
Sweet Savage Love
Rosemary Rogers · 1974
The second great founding text of modern romance (alongside Woodiwiss). Ginny Brandon and Steve Morgan's tumultuous relationship across the American West and Mexico. Rogers invented the long-form epic romance and the hero who is both dangerous and eventually redeemable; the template for a thousand subsequent novels.
Romance · the Pro canon
The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.