Blaze

I sat on the couch in my little work-paid apartment last night, with the AFL on in the background (Fremantle grand final, well done boys!) and read a book. It wasn't a long book, or too serious a book, but nonetheless that's what I did and had a really good night. 

The book was entitled Notorious by Vicki Lewis Thompson, and was quite simply just another fluffy romance novel with one added factor: it was a Blaze novel. Now, some of you women may already have clicked at that one, but for those of you not in the know here's the sitch: 

Harlequin Mills and Boon romance novels were initially released during the 1930's as escapist novels for women during the Depression age. Since then they have expanded greatly and become a steady tier of different romances for women of all kinds in need of them, ranging from Intrigue to Sweet (for extra G-rated fluffiness), to the Medical dramas and the Historical. There are so many different genres available now within the romantic scope that for the authors the world is virtually their oyster. 

Blaze, as I mentioned before, is the top most tier in terms of raciness. Basically, it's all but a step away from erotica - which is much more like porn in that the story line is only there to hold together all the sex. Blaze, while still erotic fiction all the same, tends to be a lot more story driven with both plot and character development flowing along smoothly.

Which is what this story was. 

Before we go further I need to reinforce a point that is particularly important to me, and in understanding the entire purpose behind romantic fiction: it is nothing shameful, nothing to make fun of, and the term 'lady porn' is particularly insulting. Since its origin, Mills and Boon has been intended as a way for women to escape from their lives for a little while and pretend that things are different for better or worse. Think of them as fairy tales for adult women, the kind of happy ever afters that the world likes to promote doesn't exist. And the sexier ones are not for everyone, but for those that do enjoy it shouldn't be made to feel awkward. Especially women, like me and plenty others that I know, who lack any kind of romantic life in the real world that all they have a lot of the time is in these kinds of books. 

What's so wrong with that? Would you make fun of and deny women when they only yearn for romance that they don't have and are told doesn't exist? 

People that do are the ones who should be ashamed, in my opinion. You don't have to like it, but it's not ok to ridicule those who do. 

For that matter, before I even started on the story I read the foreword by the author who said something I really stopped to think about and still do. She said that writing romance was her dream job, how lucky she was to have it and that when you are paid for something you love so much it never feels like you work a day. And I thought that that was just so lovely; here is a woman who loves to write and writes what she loves, world be damned. That's terribly gutsy, she skyrocketed in my esteem, and something that I aspire to as well. 

I don't write Mills and Boon, but I sometimes wonder if I should. I do, after all, include romance into every story I write; no tale of mine would be complete without a little love song, even if a happy ending isn't always what I want.

Give Mills and Boon a try; if you don't like it I won't hold it against you, but try to can the ridicule. Both men and women have put a lot of effort into the stories they publish just to make the people that read them escape from the reality of day to day life, give them some credit. Besides, they probably like their jobs better than you like yours.

Notorious by Vicki Lewis Thompson

Keely Brascom posed for a magazine centrefold years ago as her one way ticket out of small town Arizona. It shocked everyone, including Noah Garfield the love of Keely's teenage life who's rejection still kicks her a decade later. 

When the two run into each other during the bachelor weekend in Vegas for Noah's friend, Brandon, Keely decides that seducing him and dishing him some pay back for assuming she's a stripper (and yes, also for the rejection) will make for one hell of a weekend. But when Noah's moral intention finally breaks down, the two end up with way more than they bargained for: each other, for good. 

Notorious is full of fun, laughs, sex and light-hearted romance sure to leave to you with a smile. It made my night.

Sam xox