Romance readers, loyalty, and glomming

I am an extremely loyal romance reader. I have everything ever written (that I could get my hands on) by Jo Beverley and Joanna Bourne.

They write historicals that have some of the same characters appearing in later works as minor characters, so the continuity is something I like.

I have memory issues, so I can read the same book and pick it up a few days later and not remember what happens, so I don't have the problem you have with not wanting things to sound the same. I find it comforting when I remember a character from the start of a book to its end.

I've heard people complain about the sameness of the romance 'formula' -- I think it's nothing more than authors responding to the readers' expectations and giving us what we want to see in a romance. I can imagine that what works once for an author might be repeated in later work, whether it be a type of character or a setting or an amusing way of expressing herself. I think a lot of us love to read series because we want to enter again into the world that brought us so much reading pleasure the first time. If an author isn't exactly writing a series, she may still mirror some of her successful story components in her later work because of the well-known loyalty of romance readers.

It depends.

I change, the world changes, and the author changes (or fails to change).

There are authors whose books I once admired, but I and/or the world has moved on, but the author hasn't, so they just don't work for me any longer. There are authors whose books I still admire, and they've grown with the world, but I've gone in a different direction, so they just don't work for me any longer. There's one that I've taken time off from, and come back to.

It's complicated.

I'm a loyal reader, at least until a series gets way out of control.

I will buy anything by Kresley Cole, Gena Showalter (for LotU only), Nalini Singh, Sarah MacLean or Julia Quinn. Are some books a bit "off"? Yes. But I still love them enough to truck on through. And most of them have cameos by old characters, connecting the past stories to the present ones.

The only author I've ever tired of (after being loyal for a long time) was Sherrilyn Kenyon, with her Dark-Hunters series. The writing worsened, the books became too plot driven, and the characters became two-dimensional. I stopped at book #16.

I think the biggest challenge is making sure you have a large enough background subplot to sustain a series, in addition to a wide cast of characters. I could never write unrelated single titles, time and time again. I'd get bored. And that is why I don't write contemporary.

I have a habit of actually not noticing who the books are by... This is bad of me, but I can actually count all the romance authors I can name on one hand. But then again, I'm bad at names anyway.

I've also started moving away from romance, but I suppose that's a different topic.

JanDarby said:

It depends.

I change, the world changes, and the author changes (or fails to change).

There are authors whose books I once admired, but I and/or the world has moved on, but the author hasn't, so they just don't work for me any longer. There are authors whose books I still admire, and they've grown with the world, but I've gone in a different direction, so they just don't work for me any longer. There's one that I've taken time off from, and come back to.

It's complicated.

Click to expand...

Ditto.

JanDarby said:

It depends.

I change, the world changes, and the author changes (or fails to change).

There are authors whose books I once admired, but I and/or the world has moved on, but the author hasn't, so they just don't work for me any longer. There are authors whose books I still admire, and they've grown with the world, but I've gone in a different direction, so they just don't work for me any longer. There's one that I've taken time off from, and come back to.

It's complicated.

Click to expand...

Another ditto.

I might also mention that the authors I continue to admire do not seem to write more than a book a year, if that. That means I don't get a surfeit of them.

I'm on the bandwagon of "If it has been dragged through the mud..."
My favorite author, who made her name as a romance writer but now does suspense, is Iris Johansen. I loved her Eve Duncan series. But, man, has that ship ever sailed. She's on like book 15. It's like, okay we've got it.

She's the only author I've felt this way about. Otherwise, I am a loyal follower.

JanDarby said:

It depends.

I change, the world changes, and the author changes (or fails to change).

There are authors whose books I once admired, but I and/or the world has moved on, but the author hasn't, so they just don't work for me any longer. There are authors whose books I still admire, and they've grown with the world, but I've gone in a different direction, so they just don't work for me any longer. There's one that I've taken time off from, and come back to.

It's complicated.

Click to expand...

Another ditto here.

The romance writers that I felt enthusiastic about or really liked a few years ago I don't feel the same way about them now. I don't know if that's because I grew older or changed or what have you. This has happened for genres besides Romance I think as well. I really can't explain it honestly.

I am an loyal romance reader. I buy every Linda Howard, Karen Robards, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, J.R. Ward, and Rachel Gibson to name a few. I have been in the situation where the books in a series start to become the same, but it doesn't happen very often to me. I also have a couple authors I absolutely love the first series they started writing, but I just do not care for their second series, even though they are written by the same people.

I used to buy romance based mainly on the blurb- if the concept interested me or didn't that's mainly what I'd choose. But I got burned by too many boring books or books where I just couldn't get into an author's voice in romance. So now if I find an author whose voice, style and subject matter grabs me I'll buy more from them. Allison Brennan is probably the only romance author I'm loyal too although I have read a fair number of Nora Robert's books in erotic romance I've bought a lot of Claire Thompson,, Mari Carr and others.

The reason I love the romance genre is that the readers are so loyal. I would say that I am a loyal reader to a point. For instance, I adore Deanna Raybourn. If you read her blog or Twitter, you will find that she's got an awesome sense of humor. The first four books of her Lady Julia series were a little bit of awesome. But the last one I just couldn't get into. But that's OK. I'm still a huge fan and will look into anything she publishes because I know ultimately she writes quality stuff and I like her voice. But in general, I think it's OK not to read or like absolutely everything in an author's backlist. And author can't always be "on".

When I started reading romance again, I was really put off by these huge series being put out. They pull out every Tom, Dick, and Harry from past novels and try to base a whole novel on them. Some characters are meant to be in the background, you know? I think the industry should allow an author to prove themselves as a writer. Great writing should bring back readers, not "series" potential. But...waddaya do?

Honestly, my interest level starts to wane after book three in a series. I write the same way I read apparently because I like to focus on standalones. I can't see myself doing more than trilogy involving the same characters. And even then, it would have to be progressive. I've thought about writing a sequel to my novel Rebel Heart and while it would include the original characters, the story would focus on their children.