Harlequin Presents Readers discussion
Food for Thought
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Unrealisic/weird/funny plots that are common in HPland but don't fly in real life
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Heroine has amnesia. Hero hits his head on his way to see her. Now they both have amnesia.
Ha! Love this idea!- handsome, young billionaire heroes with hearts of gold. Let's face it, most* (view spoiler) billionaires are not good people. They are generally not the type that sweet, young, virginal ingenues fall in lifelong love with. I mean, at best it's usually Anna Nicole Smith and J. Howard Marshall.
- Royalty -- and not just royalty, but royalty who actually rules a kingdom
- Secret babies (I think I've only ever known of one dude who didn't know he had a kid for several years and it wasn't because he would have secretly been a great, loving dad)
- Draconian Wills where someone has to get married/have a baby with someone else in order to inherit. I'm pretty sure those tend to not be legal, at least where I live.
Yes, the wills are so common in HPs but I have never ever heard of anyone who died and left his fortune to his son on the condition he gets married. Like why? Speaking of amnesia, it also gets me when the H/h have selective memory loss and they only forgot the years they have been separated. How convenient :)
This is a minor nitpick, but I’m always confused when the banker hero in HPs attracts more press coverage than every other A-list celebrity on the planet combined. For example there are books where the heroine is constantly hounded by screaming paparazzi, there are helicopters flying over her home, the front page of every tabloid is speculation about the H/h’s relationship etc. It always seems ridiculous and OTT to me, but maybe it would happen in real life?
Haha good point. Trying to recall the name of any worldwide celebrity banker that would generate so much press craze and I can't. That's definetely an HP thing
Oh! I thought of another one this morning: Marriages of Convenience. I mean, I'm sure they happen, usually for immigration or insurance purposes, but when I started reading romances, I think I subconsciously expected to have at least 3 offers for MOCs by the time I got to be my age.
Oh, yes ^^ MOCs are so common in HPland you'd think they happen to all of us. The ones that are supposed to last for a few months are even less likely :D
I'm sure there are themes we came to consider as normal in a Harlequin novel that would have the average person rolling their eyes, or laughing their heads off.
I'm both amazed and amused at how we came to accept some of the unlikely plots as normal. So I thought we can have fun listing out some. I'll go first:
- Hero hates heroine and wants revenge, so he marries her. (Well duh..)
- Hero needs a wife to act as his hostess.
- Hero needs an heir (because who doesn't?)
- Heroine's dad/bro messes up, so she marries H to save them from prison/ bankrupcy.