ROMANCE!!!  Yes, I admit it, my favorite reading genre is romance.  There are many minor genres within the romance genre that one could choose from: paranormal, historical, futuristic, suspense, contemporary and so on.  I have favorite authors and have even attended some Romance Author hosted appreciation weekends.  I belong to a romance book club, Sugar Book Club, and we get together once a month and talk about all of the wonderful, exciting books that we have read; as well as the ones we are eagerly anticipating the release of.   

Some of my favorite authors are part of the New York Times Bestselling List: JD Robb (aka Nora Roberts), JR Ward (she is way cool and even remembers my kid) and her awesome series

Sherrilyn Kenyon who has her own conference, K-Con, and has a rock star tour bus writes the Hunters Series (Dark Hunters, Dream Hunters, Were-Hunters), 

Lora Leigh who writes the breed series, Lyndsay Sands (who is great for a good laugh), Kresley Cole who writes the Immortal After Dark series (she never releases her books soon enough for me), Gena Showalter,

Christine Feehan (I actually made her blush) writes the BEST vampire/carpathian novels EVER,

Robin D. Owens, Shelley Laurenston, Lori Foster (aka G.A. Aiken), Shiloh Walker, and the list goes on.   I’ve met many of these darling ladies at Author/Reader get-togethers and have actually become friends with others.  It was amazing to learn that the women I so admire are some of the nicest people I could meet.

I think the problem is that when people think of romance novels they think of the novels of old.  The ones that really have no plot; just boy meet girls – boy gets intimate with girl – some tragedy happens to make boy and girl split up – then they realize they need each other and come back together for happily ever after.  The days of those novels are pretty much over; now most novels are part of an ongoing series that has multiple characters that you can’t help want to know about, villians that you hate but still want to know about, and great suspense/fight scenes/comedic scenes that leave you impatient for more.  Now don’t get me wrong there is romance and in some of the books it can get kindof racy, but there are substance to the novels. 

When I read a novel (I have two eReaders – Sony & Kindle – so I don’t read much hard copies anymore), I get frustrated if the content is one of the books of old.  I want some action, I want a strong heroine, I want an ALPHA male, and I don’t want any characters with a “victim” mentality (those woe-is-me characters that make you want to smack some sense into them and tell them to get a grip).  Nope my books are not the books of old. 

I need to address the negative stigma that is associated with romance novels.  Romance novels accounts for the third largest reading genre (Religion is first and mystery is second).  The majority of movies that are most popular are romance based and if you really think about it, there is a bit of romance in every book we read.  At some point a guy gets with a girl or has a love interest even if they can’t spend alot of time cultivating it.  The romance readers of the world need to come out of the closet and be proud to read one of the fastest growing readership genre’s in the world.  Stop hiding the covers of your books from your friends or coworkers…when someone ask you what you’re reading don’t pass it off as just a book.  Announce proudly…A ROMANCE NOVEL!

The pictures and logos are from the JR Ward and Christine Feehan Website.