IMO, it didn't help when Harlequin suddenly switched to using exactly the kind of titles that played to the scorn and prejudice of what non-readers thought they were about in the first place: The Bachelor's Baby Bargain, The Tycoon's Secret Baby, The Sheikh's Virgin Bride, blah blah blah. All slightly smutty in a breathless, isn't-this-titillating kind of way. For the most part, I stopped reading Harlequin when they started using these kinds of titles. I had been fighting for Harlequin to be regarded seriously, and to overcome people's assumptions that they "knew" what a Harlequin romance was. I actually wrote a scholarly article which was later published on an online book review site, about what Harlequin Romances had done for the genre, and then they caved and began playing to the lowest common denominator by using titles that convinced people that what they'd believed all along (that HRs were trashy, smutty books) was correct, and it became impossible to read the books and feel any kind of self-respect because they suddenly seemed so...tawdry.**
**The truth is, I've always loved plotlines like marriage of convenience, blind hero/heroine, heroine fleeing abusive ex, anything paranormal--which Harlequin was doing long before most other publishers, except, Kismet and Loveswept.
I'll stop before your eyes glaze over...