It is with great pleasure, that I introduce today’s guest blogger, Sandra Berman. Sandy and I have known each other forever. We met during our corporate days over a box of Frango Mints, a Chicago delicacy that you can buy at Macy’s. If you love chocolate, you owe yourself a box. Buy them now! Anyway, when I saw Sandy and the chocolate I knew she was my kind of woman, and that we shared a love of Chicago and chocolate. Fast forward 30 years and we still share those loves and many more, including romance novels.
A New Zealand Discovery
I love a good story. Give me a well written book with interesting characters and a nice sense of place and I am a happy camper. I love to read, and I usually read pretty quickly. So in 2013, when I was heading to New Zealand for 6 weeks, I knew I needed something substantial to read. I loaded a long book on my iPad – over 800 pages, set in New Zealand in the 1800s and was ready to go – or so I thought.
The book was ‘literature’, not my usual fare of mysteries or sci-fi. There were 12 major characters and a plot that moved around in time. It was one of those books where it would have been nice to go back to the list of characters at the start of the book. A printed book, that is! But I persevered, and finished the book with about 2 weeks still left in my trip.
Luckily for me, my Amazon recommendations were busy while I was reading, and they came up with “Just This Once” (Escape to New Zealand Book One). The summary sounded great – a woman goes to NZ for vacation, meets a guy, has a good time. Why not? I downloaded the book and started to read.
The story was fun, it was about the place I was visiting and had interesting characters and was well written. Then Hannah and Drew, the main characters, had steamy sex – in New Zealand. Not bad! They had a whirlwind relationship, had a misunderstanding that took them apart, and eventually ended up together. I really didn’t know this was the standard construction of every romance novel – but I did know why my friend Maddy had been reading romance novels all these years!
Discovering a new Genre
I read more in the series, about different hot rugby players that find the girl, lose the girl and find the girl again. Oh, and had hot sex in between. Fast forward a few years, and my dear friend has written her first romance novel, “Bedazzled“. I read it and loved it – it is well written, has nice descriptions of Chicago and characters I like reading about.
I’m still reading lots of mysteries and sci-fi, but John Scalzi can only write so many books in a year. Plus, while the world has become a little more chaotic, I like the lure of the romance novel. It’s nice to read something fun with a happy ending.
I have started exploring the romance section at my local library – at first I was a little tenuous (maybe embarrassed?) and then I gained more confidence. I am learning there are a wide range of romance novels: I picked one up where I think the person turned into a wolf – not for me. But the beauty of the library is I can take it back and try something different.
There seem to be a lot of historical romances where someone ends up in a different time, or there are dukes and earls involved – not sure those are for me either. But I’ve found a series set around a vet clinic, and a baseball team, and they are relaxing and fun.
And isn’t that what matters?
How did you discover romance?
How did you discover romance novels? Won’t you share your story in the comments below?
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY:
- “Escape To New Zealand Boxed Set: Just This Once, Just Good Friends, Just for Now” by Rosalind James