Category Blues

I began reading romances since the age of eleven, when I first discovered Harlequin Presents. I read them because they were mostly set in England (apart from Janet Dailey’s books), and featured alpha male heroes. Of course, at the time, I had no idea what an alpha male was. I just knew that part of me enjoyed the fact that the men were so dominating, while the budding feminist in me, wondered why the heroines didn’t just tell the hero where to stick it. Some of my favorite authors were Anne Mather and Carole Mortimer.

Then I discovered Dell Candlelight Ecstasy and Silhouette romances (when they were being published by Simon & Schuster). This was back in the eighties, what I like to call the ‘Golden Age’ of category romances, because you had so many choices. Bantam was publishing Loveswept, and Berkley had Second Chance at Love. Nora Roberts, Barbara Delinsky, Jayne Ann Krentz and Sandra Brown were all published in category.

I used to buy 25 to 30 books a month in the category lines, but then slowly but surely, lines ended. First Dell Candlelight Ecstasy, then Second Chance, and finally Loveswept. Others like Precious Gems and the Kensington category line were barely blips on the radar, although they did give authors like Tracey Kelleher and Barbara Daly their starts.

But I’ve realized recently that I don’t read many category romances anymore, unless I know the author like our own Anna DePalo, Kathleen O’Reilly and Barbara Gale. Every month, I go into the book store, and I head to the romance section to look through that month's offerings from Harlequin/Silhouette. I've read through the reviews in RT, and checked out the eHarlequin web-site and every month, I don't buy anything unless it's an author I know, or I find an intriguing plot. But that doesn't happen often.

Maybe it's the titles on the covers of Silhouette Desire and Harlequin Presents, the Baron's Billionaire Baby or the Pregnancy of Revenge (how do you have a pregnancy of revenge?). Maybe it's all the Sheik books, or brooding continental Europeans, but they just don't appeal to me anymore. Not even the books from Harlequin Blaze float my boat. I also have a problem with heroines getting pregnant from unprotected sex, or being blackmailed into marriage.

I've never read a NEXT novel, and I only read the Bombshells by certain authors. The only Nocturnes I've read have been by authors I know.

Recently, however, I read a category romance that I picked up in England called BEING A BAD GIRL, that I really loved by an American author, Julie Cohen, who lives in the UK. It took the two stereotypes, the good girl who wants to be a bad girl, and the hero who turns out to be pyschologist and made them fresh. Marianne just wants to stop living up to other people's expectations, not realizing that she had the power within her to make changes, and Oz gets in touch with the reckless side that he's supressed since he's helped raise his younger siblings. For once, I felt that here were two characters who actually talked to each other, and the misunderstandings came from not listening, not from anything contrived.

This is the second Julie Cohen book that I've read, and I plan on purchasing the others from Amazon.co.uk or the Eharlequin UK site.

Thanks for reading!

EKM