We shine the spotlight on Sheila Holland, also known as Charlotte Lamb, a prolific romance writer whose emotionally charged novels span various themes and genres.
A Powerhouse Author For Mills & Boon and Harlequin
Sheila Holland, née Coates, known to most romance readers as Harlequin/ Mills & Boon author Charlotte Lamb, is one of my favorite writers. Period.
Although she created seemingly simple category romances, her books were much more than that. She wrote like few others in her field could: fully inhabiting her characters’ minds and giving them larger-than-life personalities.
Her heroes could be fiercely chauvinistic and cruel with deep-seated psychological issues; others were kind, understanding men who were still emotionally intense.
Lamb’s heroines ran the gamut from sheltered teenage virgins to competent working women struggling to make it in their fields to sophisticated, mature ladies who’d been around the block once or twice.
My Charlotte Lamb Experience
Lamb’s Harlequin Presents Seduction has been seared into my memory as one of the earliest romances I read. It was chock-full of insanity and fantastic writing. I couldn’t get enough. You can read my linked review so I won’t spoil the details.
If you’ve never read Lamb before and read this book but didn’t find it to your liking, read another one of hers. Lamb might have revisited similar tropes and characters, but she never wrote the same book twice!
More than anything, her insightfulness, and superb characterization made Lamb’s writing stand out from most other authors in her genre.
Most of the time, anyway.
I have given numerous five-star ratings to Lamb’s books. I’ve also 1-starred quite a few. Like a power hitter in baseball who’s guaranteed to hit at least 40 home runs a year, Lamb swung for the crowds at every at-bat. Sometimes, she came up short.
That’s alright. Babe Ruth once held the season record for most home runs and strikeouts.
Charlotte Lamb wrote many romances I love, like Guilty Love, Stranger in the Night, and Crescendo. And quite a few I downright hate, such as Dark Fever, The Marriage War, and A Naked Flame.
Even so, take the “good” with the “bad” any day because her “good” is fantastic!
Shelia Coates-Holland, a Multi-Faceted Author
Sheila Coates was born in 1937, right outside of London. As a child, the bombings by the Germans in England would take their toll on Sheila. She would move from place to place to avoid the attacks.
Eventually, Sheila would be educated in a convent run by Ursuline nuns. She would work several jobs before landing a job at the BBC. There, she met Richard Holland, a reporter whom she’d soon marry.
Sheila led a busy married life with five children. Still, with toddlers running about, she found the time to quickly pen her first novel, Prisoner of the Heart, a contemporary romance written under her married name.
Shadows at Dawn, published by Playboy Press, was her first historical romance, released in 1975.
However, it was under her pseudonym, Charlotte Lamb, that Holland would find the most success. She would submit a romance, Follow a Stranger, to Mills & Boon in 1973, published later that year as a Harlequin Romance. Numerous other books swiftly followed in its wake, cementing Lamb’s status as a success with romance readers.
It would be within the Harlequin Presents line that Lamb would gain the most acclaim, becoming one of their many powerhouse authors. She was a prolific writer for Mills & Boon/ Harlequin. Most of her 160 romances would be published by that company, with about 200 million books sold worldwide.
Lamb’s first Harlequin Presents, Call Back Yesterday, would provide just a sample of the incredible emotional power play between the sexes that would be a hallmark of her work.
More than just category romance author Charlotte Lamb would create stories about relevant contemporary issues. Her 1983 full-length novel A Violation, would focus on the issue of rape and how it affected a woman and her circle of friends and family.
A Great Passes Away
Then, with 1995’s In the Still of the Night, Lamb would produce works of Romantic Suspense, a genre she’d write until her death.
Sheila Holland wrote under several pseudonyms besides Charlotte Lamb. She wrote under her maiden name, released several books for Harlequin’s competitor Silhouette as Laura Hardy, and penned a few other romances as Victoria Woolf.
Sheila Holland died in 2000 at the age of 62.
Her books Seduction Business and The Boss’s Virgin were published as Harlequin Presents after her death but had been previously released as Mills & Boon Romances.
Sheila’s last novel, a romantic thriller published posthumously in 2000 with Hodder & Stoughton, was entitled The Angel of Death.
More About Charlotte Lamb
Check out our Charlotte Lamb author page to read more about Charlotte Lamb/ Sheila Holland.
Your Opinion
Are you interested in reading some Charlotte Lamb works? Have you heard about Sheila Holland and her many pseudonyms?
If so, are you a reader of any of her works? Who are your favorite category romance authors?
Please drop a comment, and let’s talk romance.
Charlotte Lamb wrote a terrific series for Harlequin called Barbary Warf. It had 6 or 8 books. Gave my set to someone. Should have kept it!
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