The Bad Side to Romance Novels

I know that I haven’t posted anything recently but that is all because I have been trying to make it through this semester in school.  I am almost done 2 more exams and then I have one more semster before graduation!  Woo Hoo!!  Even with all that going on I have still found the time to read a few books.  I found this series written by an author that I have read before.  Her other books were great so I had no reason to bought that these wouldn’t be good too.  But WOW!  This book was not a romance novel it was a sex book.  In every chapter there was sex and once you to got to the end there was still more sex.  I know that I like romance novels but there still needs to be a story there.  Not just two people meet and then there is sex going on.  I skipped reading half the book because I was just trying to find the story in the book.  If I could I’d like to get my money back.  Anyone can write a steamy sex scene but it takes an author to write a romance novel.  There has to be a memorable meeting and a building attraction to one another, there should be a fight for affections.  That’s what makes a good romance.

I like mine to have a murder mystery vibe to them too.  Rachel Gibson wrote a great short series which was about 4 authors that were friends and each book goes into one of their lives.  The best part is that each book is written in the style of that particular author, a True Crime, Murder Mystery, Romance and Science Fiction.  These are great books! At least in my opinion.  That is the beauty of reading though, what I like others might not.

However if there is no story to follow then you might as well just call the book porn.  It’s books like that, that give Romance Novels a bad name.  That is what most people already think about Romance Novels, so books like that are just perpetuating the cycle.  Come on authors do you really think that is a good book?  Having read other stories that are soo much better than this book to me it just seems like laziness on the authors part. I need a book with more substance than just sex.  Books like this are the bad side to Romance Novels.

SO Sex Sells!!!

Ok so I occasionally take a look at the list of the Fastest Growing Blogs, and well today I noticed that one of them was titled “Free Download Video Prono.”  No wonder is was one of the fastest growing, probably most of the people click on it to get the free download and then it is something else.  I don’t know cause I didn’t click on it.  But that got me thinking.  I went through the statistics on my blog and the most read blog I had written was “What’s wrong with a little romance?” It got 21 hits the first day that it was posted and it was the only one that I have comments on.  Because of the tags I have on it, the most commonly clicked tag is Playboy for that article.  It’s kind of sad that the only way to get people to read a blog is to somehow work sex into the title or blog or just tag it.  In fact maybe that’s what I should do just tag every blog with sex.  Then I might also be one of the fastest growing blogs.  Anyway just a few thoughts of mine.  Enjoy the rest of you day!!!

Is it Wrong to Like a Little Romance?

Ok so I don’t have a problem admitting that I like to read romance novels!!  My boyfriend makes fun of me because when he thinks about those kinds of books all he sees is the Fabio style books with a guy on a horse with no shirt and a helpless damsel.  But if you read romance novels you know that they aren’t all like that!  Some have very strong women that with the help of a man figure out a problem.  Or in some cases a woman that deserves nothing but the love that she should be given.  I read romances because I am a hopeless romantic!! I can’t help but always see the good in people and see the romantic side to a story.

Some might suggest that reading a romance novel is the same thing as reading a Penthouse Magazine or Playboy.  I disagree with this completely, a romance novel sparks the imagination you have to read the words and interpret them on your own to come up with your own picture in your head.  I think with Playboy magazines you don’t really have to picture anything, it’s all laid out there for you.  What is left to imagine?  I may be getting that all wrong it may be different for a guy, but that’s how I see it.  I won’t lie and say that some of the scenes in the books do make my blood pressure go up, but I figure it’s in a good way.  I mean I don’t look down on a guy that looks at those magazines, but please don’t look down on me for reading these books.

There is more to a romance novel than just the sex scenes too.  Some are about murders, and are very thrilling, some are about history and some are humorous.  You have to look beyond the cover and the title of the book.  Most of the time those are deliberately steamy as a way to draw you in.  If in fact you are ashamed of the book you are reading you can always tear off the cover of a not so steamy book and replace the one that is currently on the book.  Though I don’t recommend that you do that with a book that you borrowed from a friend or the library.  But I do hope that someday you will not be ashamed that you read romance novels.

I do think it is quite funny to watch the women that are ashammed to be walking down the romance isle.  They will either use the hurrying method which is  walk as quickly through as possible and grab a book as they go without really looking at it, or they will use the hop method where they will hop in to the isle at the ends and grab a book before hoping back out.  I tell you people take more pride in what you reading, if your really that embarassed go online (they invited this great little website called amazon.com, you can order as many books as you want.) Trust me when I say it is worth it to find a book that you will enjoy and you can get it in the privacy of your own home!!