I found a list on Julia Quinn’s message board of the top 50 romance novels of all time and decided to give a few a try.  I figured they’d have an exceptional plot and terrific character development, since they’re considered top 50 of all time by a forum of women who like one of my current favorite writers.

I had a great time with the recommended books, but it wasn’t due to anything I’d expected.  It was the moments I went to our home office with book in hand, laughing.

Not with the book.

At it.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen.  I’m one of those women.

I make ruthless fun of romance novels.

Julia Quinn is different — she’s genuinely funny and her characters are both realistic and quirky.  The only complaints I have aren’t that big, considering she makes me laugh:

• Her books tend to be split into two parts, the part before the wedding where people fall in love and the part after where they have unexpected problems.  Though the problems are genuine and interesting and change from book to book, I’ve found the result to be a little formulaic.
• Her main characters tend to have the same values.  Though this is to be expected in a series about 7 siblings, and even among people in the same social situation and time period, it’s unrealistic for everyone to think the same way about too many things.  I think this is a problem with romance as a genre more than anything.  I suspect that main characters from book to book must get along, that it’s just the way romance functions, and I understand even if I don’t love it.

I’ve read enough romance to know that main characters by a single author will predominantly have the same values.  The plot changes, the names change, the outer shell changes, the jobs and backgrounds change, but the core of the characters always reflects the values romance approves of — protect the weak, figure out that love is awesome, and get along with other people who agree.

It’s a problem in fanfiction, too.  (Don’t laugh.  I like anime, okay?)  Fans like to make their favorite characters BFFs even if they aren’t and never would be.  But fanfiction also leans toward stereotyping.  Not all of it, but the vast majority, so I guess asking for nuance is a little silly.

My reaction to this phenomenon as a writer is to try and diversify my characters.  I don’t want cookie-cutter values, I want a big roiling mess of feelings and opinions and prejudice.  I want main characters in one book to hate the main characters in another book.  I want different backgrounds, different races, different interests.  (Not so confident on multiracial — I enjoy the thought, but I’ve only experienced the one.)  But I’ll still do my best on all counts.  All you can do is try, right?