On Romance...

Just my humble opinion.......

I write about romance. Defined as "a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with LOVE".

I read a lot of books, including ones that are in the contemporary romance listings. (My favorite romance novel is a historical one oddly) My issue with the contemporary books that I've read recently, is that they concentrate more on the sexual aspects of a relationship rather than the excitement of love.

Obviously, I have sexual scenes in my books. Sometimes it's a little dirty BUT it happens when there is a natural progression to that moment. Personally, I feel like that progression adds to the emotional investment in a story. To me, it's a lot more gratifying to see two characters develop and then get together. That's romance to me. Maybe that makes me "old-school".

So, I picked up two ebooks over the last week (yes I read that quickly - I can typically read one a day) and I felt let down.

Both books were just released in the last two weeks and had a fairly good synopsis. They also (after only two weeks of release) had hundreds of reviews. Now that's a loyal fan base!

I sat down to read one - it had a chapter full of sex in Chapter 2. No buildup, no progression and no character development. It was LUSTY and HOT but empty.

2nd book - looking ok for three chapters then sex, sex, sex.

I read through to the end of both of them hoping that there would be some "meat" (no pun intended) in the story and there wasn't. None. I liked the descriptions...oh yes, they know how to describe sex to the finest degree, but emotionally I really didn't get anything out of it.

I know my writing isn't perfect. I've had someone point out a few things recently but what I'm doing is attempting to tell a story. A human one, with the messiness of life in the mix. Some of my books may fall short in that attempt but I'm going to keep writing and changing it up.

I hope you enjoy the stories as much as most of my fans do. However, be aware that my intent is to write about romance. Some of my books may not appeal to everyone, I get it, no problem, but I do hope you at least give them more than a cursory glance and see if they might appeal to you.