Everything I Know about Love I Learned from Romance Novels

September 15, 2011

Think romances are about cruel yet dashing men forcing themselves on simpering, virginal women? Or that romance readers are desperate ladies whose most significant relationships are with their cats? Think again.

Wendell's debut, a brief apologia for the romance genre, is winning, entertaining and highly persuasive despite occasional lapses into silliness. The author, co-founder of the popular romance-novel review website "Smart Bitches, Trashy Books," quashes several stereotypes of romance novels and their devoted fans. She argues that the modern romance novel has, for the most part, done away with what she calls "rapetastic assclowns," instead providing women with a model of how to negotiate healthy relationships. Drawing on comments from readers of her website, Wendell makes the case that women learn from romance novels to be assertive and confident, and that more equitable and passionate relationships are the result. Sometimes, these reader comments make up the bulk of the text, giving the book the feel of an extended blog; the author's persistently jokey tone contributes to this as well. However, the snark often works well, like in the sidebar "Six Simple Steps to Looking Like the Quintessential Romance Hero," or in her description of a certain kind of romance hero: "I don't like you, you drive me nuts, I can't stop thinking about your hair, DAMMIT!"

Fans of the romance genre are likely to come away feeling vindicated; newcomers may be inspired to pick up a few new paperbacks with racy covers.

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August 1, 2011

Wendell (coauthor, Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels), cofounder of the romance blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, has convinced this reviewer: romance novels are not mere frivolities designed to convey guilty pleasure to their devoted readers. Rather, they serve an important educational function, i.e., to teach readers about the vagaries and realities of love and romance. According to Wendell, "Romance novels are both the story of the characters finding each other, and the story of finding themselves deserving of the effort that creating a happy ever after requires." She solicits the opinions of romance aficionados regarding the various lessons they have drawn from their favorite romance novels and argues that, among other uses, romance novels can be effective in teaching adolescents about the nature of love and relationships, enabling such readers to fend off disastrous expectations in their inexperience with romantic partners. VERDICT Readers of romance novels will especially enjoy this engaging book; general readers will appreciate its reflective nature; and it may even cause those who have dismissed romance novels as worthless pabulum to think again.--Lynne F. Maxwell, Villanova Univ. Sch. of Law Lib., PA

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