As many of you know, I’m a voracious reader. Because of this, my e-reader goes everywhere with me. Because of Dru’s night terrors, we’ve been having one of us sit in with him every night to get him to sleep calmly. So I bring my e-reader there as well.
I generally end up with at least an hour of reading time a day (if not more), so I blow through books quickly. Lately, I’ve been on a romance kick, and have a complaint.
Why is it that in a large percentage of romance novels, the male and female protagonists go from violently hatred to truly, madly in love within a matter of a month or so? Why do we so rarely see relationships that evolve from friendships or that have two people meeting and falling in love in a healthy relationship?
One of the recent ones I read had a guy who is a raging jerk to the girl he ends up with. And it’s never discussed why she doesn’t punch him in the face for his treatment of her. Nope, she just falls madly in love with him in a matter of seconds, and they (apparently) live happily ever after. Oh, and they both make wildly outrageous assumptions about the other person because their ability to communicate like human beings is apparently non-existent.
And yes, I realize I’m reading them anyway, but I do like the happy endings :-p. And in general the ones I read have stronger female characters, and good character development.
I just would like to see more romance novels that glorify truly healthy relationships.
We have an entire generation of people growing up with Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey as romance examples. The relationships in those books and others like them are so blatantly ridiculous and unhealthy that they make me stabby. Let’s put forth some books that show people entering healthy long-term relationships with good communication and equality. I think that’s a truly romantic relationship.
gerundsforliving 