These are great. Thanks for posting them!!
I have a whole spoofy romance novel more or less written. It's called "Passion's Purple Promise". I had a lot of fun writing it and I think an illustration like one of these in this thread would just add a tone of.....je ne sais quoi.....to the whole endeavor.
I started reading one of these once and it was set in Scotland in the 1500's and the opening scene had a nubile and exquisitely lovely maiden bathing in a burn in February and she lolled about in the water for about an hour, long enough for the hero Lord Something-or-other to see her as he rode by on his noble steed. He saw her with his keen grey eyes, of course.
Well, I guess the "authoress" wasn't perfectly informed as to what a "burn" is. I guess she thought it was hot, given the name. I flung the book away from me in a hissy fit and that was the end of my experiences reading bodice-rippers.
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Living on Earth is expensive,
but it does include a free trip
around the sun every year.