I have a bit of a confession to make – back in the early 1980’s I was a bit of a hopeless romantic. I blame my girlfriends for that; one of them had a stack of Mills & Boons and introduced me to the Sweet Dreams series.
This series was hugely popular. A regular discussion amongst my friends included what books in the series we had, which ones we liked the best and the inevitable ‘can I borrow that when you’ve finished with it?’ question. And of-course we had to debate which girls on the covers were the prettiest, then wished we were them!
Once I started reading, I was hooked. I don’t know how many I bought, but I had heaps. Here are just some of the books in the series I had:-
- P.S. I Love You by Barbara Conklin (the one I always remember as I was always a sucker for unhappy endings)
- Never Love a Cowboy by Jesse DuKore
- Too Close for Comfort by Debra Spector
- The Popularity Contest and The Popularity Plan by Rosemary Vernon
- Love Match by Janet Quin-Harkin
- Thinking of You by Jeanette Nobile
- Laurie’s Song by Suzanne Rand
- Secret Identity by Joanna Campbell
- The Thoroughbred by Joanna Campbell
- All’s Fair in Love by Jeanne Andrews
- Green Eyes by Debra Brand
- Ask Annie by Suzanne Rand
- Dear Amanda by Rosemary Vernon
- Little Sister by Yvonne Green
- Love Song by Anne Park
- How Do You Say Goodbye by Margaret Burman
- Dance of Love by Jocelyn Saal
Yeah, I think you get the picture (I told you I was a tragic)!
Once I had my fill, I started borrowing some of my friends Mills & Boon, but they didn’t do much for me. It was then that I discovered the classics like Gone with the Wind, Jane Austen and the Brontes – and that’s where I stayed. All this romance during my early teens made me want to write romances, only to result in epic failure. If nothing else, I soon discovered I couldn’t write pure romances!
If you’re interested in reading some of the books in the series or just taking a trip down memory lane, you might want to check out Sweet Hearts Romance Books. This online shop has plenty of books in this series, along with many others including Sweet Valley High, Silhouette First Love and Wildfire.
Were you ever hooked on Sweet Dreams Romances, Mills & Boon or another romance series? Are you a sucker for romance?
Hi Debbie. I’m Carmel, the owner of the Sweet Hearts Romance Books website mentioned in your post. I just found your blog post from last year while researching info for a blog about teen romance books that I plan to attach to the website. Mostly it will be numerical lists of the different series, although finding info about our homegrown Australian series like Dolly Fiction & Bantam Wildflowers is proving difficult & frustrating. I was stoked to see mention of my little site on here, so thank you. I will admit to a little squee noise when I read that part. 🙂
Hi Carmel. It’s my pleasure mentioning your site; it certainly brought back some memories! Thanks for your comments – ‘squee’ is good. 😀
Hi I’ve been looking for Dear Amanda #33 and Thinking of you #15 for years and it’s not available in the site you mentioned nor in our country! :(( I desperately want to have a copy of those but I don’t know how! 🙁 please help.
Hi jhayelie. Sorry to hear you’re having problems finding those books. I had both of those and I gave them away years ago, otherwise I would give them to you. 🙂 Have you tried second hand book shops because that’s where I placed my collection? Also you could try ebay. I just checked for the both of those and found ‘Thinking of You’ on ebay Australia. Hope this helps. Best of luck!
awwww. :’) thank you anyway. I’ve tried second hand shops and scoured every possible place. But thank you anyway, I was so touched. 🙂
Hi jhayelie. I’m Carmel, the owner of the teen romance book site mentioned. I do have other copies of Dear Amanda & I’m pretty sure I have more of Thinking Of You as well. I do need to get to the restocking of Sweet Dreams books, they are the series that sells the most. I have a few family things on for the next few days, but I will try to get at least one copy of those 2 books restocked. Hope that helps a bit. 🙂
Hi Carmel. Thanks so much for all your help – that’s great news! 🙂