Happy Sunday! I hope everyone had a nice week. The week was a bit busy for me, and involved a fair bit of running around which I’m paying for now, but it was worth it. I got all of the errands taken care of and have spent the weekend relaxing and recuperating. Managing my health and all of my appointments is like a full time job! I don’t typically make a thing out of Valentine’s Day, but since my father passed away, I always make sure to get something sweet and thoughtful for my mom, and make or get one of her favorite dinners. We kept it really low-key this year, and it was nice. I also made sure to check in with my girlfriends and let them know how valued their presence in my life is.
Since this week has occurred in the shadow of a holiday that focuses on romance, I figured that romance would be a great discussion topic. There are a lot of different aspects we can discuss, but I really want to give us a point to start the discussion around, and hopefully learn a bit more about how you all feel.
The first thing that comes to mind, is whether we read romance or not. Some people read mainly romance, and there are so many subgenres that it’s a nearly endless list to choose from. Others don’t like reading romance in books, and feel that it takes away from the overall plot. Some people gravitate towards a romance mixed in with the rest of the story, such as romantasy.
If you do read romance, there are different levels of spice. There are clean romances, which don’t involve intimacy beyond kissing. Then you have books with fade-to-black or closed door scenes, so you don’t actually get descriptions of what the characters are doing, the scene changes before anything serious happens between the characters. Then there’s spicy books, which involve more graphic descriptions, and eventually, you reach the genre of erotica, which is basically the ghost pepper of spicy books.
What do you think about reading romance? Feel free to share your thoughts below and spark some discussion!
Categories: Sunday Bookish Discussion
Leah's Books 
Nice post 🎸🎸
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Thanks!
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I read romance and many of its sub genres though not all of them. I will argue that there are various levels of closed door romance/ clean romance. This is a very important distinction for those of us who read it. Here is an intimacy guide many of us go by. I personally read at a level 1. Personally I love romance because it allows me to disconnect from the rest of the world. But I suppose different genres do the same thing for others.
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Wow, that intimacy guide is wonderful! I had no idea about the different levels. I love reading fantasy because it feels like I’ve been transported to a whole other world with a good book, so I guess we both turn to the genres that let us get to that space!
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I don’t mind romance or spice in books, but I get so much more invested in platonic relationships. It does annoy me that every book aimed at women seems to have a romance as the emotional core of the story. We have such big, epic friendships and they are so painfully underexplored in fiction.
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You’re so right! I so rarely see books that have healthy and normal relationships between friends at the core. Reading a book with a great depiction of the relationship between friends is my favorite, especially when I know how the longest, deepest, and most important relationships that are in my life by choice are my friends. I’d love to see more of that in fiction.
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I do read romance, and am happy with whatever level of spice (or no spice!). I have been in a bit of a slump with particularly contemporary romance over the past few months though, as I’m struggling to find things that don’t feel like every other romance, or which actually have decent relationship development!
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I don’t primarily read romance, but if it’s worked into a storyline well, I really do like reading romantic subplots. But I like reading romances as well, especially rom-coms. I guess I just want to have my cake and eat it too! I hope you find some good new books soon – I completely agree about the need for there to be some good development in the romance.
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Honestly, can depends on a lot. Yes, I love romance- only it is hard to spot for me
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That has to be tough!
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My favourite kind of romances are ones built around characters. A perfect example for me would be Pride and Prejudice, though I don’t really read a lot of romance to be honest. I would love to see more integrity, honour, and fun thrown in romance books, and for them not to centre around a kiss. That’s not reallllly a romance book, even. Just a book about a goal: to kiss. More like a quest trope haha 😉 Give me relationships and arcs and friendship in there too. 😀
Thanks for sharing! 😀 Have a great day, and God bless.
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I fully agree that the best romances are built around the characters, allowing it to feel natural as they adjust to getting to know each other and becoming a part of another person’s life. Thanks for stopping by, and sending blessings right back to you!
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Your Valentine’s Day plans sound nice.
I am not a very romantic person, but I am willing to read romance novels occasionally if their other storylines appeal to me. The romance and mystery genres often pair well together for me, for example.
What matters to me most is that blurbs and descriptions of books are honest. I have DNF’d books that sprung romantic plots on me when there was no hint that was in the works when I read the blurb, looked at the cover, etc. and will continue to do so if or when it happens again.
But I hold those same expectations for every genre, not just romance.
If an author wants to include content like religious themes, blood & gore, political commentary (regardless of whether my political beliefs match their), graphic love scenes, or any other topic that isn’t a commonplace feature of genre Y but is something that is known to elicit a wide variety of reactions from readers who often either love that stuff or purposefully go out of their way to avoid it, they need to make this existence of this content crystal clear in advance or I will not read anything from that author again.
I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
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I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request at all. I’ve come across some books that deal with an unexpected topic that is heavy, and I always have so much more respect for the author if they provide a content warning.
Our Valentine’s Day was wonderful. I’m not overly romantic myself, but always go out of my way to do nice things for my mom, especially since my father passed away.
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