I need schooled.

I will admit it-- when I think "romance" I think of the bodice rippers my MIL used to be addicted to (and where she got my husband's name from, haha)

I think of when I was 13 reading only the hot and heavy parts.

I think of my dh referring to them as "lady porn"

So, when I sat down and wrote this book of mine, I thought "I'm not writing a romance...at least not a genre romance" but as I'm on here, I'm thinking I just might not understand what the romance genre actually is these days.

I've never really read "romance"-- I've mostly read classic fiction (The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina are my favorite books ever) and christian inspirational romance that I get free from my crazy old aunt. (like amish romance type stuff).

So essentially, I combined the two in my head and wrote my current book. Now I've got this beast that has the plot movements of a romance with the grittiness and issue exploration of-- not what I thought romance was.
But it's been suggested that I'm wrong.

So my question for you ladies is, what exactly is romance these days? I keep typing in "romance" in amazon to buy something to read, but I don't find anything that looks right I guess. What are you recomendations for a gritty, deep, suspensful romance?

MamaStrong said:

maybe go into the SYW room and share a little...it could be that you are borderline romance? I know i'm not much help

Click to expand...

I just read my first couple pages and I feel helpless. I think I'll go post it, but I am anticipating a lot of "what the hell makes this a romance?" responses.

arg. I know, I feel in my gut, I've written something good decent...I just can't figure out how to sell it to the right person. It's going to need a right person...