‘In a very sex-positive era’: Mills and Boons authors open up about evolution of romance books

Romance authors have brought the book into the modern ‘sex-positive’ era, with a focus on consent and strong female leads.

Mills & Boon is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Love, passion, danger, intrigue ... romance novels have been satisfying booklovers for decades, and readership is only going up.

Nielsen BookScan data shows Australian sales for the romance genre increased by 23 per cent in 2023 and a massive 83 per cent the year before.

Overall, sales were 253 per cent higher in 2023 ($62.5m) than they were in 2019 ($17.7m).

Pandemic lockdowns, book-friendly social media trends, ebook readers and modern storylines
have all helped contribute to the staggering growth of the romance genre in recent years.

One of the most famous romance publishers of all time, Mills & Boon, is showing no signs of slowing down.

The books – sometimes sweet, sometimes steamy – are published in more than 150 countries across six continents, and in more than 30 different languages. Changing with the times has been a huge part of the publisher’s success and this year it celebrates its 50th anniversary in Australia. Australian-based Mills & Boon authors Bella Mason, Ally Blake and Fiona McArthur reveal how the books have evolved over the years and why tales of love and romance will never die.

Bella Mason. Picture: The Melbourne Portrait Studio

BELLA MASON, 37, Melbourne

Growing up, Bella Mason wasn’t interested in stories about princesses and princes living happily ever after.

“My favourite books were Rumpelstiltskin and Medusa’s Head,” she laughs. “As I got older, I started reading a lot of thrillers and sometimes horrors.”

Browsing through a bookshop one day, the bright red cover of a Mills & Boon caught her eye.

“I read the blurb and thought, ‘Well, actually, this sounds really interesting’,” Mason says. “I’d only ever heard about how the ladies on the train would read them and I knew they had a big following, but I’d never actually read one until that point. When I did I was like, ‘I actually should have read one sooner’.”

Mason moved from South Africa, where she worked in journalism, to Melbourne in 2019.

When the pandemic hit, she decided to use her time during lockdowns to write a romance novel of her own. She spent a month reading Mills & Boons back to back before beginning the story that would eventually become her first book: Awakened by the Wild Billionaire.

Three weeks after submitting her manuscript, Mason got an offer from Mills & Boon to publish her work. She is now on to her fifth book – all in the top-selling Modern series – and writing full time. Creating strong female characters and including conversations around consent, birth control and safe sex are extremely important to her.

“I never liked the concept of a damsel in distress,” Mason says. “The thing with Mills & Boon is that there was always strength in their characters. It was just era appropriate ...

“We’re now in a very sex-positive era, which is great. Previously, if there was sex in a book it was considered a trashy romance, but now sex is less of a taboo subject. What I write is very passionate and it’s quite spicy. Consent in general, and in romance novels, has come a long way. In all of my books, there is explicit consent.”

Ally Blake.

ALLY BLAKE, 50, Brisbane

Ally Blake comes from a long line of romance readers. Her grandmother had so many Mills & Boon books they wouldn’t all fit on the bookshelves. The rest were stored in bags under the spare bed, which Blake would often raid as a teenager.

“I remember going through the bags and thinking, ‘Yep, I’ve read that one; nope, I haven’t read that one’ and kind of sneaking them home to have a read,” she says. “Romance is one of the first genres I remember loving.”

Blake’s mother told her stories of feeding her as a baby in the middle of the night, little Ally in one hand, a Mills & Boon in the other.

“We definitely share similar tastes in stories, and she’s the one who made me watch Doris Day movies and musicals growing up, so the romance side of things has just been indoctrinated I think,” Blake laughs.

She has written 39 Mills & Boons over 20 years, all in the Forever Romance series. Her latest, Cinderella Assistant to Boss’s Bride, has been nominated for the Romantic Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year award.

“One of the things people love about romance novels is that you always get that happy ending,” Blake says. “No matter what kind of romance you read – whether it’s vampire romance or historical romance or contemporary romance – there’s that sense that everything is going to be okay.”

It’s one of the reasons sales of romance novels go up during times of turmoil – wars and pandemics included.

“When the world is in times of difficulty, going to a book where, despite all of the challenges, despite all of the things that get in the characters’ way, everything works out, it gives you such a sense of relief when you might not be getting that.”

Fiona McArthur. Picture: Dust n Diamond photography

FIONA MCARTHUR, 64, Kempsey NSW

Fiona McArthur loves pouring her knowledge and experience working as a country midwife into her romance novels. Over the past 25 years she has written 40 books for Mills & Boon’s longest-running series, Medical, starting with her novel, Delivering Love.

“I always loved strong women characters who would give back as good as they got,” she says. “I always told myself that one day I would write a Mills & Boon and I would write it with a strong heroine and she wouldn’t take anything ... We would have tussles with the doctors at work, and writing was such fun because the heroines always got to tell the doctors what to do.”

Far from hiding her writing, McArthur held a Valentine’s ball to celebrate the launch of her first book and raise money for the local maternity unit.

“I was out and proud about writing romance,” she says. “My husband was a local paramedic and he told everyone he met in his ambulance that they had to buy my books. I sold one to the local cardiologist, the local nun, and it felt like every single person who knew me. I live in a small town and it was fun and fabulous.”

Although McArthur has retired from midwifery, the 35 years she spent at Kempsey Hospital helping deliver babies, teaching antenatal classes to mothers and raising five children of her own have given her a lifetime of material.

“I loved my young mums and I always have a young mum in there somewhere, because I just think they’re amazing. Women are incredibly powerful and the men that I have in my books are all very true heroes. These guys are kind and they’re honest and they’re honourable, because there are people like that. I know because I married one,” she says.

And they truly lived happily ever after.

Originally published as ‘In a very sex-positive era’: Mills and Boons authors open up about evolution of romance books