We've already established that I read romance novels for entertainment. They're fun, they're escapist. I was thinking while doing my five hours in the car yesterday that there are different categories of romance novels that I enjoy. First are the ones where the heroine is enough similar to me that I can insert myself into the plot and pretend I'm the heroine-- so in a way, it's like playing make believe when you're a kid.
The ones that are in this category for me are the ones that often others think are boring-- in a series, my favorite will be the one nobody else likes. The grumpy, brainy quiet heroine (Daphne in Mr. Impossible in Chase's Carsington brothers series, or Kate in Holding the Dream in the Nora Roberts Dream trilogy), or the quiet, introverted heroine where not much happens (To Seduce a Sinner in Elizabeth Hoyt's Four Soldiers quartet, or Serpent Prince, also Hoyt's, or Catherine in the badly-titled Sex Straight Up in Kathleen O'Reilly's O'Sullivan brothers trilogy). But they're not always the least popular books-- Mary Balogh's Summer to Remember is one of her all-time most popular, and the heroine is a very reserved, proper woman, and Kleypas' Devil in Winter is usually listed as the most popular of her Wallflower series, even though the heroine is a very shy young woman who stutters.
Second are the ones where the heroine is nothing like me, but they're people I like and enjoy reading about. Most of Crusie's heroines fit in this category- Min Dobbs in Bet Me, Agnes in Agnes and the Hitman, Allie McGuffey in Charlie All-Night. Or Jessica Trent in Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels, or Isabel Favor in SEP's Breathing Room, or... well, I guess most of the romance novels I've enjoyed fit in this category since boring, introverted heroines are not all that common. :-)
Hmmmm, I'm just noticing that all of those women are very bossy, which I am not. I have a hard time even telling my children what to do. But I don't mind it in other people; in fact, when I'm in a group, I love it when one person takes charge so we don't have to do the endless, "What do you think we should do?" "I don' t know, what do you think we should do?" --as long as the bossy person isn't selfish and thoughtless, too.
And in the third category are the books where the heroine and/or the hero are completely unlikable, but they so totally deserve each other, or the plot is so well executed, that you can still enjoy reading about them. Bath Tangle (one of my favorites of Heyer's) falls into this category, and Nell and Gabe in Crusie's Fast Women, and Kleypas' Then Came You. Then there's Sugar Beth Carey in SEP's Ain't She Sweet?, and Rachel in Sharon Shinn's Archangel.
Hmmm. well, all of this was a setup to review a book I read recently that had a completely unlikable heroine. But this got so long that a) it's too long to add a book review to, and b) I'm out of time. So. More coming.
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