Monday, May 17, 2010

Inspirational Romance

I found the most delightful thing this morning at my Grandma's place: Christian romance novels! Or, I should probably say Inspirational Romance, which is one of the worst marketing brands I've ever seen. And not only does she have Inspirational Romance, she has Amish romances.
I've heard of Amish romances, and I've been curious as to what exactly they're like to read. (Do they accurately depict the community? Is the writing decent?) And, well, now someone's gone and given me an opportunity to find out.
The first book is called Karen Kingsbury's Forever. It's apparently about a woman who is about to get married when she experiences "tragic news." That's vague and unhelpful. Is it the sort of tragedy that would intrigue me?
The second book was a 2-in-1 of The Postcard and The Crossroad. The Postcard is apparently about a young woman who, after her husband and son die, moves back home to help her family run a bread and breakfast. While there, she meets a man who has found a postcard and sets off a mysterious series of events. Again, the description was vague, which really irks me. But it seems much more interesting than the other novel, and you know, there's the promise of actually plot in this thing. (That's right: I read romance novels for plot. Go ahead and scoff.) The Crossroad is about the same couple. Only apparently now the heroine is hysterically blind. Hysterically blind? It's a good thing that people with disabilities have a literature of their own, but this feels like the author is just contriving drama.
I read a lot, and I like romance novels. Because finding a good romance novel is so hard, I do a lot of searching online, and I read a lot of descriptions hoping to find something promising. Neither of these sound like they could capture my attention the way other novels have, but the last book sounds better than the first, just because it's more specific.
Because I am a serious English major, people like to make fun of me for this interest of mine. I'll admit that finding a well-written, non-misogynist romance novel is like trying to find one needle in all the haystacks of Kansas, but when you find something good, you keep going back to it. That's why I love Austen so much. She actually knows what she's doing.
Actually, one of the best romance novels I've ever read was Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife, which was a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. I guess what surprised me most about it was that it managed to say a lot about Regency society, and there was still plenty of time for love.
Yeah, yeah, I know: I'm a romantic. So sue me. Or, better yet, if you're a cute guy, call me.
My Grandma has never been a romantic or a reader, so how she got these books I'm not sure. But maybe they were meant to find me just as much as they were meant to find her.

No comments:

Post a Comment