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Romantic novels you love that are NOT romance. Sorry, not sorry.

4/29/2019

2 Comments

 
Romance novels you love that are NOT romance. Sorry, not sorry.
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’ve seen sooooo many book lists that claim to contain romance novels, when in reality, only a few of them would really qualify. It seems to stem from the misconception that a romance novel is just a book about a man wooing a woman. (I got that one from Reader’s Digest, y’all)

​Some folks seem to think that if there’s a love story involved, it’s a romance novel. That’s a concept that’s so patently ridiculous that I’m not sure whether to laugh or roll my eyes. Using that logic, you could call The Terminator a romantic movie because Kyle Reese loved Sarah Connor and travelled across time for her. Clearly, it’s NOT a romantic movie. (Totally off topic, though: Props to 1984 Michael Biehn who was totally hot in the role of Kyle Reese. Well done, sir. Well done. But I digress...)

So, what IS a romance novel? Glad you asked.

Romance novels place their primary focus on a relationship and romantic love between two people and they MUST have an emotionally satisfying, optimistic ending.

That “optimistic ending” is key, folks. So is that bit about the primary focus being about the relationship. That means that just because a story happens to contain a beautiful example of romantic love, that doesn’t automatically make it a true romance novel.

With all that in mind, here’s a list of books that are often totally misclassified as romance novels.

(Side note: Please keep in mind that I’m not judging these books in any way. I’ve read most of them and think they’re brilliant. Some of them even contain haunting, beautiful romances. But that still doesn’t make them romance novels.)
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
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Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
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Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
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The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
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The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
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Gone wih the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
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Love Story by Erich Segal
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Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
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Well, what do YOU think? Let’s hear it!

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2 Comments
Jane Cousins
4/29/2019 05:39:17 pm

And now I have a dopey smile on my face because I'm thinking about Michael Biehn and that speech - "I came across time for you, Sarah Conners. I love you. I always have."

Reply
Jennifer, Romance Rehab
4/29/2019 06:57:08 pm

Wasn't he phenomenal? Such a great speech, too. *sigh*

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