Reading the romances

I live in a professional community, where most of the people in my circle boast at least one, and sometimes as many as two or three graduate and post-graduate degrees. Here, keeping up with the Jones can mean professing an air of intellectualism and professionalism that sometimes eludes me. I like to feed my mind as much as the next person (and, in fact, am right now reading a wonderful biography of Britain's six reigning queens), but I have a secret passion for something that probably would not pass the neighborhood education/intelligence test: romance novels. I love romance novels.

Now, I'm not an indiscriminate romance novel reader. Some put me off entirely, either because they're badly written (there are a lot of those out there), because they're too formulaic, because they flirt with themes that disturb me (such as the rape themed ones, ick), or for whatever other intangible reasons that will turn me off a book.

I've also changed in my tastes over the years. When I first started reading romances, I liked the historics, possibly because I was introduced to romance novels by someone who recommended Georgette Heyer. Heyer is, for me, still the gold standard when it comes to romances. Her writing is crisp and lucid, her characters appealing, and her humor can make me laugh out loud. She's also a remarkable historian -- so much so that she eventually became known as one of the foremost authorities on Regency England. Unfortunately, when it comes to this last point, most recent writers of Regency romances seem to have abandoned independent research, and simply parrot phrases and points in Ms. Heyer's novels. The mimicry is cheap and obvious.

I eventually figured out that the core things I enjoy about Heyer's novels are the fact that her characters have strong value systems, that they're quite independent but nevertheless can still be rescued by a man who is their match intellectually and morally, and that, as I noted above, they're very funny. Those qualities don't show up in many historical romances, which tend to fall into the bodice ripping mode. Instead, they're more easily found in contemporary romances.

Of the contemporary romances that reflect the themes I've identified, my favorite writers are Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jennifer Crusie, Susan Anderson, Linda Howard and Elizabeth Lowell (with the last two writing romantic thrillers, rather than pure romances, so they're stronger on the strong women finding strong men than they are on the humor). I also like many of Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick's books, although I feel she's gotten lazy of late and is just churning.

Each of those writers, when she's on a roll, creates really appealing lead characters, women who are attractive without being off-puttingly beautiful, who are intelligent without being pretentious, and who are competent but still need help. And help is always provided by strong, intelligent men who respect the women, but recognize that they can offer necessary aid without demeaning the object of their affection. It sounds formulaic, but in the hands of these writers, it's not. It's just enjoyable.

If you're interested in reading more about romance novels, whether you're looking for reviews, critiques, debates, information, etc., I'm not the only one blogging romance. Indeed, I'm a tiny voice in a very well-developed chorus of blogs devoted to romance novels. A few of the better ones (I think) are Romancing the Blog, Readers Read : Romance, Ciaralira and the Romance Writers of America website.

By the way, if you feel, as I do, that people might look down on you for reading romances, keep this in mind: one in five Americans read romance novels (and you're more likely to read them if you're female and Southern); even if readership in other areas is declining, romance novels are always hot in the marketplace; they make up more than half of all popular fiction sold in the US; and 63% of romance readers have attended college, with 21% having graduated and a further 10% have gone on to post-graduate education. Not a bad collection of people to align yourself with, right?