Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Elements of Romance

Scenes from St. Augustine -- I think this is one of the many B&B's in the city. I snapped a lot of architecture and atmosphere photos during ghostly carriage tour. This is one. Wouldn't you love to be sitting on that upper porch, taking in the sea-scented air?

Carol teased me last night with the beginning of her western romance. I say teased, because after reading those first few pages, I am in love and want more. We talked about why I'm in love and a big part is the hero. He's great and he's been lost in unrequited feelings for the heroine for a long time, it appears.

Let me tell you, I love me some good pining.

Here's my list of the elements I love in the romance novels I read (some of these you may never find in a Linda Winfree novel, though):

1) Pining. (See above)

2) Alphas who are alpha, but not above groveling to win the heroine back.

3) Groveling.

4) A Big Mis plot, if it's really well done and I can suspend disbelief.

5) Relationship in jeopardy plots.

6) A strong heroine. I don't like whiny women in real life, why would I want to read about one?

There's more, of course, but that's a start. What are your favorite romance elements?

1 comment:

Elisabeth Naughton said...

Those are good.

I love all the classic romance elements so long as they're done well and believable:

secret baby,
reunion stories,
amnesia storylines,
forced marriage,
and any twist on the above that the reader doesn't expect.

My biggest pet peeve is reading romance novels where the hero sounds like a woman. I love me some real men (not the female version of men).