5 Genres I like to Read.

Hi there! Today’s topic is Favorite romance genres to read or write. This is week 17. Check out the reading and/or writing preferences of other participating authors in the MFRW blog hop here.

When I was younger, my mom allowed me to read Harlequin Presents novels. They were pretty mild. Nothing beyond a kiss happened in those stories. I bided my time until I graduated to racier contemporary romances like the Harlequin Blaze line. I even had a subscription. I fell in love with Violet Winspear, Betty Neels, Mary Burchell’s The Warrender Saga, Brenda Jackson’s The Westmorelands and outside of Harlequin, Francis Ray’s The Graysons of New Mexico, Taggert/Falcon Series, and The Grayson Friends Series.

I went on to discover historical romance. I started with the more mild romances and advance to more sizzling reads by the Bronte sisters, Jane Austin, Barbara Courtland, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Johanna Lindsey, Bertrice Small and Beverly Jenkins.

But then while browsing the aisles of my local bookstore, I discovered the science fiction genre. Octavia Butler’s Patternist Series and Xenogenesis Trilogy, Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern and The Powers That Be Series and Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes to name a few. Not romances per se, some had romantic elements which was fine by me as I was and still am a sci-fi nerd who devotedly watched  My Favorite Martian (I’m really showing my age here), Battlestar Galactica (the early one with Loren Green), Babylon 5, Andromeda, and the Star Trek franchise.

I got into the sci-fi romance genre with such authors as Cynthia Sax, Cara Bristol, and various other authors.

From there it wasn’t hard to get into the paranormal genre and authors who put a different spin on the vampires myth/lore, like Christine Feehan’s Dark Series, Sherilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunters, Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress, J. R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, Lynsay Sand’s Argeneau Vampires, and authors who introduced me to shifters.