by Sarah Wendell
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Release Date: Oct 1, 2011
Source: sent by publisher
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Summary from goodreads.com:
Straight from the heart of influential romance blogger Sarah Wendell, this inventive gift book provides the best wisdom about love that the romance genre has to offer. Laced with signature witty commentary and peppered with thoughts from bestselling romance authors and avid readers, these pages will reveal what every romance reader already knows: while romances are certainly steamy, they have more to offer than just a sexy hero. In fact, they might have more to say about love than we give them credit for.
My Review:
Don't you love it when a book reinforces what you already believe? Over and over during this book, I found myself saying "That's what I always tell people!" and "See, I knew what I was talking about!" Many of you may know Sarah Wendell from her blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and her new book is a must read for romance novel addicts like me.
This book is all about all of the positive things about romance novels, including contemporaries, paranormals, and my romance of choice-historicals. There are two main points that really stand out in my head that are reasons why I love the genre, too. First, the books focus on women, women are important, and women are worth it. This is a huge reason why I read romances. The other main point I agree with is that romances are overall positive and hopeful. Even when there are tough issues in the book, the main message about hope and the books stay positive.
It's also interesting to me that the romances that I have really just not enjoyed have broken some of the 'rules' that are talked about in the book. One example that the author gave was that we don't want to read about how fat the main character thinks she is. Another deal breaker in romances is when the heroine is repeatedly beaten down in her self esteem-yes even by the 'hero'. She also makes the point that sexual fidelity is a main component of romances. If the hero cheats on the heroine, you can count me out for the rest of the story.
If you know someone who doesn't 'get' why we read romances, maybe they could page through this book and see all of the real and positive aspects about the genre.
Bottom Line: Let's celebrate romance novels! And in doing so, we celebrate women, love and hope.