06.09.08
What’s a “straight” romance reader to do?
There are several strengths in my romance book club, but I think the biggest one is our diversity of reading tastes. We each have a field of expertise, if you like, from our sci-fi/paranormal readers who cut their teeth on fanfic, to inspirational, western, Regency, historical in general, American, English, Indian… We know each other’s tastes and can and do find reading recommendations for each other.
Therefore, so we don’t have a steady diet of any one thing–and to please each of us in turn–we choose different categories for our monthly reads. The last two were an African-American contemporary which we were all intrigued with until the ending (maybe there should have been another chapter because the reader was left hanging) and classic Georgette Heyers found for 50 cents apiece at a used book store. We had settled on Georgette because she’s being reprinted and if any of us had read her, we couldn’t remember. Citing small print, archaic vocabulary, and too long to get to the point, only 3 of the 8 of us finished the book. I finished mine, but it took a while. Still, in the balance, and although some of the stories were first penned in the 1920s, the core of the romance stories could be found on any shelf today.
Or could it?
We pick our next two or three months’ reads as a group. This month, we passed around the current Romantic Times Book Reviews issue and not one of us was drawn to a single book. Historical didn’t appeal because of the Heyer business. Series fell short because most of us judge national contests and there had been several of those to read. Erotica is a personal choice and taste; we have, but out of deference to one of our members, we usually don’t any more. Romantic suspense seems riddled with serial killers and violence more suited to a mainstream audience. Paranormal is the taste of the moment, and many of our favorite authors have defected there, but they didn’t seem to take their talent with them. Did they do it just to sell? (Not that writing to the market is a bad thing, but be good at it.)
That left sixteen contemporary single-title romances out of 203 romances reviewed. Eight per cent–and we weren’t biting. Where was a good, old-fashioned romance?
So the topic of our closing discussion was: what’s left for us to read? Admittedly, we’re jaded, but our chief complaint was favorite authors changing genres permanently. At least when Nora changed to JD Robb, she still kept Nora.
In the end, we went with an epublished book, one from my publisher, Wings ePress, Inc, which has been nominated for a Bookseller’s Best Award through the Detroit RWA chapter. It’s an historical, set in Australia. Its stature as a finalist in a tough contest intrigued us. I’ll let you know if that was enough.