I was browsing a rack of Harlequins and Silhouettes at the bookstore, and from the plot synopses on the back covers, it appears that the happy lovers never find love because they were looking for it. Circumstances throw them together, or the guy spots the girl at what up to then was a dull cocktail party and he’s hooked, etc. They never meet in a singles bar where both went for the obvious reasons. They never find each other through the personals ads or a dating service or an online match site. They never get set up by a mutual friend. Very rarely are they office coworkers whose daily association gradually grows into affection.
Are the ways most people find romance IRL just not “romantic” enough to fit into a compelling romance novel?
I think so, although often “historical” romances will feature a debutante who is being put out there for marriage and falls for someone outside of the acceptable possibilities for some reason. Or she is considered too old, doesn’t expect it, and gets swept away anyway.
There is usually some aspect of resistance, like she fights the attraction and then can’t help but give in, and someone who is looking to accept advances doesn’t fit that gig. Similarly, the male is usually someone who plays around and then becomes faithful despite his past, a rogue of some sort.
That being said, romance novels set in the present day tend to have more realistic plotlines with “regular” people, but you’re right that the circumstances are more dramatic, just for interest.
Well, I think a lot of what makes romance interesting is the aspect of challenge and surprise. To set a novel with the premise that both players are looking for love and are deliberately taking steps to find it kind of takes away from the challenge/surprise element. Romance that flares in spite of the players’ hopes or expectations makes for a fun read. Two people who meet through personal ads or in a singles bar and fall in love… well, good for them, but that’s what they both want and expect, so it’s boring.
Keep in mind, Harlequin and Silhouette are the shallow end of the gene pool when it comes to the Romance industry. Known as “series” romances, they are published in mass volume (somewhere around 50 titles each month) and rarely stay in print longer than 6 weeks. No one is straining their brain to write these puppies.
“Proper” full-length romance novels, also called “Single-title” romances to distinguish them from series romance, have a generally higher standard for plot, character and realism, and a lesser reliance on extremely trite plot and character, with the best being on par with the best of other genre fiction (for instance, Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” is claimed by both Romance and SF camps).
I remember reading an interview, years back, by one of the original Harlequin authors who had made the jump to being a “single title” author. She said there were very strict rules in the early days. The female lead had to be under a certain age, and had to be a virgin. She didn’t say why, but I imagine it was to keep the reputation of the series. “This is not a series about sluts! Our women are pure until they meet the man of their dreams!”
Series is formulatic and there are popular themes which change over the years. Saying these books are easy to write is true enough-- they have to be, since I’ve written 3 so far.
But I also critique manuscripts and lemme tell you, only about 1 in about 50 comes anywhere near good enough to qualify as a book.
But, do those “single-title” romances follow the same rule, that the lovers don’t find each other because they were actually looking? Does any romance writer ever rise to the challenge of making such a prosaic story interesting?
I forgot to add, in single-title romance in a contemporary setting, the “meeting at work” scenario is quite common as are “introduced by friends” and “meeting through some other professional relationship other than working together per se.”
No, they vary as in any genre (see my previous post). Actually in Historicals it is VERY common for the leads to meet at a social event or debutante ball where the sole goal is indeed to meet and marry. (Oftentimes the hero is disgruntled with the process, and/or of dubious reputation, though).
And generally, since a mere love story with some hot sex tossed in doesn’t exactly fill 300 pages, there is a subsidiary plot – often mystery, thriller, or supernatural in nature – to provide both conflict between the leads and a chance to for them to connect/reconnect.
Also, heroes over the years have changed a lot. Computer geeks are very popular right now as romantic leads, as are a type I call the “Sensitive New Age Soldier” (a la Apollo from Battlestar Galactica – a professional soldier who will take a highly pricipled stance on a non-military issue, or be very open emotionally to the heroine).
Computer geeks? Hello! Maybe I’ll get into reading these stories. I always thought the heroes were uber-sensitive, massively sculpted, rugged sophisticates with thick accents and bare chests. You know, Fabio.
Fabio has zero appeal to me. I want my computer geeks!
Actually, that happens more now in series romance. Not as much as in single title. And there’s still a lot of the stuff mentioned in the OP. But, every so often, they are set up by friends or hanging at singles bars or some other place where they’re looking.
Without having read any of the books referenced, I hazard a guess that computer-geek romance heroes are a lot better looking and in much better shape than any real-life computer geek. Maybe even “rugged” and “massively sculpted.” Just my WAG.
In historicals, the women is either a virgin or has been married/had a one-night stand that left her disillusioned about the supposed magic of “relations”. It’s up to the rugged hero to teach her otherwise. In present-day ones, it seems like it is often a situation of a couple who used to be together (and clearly have been aroudn since then) meeting up again and realizing the match was perfect.
Yes, the hero is rugged and seemingly perfect but usually has physical or emotional scars that only the woman of his dreams can help him get past.
Nerd in Shining Armor is wonderful for those who want geeks. I’ve read, but don’t remember, Absolutely, Positively so I can’t say that one. However, also by Krentz is Trust Me, which is one of my favorites by her and also about a computer geek.
However, the WAG above is correct, and all of these geeks are programers or gamers of some sort, but they also work out quite a bit and are surely more buff then almost any IRL geek you’d find.
Also, make sure to start with Nerd in Shining Armor if you go that route. It’s hysterical (my computer/physics/math geek husband enjoyed it), and you can’t go wrong with it. However, Thompson did so well with it that someone (her or her publishing company, I don’t know) has decreed her books will henceforth be “Nerd ___”, and each of the following gets less nerdy. The Nerd Who Loved Me is cute, about an accountant type nerd. But Nerd Gone Wild is about a bodyguard who just happened to be a nerd in high school.
Nerd in Shining Armor was really a good one though.
It’s probably one of the first hot nerd romances. Krentz has always been a trailblazer, she’s also the one who put her foot down about “heaving bosom” covers. Anyhoo, you may recall it as the one where the heroine gets locked in a meatlocker by the bad guys (JAK almost always has a mystery/thriller subplot) and uses a wireless PDA (gift from the Nerdboy) to self-rescue.
Back when I was a semi-important person in the Romance world, I called dorkboys the “new face of American Hunkdom.” Since you like Krentz check out this interview where we chatted about it:
Sorry Hello Again but you’ve misremembered the title of the book you are thinking of.
The book in which the heroine(Desdemona) is locked in the meatlocker is Trust Me not Absolutely, Positively. The hero of the latter is Dr. Harry Stratton Trevelyan, scientist-philosopher consultant to Molly Abberwick. (Guess which book I have in my possesion at this time?)
Krentz has always been a trailblazer, she’s also the one who put her foot down about “heaving bosom” covers. Anyhoo, you may recall it as the one where the heroine gets locked in a meatlocker by the bad guys (JAK almost always has a mystery/thriller subplot) and uses a wireless PDA (gift from the Nerdboy) to self-rescue.