Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell is a joyous celebration of those novels we all love to read, romances.
Contemporary, historical, time travel, urban fantasy--we can't get enough of these stories. And not just because of gorgeous heroes with ridged muscles and large…ahems. Whatever trials the hero and heroine suffer in these courtship stories, the book always ends with a Happily Ever After (HEA). In an imperfect world, romances give us hope that we can solve our own relationship problems, too. And not only solve them, but find the love and happiness we deserve.
What a fun book! I had a great time breezing through Ms. Wendell's thoughts on romance. Written in her witty, upbeat style, Ms. Wendell, with numerous comments and excerpts from romance novelists, dissects the attraction that has made romance the best selling, as well as the most vilified, fiction genre. Romances give us permission to value ourselves and show us the types of men to slaver over and the ones to avoid. In these novels, we can solve our relationship problems, learn how to ask for what we want, and even (gasp!) find out about sex--what we like, what we don't and what we didn't even know existed.
Ms. Wendell's most important point is that in a romance, the woman counts. I came to romance for that very reason. My preference in novels is a rousing fantasy adventure tale. But men wrote most of them and the women characters were either subsidiary or non-existent. In romance today, I can find the stories I like with the heroine right up there kicking butt alongside the hero. What's not to like?
Ah, romances. We sweep through them enjoying every moment. And when we finally reach the end and our beloved HEA, we savor it because the hero and heroine deserve it.
And so do we. Enjoy.
Thank you all,
Linda
ARC supplied by Sourcebooks
Sarah Wendell is the cofounder of the romance review site SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing this book with us. It sounds like a great read. I'll check it out.
Thanks, Ciara. I had a good time with this book. It's worth trying out.
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