In Defense of Insta-Love

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In Defense of Insta-Love

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I do two things when I look to pick up a book:

Read the back jacket.
Read the Goodreads reviews.

Let me tell ya – I’ve learned one thing about Goodreads and that’s that many readers apparently hate any novels with “insta-love” but I’m calling out their whining as bullshit and here’s why: they’ve done it themselves. Repeatedly.

In novels, there is plenty of this “insta-love” thing going on, BUT it has (usually) been misnamed. It isn’t insta-love . . . it’s insta-LUST and lemme tell ya – we’ve ALL been there. And lust . . . is dangerous. Forbidden. Yet we don’t care and we love to lust.

We’ve drooled over the movie star, licked the Abercrombie bag, and mentally stripped the hottie in the corner serving Starbucks (yes, we females are just as guilty of doing it as the males, we’re just sneakier about it). Fellow writer Trisha Leaver would probably shove me from her car and floor it for home if she realized the new season of Outlander had suddenly appeared because, well . . . hot Scot in a kilt! (FYI – it’s not on yet).

Adam Driver is “Kylo Ren” in Star Wars, The Force Awakens

As horrifying as it is, my teen daughter was totally in love with Kylo Ren the second he took his helmet off in the movie theater. I know, I know . . . I need to disavow her genetics. RESIST THE DARKSIDE, GIRL!

My point is that I’ve never known love-at-first-sight, but I totally have known LUST at first sight that has evolved into love. More importantly, if you go back and really read all those book that have been labeled insta-love, you’ll realize that they are actually insta-lust, which happens every second of every day.

That said, my husband asked me to marry him only two months after our first date. We’ve been married 15 years. My grandfather asked my grandmother to marry him ON THE SECOND DATE. My folks? A year.

I guess my point is that you can’t bash insta-love because it is a truth of life (just sorta misnamed by readers). I tried to cover every variation of love in my books because I’ve known all the variations through my friends, family, and my own life.

For many, MANY people, lust usually comes first (Eila for Raef). If you’re lucky, it evolves into love (Raef for Eila). And sometimes hate comes first, then a slow “like,” then love (Ana and Kian). And sometimes lust comes first and then just burns both people out and then end up loathing one another, plotting one another’s murders (Collette and Kian).

And other times, a cautious friendship starts first, then love, then lust (Christian and Elizabeth).

But you can’t bash insta-love / lust because you think it’s cliché.

It’s not and we all know you’ve done the insta-love / lust thing with the movies, TV, books, the Chris Helmsworth lookalike working on the roof next door, etc. Even freakin’ love triangles are real (what a nightmare, FYI – in real life, it’s a major pain in the ass).

So, if I believe in Insta-love / lust and love triangles, then what do I loathe in books?

Dumb heroines and crappy characters. Bad writing and thin storylines.

So, yeah – I’m calling out you insta-love haters because we all know you’ve done it, multiple times, and lust is good for ya. If you’re gonna whine and protest about something, protest bad writing. Protest shallow characters, boring stories, and weak females, but not the lust.

Because, quite frankly, lust makes the world go round.

NOW WHEN THE HECK IS OUTLANDER COMING BACK ON?

Sam Heughan – Outlander

FYI – If you want to hear a love story that spans multiple kinds of love and lust, I’d like to point out that the CRUEL SUMMER audiobook (which involves Ana, Kian, MJ, and Ana’s brutally abusive father) is available for free under the Audible free trial period. Here’s the link: http://www.amazon.com/Cruel-Summer-Undertow-1-5/dp/B019CXKFTQ