What happened to different?
I’ve been on a reading kick lately and I’ve lucked into some really tremendous books. I’m most of the way through Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone, which is terrific, fantastic world building, really compelling characters and a plot that continues to surprise me all the way through. It’s a fantasy YA, and after this I’m thinking of reading The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, which is an alternate reality YA with vampires. Before that I read Eleanor and Park, a spectacular YA romance set in the 80′s. (Maureen can correct me on this, as I almost missed it in the first reading)
In addition, I picked up an older book, The Raider by Jude Deveraux, plotting issues aside, a really fun adventure romance set in 1700 America.
My point with all of this is, we need a little more variety within romance. As brilliant as some romance authors are with creating sympathetic, compelling characters, the same settings, and time periods are feeling really stale to me. Same with contemporary romance set in a small, quirky town, and paranormals with the angst ridden vampire/Werewolf/hybrid something or other, or the angst ridden early twenty something trying to come to terms with loving the bad boy.
I was really thrilled to get in my hands a romance featuring a lizard man (seriously, just for something different written with skill) and I also understand this isn’t a fault of romance writers, or publishers, or readers. It’s something that’s been created because of the massive success of regency set historicals, and small town contemporarys. Writers want to write books that sell, and publishers need to publish stories that make a profit.
End of story, so I guess it starts with the reader. But I miss the days when one author would write books set in regency England, and then another world, and follow that up with a Viking romance, something Johanna Lindsey managed to do in the 80′s and 90′s.
I’m still looking for a little diffferent and the only place I seem to be finding that is YA and I really want to start reading adult books again. Can anyone help a reader out? Any suggestions?
