Today’s Romance Novels

Today’s romance novels are not the bodice ripping, sex saturated, moaning and groaning, air head woman vs. chest beating man, empty stories of the 70’s and 80’s.  Today’s romances have evolved to complex plots, with smart, savvy heartsheroines and sensitive, flawed heroes.  The old romance books had the domineering man “rescuing” the passive woman.  Today you’ll find strong, independent women who sometimes do the “rescuing”.  While most of today’s books have the “happily ever after ending”, some stories end up “happy for now”, or “satisfied with my live as is”.  Most romances today don’t center around just the two main characters.  You learn about their families and friends, the town they live in, the world around them.  Today’s romance reader is smart, educated, thoughtful, and complex.  Today’s romances run the gambit from historical England, to the wild American West, to the military, to small town life.  They can be inspirational, suspenseful, other worldly and a whole host of subgenres – so many that everyone will be able to find the right fit for their reading pleasure.  It is a bit deceiving to label a book “romance”, when it fits quite nicely as a “literary” novel.  Below is a list of just a few of the romance subgenres.

  1. Medieval
  2. Historical (England, Scotland)
  3. American Historical
  4. Western (Contemporary)
  5. Western (Historical)
  6. Contemporary (Serious)
  7. Contemporary (Humorous)
  8. Suspense
  9. Thriller
  10. Military
  11. Paranormal(Vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters)
  12. Paranormal(Ghosts, witches)
  13. Futuristic/Fantasy
  14. Regency Romances
  15. Victorian Romances
  16. Inspirational(Historical)
  17. Inspirational(Contemporary)
  18. Erotic
  19. Chick Lit
  20. Romantic Mysteries

The Library has an excellent selection of mass market romance paperbacks located on the main level near the front windows.

Which is your favorite genre?

Look Who’s Writing Romance!

harlan cobenHarlan Coben’s new book, Six Years, is being touted as his first “romantic thriller”.   During his appearance this morning on the Today Show, he admitted he was a die hard romantic at heart.  He’s been married to the love of his life since he was 20 years old.  Also during the interview, Mr. Coben announced that the actor Hugh Jackman will be playing the role of Jake Fisher, the lead male character of the book.

The publisher’s description reads: ” Six years have past since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd.

But six years haven’t come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd’s obituary, he can’t keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife he’s hoping for…but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she’s been married to Todd for almost two decades, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life—a time he has never gotten over—is turned completely inside out.

As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can’t be found, or don’t remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake’s search for the woman who broke his heart, who lied to him, soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on a carefully constructed fiction.

Harlan Coben once again delivers a shocking page-turner that deftly explores the power of past love, and the secrets and lies that such love can hide.”

Sounds like a winner!