Romance and Me: Holiday Romances

Hey Everyone!

Only 2 more weeks and it is Christmas!! *wait a few moments while I jump up and down and calm down my excitement* Ok I’m back. So with the holidays fast approaching I think the topic of today’s discussion is quite obvious: it’s time we talked about holiday romances!

Starting from the end of October holiday themed books start to flood bookshelves, and after mid-November everywhere you look you see Christmassy covers and holiday-related titles.

Until last year somehow I haven’t noticed this trend (maybe because I wasn’t blogging yet), but I participated in my very first holiday reading challenge last year and thanks to it I discovered the sub-category of holiday romances and became a fan! Maybe it’s because I love Christmas, and everything related to the holidays, or that I’ve always enjoyed holiday films as well, but I know that the combination …

Romance and Me: The Small Town Romance Subgenre

Hey Everyone! Welcome to another Romance and Me discussion, this time on our shiny new and very festive site! 🙂 (don’t you just love the snowflakes? They are a favourite of mine!)
 
Are you wondering what we’ll be talking about today? A sub-genre of contemporary romances that I particularly like, namely: small town romances!
 
But what are small town romances? A lot of contemporary romances feature a trendy hero or heroine who has a hip job in the big city returning for whatever reason to their small hometown, and hating the small town life at the beginning. Then chapter by chapter the big city big shot character starts to see and value the advantages of small town life: how people are friendly and nice, noone is ever in a hurry, and all in all life seems sweeter and saner. And usually at the end of the novel we see the big city guy/girl …

Romance and Me: The Enemies to Lovers Trope

I thought we could once again talk about the frequently revisited tropes in romance stories.

If you remember I have already told you how much I love the Friends to Lovers trope in romance novels, today I would like to talk to you about another favourite trope of mine: the just as popular and beloved Enemies to Lovers one! 🙂

I think the reason for my enthusiasm and preference for this trope is quite obvious: when an author chooses to create an enemies-to-lovers story the hero and heroine are expected to have a lot of fights, banters, teasing, which are the perfect opportunity for the author to shine their writing talent and creativity and portray some interesting and vivid characters and the best sparkling and explosive dialogue there can be. I just love when the hero/heroine get in each other’s face and their discussion (=quarrel) becomes …

Romance and Me: The Widower as Romantic Hero

Hey Everyone!

In the past couple of weeks I read two novels where the heroes were widowers and it got me thinking.

Lately I have seen this new trend in historical romances that more and more heroines are made out to be widows instead of innocent virgins, so that the story and the hero can get to the steamy seduction part faster since the heroine has already been introduced to the world of “carnal pleasure” (even if of course with her first husband it was just “meh”), but these two novels made me realize, that I haven’t come across any widower heroes… until now.

 
 
The interesting part was that one of these novels was a contemporary, funny romance (Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins) while the other was a historical romance (Romancing the Countess by Ashley March). But basically both made me ponder the same questions and issues …

Romance and Me: The Importance of a Title

Hey Everyone! Today I would like to discuss with you the importance of how a romance novel is titled.

We all know (even if we try not to judge by its cover) how important book covers are. They are the introduction, the first impression of the novel, the one thing which starts to form our opinion of the book long before we even start reading the first page. But isn’t the title of a novel just as important?

Sure, it is less obvious and usually goes hand in hand with the cover, but I’ve seen, and mostly on romance novels some cringe-worthy titles which would probably make me run as fast as I could from said books. You know the ones I’m talking about I’m sure, but here are a few examples:

The Mogul’s Maybe Marriage

Billionaire’s Jet-Set Babies
The Surgeon’s Secret Baby
Reclaiming His …

Romance and Me: The Age Factor

Hey Everyone! Today I would like to discuss with you the Age Factor, i.e. whether the age of the hero and heroine of a romance novel matter.

As a woman in my mid-twenties I guess I am lucky that most romance novels feature heroines around my age, and it sure makes it easier to relate to them.

I admit that in the past when I read the heroine was in her fifties and had children and was divorced/widowed I skipped that story because I believed my enjoyment of the novel would be hindered as I had nothing in common with such a heroine since she was my mother’s age and mostly had the problems/issues women being at that place of their life have (grown up children, married to her husband of many years, etc.).

But I’m not discriminating only against the older heroines, I’m quite reluctant to read about younger heroines …

Romance and Me: Military Romance

Today I’m here to tell you a secret. Last week I was in a crazy frenzy. You know the kind when all you can think about is how fantastic a story was and you keep thinking about it long after it finished.

Want to know what started it? I read a novel which opened my eyes and made me discover a whole new world of romance stories: the military romance subgenre!

And after my crazy enthusiasm for said novel I went on a Goodreads rampage and searched for hours and hours becoming more and more enthralled by all the wonderful novels and series I found in the genre! Who knew military romance existed? And that it was so mindblowingly great?

If you think the military romance subgenre can be swept under the “romantic suspense” category you are mistaken. This is so much more than that! Let me tell you why…

I have always loved novels and movies …

Romance and Me: The Friends to Lovers Trope

There are several tropes which feature frequently in romance novels: be it a a very rich but rude or unattainable hero (can anyone say modern Mr. Darcy?), love triangles, a tortured brooding historical hero, or a rake seducing his sworn enemy’s younger sister to exact revenge on his nemesis, we all have encountered them. But there is one trope which is closer to my heart than others and it is the friends to lovers plot (and I especially love the brother’s friend falling for the little sister kind of friends-to-lovers plot).

My fascination with this trope isn’t limited to novels only, I like it just as much in movies and series (tell me honestly: weren’t Chandler and Monica the cutest couple of Friends? and if I had my say on with whom Rachel should have ended up with I would have picked Joey without a doubt, loved how his love brought out …

Romance and Me: The Cheater Files

Hey Everyone!

Today’s post was inspired by the novel I am currenty reading where the heroine has trust issues with the hero due to her father being a cronic cheater and growing up having to witness her father’s womanizing ways.

Cheating is not a theme often explored in romance novels (or maybe it’s just me who doesn’t stumble upon those stories), the most I have seen is the hero or heroine having a jealousy fit but usually unfounded and serving only to prove the depth of their affection for each other.
But instances where either the hero or the heroine cheats on the other or someone else (either by thought, kiss, making out or sex) are rare. I would guess because witnessing either the hero or the heroine being unfaithful, even if to a third (and only marginal) character would make us readers have negative feelings about them and that would undermine how much …

Romance and Me: Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Sex in a Romance Novel?

Hey Everyone!

When talking/thinking about romance novels the topic of sex is bound to come up. Everyone has their own preference: whether they like it sweet and PG, or sensual and steamy, and some even don’t mind it being graphic, but everyone has their stand on the issue.As you well know Susi and I, we both want our romance novels to have some sweet smex, but recently I read a novel which made me wonder whether there is such a thing as too much sex…

You see this novel was marketed and shelved as a contemporary romance novel and I jumped in expecting a sexy romantic read, but instead got something else.Once again let me say not only I don’t mind reading sex scenes in my romance novels, to the contrary I enjoy and cherish them, but when I was reading this novel, I noticed that after a steamy scene there was no out-of-the-bedroom scene …