I only started reading romance novels about 5 years ago. As a stay at home mom and voracious reader, I'd already hit all the other major genres (Sci-Fi, mystery, thrillers, etc). The kindle is nice because I don't have to carry around books with pictures of half naked men on the covers. 

Some of my romance influences include Elizabeth Reyes, who was kind enough to email me once when my writing software of choice ate my first full-length novel (I never recovered it), Kristen Ashley, Laurann Dohner, and Lora Leigh.