It is not uncommon for people to ask me, “How can I find a good romance novel to read?” My immediate tongue-in-cheek reply typically is, “You mean other than mine?” Following a few laughs, I then tell them to remember what a romance novel is. According to Romance Writers of America (rwanational), there are two basic elements of a romance novel: “...a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.”
There are many ways to find a good romance novel. But remember, a book that is "good" to one person may not necessarily be good to another.
Internet searches for a romance novel can be a helpful place to start – such as amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Before purchasing a book, moreover, reading a few pages of it in your local bookstore or on a website, also can be very helpful – see if you like the author’s writing style.
There also are websites that include reviews of romance novels. Here are three I have found to be helpful (among many others): (1) Romance Reviews Today (romrevtoday) – “Romance Reviews Today began October 1, 2000… and started with a staff of a about a half dozen reviewers -- posting about 35 reviews a month. Since then RRT has grown to 29 staff members and we post an average of 110 to 150 reviews per month.” (2) All About Romance (likesbooks) states that its mission “is to provide a back-fence atmosphere, a sense of community for lovers of romance novels, to provide honest, thoughtful and entertaining material in order to promote intelligent and diverse discussion about romance novels, and to help readers determine how best to spend their romance novel dollar.” And (3) The Romance Reader (theromancereader) says, “If you've found us for the first time, welcome to the only Internet site offering over 7,000 candid reviews of current romantic fiction.”
My motorcycle-riding friends and I frequently say, “Enjoy the ride.” And when it comes to reading a novel, I frequently say, “Enjoy the read.”
Ciao for now, Bill
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