I grew up in a house where books filled the shelves. I can't remember a time when my parents didn't have a book they were reading. I was and am the same way. My reading began with Dr. Seuss and moved on to Encyclopedia Brown, to Stephen King, and to Clive Cussler/John D. MacDonald/Ed McBain. I devoured books. My father loved westerns but they held little interest for me. My mother was a big romance reader and those didn't interest me either except as a young teen when I'd flip through the book looking for key words like "petal" or "manhood" to read the sex scene I'd find there.
Fast forward to 1999 and my wedding. A friend of my wife gave us, as a wedding present, the book "Nerd in Shining Armor" by Vicki Lewis Thompson. My wife is visually impaired and thus reading at night was nearly impossible thus I read the book to her. You have to understand that up until this point my romance reading was nearly nil and what I new of the genre involved damsels in distress who were often raped by a man with whom they then fell in love. I thought all romance was like this but thanks to Vicki's book that notion soon got tossed. I found myself laughing out loud at Vicki's book and cheering on the couple. This was good writing with a funny story and it grabbed my interest and didn't let go.
As we read though it dawned on me that Vicki's book was not unlike the action/adventure books I'd been reading. In both genres the guy (alpha male) met a woman, they had some type of conflict (usually external in that someone was after them), the guy helped the woman, and they ended up falling in love. The major difference is that in the action/adventure books the hero would move on to another woman by the next book. Those books of adventure or mystery were in fact romance books.
My wife and I made it through all of Vicki's books we could find, we read all of Meg Cabot, then Jennifer Estep, and after about 15 years of marriage I still read to my wife many nights though the iPad, Kindle, and Audible have made books accessible to her. What do we read together? Romance. I had no idea that there are so many genres under the umbrella of romance or that there is such good writing. This shouldn't have surprised me but as I had previously had little exposure to the genre it did come as a pleasant surprise. The umbrella of romance covers everything from historical fiction to romantic suspense to humor to new adult and the list goes on and on. As for the good writing, how is this for an opening line? "Digging graves is hell on a manicure." That opening line comes from Jaye Wells spectacular book, "Red-Headed Stepchild." I read that line and immediately wanted to know more and that's just one example of the good writing to be found in the romance genre.
Romance is often seen as a dirty word. It's something of which men should be ashamed to read. I say it's something we read all the time without recognizing it as such. The next time your man is looking for a book go out and buy a book by Vicki. Pick up one of Jennifer's elemental assassin books, or one of Jaye's Sabina Kane books, or buy a suspense novel from Laura Griffin and then tear off the front and back covers and give it to your man. I bet you'll be surprised by his reaction.
