...and I'm apportioning part of the blame on pal Barbara Hannay who also recently acquired some Lucy Walker classic romances, circa 1960s. This morning Barb asked if I'd read any of mine yet. She had, but I'd packed my box away for a time when they wouldn't distract me from the manuscript of the moment. Which is set in Melbourne and London and the English countryside. Not the outback. But Barb commented on a couple of things--the men, the cigarettes--and it's Sunday and I had an hour and I couldn't resist pulling out one for a quick look.

I pulled out three, actually, but ended up opening A Man Called Masters. I've only read three chapters but it took far less pages than those 46 to know why these books captured my romantic imagination as a teenager. The heroine, Penny, is only 20. Orphaned at eight, she's been brought up in Perth by a reluctant spinster aunt, but you know right from the opening pages that she's a plucky one. She's just applied for and acquired a job in the outback and she's waiting, alone and sleepless, for the car to come and collect her.

"Penny was prepared to go to the outback--to go anywhere away from home; anywhere for independence, to escape, for life--a life of her own!"

Penny is not waiting around any longer, she's going after that goal. Sympathetic heroine--big tick. She immediately paints herself as capable...by rolling a cigarette for Cal, the young outback man who comes to take her to "the valley". So, there's the smoking thing Barb mentioned and which I must admit I hadn't remembered. Maybe in the late 60's when I was reading these, everyone smoked in books, movies, on TV, so it didn't even register.

Next, we are introduced to "the valley", this almost mystical oasis in the middle of the harsh desert of central Australia. A character, a source of external conflict, a force by its self, and also the source of secrets (the death of Masters wife.) I remember those Lucy Walker settings. Growing up I dreamed of life in the outback, but I wasn't as plucky or adventurous as Penny. I didn't get there until I was twice her age!

Which brings us to the man called Masters. No age has been mentioned but he has children aged 12 and 13, and is greying at the temples. I'm guessing he must be at least 15 years older than young Penny. Apparently this didn't bother me when I first read this book, aged about 12 or 13, so I won't let it bother me now. Instead I am going to concentrate on this image Lucy Walker paints to end chapter 3.

"Once again, as he stood in the centre of the room, he was tall, forbidding, and part of the desert--a windswept and sun-weathered man aloof from the ordinary ways of life--as remote from Penny as a rock bluff on the range."

And that IS what I remember about reading Lucy Walker as a teen, and what sparked my eternal facination with the strong and silent alpha loner hero.

Have you revisited any of your favourite books/authors from your teens, and could you still see whay they became such favourites?

Labels: favourite books, Lucy Walker

All About Romance has released the results of its 2007 poll to find readers' Top 100 Romances evah. I meant to vote in this. Seeing as I've listed a good proportion of my keeper shelf on Shelfari, this would not have been too difficult or time consuming. I'm kinda bummed that I forgot.

So, my list would have only added to the 4,975 individual books voted for, but at least I would know I contributed and that the brilliant category romances from my list would have received a -- or another -- vote. Plus books by other personal favourites such as Ruth Wind/Barbara Samuel, Susan Carroll, Elizabeth Lowell, Candice Proctor, Susan Andersen, Maggie Osborne...I could go on. Won't. I didn't vote. No use whining.

Of the 100 books listed, I have read 47 and I would include 22 (less than half) in my personal best-ever list. One of those is Stephanie Lauren's Devil's Bride, my favourite from her Cynster series. Lovely, sexy, gorgeous book. If this poll had been released a week earlier, I could have toasted Stephanie at last week's book launch (see pic, where we're signing copies of Sizzle, Seduce & Simmer.)

Thrilled to see another ubertalented down-under author Nalini Singh listed with the first of her Psy series, Slave to Sensation. It is one of only a handful of paranormalswhich makes her appearance all the more meritorious. Congratulations, Nalini!

What do you think of the list? Any books you're thrilled to see listed?? Any you're shocked to see NOT listed???

Labels: favourite books