Ooh! Someone else who loves Georgette Heyer! hello!
I say she did write romances, but to me, the category “romances” conjures up the image of Harlequin and (god forbid) Barbara Cartland (blech). So, I don’t count Austen, Heyer, Bronte, Stuart as romance novelists (although some are Romance novelists…)
20 year old guy here.
I just recently finished this book and loved it. Both characters were endearing and led very interesting lives. I’ve never seen or read of a relationship developing the way it had in this book, and there were many great scenes. I look forward to the movie in 2007. I’m hoping Brad Pitt (who bought the rights sometime back) will do it justice.
I will say that it is a chick rag in some aspects. Henry was cool, but he didn’t have any actual flaws. Oh, sure, he had the whole spontaneous time travel thing going on, but that’s not a real personlity quirk. Plus, he was described as being more fit and athletic than I was willing to believe. The explanation behind his muscular build and stamina was that because he would randomly time travel and reappear in new places without clothes, he had to constantly run and fight for his life. Which sounds like a workout for a few hours, sure, but you need to work longer and harder than that to get a real nice body. Hell, I jog 20 miles a week in addition to weight training and I still have a lot of unsightly flab.
But still, great book. Written by a woman, but can be enjoyed by both sexes.
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
I’ve never been into romance novels, but recently I learned they account for 34.6% of all fiction sold in North America; so, out of professional interest as a public librarian, I’m trying to learn more about the genre.
One thing I’ve notices about the romances I’ve read so far is that all of them – not just the Harlequin and Silhouette “series” romance, but all of them – seem to be written for female readers. The male POV is not ignored, some of the third-person narrative presents the man’s thoughts, but still, all the stories seem to be cast in the mold of women’s romantic fantasies, not men’s. One telling point: The authors spend a lot of words on descriptions of how handsome/sexy/muscular/well-built/good-smelling/etc. the man in the story is, and far fewer words on the woman’s beauty. In fact, while the man is always an obvious hunk from the start, the woman can get away with being a bit plain and mousy – at least in her own eyes, until her lover sets her straight on how beautiful she is.
Are there any romance writers who write primarily for male readers? By “romance writers,” I mean only those whose books are recognizably within the genre and will be found in that section of the bookstore, or in that section of the library with heart stickers on their spines.<snip>/QUOTE]
Every response to this has been so cute and adorable and by people who’ve not read romance novels.
There is one writer that I know of that I had recommended to me…by a man! and whose work I very much enjoy.
Suzanne Brockmann.
Yes all the men are very handsome…blah blah. But there is hot sex, love and romance—and shit blows up good!!! (hey, I’m all female but stuff blowing up is good.)
Just my eleven cents.
Seriously, ya’ll check her out…good thrillers with hot sex, positive representations of gay men, and dudes in uniforms!!!
I’ve read romance novels. I wrote one, too.
I used to read them quite a bit. I’ll still pick one up maybe once a year or so, and while they aren’t really my favorite genre, I think they are occasionally wonderful. Like Carla Kelly, for example, or Judith McNaught’s older stuff but not the one with the rapist.
I was actually talking to someone online about Kathleen Woodiwiss the other day. A Rose in Winter. I think that was my first ever romance read.
Interesting assumption. Incorrect. But interesting.
There are a couple of science fiction love stories that I like - dunno if they qualify as romance stories.
Iceman by Cynthia Felice, c. 1991. I won’t spoil it, except to note that it’s got a sad ending - still, from the predicament given, there’s no other way it should have turned out. Both protagonists are strong-willed survivor-types. It’s also got one of the best good-guy retorts I’ve read:
[Spoiler]The male hero has just knifed the asshole son of the lead villain:
“Why?” Cosimo said. He’d gone to his knees, bleeding profusely.
“If I had the time, I’d spend it taking your balls to the lady Jacinta, not telling you why.”[/spoiler]
Another one is the short story “Tin Soldier” by Joan D. Vinge, published in More Women of Wonder, c. 1976. Probably written for a female readership, but I very much enjoyed the story of the loner outcast waiting years and years for that one special woman.
Well remember, he’d go running every morning too, just to stay in shape for the times when he’d really need it,. It apparently helped him stay focused and grounded in the present as well.
Piers Anthony might be a better example. Heinlein, at least, has a point to his stories besides the fantasies. Anthony’s hero in Bio of a Space Tyrant fucks his way across nine planets for no real purpose beyond the fucking.
So you tell us that but you don’t tell us what the lyrics are about? (Are they basically the same as the female ones, or are they different?)
In order to practice for the TOEFL, I picked up three books about stuff I wouldn’t be caught dead reading. One was a cookbook, one a bodice ripper and I don’t even remember what the other one was, it was so dull.
You certainly don’t seem any worse than that one bodice ripper… but since I consider that writers of bodice rippers should be boiled in high-trans-fat oils, it may be unhealthy to get close to me after you’ve made your bodice-ripping fortune.
I recall reading a while ago that The Da Vinci Code is designed to fulfill all the tenets of romance fiction in the form of a thriller:
tissue paper characters
undemanding prose
improbable action
characters readily pigeonholed…brilliant, sinister, or psychotic
luxurious backdrops
little gore or sexual activity
Supposedly a novel perfect for a ladies’ book club.
I’m confused, my fine Spanish friend. I should be boiled in oil or the book I might someday write be boiled in oil?
and how would it hurt you to stand next to me as I become deep fat fried Rigby? I think it’s the least you could do…
Different, and slanted to a male persepectuive.
I’ve mercifully forgotten them and have no real incentive to recall them. If you’re interested, look them up yourself, but keep me out of it!
Tale of Genji may be the first novel ever written. Its at least part Romance novel (though genre classification gets a little difficult when you are talking about something written ten CENTURIES ago and in a different culture). Whether it was written for men or women (it was written by a woman) is debatable.
I should have been more clear. Kathleen Woodiwiss was the first writer to include sex integrated with romance. Thus making her the “mother of the modern romance novel” but not, perhaps, the originator of the genre. I overspoke.
They’ve changed somewhat so that the heroine is not necessarily the most obvious beauty but the guy likes her anyway. I assume it’s to make the reader feel like maybe they are a diamond in the rough too. The passage that stands out to me from years ago was one where the heroine is taken captive by some band of rogues who travel around and rape her on a regular basis. They come upon a cottage with a woman who lives out in the country and pursues a mundane existence on the land. It’s written that she is jealous of the captive woman because at least something exciting happens to her!! :eek: I felt like it reflected the stereotypical reader who is lonely and bored, but would they really think the reader is wishing for something horrible to happen just for eventfulness?!
I loved the one with the young couple and she has a miscarriage but his family interfered with them communicating, and they reunite years later. :: sniff ::
Do any of you males remember this set of fantasy books you may have read when you were early teenagers? It was an alternate kind of universe, not futuristic, but the women are all slaves who have to walk around in some sort of one-piece skimpy outfit which comes off at a tug of the fastener? That’s what I think of when I think of romance novels for men.
In college I used to pick up a few trashy romances for finals time - you read them in an hour and forget them immediately (unless they have a talking whale in them, and no I am not kidding.) I assure you, “little sexual activity” is not what I was looking for in a romance novel. 
You’re thinking of the Gor novels, I believe. (My dad should really have put those away before I got old enough to start rummaging through his old sci-fi paperbacks.)
I’m fairly new to the romance genre, and so far I have gone mostly for the “paranormal” romances. The love interests are vampires, werewolves and various other magical creatures. I think they’re still written mostly for women, but they might attract a few more male readers than standard romances.
I will readily confess that I have been keeping up with Diana Gabaldon’s ongoing saga of Jamie and Claire in 18th-Century Scotland. Does that count?
(No, I don’t do Harlequins and Silhouettes)
I read my brother’s and my father was quick to point out what the purpose of the books were.
I actually veer away from the ones that feature time travel, the modern couple being some reflection of an age-old one, or the modern girl falling for some 12th century dude. They’re so unrealistic 