From Foreplay to Positive Messages: Why People Love Romance Novels
Growing up, romances were considered the worst books to read in my house. At least some romances were. Children’s and high school novels were okay to read from time to time, and the classics were always fine. But traditional romances with a man and a woman embracing on the cover? Those were vulgar, poorly written, and only worth reading for the sex scenes that probably made up at least half of the book’s content.
After a certain age, I was allowed to read any book I wanted, but romance novels were still looked down upon as the least valuable genre. However, by the time I got to high school, romance novels were just too tempting.
Since they are available everywhere that sells second-hand books, it wasn’t hard for me to find romances and form my own opinions about romances. And it wasn’t long before I really liked them, so much so that I started my own blog to review just them. And millions of other readers love them so much.
There are many stereotypes involving avid romance readers, such as desperate spinsters, lonely women, and curious teenagers. But the truth is, Most readers of romance novels are college-educated women who are married and lead fulfilling lives. So while there is a level of escapism, the appeal of romance is so much more than that.
Many women, myself included, like it because of the positive messages in the books.. The heroine almost always has insecurities about her body, her wits, or her personality, and yet the hero is still completely enthralled by her. for example in Lord Braybrooke’s penniless bride by Elizabeth Rolls, Christina Daventry is incredibly insecure about her financial means, looks, and heritage. As the bastard daughter of a nobleman, she is only one wrong step away from being on the streets. However, she somehow captures Lord Braybrooke’s heart without even trying. While people might chalk it up to the fact that she’s really beautiful without even knowing it, that’s not true of all of her romances. In The morning comes gently by DebbieMacomber, Montana rancher Travis Thompson marries a woman who doesn’t think she’s the least bit beautiful. However, he ends up falling for her anyway.. While not everyone thinks that finding love is the ultimate goal in life, in romance books it means happiness. Romance books say that everyone can find happiness without changing who they are.
While the positive message is appealing to readers of all ages, others, especially teens, have another reason to read romance novels.
“They help me study for the SATs,” a friend once told me, laughing. “It’s weird, but where else am I going to read words like flowery, choppy, and loving outside of vocabulary exercises and the classics?”
She had a point. Even though my family thinks all romances are poorly written, I’ve found that I need to go to the dictionary with them more than any other genre. It is not so much that they strive to be ‘intellectuals’. It’s more that there’s a lot of emotion in romance books, even more so than in other genres because the main story is an emotional connection. Sometimes ‘happy’, ‘sad’ and ‘angry’ just aren’t enough, so the writer resorts to bigger, lesser used words to describe their characters and their settings. While this isn’t really a reason to read romance books, it is a plus for some people. I know I’m not the only one who thinks this way. In the guidance counselor’s office at my school there were some romance books with SAT study material that had been selected for their vocabulary use.
And of course a lot of people read romance for escapism. Many women like the idea of a man completely dedicated and focused on them, without the distractions of social media, sports or work.. Some compare reading romance novels to foreplay. because in romance books, women always have the full attention of men, which is also true for foreplay. For those in the teen crowd, they like to experience romance in books because they’re curious or their own love life is lackluster due to poor earnings at their school. But even those satisfied with their love lives love romance books for escapism because they not only show an ideal relationship. They also show an ideal world, where there is always a happy ending, family gatherings are fun without stress, and bad hair days are once in a blue moon. Even dystopian worlds are considered ideal because they are full of excitement and danger, unlike our usual monotonous but safe lives.
No matter what your reason is for loving romance, if you’re as avid a reader as I am, you probably burn books with ease. Sometimes I can read up to four of them a month. Actually, novel readers read more than readers of any other genre. Scribd actually had to remove most of its romances because the cost of the books readers were reading exceeded the amount they were getting in subscriptions. However, it is often unpredictable whether the romance is good or not. Even the tight fabrics provided by Harlequin and Silhouette can have some flaws in a brand you normally like.