Comments on: Obsession by Charlotte Lamb

by: Jane Holland

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 23:17:59 +0000

Thanks, Tumperkin. I’ve blogged about your blog on the Lamb blog now. Serial blogging, in other words. I loved Frustration - loved nearly all the Lamb titles - but found it a hard book in places, by which I mean emotionally demanding. Some of her lighter novels were big favourites with me. For instance, her only book written under the pen-name Victoria Woolf, ‘Sweet Compulsion’, is lovely. A sheer delight from start to finish, but intensely rare and difficult to find now.

http://charlottelamb.blogspot......ision.html

by: Tumperkin

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:44:57 +0000

Hi Jane. I think your mum’s books rock. In fact I did a little post on my own blog about her (see link below). At some point I intend to post a review on my blog of my favourite ever category romance: Frustration. What a fantastic book!

http://tumperkin.blogspot.com/.....-lamb.html

by: Jane Holland

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:06:26 +0000

Hi there

Thanks for posting this. I am Charlotte Lamb’s middle daughter, Jane Holland, and ‘Obsession’ is one of my all-time favorite books by my mother, too.

I always thought Lang was amongst her sexiest heroes. And I loved the comment above about how modern the spanking scene was. That’s just one moment out of many to make the contemporary romances look a bit lame. She was also the first M&B novelist anywhere in the world to show an orgasm instead of closing the bedroom doors, and in one later book she even had one of her heroines tie a reluctant hero to the bed and have her wicked way with him!

My mother’s work was vastly ahead of its time - I just hope M&B Harlequin realise that and start reissuing her books in the UK, so new readers can enjoy her stories. That’s already happening in other countries, especially Australia. But readers like yourself need to tell the publishers that you’d like to see some spanking new editions on the shelves.

No money in it for me, btw. I’m not the copyright holder. I just think she was so supremely talented as a storyteller, and her books so deliciously written, it’s a crying shame they are all currently out of print in her home country.

Maybe one day … Thanks again, Jane x

by: Koko Brown

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:06:00 +0000

What a great review! It actually makes me want to go out and scour the bookshelves for this one and that’s huge considering I’ve only read 1 1/2 Harlequin titles my whole life, which is sad since I’m an admitted romance junkie.

by: Bettie

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:43:06 +0000

OMG, I seem to recall a few Charlotte Lamb novels in my mom’s stash of old Harlequins. This review totally made me want to find them and reread them–especially after the “a vocabulary of about six words, all of them apparently indicating yes.” quote. It makes me wonder how many other snide asides I missed in my early reading…

by: Tumperkin

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:19:29 +0000

Meljean - I’m a CL fangirl but not keen on her later stuff (mid-80s onwards) with odd exceptions like Vampire Lover. Just loved that late 70s/ early 80s period really.

Thanks CJ. As for the spanking, this isn’t a ‘modern’ tie-me-up-and-thrill-me spanking. It’s more of an old-fashioned, black and white movie type of a spanking, if you know what I mean.

by: CJ/Carolyn Jean

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:25:31 +0000

This is a really thoughtful and entertaining review. I wasn’t reading romances back then, and I’ve always been really curious about how they’ve evolved. I’m surprised at the spanking–it seems so modern. This was a staple of 80’s romances? Anyway, the writing you excerpted is pretty impressive, as is this review.

by: Estelle

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:06:22 +0000

I’m a sucker for vintage harlequins in general and for Charlotte Lambs’s book in particular–my faves by her are Love Games and Forbidden Fire. You can’t get much more un-pc than the latter too: guy lusts after nubile, teenage sister, only she’s not really his sister of course. I haven’t read Obsession but it does sound like a fun book. I’m usually not into the boss/secretary thing with the collection of mistresses flitting through the door and the heroine buying them presents but when it’s a harlequin I read pretty much anything. Pure guilty pleasure.

“The UK cover1 is one of the classic ‘black rose’ covers of the late 70s/early 80s. Love these black rose covers - so kitsch with their garish colours and the piss-poor paintings on the covers. Every time I look at one, I feel nostalgic fondness. ”

Indeed. I feel the same way. And my mother also had a stash of the little buggers which I saved from being dumped in the trash years ago. I collect them now. I’ll go and see if I don’t have Obsession in my collection. I have hundreds of books but have not read them all.

But I can’t stand the more modern Harlequins.The horror!

by: Ann Aguirre

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:14:27 +0000

This looks like a fun book. I’ll have to check it out.

by: Meljean Brook

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:54:03 +0000

“a vocabulary of about six words, all of them apparently indicating yes.”

LOL! What a great line, telling us about Nicola and the girl, all at once.

I don’t think I’ve read this one, but Charlotte Lamb is one of my favorites. Now going to look this one up.