Spent this week in the sun catching up on my 2014 Reading Challenge, and started randomly downloading books from the top kindle free list and NY Times Bestselling authors list. Things with lots of high number 5 STAR reviews. And went, wow, what happened to the romance novel?
The first thing that struck me was how short they were. They were like episodes of speed dating between book covers. They start at the point of love interests first crossing paths, they rarely give much detail of the characters, you know from page one that it’s a done deal with a fast HEA. And these are the bestsellers, so unlike the books I loved when I use to have time to read.
Character/plot/sexual tension/ and Romance have been traded for what I call the H & H speed date: How goes directly into Happily-ever-after. A different genre all together from what the great romance author’s use to write.
Oh well, maybe I’ll pull one of the completed novels out of the box, delete all character development and story, leave the sex scenes, and write a few pages of “Oh he is hot” “Oh I shouldn’t! Shouldn’t!” “Oh I must! I must! I am.” Then insert all my sex scenes and end it with a snappy phrase like the last bestseller I read: “I like you more than the environment!”
Heck, I work in the environmental sector and if I husband said that to me I’d punch him. I sure as heck wouldn’t have married him or moved in with him. But who am I to argue with what sells? I need a phrase for my soon to be gutted work. Hmmm… how about, my H saying at the end, “ Nothing makes me hotter than a sure thing on page one, babe!”
Really. Is the romance novel, the last place for luscious love stories, really just an episode of speed dating inside a book jacket? I sure hope not. I sure hope I just downloaded the wrong ones! I still love a good love story!
The Girl on the Half Shell
The first thing that struck me was how short they were. They were like episodes of speed dating between book covers. They start at the point of love interests first crossing paths, they rarely give much detail of the characters, you know from page one that it’s a done deal with a fast HEA. And these are the bestsellers, so unlike the books I loved when I use to have time to read.
Character/plot/sexual tension/ and Romance have been traded for what I call the H & H speed date: How goes directly into Happily-ever-after. A different genre all together from what the great romance author’s use to write.
Oh well, maybe I’ll pull one of the completed novels out of the box, delete all character development and story, leave the sex scenes, and write a few pages of “Oh he is hot” “Oh I shouldn’t! Shouldn’t!” “Oh I must! I must! I am.” Then insert all my sex scenes and end it with a snappy phrase like the last bestseller I read: “I like you more than the environment!”
Heck, I work in the environmental sector and if I husband said that to me I’d punch him. I sure as heck wouldn’t have married him or moved in with him. But who am I to argue with what sells? I need a phrase for my soon to be gutted work. Hmmm… how about, my H saying at the end, “ Nothing makes me hotter than a sure thing on page one, babe!”
Really. Is the romance novel, the last place for luscious love stories, really just an episode of speed dating inside a book jacket? I sure hope not. I sure hope I just downloaded the wrong ones! I still love a good love story!
The Girl on the Half Shell
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