A little while ago I had a conversation with one of my good friends about romance novels, our love of the sub-genres like paranormal romances and my surprise enjoyment of interracial romances. My friend pointed out something that I had never really focused on before and it has forever changed the way I look at what I read. She basically pointed out that a large number of romances out there feature a young, miraculously virginal heroine in her 20's with little life experiences, and the experiences with men that she has had are usually bad or at the very least disappointing. Not to say that I don't enjoy these stories, heaven knows I love the Sookie Stackhouse books and the Black Dagger Brotherhood? Forget about it! Say something too awful about J.R. Ward and it may start a fight or I'll at least give you the stink eye.
So, as a woman in her 40's, with children closing in on the ages of some of the characters that I love to read about, and with the majority of my friends in their 40's, where am I to turn to see women like me, or at least similar to me, reflected back in what I read? Well, I'm on the hunt ya'll. I do have books in my arsenal that I love that feature women who have lived through and survived the "angsty" 20's and are in their 30's and beyond yet are still quite capable of finding love and experiencing hot erotic pleasure with a partner while still managing to not break a hip. I am quite happy being 42. I would not exchange my 42 year old brain for that of my 20 year old self for anything and I know that there has to be plenty of you ladies out there who feel the same way.
Therefore, I am starting a new tab on my blog that I will call Romance For Grown Ups where I will feature the types of books that feature "grown up women" and equally grown up men. If you have an author, book, or series that you love or know of that will fit into this category please leave a comment to let me know about it and I will try to put it in this category to share with all of the other grown women out there. Don't worry I'm not crazy, I won't be dumping all of my favorite types of books just because they feature younger women, after all that would be age discrimination right? I'm adding to my blog not taking away! The first addition to this category is going to be Nearly Departed in Deadwood by Ann Charles. I have previously done a review of this book and it is one of my favorite reads this year.
Happy Reading!
Monica
So, as a woman in her 40's, with children closing in on the ages of some of the characters that I love to read about, and with the majority of my friends in their 40's, where am I to turn to see women like me, or at least similar to me, reflected back in what I read? Well, I'm on the hunt ya'll. I do have books in my arsenal that I love that feature women who have lived through and survived the "angsty" 20's and are in their 30's and beyond yet are still quite capable of finding love and experiencing hot erotic pleasure with a partner while still managing to not break a hip. I am quite happy being 42. I would not exchange my 42 year old brain for that of my 20 year old self for anything and I know that there has to be plenty of you ladies out there who feel the same way.
Therefore, I am starting a new tab on my blog that I will call Romance For Grown Ups where I will feature the types of books that feature "grown up women" and equally grown up men. If you have an author, book, or series that you love or know of that will fit into this category please leave a comment to let me know about it and I will try to put it in this category to share with all of the other grown women out there. Don't worry I'm not crazy, I won't be dumping all of my favorite types of books just because they feature younger women, after all that would be age discrimination right? I'm adding to my blog not taking away! The first addition to this category is going to be Nearly Departed in Deadwood by Ann Charles. I have previously done a review of this book and it is one of my favorite reads this year.
Happy Reading!
Monica
There are a lot of romances that follow the same lines, I find it;s get's old after a while. I have moved to favor the paranormal romance sub-genre. I am not into the fantasy ones but the more realistic reads. Ones that could actually happen. I finished Dark Canvas a while back, it was incredible. By Jody Summers, darkcanvas.net. That's what I really wish to see more in novels of the romance genre. It's good to have fantasy, but there are other ways to portray it and other characters to be found.
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