Romance is for everyone with Robyn Thomas (and a give-away)!

Today I have VERY special guest Robyn Thomas, newly published Entangled Indulgence author and also fellow Sassy Sister. Robyn offers a very funny take on how to deal with those people who feel they simply MUST mock romance!

Take it away Robyn…

Please bear with me as I drag my soapbox to centre stage. Why? I was recently faced with the following comments: romance novels are all the same.

Uh, no, they certainly aren’t all the same. It’s a bit like claiming all people are the same! Some have similarities, but often it’s the nuances of a person (or book) that make them special and unique.

Yes, that’s all well and good, but all romances follow the pattern of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back and they live happily ever after.

Once again that’s incorrect. Romance covers a wide variety of genres and not all contain a boy and a girl, let alone follow that simplistic formula.  Even when they do it’s more complex, and often it’s the heroine who loses her man and has to work to get him back.

But all the characters are gorgeous and wealthy and successful. It’s unrealistic.

Okay, seriously, have you read a romance since 1978? Characters can be rich or poor, jaded or naïve, stunning or (at first glance) ordinary. They can – and should – be flawed. It’s one of the things that make them accessible to readers.

Every romance has a secret or accidental baby. Can’t someone teach these characters about safe sex?

A good story is often closer to reality than you might think. Not all birth control methods are failsafe, and in books (as in life) they’re not always employed as diligently as they could be. Sometimes there are other priorities in the heat of the moment!

It’s also worth noting that there are thousands of romances without babies, pregnancies or children.

It’s all hot sex and questionable morals, and I don’t like to read about that kind of thing.

Once again there’s something for all tastes. If you want hot sex then it’s available, up to and including erotica, but you also have a wide range of other choices. Deciding which heat level you find acceptable, and reading only that, shouldn’t prove difficult. If you’re new to romance then you might want to start with something that’s fairly sweet – let the cover and blurb guide you – and then you can progress from there.

Whatever! Now I can have an interesting book with realistic characters, without children if I choose, and at the heat level I want… but there’s no point reading when you know how it’s going to end before you start.

Oh, I see. Now I understand. If you’re against the idea of a happy ending then I’m going to stop arguing with you. Perhaps you do actually belong to the extremely small minority of people for whom romance novels are a bad idea. Wow, so you’re what a non-romance-reader looks like? Everyone else who has ever begun that argument has given up and converted part way through, but you’re particularly stubborn. No romance novels for you! Unless…

*speculates about the possibility of including you in a future book… a circumstance you could’ve avoided but chose not to.  Like I said earlier, romance is for everyone.

That was fabulous Robyn, as I’m sure we’ve all dealt with someone like that at least once before. For those who are hooked on Robyn’s writing from that tiny snippet, why not try her debut romance HIS UNEXPECTED FAMILY.

Sometimes you have to take the leap…again.

Newly widowed with a new baby, Ren Jamieson is putting her life back together after her thrill-seeking husband’s death. But when she’s called to show a high-end property to a prospective client—a commission she desperately needs—she meets a man who makes her pulse pound like nothing she’s ever known…

Cole Matthews is more than he seems. Real estate is only part of the reason he’s in Australia – the other is to see Ren, and make amends somehow for the life lost. The last thing Cole expects is a woman whose humor, sweetness and sexiness give him a rush greater than any he’s ever experienced…

Torn between her growing feelings for Cole and the risks of loving yet another adventurer, Ren will have to choose between keeping her feet on the ground…and taking the most dangerous leap of her life.

His Unexpected Family is available from Barnes & Noble and Amazon

 

For more information on Robyn Thomas, please visit her website http://www.robynthomasromance.com/ or follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/robynsromance and Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6450177.Robyn_Thomas.

 

Entangled have generously offered a copy of Robyn’s book to one lucky reader! To go in the draw, answer this question:

What is the most annoying question a non-romance reader has ever asked you about romance books!?

Please leave a comment by Friday midnight, Australian Western Standard time to be in the draw.