OLD SCHOOL ROMANCE
CONRAD V. SUCATRE
Sept. 2005
ISBN:0-9770107-2-4
Vintage Romance Publishing LLC
www.vrpublishing.com
E-Book
Price: Unavailable
112 pages
Documentary of the History of Romance
Rating: 4 Cups

Conrad V. Sucatre wrote this book with his daughter, Athena. Athena also writes under the pen name of Cathy Heath. He is married and besides his daughter he has two sons. Together Conrad and his daughter also produced a magazine, Romances with an Attitude. They have worked on this book for six years and continue to dig into the past for some Old School Romance classics.

From the beginning, Conrad tells about the old ways of how romance book began. He brings with it quotes from books that have been published. He likes to show how Romance of yesterday is different from Romance today.

He starts out with the big classic, Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Not the beginning of Romance but definitely one of the all time greats. He leads on to talk a little about how her life and how she began writing and what effects that had on the film world.

Mr. Sucatre then went on to talk about some other authors who started out writing romance, and they wrote life stories, down to earth stories, and although they did not go into the bedroom as we do today, they were rich with real life situations. Before the Harlequin industry, romance writing had no format to go by nor were there any hard set rules.

He then showed how some early authors made a niche for some genre’s romance. For example, Edgar Rice Burroughs is really a leader in the science fiction field. Grace Livingston Hill in Inspirational. Lucy Agnes Hancock, the Nursing genre. Then came the time of the bodice rippers of the 1970s. Some of the older authors fades away as the New Age Romance comes about. One of them that did not was Barbara Cartland. She came from the old time romance to the newer times and made the change. All in all, Mr. Sucatre wants us to appreciate what the Old Time Romance has done for today’s romance. And although it was seen as pulp or incidental, the whole Old Time Romance was rich with truth and emotion, and should have a mark in history.

I enjoyed reading about how the romance I love reading today was founded. And how so much has changed from then and now. Mr. Sucatre really made you realize a lot of work those authors put into their books. He enhanced the record by putting quotes form their books. A total learning experience for a real romance reader.

Wateena
Reviewer For Karen Find Out About New Books
Reviewer For Coffee Time Romance