カスタマーレビュー:

very good book (2008-09-22) 

There were a few points discussed in this book that I had never really thought about before and appreciated reading about. For instance, I liked Laura Kinsale's essay "The Androgynous Reader: Point of View in the Romance". She argued that the reader of a romance novel doesn't neccessarily identify only with the heroine, but also with the hero, maybe even...

Major Mark recommended book (2007-05-14) 

I picked up this book as research for understanding the type of language women respond to. As referenced in this book, Romance Novels account for about 50% of total book sales. This means that from a mans perspective, something in this genre is resonating with with the Venus gender and if nothing else we should see what language patterns are of worth.

I definitely noticed the interesting wrapping of words in descriptions. Where a simple minded man would say "I love you", the romance novelists would say "There exists this deep yearning from the core of my being to express to you the intense warmth and tender feelings of never-ending love I have developed in this beautiful journey we have shared together." And that would be the romantic hero saying this.

I also liked the one explanation where a novelist confessed that she would love to have a romantic fling with the type of man she would never want a permanent relationship with. hmmmmmm, what age old non PC phrase would describe the winner of such attention 

From an informative stand point I did enjoy some of the insight gained from this book. It was repetitive enough to drill the point home, and as an excercise in research was worth the time and money spent.

great resource  (2006-06-29) 

This is by and for romance authors. Though there is some repetition, it is nice to get a published author's take on why the romance genre is so popular. Recommended for anyone who wants to know the whys, rather than the hows of the genre.

It's a start... (2004-12-20) 

I enjoyed reading this collection of essays exploring the themes, types, symbols, and (most of all) the appeal of romance novels. In a time when cultural studies is turning its attention on sit-coms and daytime television, should we ignore what romance writing has to teach us about our selves and our culture  I think not. I didn't find definitave answers here--no gospel of women's fiction--but there are a plethora of perspectives. I was challenged to evaluate how and why I read to see if my experience matched up with the authors'. It is a bit of an apologetic...I guess many of the people who read and write romance novels (like myself) are well-adjusted and well-educated people, and we wonder why we're so attracted to books commonly described as "trashy." It probably won't convince any "outsiders" (as the earlier review said) of the value of romance writing, but if you love romance and you don't know why, give this book a try.

repetive, but occaisional good points (2003-05-17) 

There were a few points discussed in this book that I had never really thought about before and appreciated reading about. For instance, I liked Laura Kinsale's essay "The Androgynous Reader: Point of View in the Romance". She argued that the reader of a romance novel doesn't neccessarily identify only with the heroine, but also with the hero, maybe even moreso with the hero. It made me reconsider why I was so unhappy with the books that never explained the hero's point of view very well. The essays in this book cover a lot of things, like virginal heroines and alpha males, and the "happily ever after" ending that's so important for romances. At least a couple of the writers made comparisons between the mystery genre and the romance genre, something that I thought was interesting. I didn't always agree with what the essays were saying, but, for the most part, I enjoyed reading them.

That said, it seemed that there wasn't a great deal of communication between the various authors in this book. If there had been, there would, hopefully, have been less repetition of ideas. There's a great deal of overlap between the essays, and the mystery vs. romance bit is only one example - most essays talk about the alpha male, the ways that romance writers were once asked to change their writing and how those changes would've hurt the genre, the type of feminism in romance, etc. Im just glad that the book was short, and a relatively quick read, or the repetition would've been much more aggravating than it was. Also, I'm not entirely sure that this book would reach the sort of audience that the introduction mentioned: people with biases against the romance genre. I was once a part of that group, and I don't think I would have picked up this book - it took reading a really good romance, recommended to me by a friend, to change my mind about romance.