Mills and Boon Historical Romance
Mills & Boon began publishing MASQUERADE HISTORICAL ROMANCES in 1977 in the UK. In October 1993 the imprint was changed to LEGACY OF LOVE. The current MILLS & BOON HISTORICAL ROMANCE imprint was adopted in July 1996. The name of the series may have changed three times, and the cover look more often even than that, but the continuity of numbering remained. Perhaps the most notable author to get her start from this imprint is Stephanie Laurens.
Trivia: In 2001, Mills & Boon Historical Romances launched an out-of-series continuity called The Steepwood Scandal. There are two sets of 8 books in this miniseries, which will also be published in the States later in 2002.
TIMELINE OF US VERSION OF IMPRINT:
In 1977, Harlequin began reprinting the UK MILLS & BOON MASQUERADES as HARLEQUIN HISTORICAL (1st iteration) in America. Starting with #16, the imprint was renamed to MASQUERADE HISTORICAL. Around #90, in 1982, this series became defunct.
Harlequin tried again. In 1986 it began two imprints, HARLEQUIN HISTORICAL (2nd iteration) and HARLEQUIN REGENCY ROMANCE (1st iteration), which again reprinted the books from the British MASQUERADE series. This was an extremely short-lived effort, lasting less than two years, and then these series too became defunct.
In 1988, Harlequin resurrected the HARLEQUIN HISTORICAL (3rd iteration) imprint for the third time. These were original stories written by U.S. romance writers. This time the series "took" and HARLEQUIN HISTORICAL (3) is still going strong today.
In a reversal of the usual flow across the ocean, two out of the four MILLS AND BOON HISTORICAL ROMANCES released every month became reprints from HARLEQUIN HISTORICAL (3rd iteration).
Addendum: In 2001, Harlequin started slipping in reprints from UK MILLS AND BOON HISTORICAL ROMANCES into the previously all-original US HARLEQUIN HISTORICALS (3rd iteration).
Apparently Harlequin hadn't completely given up on reprinting the UK MILLS & BOON MASQUERADE ROMANCES, because in May of 1989 they tried it again. HARLEQUIN REGENCY ROMANCE (2) lasted until the end of 1993. The ending must have been abrupt because some of the scheduled books showed up repackaged as two-in-one anthologies issued from 1994-96.
In 1999, Harlequin had a brief program whereby they reprinted the MILLS & BOON HISTORICAL ROMANCES in an un-numbered format, labeled the spines HARLEQUIN HISTORICAL ROMANCE and made the books primarily available by mail order through the Harlequin Reader Service.
2000 - Harlequin continues issuing previously-published Regency romances under the "Harlequin Special Release" program, but the packaging is much more sophisticated. These un-numbered books are widely available in retail outlets now, as well as through Harlequin's website. Besides Stephanie Laurens reprints, the Regency portion of this program in 2000-01 consisted of a limited series of 16 books. On their website, Harlequin refered to this particular set of books as their "Regency Miniseries." These books are all reprints of Regency romances from the MILLS & BOON HISTORICAL ROMANCE line. Four each were released in October 2000, March 2001, July 2001, and November 2001.
The series composition of US and UK authors and packaging has likely changed since 2000, but the line continues to be sold in the US.
