#romance literature

[velvet4510]

“Let’s be weirdos together” is true couple goals and the objective fact is that Romeo and Juliet are the ones who invented it, like in modern times we hear “it wasn’t a love story” this, “they would never have actually lasted” that, “it was just lust” here, “they only loved an idea” there, BUT if you actually read the text, Romeo starts spewing nonsense about pilgrims and saints at the moment they first meet (rather than, you know, introducing himself) and Juliet not only takes his little speech and immediately runs with it, buying into it and continuing it with total ease, but also completes it to form a perfect sonnet, and if that isn’t soulmates who match each other’s freak stuff, idk what is.

[marzipanandminutiae]

This doesn't really touch you but idk who else to complain about this to, so

There's an epidemic of binders in transmasc recency romance

What I mean by that is that in some otherwise completely historically accurate stories, there has to be a character that can sew (not the transmasc character of course, but that's another story) that can invent a binder for the transmasc character to wear

I hate it so much

So, I feel I need to ask a clarifying question here – is it the presence of chest binding at all that bothers you? Or are these binders weirdly modern, or something?

I mean, I'm not going to cis-splain to someone whose gender I don't know, the idea that binding has been around for a very long time. And to be honest, I should think it would be very easy to invent a regency binder and pretty historically plausible – just take a pair of stays and remove the bust gores so it's flattening rather than pushing up. Boom. Binder.

However, if you have a seamstress in every book inventing a perfect modern binder that is somehow stretchy? Yes, that would be very annoying to me as well. I confess I haven't read a lot of transmasc Regency romance, because it tends to be M/M and I'm just not particularly interested in that as a main romance in books I read for fun. 

Is anyone else familiar with this, or can shed some light on the phenomenon? 

[violetsonnets]

yet another copy of wuthering heights i was able to get my little hands on. the lovely note sold me on it immediately!

[fiatluxillustration-portfolio]

20 years of Pride and Prejudice

Created with Procreate

𝙵𝚒𝚊𝚝 𝙻𝚞𝚡 𝙸𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

| Visit InPrnt | Visit Etsy | Visit Digital Etsy | Visit Patreon | Visit the Portfolio |

[riseupriseupandcomealong]

sir orfeo is a breton lay retelling the story of orpheus and eurydice with some notable changes: orfeo’s wife is stolen by the fairies and he successfully wins her back. the story also exists in ballad fragments from the shetland islands

[awkwardpea]

But I am very homesick for arms that have never held me.

[heartgoth90]

My taste in romance novels

[alpaca-clouds]

The Thing About Solarpunk Romance

Something that is quite interesting to me is a certain dualogy within the few novels that have been released for the genre is that there are basically two different kinds of novels there - and then there is Fox Hunt, but let me first talk about the novels there are.

Now, mind you. This list involves only novels that according to my information were written to be Solarpunk Fiction, rather than novels written at times before the invention of Solarpunk, that the label was later applied to. And these novels are:

The Biodome Chronicles by Jesikah Sundin (a Solarpunk vs Cyberpunk story)

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Solarpunk YA)

Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore (a Solarpunk action novel)

Seeds of the Swarm by Sim Kern (a story focusing on establishing Utopia)

Another Life by Sarena Ulibarri (kinda an anthology in a meta narrative and with a heavy philosophical focus)

When We Hold Each Other Up by Phoebe Wagner (a story about a Solarpunk society emerging after ecocide)

Now, it might be that I am overlooking some books here, especially as most Solarpunk publishing is happening within the context of Indie publishing and self publishing. So, if I do not hear about it through social media, I will probably not hear about it at all. And sure, I can go through Amazon and look at books tagged as "Solarpunk", but I am just guessing.

Outside of that, there is only the many, many anthologies that have been released, but I will not generally talk about them right now.

Now, I generally have the feeling that a lot of Solarpunk writers are like me: Oh, I have a story idea for a Solarpunk novel, but... I am not quite motivated to write it. Pretty much all writers I have been in contact with who were at some point writing a Solarpunk novel have put that project on pause to write something else. (Which is probably an issue for another day.)

But no, what I wanted to talk about is: Of those six books above I have read three so far. The first three. The first two I would actually categorize as romances. While both Biodome and Summer Prince involve of course the dystopia/utopia connundrum happening, they both have very much the same feel I would argue a lot of the dystopian YA novels that were released around the same time as those two novels (earlier half of the 2010s) had to me. Sure, there is a story, but in the end the books have a strong core in the main relationships.

Foxhunt also had a romance, but it really felt more tertiary to the plot and was not a focus of the story for the most part.

As I said, I have not read the other three novels yet. But yeah, this is what I can say about it. And I do wonder...

I am honestly not quite sure whether those first two novels were written as Solarpunk. I know that at the very least The Summer Prince was marketed under the tag, but that is pretty much where my knowledge ends.

It makes sense though, that those books came out at the time they did. They were just riding the dystopia high related by the Hunger Games, nothing else. And because of that there are the romance subparts there.

But here is the thing: In some way romance is a strange viability marker. No matter what kind of base idea exists, there is a romance subgenre that deals with it. Because no matter how much pretty much everyone derides the romance genre, it is actually the best selling genre of literature there is. If you look at the fiction genres, there is romance (including smut), then there is mystery/crime, then there is nothing, and then there is everything else in terms of both sales and the number of stories there is. Romance sells more books than fantasy or scifi can dream off. But at the same time Romance has crossover with pretty much every other genre, because Romance can happen in any genre.

Let's face it, the different between most superhero movies and a romance is the central focus of the story. You absolutely could restructure the Iron Man movies in a way to make them romance movies that happen to also feature one of the main couple to be a superhero.

And yes, there is a ton of superhero romance out there in the book market. Because no matter what concept there is: There is romance of it.

Now, I will openly admit: Cyberpunk is also a genre where at least the English and German market does not have a whole lot of romance. Sure, there is some, but not a whole lot. (Japanese Cyberpunk ironically has spawned a whole lot more romance - but again, a topic for a later date.)

But it is interesting to me. Romance is fairly accessible in terms of the SP market, and I note that it is interesting how there is little in terms of Solarpunk romance out there. Now there is the question: Is this because the main audience for Romance does not know much about Solarpunk - or because they don't gel with it.

I don't have the answer for this. But I cannot keep but wondering.

What do you think?

[field-cryptobotanist]

All romance can be improved if they also want to maim, fight, verbally attack and/or murder each other and that's a hill I will die on, ideally with the love of my life

[tomboy-brainwasher]

[rhudraws]

Over 100 short stories + art work and all proceeds go to struggling families 🍉

Get here

[ariadnethedragon]

LORD OF SCOUNDRELS by Loretta Chase

“I will teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.”

She tangled her fingers in his hair and brought his mouth to hers. “My wicked darling,” she whispered. “I should like to see you try.”

[fiatluxillustration-portfolio]

Digital Sketchbook - Pride and Prejudice 2005

Created with Procreate

𝙵𝚒𝚊𝚝 𝙻𝚞𝚡 𝙸𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

| Visit InPrnt | Visit Etsy | Visit Digital Etsy | Visit Patreon | Visit the Portfolio |

[waterfallhpb]

do yall need help figuring out how to hide the love interest because i swear in every book ive read released within the last 24 years the love interest has been blatantly obvious almost immediately and if i do not know it’s them the second i meet them then i figure out by the next 50 pages they’re in

unless you want the love interest to be obvious from the start that’s fine too

[fraufangs]

"Happy Place" by Emily Henry — Book Review #4

My stars: 2.5/5⭐️ "Happy Place" was my first Emily Henry book. And maybe that's why I was so disappointed. For such a popular and praised author, I expected the novel to be a bit better, or at least to engage me more. A couple, previously engaged, made to be with their friends for a week and pretend that they're still together... It does sound like something that will be fun, doesn't it?

To be fair, I need to state that I did not enjoy Henry's style from the very beginning, and it may have greatly impacted how I see the novel itself.

First of all, the book is really, really shallow. And maybe I wouldn't have any problem with that, if the majority of themes of "Happy Place" weren't serious. For a book that's supposed to depict various mental health problems, characters dealing with their emotions and questioning their life choices, it did not say or show much on the topic. Most of those things were either summed up in one of the characters' monologues and never truly tackled again, or they were repeated to a great extent without any confirmation in the story. And it got boring really quickly, reading about Harriet being sad-horny-sad again, about her childhood traumas and how she's unhappy in her life. And frankly, for a person that is so aware of those things, she came to the conclusion that she needs to change her ways pretty late. Moreover, I personally think that both Harriet and Wyn (and all of their friends) are emotionally immature. I felt like I was reading a novel about people in their very early 20s, not late 20s/early 30s. The only deeper communication between them happened at the very end, after the whole week-long scheme blew up.

Furthermore, "Happy Place" just seemed too long. There are whole paragraphs where nothing substantial is happening, or at least nothing that could justifiably stay. The plot was very uncomplicated from the beginning, and even with the planned activities for the described week, or all those retrospections of Harriet, a reader cannot escape the simplicity. The book just gets boring. And it is not really fun, entertaining, or didn't really speak to me on a personal level. I couldn't sympathize with Harriet, Wyn, or anyone else. Combined with my previous point, "Happy Place" just didn't have much to offer to me.

There are my two main problems with this novel. Another one, more subjective, was that I did not like the characters or could not engage in their lives at all due to how stereotypically plain they were constructed. All of the characters, including the main duo, seemed underdeveloped to me.

I did like the idea for the novel and how the main romance was designed. This aspect I consider to be timed very well, and natural, which definitely adds a lot to the story. The atmosphere was quite cozy, and with that little foolish details present in all romance books, one could really enjoy it! Maybe someone in a similar situation in their life — post-breakup, having a crisis, discovering themself, feeling distanced from their friends, entering their 30s and trying to navigate adult life — will enjoy it more, simply because they will find pieces of themselves in the characters that I couldn't.

To summarize, "Happy Place" was just ok. It wasn't horrible, it wasn't fantastic, or even good. But it was ok.