Most of the more recent stuff I’ve read includes heroines who are more independent, well educated, savvy women for whom men is a wonderful surprise, but not a necessity to breathe or, you know, make them a real woman.

I also read a lot of historical novels– Dorothy Dunnett, who I discovered at the home of a teacher I baby sat for one summer– and Elswyth Thane.

Then I read the Flame and the Flower– I was baby sitting again when I first ran into this and was pretty repulsed by it as well as the Sweet Savage Books. I didn’t pick a romance up again until I found some in the Lady’s Lounge (this was on the plaque on the door) at my first real job after college. A co-worker brought in the ones she had read. I was quickly repulsed by running into a book where the heroine was raped by everyone on the pirate ship. It wasn’t that I hadn’t read historical novels with rape in them, it the salacious way that the rape was described.

About 1989 I had a friend who introduced me to some of the better romances of the period– Judith Cuevas (Ivory), Laura Kinsale, Tom and Sharon Curtis, Deana James. She and I didn’t always agree on the best books– I was more into writing/plotting/characterization, she wanted specific elements of the romantic fantasy, i.e., the couple had to be married and the heroine pregnant by the end of the book. If that didn’t happen she was dissatisfied. She also like forced pregnancies which grossed me out.

Lost track of romance again for a while then started reading it again after there started to be some honest reveiws showing up online. I mainly want something different. I don’t care about the sexual experience of the heroine as long as the book is well written, has good world building (historical or sff) and the degree of hotness of the sex doesn’t affect me as long as it doesn’t take over the plot. As for the plot I wanted it to be focused on the relationship but rarely do I want it totally focused on the relationship.

So, no, I don’t think it is generational. All kinds of things enter in to it–education factors, socio-economic factors, fantasies– sexual and otherwise, and a lot of things that I haven’t had time to think about.

Eventually I moved away from romance altogether in favor of straight literature.

Now, I’m back to romance, but I won’t countenance a suspense/thriller romance (unless it’s written by Nora Roberts), I must have steamy sex scenes in my romance, and I won’t put up with a doormat for a heroine.

My long-winded point is that individual readers develop and evolve over the years. I have no patience for the type of writing that I used to love. My daughter (12yo) and I generally enjoy the same types of YA novels–usually fantasy/sci-fi or paranormal (she can’t stand romance). But when I was 12 I loved only Anne of Green Gables, Love Comes Softly, or Little House books which she has no patience for. She did devour all my Lois Duncan books, however.

As for Twilight…I’m usually in love with the strong female, not afraid of sex type. Bella may be a virgin in those stories, but she IS a strong female. She’s only a virgin because the love of her life is a vampire. She’s innocent before she meets him, not because the lesson of the book is chastity, but because she is young and hasn’t met THE ONE yet. I think that this series shows that there isn’t really a generational divide in romance. Mothers and daughters alike are flocking to these stories. We are all just romantic saps at heart that have developed different tastes in how the “boy gets girl” story is played out.

I voted yes, but I’m mostly guessing. I actually enjoy both old and new skool romance. But some of the die-hard Presents fans from years back really demand those virgin heroines, and that makes me think yes, there is a generational divide.

And even then… the line is very, very muddy.

And I know some very young women — at least I think of them as young, women in their thirties and early forties — who prefer the “Presents” line of Harlequin. No sex, no language.

Anonymousie, there’s quite a lot of sex in the Harlequin Presents line nowadays.

Fortunately I have young reading-fanatic female friends that drag me kicking and screaming into the many ‘faces’ of romance writing, many that I would not ever have tried if I were left alone to choose. Thank God.

I would never have read about vampires because in my head they all looked like Bella Lugosi. Not pretty. Certainly not like the ones in today’s paranormal romance books. Guardian angels? OMG, that’s a sacrilege… until I read Meljean Brook and thought… hmmm, that’s some fun & very good sinning!

Shape-shifters? Give me a break… and then here comes Nalini Singh winning my heart and my book buying bucks.

I do have to “age” some heros in my head so I don’t get feeling icky about them… Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Ash is like 22? Not in my mind… he’s older just so I don’t think I’ll get arrested fantasizing about him.

I would never have read m/m or m/f/m or all the combinations that come along if they hadn’t said see if you like this author and his/her writing. I often do.

There are things that I personally don’t want to read about now and that’s all about my age. I’m not the least bit interested in a heroine that is around my own age and probably more importantly I don’t care why I don’t, I just don’t. (there are many perks to getting old and one of them is not giving a flip what other people think about what you’re reading). Contemporarys are a bit harder since I’m never sure if the heroine is just being current or cute. I hate cute. Always have.

I demand the same things now from an author that I did when I was a young girl: good writing, good plot, likeable protagonists, believable sexual encounters and a HEA. To my thinking the rest is more a matter of taste then age.

I generally steer clear of erotic romance, I have no problem with virgin heroines, and I’m a little wary of romances that start out with one night stands or “just sex” relationships (although I’ll read them – and probably enjoy them – if they’re highly recommended). If it’s not strictly m/f, I’m not touching it with a barge pole. I avoid paranormals like the plague; the closest I’ll get is a bit of time travel or a ghost or two. On the other hand, I also have no problem with one or two very explicit scenes and heroines with some experience. I’m 30. I’m also from a fairly… hmmm… shall we say traditional background.

I think GrowlyCub’s right about ‘personal outlook’. I think age is likely to affect personal outlook, but it’s about more than age. And I think it does depend on what you began reading when. I cut my teeth on Georgette Heyer and early/mid 1990 Mills and Boons, including more than a few Betty Neels borrowed from my mother.

(And yes – more older characters would be good. It’s kinda odd when you reach the not precisely ancient age of 30 and realise that almost all the heroines are several years younger than you. As if I don’t get enough comments in real life about when I’m going to find a man and settle down. Remind me that there’s hope yet, please!)