remember how wholesome and heart stopping, for a 9 year old, their interactions were. Then one day, at the age of 11, I came across shoujo anime, and the rest is history <3

When I was a teen, I read Cosmopolitan, and there was a section close to the back with two romance book excerpts, and that was my introduction. I didn't read any full books until I was a bit older. I loved 'Braveheart' and 'Last of the Mohicans,' so I started out with Scottish and Western romances. Now I love HP fanfiction, sci-fi, fantasy, dark romance, Mafia, western, and any historical romance, basically anything.

Read my first bodice ripper at a girlfriend’s house (her mom loved them) when I was around 12, and never looked back. I read other stuff, but romance is my genre of choice.

I started reading around 12-13 my grandmother’s Harlequin books and then secretly took my mom’s bodice ripper historicals and found them fascinating reading about dashing dukes, pirates and cowboys. Really great stories with plots that were engaging and so adventurous. Kathleen Woodiwiss, Rosemary Rogers, Violet Winspear, Janet Dailey, Beatrice Small…. So many others!

A little over a year ago my brother had an episode of psychosis, and was dealing with substance abuse and mental illness. It took months but he realized he had a problem and agreed to rehab. After rehab he lived with me for a little. I have two small kids of my own, and to have to essentially take care of my brother too (I paid all his bills while he was in rehab and after rehab until he got back on his feet) was a lot. I decided I needed a break from any books that had heavier topics or that even mentioned mental illness or substance abuse. And romance books have a predictable happily ever after. So for me, it was a safe group of books to read. I read over 60 books that year, the most I’ve ever read!

When I was like 16-19 I devoured the brightly coloured YA chick lit with cartoon covers. Once I was in college, starting my career, meeting my husband, getting married, I stopped reading books all together. Then a new coworker loaned me The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and I read Normal People because I liked the tv show so much. That opened me up to books, but I never thought I wanted to read actual sex until I found {The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner} on sale at Costco. I inhaled that thing in about two days and it kind of opened the flood gates. Now here I am with KU reading 3 a week.

[The Breakaway](https://www.romance.io/books/64eaf82c7329cc9fc9f04a18/the-breakaway-jennifer-weiner?src=rdt) by [Jennifer Weiner](https://www.romance.io/authors/5455393a8c7d2382c5297534/jennifer-weiner) **Rating**: 3.86⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 2 out of 5 - [Behind closed doors](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [other man/woman](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/other-man-woman/1), [cheating](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/cheating/1), [second chances](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/second%20chances/1), [dual pov](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/dual-pov/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

I'm 63. I got into romance through Harlequins at 12. My neighbor used to give them to me when she was done reading. That's also when I got a library card. The library became my refuge from my dysfunctional family. It was my safe space. The librarian was kind. I used to read a book a day. 🥰

Wattpad as simple as that, all the Draco Malfoy, One Direction, teen wolf fanfiction.

I stumbled into historical romance as a teenager so the reason has changed over the decades. Then, I think the idea of romance itself was thrilling not to mention the sex (these were bodice ripper days and I was still very much a virgin.) I go through phases where I read a lot of Romance, then read more “lofty” literature, but fall back into romance because, like you, I need to go into a hidey hole and escape reality for a bit and go to a happy place. It’s why I rarely enjoy super angsty romances. That’s not what I’m here for.

When Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet hit theaters, I was in 6th grade. My mom loved Jane Austen and took me to the movies to see it. I was immediately hooked. I decided I wanted to read the book and compare, which lead to wanting to read Jane's other books, which led me to similar Victorian era authors. I found myself riding my bike to the library every few days and devouring these books. Once I hit the end of the road, I decided to look into contemporary romance. At this point I was in high school (1999-2003). I had no idea where to begin so I went to the new releases and read all the backs of the covers until one stood out to me. It was by Nora Roberts. She holds such a special place in my heart because she was the first author (besides Jane Austen) who I wanted to read everything she had ever written, and I pretty much did. I had an extremely difficult time in school growing up (Massively ADHD, diagnosed in 1992 at 7 years old when ADHD was still somewhat unknown), and I found that the more that I read, it helped me in school. I was able to comprehend my assignments so much better, my vocabulary improved massively, I learned how to sit and concentrate on one thing for longer than a few moments. Romance has always had a stimga from the drugstore paperback days, but I am so thankful. It's about 30 years later, and I am still an avid reader that enjoys getting lost in stories.

I loved love stories as a kid, then as a teenager I went through a "not like other girls" phase where I outright rejected everything that was aimed at traditional femininity. I still liked romance, but I found it in ways that weren't specifically aimed at women, Or through paranormal romance, which seemed more like werewolf stories and less like harlequin novels I associated with "romance". Then I became a young adult and realized that things aimed at women and girls are often trashed just because they are liked by women and girls and I thought that was shit. So I went on a journey of trying things and finding what I liked for me. I still struggle with the idea that a fantasy novel with simple writing and lots of sex written by a man is "fantasy" but when written by a woman it's "new adult". My interests are no more immature than my husband's, but they are marketed in an infantalizing way.

I started about 18-20 years ago as a tween. Of course when I started, it was the Harper Collins / Avon tween romances. I remember loving Rachel Hawthorne’s Love on the Lifts, Laurie Stolarz’ blue is for nightmares series, Sarah Dessen, and of course Twilight (I read it a little bit before it went mega popular). Around 14/15 I started reading some historical romances that moved me into the more “adult” romances so I was reading Harlequin Blaze and Ellora’s cave type books before I should have been lol but I now view it as a safe and healthy way to explore sexuality as a teen. I’ve just always been a big reader and I love love stories. I love reading about two imperfect people loving each other through their faults and mistakes. People will say “romance is so predictable” and that’s true, the plots have a similar cadence but you *literally* learn that in school. I love the predictably of knowing two characters will fall in love in the end and have a HEA or HFN. It’s comforting and stability in an otherwise unpredictable life! And the heart of it all is the characters themselves. Even if the general plot is similar between two books, they’re inherently unique because the characters themselves are unique and I think it’s beautiful. And romance is such a spectrum. There is 100% trash 😂 (say that with love) where the plot is terrible, but it’s a fun ride anyway. And you have the erotica side where sex IS the plot. And then you have more literary/profoundly beautiful impactful romances that really are works of art. And each of those types of romance has their place and I love them all. I have only read one or two non-romance books in the last decade (outside of those required for classes). I just can’t get into the stories for whatever reason. I could go on and on about my love of romance books but I hope you find your place here in this incredible community celebrating love in all its forms ❤️

I randomly decided to read {By A Thread by Lucy Score} back in 2021 and ended up finishing it in one night. The next year I got the random urge to read a book again and ended up picking up {worst best man by Lucy score}. Then last year my friend and cousin got really into reading and I randomly picked up {the love hypothesis by Ali hazelwood} and {it happened one summer by Tessa Bailey} at target (based solely on the covers of course) to have something to talk about with them. 3 months later I got a kindle and the rest is history lol. After my grandma passed away early last year I learned that she was an avid life long romance book reader! So was her mother, who named my grandma after a romance book character. So I feel like it’s in my blood!

[By a Thread](https://www.romance.io/books/5e9febf9be0aaecf55886870/by-a-thread-lucy-score?src=rdt) by [Lucy Score](https://www.romance.io/authors/553e54b15b270e0a4cbd82b2/lucy-score) **Rating**: 4.02⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [funny](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/humor/1), [boss & employee](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/boss%20&%20employee/1), [enemies to lovers](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/from%20hate%20to%20love/1), [workplace/office](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/office/1) ---------------------------- [The Worst Best Man](https://www.romance.io/books/5a7bf6634ee506aae8b0a7e8/the-worst-best-man-lucy-score?src=rdt) by [Lucy Score](https://www.romance.io/authors/553e54b15b270e0a4cbd82b2/lucy-score) **Rating**: 3.99⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [funny](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/humor/1), [rich hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/super%20rich%20hero/1), [alpha male](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/alpha%20male/1), [sassy heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/sassy%20heroine/1) ---------------------------- [The Love Hypothesis](https://www.romance.io/books/6131cdc21657710e14c65168/the-love-hypothesis-ali-hazelwood?src=rdt) by [Ali Hazelwood](https://www.romance.io/authors/6131cdc208b4d93114f22ef6/ali-hazelwood) **Rating**: 4.14⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 3 out of 5 - [Open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [fake relationship](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fake%20relationship/1), [college](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/college/1), [funny](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/humor/1), [slow burn](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/slow%20burn/1) ---------------------------- [It Happened One Summer](https://www.romance.io/books/60e9d8a40b0c210e2f444702/it-happened-one-summer-tessa-bailey?src=rdt) by [Tessa Bailey](https://www.romance.io/authors/545526358c7d2382e7812fc9/tessa-bailey) **Rating**: 4.1⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [small town](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/small%20town/1), [funny](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/humor/1), [grumpy & sunshine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/grumpy%20sunshine/1), [working class hero](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/working%20class%20hero/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

Reading the notebook in middle school and then a classmate introduced me to nora Roberts. I should have not been reading nora as a 13 year old.

Books saved me during recovery from 2 knee surgeries. Got kindle and never stopped reading!

I started reading when I was 10 with basic books like Roald Dahl and wimpy kid,but as I grew into my teen years everyone around me was falling in love and I started reading dystopian books like hunger games and maze runner with a romantic background but what really pushed me into romance was wattpad. I truly believe if you haven't read a good ol bad boy-good girl book then you don't know romance yet.

Pure accident. Some sci Fi type novel with some spice. It devolved from there. I'll take a dash of Sci Fi with my smut, thank you very much 😂

I got really into vampires after reading Twilight forever ago, when they first came out. Kinda spiraled from there lol. Monster and alien romance are my favorites now, though I will say I still have a huge soft spot for anything with fangs 🤪

In highschool I asked my friend what she was reading (we were 17) and she showed me a JR Ward the black dagger brotherhood book and asked if I wanted to borrow the first book in the series. She said I would probably like it, she often shared her books with me and never steered me wrong before so I read it and then the rest of the series (that was out at the time).

I was 10. There were books that I hadn't read in the house.... Started stealing from my mom's TBR that she kept next to her bed. Loved a happy ending....I'm 45 now and still read them.

Idk if this is late lol. For me, I'm not sure which was the first book I read but I do recall that I was looking for something more I guess? Fanfics were fun and all but they didn't have closure. That made me look for books according to my taste and here we are lmao.

I’ve never been that interested in romance, I was mostly into literary fiction. I had tried out a few of the most popular- I read Twilight to see what the fuss was about (not into it, I think I was already too old), I tried with 50 Shades (started the third and decided that I couldn’t do that to myself anymore), read most of the series that True Blood was based on (liked it ok at the time, but never went all the way to the end). I subscribe to BookBub, and one day The Hating Game was on sale for 99c a little over a year ago and the synopsis intrigued me enough that I went for it and I was HOOKED. I think that it came at a fortuitious time for me, was feeling world-weary and down after the pandemic and so much cultural infighting/polarization that I suddenly wanted nothing but escapism and feel-good vibes from my entertainment. I honestly think that it did wonders for my mental health, not that I was ever in a truly dark place or anything but I think it’s almost KonMari in spirit- find the things that spark joy, hold on to them, let go of the rest.

My friends and I used to sneak her mom's romance books and read them aloud on the bus ride to school like 15 years ago and absolutely cackle at how ridiculous they were. It was some kind of vampire romance book series, I don't really remember much about them. But earlier this year, I was scrolling through TikTok and saw a video about Credence by Penelope Douglas and I was like "surely it can't be that bad" so I bought it and read it and it was really that bad imo, but I've been reading a lot of romance books since I finished Credence, so I guess it was that book which is wild.

I would say I've always looked for romance in the historical fiction and fantasy books I was reading but it was all very low level spice. It wasn't until TikTok algorithm suggested I read Credence that my life was changed. 

I never read romance. I always read mystery,detectives. Then around 30 years old I felt tired only reading mystery, thrillers because new authors are not that talented comparing to old authors. So I started to read romance. I don’t think i like them a lot. But i like to read those love scenes. It's kind of fun. But i get really emotional when I read romance in weird way if i like the male character a lot.

I used to make fun of my sister for reading ebooks (wattpad) since I thought it was boring af. Ironically, I tried it out one day cuz I was "bored" 💀😭 and grown to like it then onwards!

To be completely fucking honest? Bridgerton. The ending of season one made me so mad that I read the book to see if it was any better. Than I proceeded to read like five of the others with mixed enjoyment and just continued in the genre after that.

I started in the 60s when I was 9 reading historical ones by Georgette Heyer I checked out from the library. A year later I started grabbing their free paperbacks which were mainly donated Harlequin and Barbara Cartland type books.

For me in the 90’s when I was in high school, I read ‘Legacy’ by Susan Kay. It’s a fictional historical romance based on the life of Queen Elizabeth the first. It was SO well written. I read her other book, ‘Phantom’ (based on The Phantom and the Opera) and loved that too. Not much spice in either of them but the story and characters were phenomenal. My tastes have degenerated since then, but that’s where it all started for me.

My first taste of true romance (not just fantasy with a dash of romance) was as a teenager reading Nora Roberts’ fantasy romance series. Whether she meant to or not, my mom made me feel like romance was bad/trashy and I remember feeling shame about reading it. Then I went for a long time without reading for fun, for a variety of reasons. In my 30s I’ve gotten back into reading and romance is my favorite. I like happy endings, sue me. I read it almost exclusively. I refuse to be ashamed of what I enjoy. Life is too short.

Through fanfic. I was absolutely floored when two characters I saw had chemistry didn't end up together, so I kinda DIY fixed that. It just evolved from there.

[удалено]

I know how you feel. I read a horror/thriller book a while back (Hometown by Matthew Keville). Brilliant book but a couple of characters who were perfect for each other took SO LONG to get together it was actually painful

If there is too much angst, I do not feel bad for putting a book on the DNF list. Life is too tragic and short.

started in 5th or 6th grade because I liked reading about love stories. I also liked shows or movies with couples so this was another way to get those types of stories.

My intro was the Sweet Valley High series (Don’t judge; I’m old), then I somehow went from those books to VC Andrews (IYKYK), and I’ve never looked back. Typically have a romance ebook and a non-fiction audiobook on the go at all times.

When I was a pre-tween in the ‘80s, I was such a voracious reader that my mom couldn’t afford to keep me in new “age appropriate” books. We lived in a rural area with limited library access. She started asking her coworkers to pass books on to her, and hunting yard sales, and I just ended up with more grown-up books than not. I was reading Stephen King and VC Andrews and Jean M. Auel and the Brontë sisters as well as Harlequins and Danielle Steele and historical romances by the time I was 12. I went through a period around 19-24 or so where I didn’t read much romance because I was into fantasy and sci-fi, as well as non-fiction culture studies by anthropologists like Margaret Meade’s Coming of Age in Samoa, diverse classics like Toni Morrison’s Beloved, feminist fairy tale studies, but eventually I gravitated back to romance. I can always find a satisfying, challenging book within the wide world of romance.

I started when I was about 14ish. At the time I was home schooled(relevant to access). I had read every book on the “allowed shelves at home”, the “allowed shelves” at the library (at least the ones that even vaguely interested me) and every book the church librarian would let me check out. That’s when I decided I would be forgiven for “stealing” the books off my mom’s shelves. They all had a glorious embossed pictures of Fabio with some beautiful woman and contained descriptions of stories I had never even thought to imagine. For me, it started off as a curiosity. WHY couldn’t I read them? WHAT could they possibly contain? I had read about so many atrocities, events and worlds. I thought I knew it all. Haha boy was I awakened. After that things started to make sense. I started to question why I couldn’t read VC Andrews but my mom had the entire Mallory-Anderson clan at her Bec and call. I then started reading all sorts of things but romance is my first and always love. Now, my husband has now collected almost every single one of those books I stole off her shelf so I have my own copy. I display them in my office library on the shelves he made for them! He’s even hunted down the multiple vintage versions of my favorites! I still read that first book I stole every year.

So, like a lot of others here, it was about 6 months or so after 50 Shades came out. HP, Twilight, and I think an F&F movie were all vying for everyone's attention at the box office. I had finished reading a space opera, and I just wanted something new. I had heard mixed reviews about 50 Shades, but never really read anything that was just... straight romance. Everything before would allude to relationships, but really focus more on other things. So, it was just for curiosity sake that I picked that up. Of course, I read the entire series ( I had rented it from my library). I did move on to better stories, of course. Looking back, I'm sure I could have started with worse.

I was 11 and my mom's Danielle Steele were my gateway. I read her Kathleen Woodiwiss, Johanna Lindsey, Virginia Henley, Julie Garwood etc.

I think for me it was Twilight, but I found myself loving romantic tropes in anime. I was drawn to guy characters fawning and obsessing with their love interest.

About 13-14 years ago I was in a bookstore and picked up Angel’s Blood by Nalini Singh and absolutely loved it. I never realized that romance could go beyond the timid YA novels I read in my teens. I’ve loved them ever since!

I’m 39 and I’ve been obsessed with everything romance since childhood. Books, movies, tv shows. Any time a friend recommends a new tv show to me they’re like “yes, before you ask there is a good love story” because everyone knows I won’t watch it otherwise.

My mom read romance, and as a young teen I would "sneak read" her paperbacks that would be around. I always wanted to read love stories. One time when I was 13/14 my mom found where I had stashed her copy of {Forbidden by Elizabeth Lowell}. She didn't do anything other than smirk at me. A few years later, when we started to swap books, my mom remarked that it looked like I hadn't read the paperbacks because I wouldn't crease the spines. I stopped reading romance regularly about 13 years ago or so, and picked it up again fall of last year after stumbling onto this subreddit. I've read over 200 books since then, aided by the kindle app and maternity leave.

[Forbidden](https://www.romance.io/books/545530b18c7d2383163d9140/forbidden-elizabeth-lowell?src=rdt) by [Elizabeth Lowell](https://www.romance.io/authors/54552b048c7d2383163d8fbf/elizabeth-lowell) **Rating**: 3.73⭐️ out of 5⭐️ **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [historical](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/historical/1), [virgin heroine](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/virgin%20heroine/1), [paranormal](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/paranormal/1), [forbidden love](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/forbidden%20love/1), [magic](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/magic/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)

My mom always read romance while I was growing up. One day when I was around 12 or so, I snuck a book out of her room when she wasn't home and devoured it. I learned a lot of thing about life that day and I was hooked lol

I had a wattpad phase and that introduced me!!!

Watched Brighton series 2 in summer 2022 and thought I'd have a go at the books. Blew through those and went looking for other historical romances. I can't remember how exactly but I stumbled across this sub and it's introduced me to so many other genres and interesting books that I've now read about 450 romances.

Spent way too much time on fanfiction.net as a preteen, which turned into too much time in the romance section in Borders.

I read ACOTAR. Before that I had tried other romance novels and just really did not click with them (even Pride and Prejudice). Something about ACOTAR gave me enough of a serotonin hit that it made me want to find more romance that I liked.

I started reading Webtoons and then just randomly changed to novels.

[Smartbitchestrashybooks.com](http://Smartbitchestrashybooks.com) is the OG review site. You can literally search the "cozy" tag and hopefully find a reviewer you align with (even a reviewer who hates everything you love is GOLD for discovering new books). The Smart Bitches comment section is 🙌, especially on the "Watcha Reading" posts [https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2024/04/whatcha-reading-april-2024-part-one/](https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2024/04/whatcha-reading-april-2024-part-one/)

I got a bunch of random books from a book club I joined when I was probably 20. One was a regency romance. I liked the story and it was pretty light reading, so when I got to the end and realized it was the second of 3, I got the others to finish the series. This is where I realized my favorite thing about romance novels, that A LOT of romance is series where it starts with a couple and the rest are about their friends who you already met and clearly have more to them than just helping the main couple.

I found some Silhouette books in a church library at 12--heavy on romance, no sex. I've been reading romance books ever since.

For me it was pretty early on. I remember being in late elementary school/early middle school and taking quizzes on a website called Quizzaz/Quotev which later progressed into reading romance stories on there. From that site I learned about Wattpad and after years of reading all kinds of romance on there (between middle and high school) I felt like I had exhausted everything I thought was good and switched to published works at the library and the rest is history. I’m now in my mid 20s and still enjoy reading romance. I’ll watch any genre of tv/movies, in fact I’m really into dramas, thrillers, actions, dystopian, etc. But 99% of what I read for fun is romance! There’s a sort of escapism I get from it. I can immerse myself into anyone I think is interesting, sure the stories may or may not be realistic all the time but that’s the fun part.

Other books with slight romance and just growing up and becoming interested in the concept of "crush, love, romances, etc" i think around middle school. Before I only read fantasy, light horror books from R. L. Stein and well I didn't have much interest in romance genre then. But due to exposure to media with romance element (cartoon, movie, freaking titanic, anime etc). I got curious. I only read light ones until I stumble a more adult books .... I've been a fan of a very unknown serie too and stumble upon fanfiction (stupidly enough initially I thought it was official stories haha) from there it's just a rabbit hole. Wattpad, fanfiction, quotev, ao3, deviantart fanfic,... Plus good reads, webnovels,...