It was a very long and unsatisfying day. I’m extraordinarily grumpy about everything. My work is at a standstill until people get back to me, and no one seems to be answering email. I spent the afternoon working up a graphic for a website, but I can’t find a concept I like. One of the paper towel dispensers in the bathroom jammed.
On and on.
For a little while this afternoon I listened to a book on tape with the hope the aural stimulation would wake me up. It’s a romance I downloaded from the library’s slim pickings and it’s racier than I’m typically interested in. I didn’t listen long. Even with earbuds in I was afraid too much sound would leak.
I’m new to romances. For years and years I wanted to like the genre because sometimes all I want is a simple story about a couple falling in love and living happily ever after. The formula of romances always killed it for me. The jerky guy, the quirky girl, the hate-hate but into bed immediately thing never worked for me. If I meet a guy who is a jerk toward me or others, I won’t be kissing him any time anywhere for any reason.
A year or so ago I chanced upon an author named Julie James who writes a series about lawyers and FBI agents in Chicago. Her books read like romantic comedies, which I find fun. Her characters are successful, confident, smart, funny, sexy in the right ways and completely likeable. Since reading everything she’s written, I’ve been on a quest to find similar authors. I haven’t found any I like nearly as well, although Lauren Layne’s Oxford series is pretty good.
In a genre with subgenres to satisfy any predilection, there doesn’t seem to be one centered around competent career-oriented characters. It’s all jerky bosses and plucky underlings. There’s so much room for equally matched characters, something James’ does extremely well.
Through my search for other books I might like, I’ve become desensitized to some of the things I used to not be able to stand. And that’s how I came to download an audio book where there’s a 30 year age difference in the main characters. Let’s not even get into the particulars of that.
Speaking of falling into bed. I need to do that right now.
I'm with you on the lack of a "competent women" subgenre in romance. I suspect it's out there but I just haven't found it yet. Meanwhile I keep getting constant advertisements for "he's-a-jerk-and-he-took-her-v-card-and-now-he's-in-love" books which... I'm torn between trying to live and let live because obviously some people like that sort of thing or there wouldn't be so many of them vs raging because that reinforces so many harmful stereotypes that it really shouldn't be a thing and, gah, it makes me want to scream.
ReplyDeleteI may have to start writing romances just to get something else out there.
Yes, please do write! I’ll buy them as fast as you can finish them.
ReplyDelete