Romance for Real Women

Most real women are far too frugal to buy books in hard back. But there are some exceptions.

Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child are one exception. For those of you who don’t know, Jack Reacher is the itinerant ex-military cop who wanders the U.S., stumbling into situations requiring his special skills of calculation mixed with a hard headed willingness to do serious violence. He carries only essentials with him, a folded toothbrush, an ATM card and an expired passport. Every couple of days he buys a new set of clothes, discarding the old one. He occasionally works the odd job, but lives mostly on his savings.

Reacher’s operating principle is forward movement. He hates to go back. In Nothing to Lose, the new Reacher novel, he’s “taken it into his head to cross the continent diagonally” from Calais, Maine to San Diego, California. As the book opens, Reacher is in Hope, Colorado where he is intrigued enough by the name of the neighboring town, Despair, to make a side trip to it.

In Despair, he is picked up by the police, tagged a “vagrant” by the town judge and driven back to the border between Hope and Despair. His decision to stick around is described this way: “Six blocks to Main Street, Reacher figured. If he turns left, takes me onward to the west, maybe I’ll let it go. But if he turns right, takes me back east to Hope, maybe I won’t.”

Reacher has been called “One of the most popular characters in contemporary thrillers, a perfect hero” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “the thinking man’s action hero.” (Denver Post).

He is intriguing. And, he is “thinking” in the sense that he is calculating and not just when he is faced with violence where the odds are against him. Here, his operating principle is “Get your retaliation in first.” And there are other odd flashes of calculation as for example when he calls upon the judge in Despair. “In Reacher’s experience the average delay when knocking at a suburban door in the middle of the evening was about twenty seconds.”

What an extraordinary thing for a character to know!

But there is more. After a woman answers the door she “stood still and said nothing. In Reacher’s experience the husband would show up if the doorstep interview lasted any longer than thirty seconds.”

Wow.

But he is not a crusader in the sense that John MacDonald’s Travis McGee was a knight in tarnished armor defending the weak or wronged. Far from it. His only motivation to investigate Despair and trigger the events of the book is the right turn made by the cop. Once the town’s ugly secrets begin to emerge, he is on the “right” side, but only by happenstance.

I once read a review where Lee Child was quoted as saying “Reacher is an animal.” (That might not be exactly the word he used, but it’s close enough.)

He is. A fascinating and brilliant animal. And Lee Child has given us a fascinating and brilliant book.

It’s number one on my summer reading list.

While we are on the subject of romance, real women and vampires…

A friend recently introduced me to “The Black Dagger Brotherhood,” a series of six or seven books by writer J.R. Ward. (I’m not sure about the number because I voraciously devoured all of them, one a night over a period of a few days. Time and titles are blurred.)

The Brotherhood has everything we want in a good vampire yarn…strong, muscular, sexy vampires fighting a truly evil being called “The Omega” and his equally evil minions called “lessers” who are determined to destroy the race of vampires.

Each member of The Brotherhood has his own issues and his own book. One of my favorites is Rhage, Lover Eternal, who, cursed by the Scribe Virgin, unleashes a beast when he is angered. This is handy when fighting lessers, but complicates romantic relationships as the beast also escapes when he’s aroused. Another is Lover Awakened, the story of Zsadist, who spent the first couple of hundred years of his life being tortured. Zsadist, as his name subtly suggests, has behavioral issues.

Need I add that the love of good women tames the beast and smoothes the rough edges?

In writing The Brotherhood, J.R. Ward created an entire world, complete with laws, social strictures, and a religious deity who protects and punishes individuals when they step out of line. This level of detail, in fact, is what gives these books their sense of authenticity. For example, vampires emit a strong scent when they “bond” with a mate. A sort of mark. “Doggen,” are members of a servant class who tend to their needs. Oh, and females experience something called a “needing period” where essentially they go into heat. And, that, my friends, makes for spicy reading. Just in case you get confused, Ward provides a glossary of terms at the beginning of each book for reference.

In creating The Brotherhood, J.R. Ward, who in a previous life was a lawyer and hospital administrator, also created a cult.

In writing this blog, I visited her website www.jrward.com. The site features a message board and there were one hundred and fifteen fans on-line at the time I visited. Thousands of others were registered. No kidding.

If you prefer your vampires dark and edgy as I do, check out this series. You’ll find romance, sex, good versus evil, a new take on vampires and a good meaty read.

Like real women everywhere, I have friends who don’t read romance novels. I ignore this failing in these friends, the same way I ignore people who like well done steak. That is, I discount it against other, more appealing qualities.

Reading romance novels is a way of life. Sure, there are some which fail the most elementary literacy/plot/character tests. But not many. And, although I like paranormals, I will admit I’m getting a little tired of sexy vamp stories, although I read those by J.R. Ward like the weekly grocery ads. And, trust me, if one appears that my friends love, I’m right back in line at the bookstore. I know myself well enough to understand this is just a temporary malaise.

A marvelous blog at www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com reviews romance novels exclusively and grades them from A-F and includes another category which consigns the worst to “The Dump.”

I tend to follow their advice.

And I’m sure to always pick up books reviewed by egregious snots beginning their comments with such witticisms such as “a book for readers who move their lips.”

What prompted this rant is a poll by MSNBC accompanying the release of a new Danielle Steel novel which asks readers if they read, don’t read or sometimes read bodice-rippers.

The findings are sure to surprise anyone whose sole source of reliable information is reality television. At this writing, roughly 50% of respondents are voting “yes, yes, bodice-rippers are the ultimate.”

Well, of course, they are. Hunky men daring impossible odds. Conflicted, striving women. Well researched (usually) exotic or historical settings. Challenges met and overcome. The invariable happy ending.

So, if you already love romance novels, hop over to the MSNBC poll and vote. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25191970/

If not, do what roughly 55% of the book buying public does: pick up a romance. You’ll be hooked.