#MFRWAuthor Week#5
Welcome to the latest week in the MFRW blog challenge where authors use weekly writing prompts to create a blog post. Please click here to check out the other authors in this hop.
There were a few books that influenced me but to name just one, it would be Mary Burchell’s A Song Begins, a Harlequin Romance in the Warrender Saga.
A story about an opera, Anthea Benton, an opera student, who enters a contest to win money to further her singing lessons and clashes with Oscar Warrender, a world-class opera conductor. She is crushed when she does not win or place in the contest and feels it is the conductor’s fault.
When he finds out she had said some pretty rough things about him, he’s intrigued and sends her a letter of invitation to come to London to audition to become his student. What I loved about the story is although he was a butt-hole, she persevered and learned to no longer let his ill temper intimidate her. She won the major female role in his new opera. In the process, the romance between the two took a long time to develop.
At the end of the opera, when Anthea sang her last aria, to this day, I can still imagine I hear her clear strong soprano voice and it totally blew me away. Her voice made a huge impact on me. Reading this book helped to seal my decision to write in the romance genre. I vowed that one day I hope to make a major emotional impact on the readers of my future books.
What book or books influenced you? Tell me in the comments.
Alicia Coleman 
Phantom of the Opera remains an enduring favorite with me.
I knew about the old black and white movie and the newer one But I didn’t know there was ever a book. I’ll have to check it out.
The first romance I ever read was Flame and the Flower, by Kathleen Woodiwiss. I was hooked!
Me, too!
The Flame and the Flower was not my first but it was so memorable. Also The Wolf and the Dove.
Any book that gives a direction to your life is a classic in its own right.
Amen.
My thoughts exactly, Ed. Thanks for stopping by.
It seems like the heroes in romance novels are/were often butt-holes, lol. That said, I was hooked once I read The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss.
I loved several of Kathleen Woodiwiss’ books–The Wolf and the Dove, Shanna, A Season Beyond A Kiss as well as The Flame and the Flower.
The heroes in the older romances were often butt-holes, but the romance was still there and the HEA even more hard won.
Yes, the HEA of older romances were hard won. Thanks for stopping by.
wow, that sounds like a great book, I’ll have to check it out.
It is. I just replaced my old worn out copy with a newer one. Thanks for stopping by.