Guest Post : Romance through the Ages: A History of Mills & Boon

Hey everyone!

I haven't been a really good blogger lately but university is taking all of my time. I promise I'll have a few reviews coming soon. :)


Today Anna Pullman stops by to share a brief history of the Mills & Boon publishing company. Enjoy!

Romance through the Ages: A History of Mills & Boon

2012 marks the 104^th year of Mills & Boon novels being published, sold and devoured by the masses. Even if they’re not your cup of tea all the time, very few book lovers out there could admit to never having curled up in their favourite leather recliner, a saucy Mills & Boon in one hand and a hot cocoa in the other. Mills & Boon produce the perfect comfort reads, best enjoyed with a box of chocolates or a hot milky drink.

With over a hundred years of history behind them, Mills and Boon is a company who knows when they’ve found a bestseller and a tale which will truly transport the reader into a romantic paradise or real life drama. With a female audience in mind, Mills and Boon have mesmerised and entranced them in their millions with each new release, available both through subscription, for those who can’t wait a single day, and retail purchase. The company has come a long way from its humble beginnings to find its place as the king of all romance publishers.

In the Beginning

When first founded in 1908, Mills & Boon didn’t have its sights set on the amorous romance market. They initially published general fiction with books on every subject but their first publication gave a telling nod to what would become their future. Sophie Cole’s Arrows from the Dark was its name and prophetically, it was of the romance genre. It went on to have great success with over 1,000 copies sold and the writer continued to produce book after book for the company, totalling 65 in all.

In their first few years the company was very much a family business, with Charles Boon recruiting the closest members of his family to get involved. They didn’t spare a penny when it came to getting big name writers on board although Charles was equally interested in promoting talented new writers. It was due to this interest that the company started adding personal touches such as sending out souvenir chapters free to any customer, which cleverly led to even more sales. By 1914 and the advent of war, Mills & Boon were a respected company believed to be going places.

In the Name of Love

The 1920s were a difficult and austere period for many businesses and Mills & Boon weren’t exempt. Bankruptcy was frequently on the cards and the world slumped and at the end of half of the 20s, the stock market crashed. It was through the difficult period that Mills & Boon found their niche. The general public as well as the business sector were suffering due to the economic climate and longed for escapism, which Mills & Boon could offer through their romances. It was then they decided to focus all their efforts on hardback romance novels.

The Golden Age

Despite the Great Depression gripping the country, Mills & Boon still considers the 1930s their golden era with sales records being made on a regular basis. Library loans were much more popular than purchasing books but regularly scores of women would take out one Mills & Boon and return within a few short days to swap it for another. Their were appetites never fully sated, exactly what the publisher’s wanted.

Paperback Revolution & Big Name Merger

Mills & Boon continued to have success with their brightly coloured, immediately identifiable hardback romance novels and a smattering of paperbacks but by 1968 paperbacks started to become more popular. It allowed for standardisation in the publishing and the novel covers could equally be carbon copies, each featuring their own romantic heroine.

Changing attitudes to women and sex led to the signing of even more new writers, including those who specialised in erotic tales such a Violet Winspear. Her stories shocked the older, more conservative Mills & Boon readers but brought in a newer, younger crowd of fans.

The 1960s also saw Mills &Boon becoming closer to the Canadian Harlequin Enterprises company with whom they merged in 1971. The merger led to massive growth and expansion with the Mills * Boon brand, as it had become, going global.

What about now?

To this day, Mills & Boon remain the world’s top publisher of romance fiction, with a huge 50 new titles being produced on a monthly basis. They have ten product series appealing to different readers including Medical and Historical. Each product group appeals to a different audience adding to the magic of Mills & Boon. The next series in the pipeline is said to be called Nocturne and will deal with paranormal and supernatural romance.

Despite being a company with a lot of history, Mills & Boon don’t dwell on it and have released many of their titles in eBook format too. You’ll be hard pressed to find any woman out there who wouldn’t happily settle down with a Mills & Boon once in a while.

*****

Thanks for sharing, Anna! 

Review : Lothaire by Kresley Cole

Title : Lothaire
Author : Kresley Cole
Published January 10th 2012 by Gallery

ALL FEAR THE ENEMY OF OLD

Driven by his insatiable need for revenge, Lothaire, the Lore’s most ruthless vampire, plots to seize the Horde’s crown. But bloodlust and torture have left him on the brink of madness—until he finds Elizabeth Peirce, the key to his victory. He captures the unique young mortal, intending to offer up her very soul in exchange for power, yet Elizabeth soothes his tormented mind and awakens within him emotions Lothaire believed he could no longer experience. A DEADLY FORCE DWELLS WITHIN HER Growing up in desperate poverty, Ellie Peirce yearned for a better life, never imagining she’d be convicted of murder—or that an evil immortal would abduct her from death row. But Lothaire is no savior, as he himself plans to sacrifice Ellie in one month’s time. And yet the vampire seems to ache for her touch, showering her with wealth and sexual pleasure. In a bid to save her soul, Ellie surrenders her body to the wicked vampire, while vowing to protect her heart. CENTURIES OF COLD INDIFFERENCE SHATTERED Elizabeth tempts Lothaire beyond reason, as only his fated mate could. As the month draws to a close, he must choose between a millennia-old blood vendetta and his irresistible prisoner. Will Lothaire succumb to the miseries of his past . . . or risk everything for a future with her?


*Book courtesy of Simon & Schuster Canada


Lothaire is a vampire with a strong need for revenge.  In order to get what he wants he must first unite with his immortal lover who's cursed to live in a mortal body. Lothaire must cast out Ellie's human soul so his bride can have full control of the body. What he thought would be an easy job turns out to be much more harder than he anticipated. Ellie does everything she can to keep her soul while he never expected to develop feelings for her. Lothaire made a promise to his true mate but is Ellie the one for him?

Lothaire the "Enemy of Old" is the character you'll either love or hate. He's very mean and cruel but it doesn't stop Ellie. She's strong and intelligent. She's been through a lot and she's not afraid to stand up for herself. 

I was hesitant to read this since it's the twelfth book in a series and I haven't read any of the previous books. I'm so glad I gave it a try. I actually found myself reading at a slower pace to enjoy every minute of it. I was engrossed in the story from the beginning. The book kind of reminded me of The Host by Stephenie Meyer but is a thousand times better.

With an exciting plot, unforgettable characters and a variety of emotions, Lothaire is the book you want to read over and over again. If book twelve is as strong as this, I can't wait to read the previous and upcoming ones.

5 out of 5 stars!

Q&A With Lauren DeStefano

I have a special treat for you all today. Lauren DeStefano, the author of Wither and the upcoming release Fever, was kind enough to answer a few of my questions.




If you were actually living in the world you wonderfully created, how do you think you would react? Do you think you would accept your faith or run away like Rhine?

I have absolutely no idea. I'm pretty lazy and it doesn't take much to keep me complacent, so there's a good chance I'd just stay. I don't know where Rhine got all of her conviction, but I don't think it was from me.

Can you describe your favorite scene in Fever?

It's an enormous spoiler, so no, but it's towards the end, it takes place in a moving vehicle, and there's blood.


What was the easiest and hardest part of writing Fever?

The hardest part was getting started. I rewrote the opening chapters over and over. I wrote a good 30,000 words and I knew they weren't working, and after a great bit of denial I scrapped them and started over. As for the easiest part, I've been staring at the blinking cursor on my screen for a good three minutes now, trying to come up with a response. The truth is, the whole experience was very difficult. Fever isn't my first published novel, but it's the first novel I began writing knowing for sure it would be published. When I wrote Wither, as with all the other things I'd written before it, there was no guarantee. It took a lot of getting used to.

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness. The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary. In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price - now that she has more to lose than ever

 Read my review of Fever, here.



**Special thanks to Michelle at Simon & Schuster Canada.

If you haven't read this series yet, what are you waiting for?

January RAK Wrap-Up Post

Click here to view the details and rules .

I didn't receive any books this past month but that's okay. :)

I sent out Unearthly by Cynthia Hand to Rachel at Rachel Loves to Read.

If you ever want to send me a RAK this month send an email to melvautour(at)hotmail(dot)com.  Click here to view my wishlist.

Romance Sweeps!

Simon & Schuster Canada is holding a contest for the month of February.  Five (5) Canadian winners will get a romance novel prize pack and scented goodies from Glade. Sounds good, right?



Click  to enter!




I have to say I read both Lothaire by Kresley Cole and Sleepwalker by Karen Robards and they are amazing and hot reads. You can read my review of Sleepwalker here. Stay tuned for my review of Lothaire.

Don't miss your chance!

Enter now! I sure did. :)