Romantic writings

Use your imagination to come up with a title for this photo.

My name is Toni, and I read romance novels. For years I used to shun this genre of books. Sure I’ve read books that included some romance in the plot, but it definitely wasn’t the central focus of the storyline. My reading lists contained mysteries, random works of fiction or paranormal books. I left the romance novels to my friend, Cee.

One day that all changed. I went to the library and picked up a Brenda Jackson romance novel just because. It was good. Nothing life-changing or thought provoking, mind you, but I did enjoy reading it. Soon I started picking up more of her books. Later I began experimenting with other romance novelists. Now I have as many romance novels on my to-read list as any other. And I am ashamed. I always sneak over to the romance section in the library.

Reading romance novels embarrasses me (because I’m like a middle schooler). Have you seen the book covers? There’s just something about picking up a book with Fabio on the cover that says “His Temptress Rising” that makes me want to burst into giggles. Plus most romance novels just aren’t that deep. I can usually knock one out without too much effort in a couple of hours. They aren’t gripping pieces of literature. Yet I keep reading them.

I have accepted my fixation on romance novels. My only complaint is it’s ruining my life! I keep expecting every situation I encounter to turn into my very own romance story. I knew it was really a problem after I went to my class reunion and had no less than three romance story scenarios of how things would end up with my high school crush. For the record NONE of them took place.

It’s like I’m narrating my life to fall into these parameters: boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl have some obstacle, boy and girl end up together forever. Sadly it’s not happening, and that’s just downright depressing. All these blasted romance novels end up in a happy ending. Real life doesn’t necessarily work that way. My fear is this constant reading of romance novels will make me develop an unhealthy idea of love, relationships and all that jazz. It’s bad enough “Pride and Prejudice” is one of my favorite books. I am going to be highly disappointed if I never have my own romance story.

I guess I need to keep in mind that romance novels are works of fiction. Some handsome sheik will not be whisking me away to his palace pledging his eternal love. I might very well meet some boy, fall in love, have obstacles and NOT end up with him (been there already). If I can keep it all in perspective, maybe I won’t fall into the lure of the romance novels. Maybe I won’t have my own romance story one day. But a girl can

dream, and at the very least, I’ll write my own romance novel.