I did not even realize that they were "romance" novels until many years later.
The first was a book by Judith Krantz called Scruples. It is actually fairly fantastic book. From what I remember it was about a woman wearing cool earrings, losing weight and having affairs. The earrings were a huge part of the story. I remember noticing at the time that the designer took a shortcut on the cover.
NOTE: Apparently, this website hates Judith Krantz because I tried for twenty minutes to embed the Scruples cover and it would not happen.
Scruples Cover
The second was a book called Almost Paradise by Susan Issacs. I remember nothing, but the title and that I liked it. I suspect we would all reject this cover.
The last is a book called the Great Alone. This is the one that actually makes me question if "romance" novels have to be trash novels of little value. The Great Alone is story that spans 200 hundred years and seven generations. It is the story of the building of Alaska from the viewpoint of very strong women. My copy was 800 pages long and was by far the largest book I had read when I was thirteen. I recall this book feeling very very serious when I was a kid. I would like to read it again and see if it retains that feeling years later. So when I looked up the cover, I almost did not want to include it...How embarrassing.
