Who doesn’t love a man in chaps?
I am not a literary snob. A reading snob, sure. But literary? Not so much. I’m not all up on the classics and crap, and I avoid reading the next big thing if I can. That may surprise you. Oh, I’ve read a lot of them, but I’m not all that impressed. I know. That’s bullshit, but whatever. I love to read, I read constantly, and I’ve read an awful lot, but I read what I want to read, and what I want to read is all over the place and doesn’t include either (typically) the best sellers list or the syllabus from my AP English course.
If you pay any attention to my “Library” page or the little GoodReads dohickey in my sidebar, you’d know that lately I’ve been reading the heck out of some romance. I love romance novels. Judge me if you want, but I do. Always have. I’ve written about it before.
But something has changed. When I started reading romance novels as a child, I was indiscriminate. What I read depended on what I could snag from my mother’s shelves, and I didn’t care much provided there were heaving bosoms, sparkling eyes, and dashing heroes with broad chests and fierce gazes and stiff members.
As I grew up and into the genre, I tended toward the books about the aristocracy. You know, fancy gowns and powerful titles and royals with rampant sexual peccadilloes. I was all about the castles and tapestries and gems the size of your fist.
Nowhere in my romantic lexicon was there room for the western or Americana romance, unless there was a half-naked half-breed, and even then I didn’t prefer them. They were kind of bland, you know? No glitz, no pageantry, no glam. Just a lot of dust and cowboys.
But things have changed. Recently I’ve delved straight on into the western romance genre, and I couldn’t be happier. I owe it to one author: Maggie Osborne. Her books feature strong, independent women in difficult but realistic circumstances with equally strong but gentle men. Her books generally throw the hero and heroine together when they don’t want to be, and the resultant rubbing the wrong way turns to rubbing the right way, but it happens realistically, over time, where attraction turns into love. And the western locale, with its pioneer spirit and gritty determination and bare knuckle brashness, is now very appealing to me.
Does that mean I’ve grown up? That a love story doesn’t need palace intrigue and courtly manners and the most exquisitely beautiful characters to reach me? Give me hard work, determination, laughter, companionship, struggle, and respect these days.
This is not to say I won’t still read about raven tresses and petulant beauties tamed by hard and powerful and wealthy and cruel men. I will. Oh, yes. I will. Rangoon, anyone? (Almost no one knows that book.) It’s just now I’ve got a soft spot for cowboys.
I’m going to have to think about your “I’m not a snob” statement. Because you kind of are… (cough, Twilight, hated it, cough)
Shari, you may have a point. Stupid fucking Twilight.
i am so cynical, i can’t read any romances any longer. but i am always looking for that one romance book that will pull me back in the fold…
so, perhaps i will tryreading Rangoon…..(is the porno version Ram-poon?)
I like to think I am a romance novel snob, as in I usually don’t read them. Still, put me next to a pool or on vacation and I’ll read anything! LOL I may have to try out this Western genre. Sounds a bit like Romancing the Stone.
Fucking Twilight, what are we.. 12?
Romancing the Bone?
My favorite romance novel of all time(I have probably read 5 so probably doesn’t mean much) Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds.
She made priests hot and had me riding my bike hot summer nights around the nearby seminary school thinking impure thoughts hoping I’d catch some young would be priest on an evening stroll.
I was like fourteen or fifteen, clearly a sign of the whory, man seducing years ahead of me.
Never did a priest though.
I’ll have to check out those books. I recently read the entire series written by Diana Galbadon…beginning to end. Huge books, took me forever, but I really enjoyed them.
When I’m feeling like something fluffy I’ll pick up a Nora Roberts book or Susan Wiggs, both really good writers but predictable. But aren’t most romance novels predictable? Boy meets girl/Girl hates boy/and in the end they wind up together.
I didn’t even try to read the Twilight books….I don’t do vampires
Someone gifted me with a bunch of previously read Jennifer Crusie books. Perfect for the month that’s kicking my ass.
Mary: Ram-poon? Awesome. I wish that were a movie. As for romance novels to convert you, let’s see… Read anything by Laura Kinsale.
NATUI: The Western genre of romance is fun. Or it can be. Sometimes it’s as hokey as the rest can be.
Florida Girl: Just because I like unicorns and vampires doesn’t make me 12.
Chris: Romancing the Bone? I’d watch it. As for The Thornbirds, never read it. Shocking, isn’t it?
T-shirt: Don’t start that “Is the Gabaldon series romance or isn’t it” debate. Please.
Kizz: I love Crusie. She’s a hoot.
When I’m in the mood to read, but not think, I love me a good romance. Romance novels take me away, allow me to escape, and I like that.