I asked this question on Bluesky a bit ago, and was enchanted with all the answers (and all the covers).
What romance novel could you do a 10 minute presentation on with no warning?
Vintage old skool romances welcome!
When I first posted this back in September 2024, I thought it would be Midsummer Magic by Catherine Coulter, ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) the first romance I read, and one that “lives in the inside foyer of my brain, ready to be called upon.”
The arranged marriage, the absolute mismatch of the cover copy and the story itself, THE CREAM. Seriously, the use of a form of lube – one of the first instances I’d seen in romance, ever, and this was in the early 90s – really imprinted on my tender, naive brain. It indicated both a sense of regard if not caring from Phillip, the hero, who didn’t want to be in the marriage any more than Frances did. (This is the one where she disguises herself as a dowdy bluestocking to avoid said marriage. It didn’t work, obviously.)
The hero is rapey, but also aware of female signs of arousal, and doesn’t want to hurt her. Blew my mind when I read it.
But now that I’ve had some time to think about it, and now that I’ve come up with Nefarious Plans, I think I’d probably do 10 minutes on the value placed on home management skills in Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens, and Born in Ice by Nora Roberts.
(Sidenote: the first in the Born In trilogy, Born in Fire, features a hero I think of as proto-Roarke.)
Devil’s Bride is the one where Devil, as is the case with all the Cynsters, is obsessed with marriage and family, and tries to convince Honoria, whom he inadvertently compromised, that they’re getting married. (Honoria: Nope.) (Devil: Yes, we are, have you not noticed I’m a duke and I get my way a lot?) (Honoria: Still no.)
But when he brings her to his family seat after they’ve been discovered, the household has to go into high gear to prepare to receive everyone for a funeral. There are, to put it mildly, A LOT of Cynsters. Honoria pitches in – there’s a line about “lists, and derived lists for cross-checking,” and let me tell you how much I identified with Honoria in that moment. I wrote a whole essay about it: “Organized Caretaking: A Brief Love Letter to Honoria Anstruther-Weatherby.”
That same level of organized caretaking is present in Brianna, who runs a bed and breakfast in Ireland. She grew up in a cold and loveless home with a volatile mother, and even in the cover copy, it says, “Brianna Concannon is a woman with a rare gift for creating a home.”
I could most definitely do a 10 minute presentation on either or both as examples of valuing the emotional and physical labor of maintaining a home for people.
I asked the SBTB reviewers, and got some really interesting responses.
Claudia: I think I am the resident expert on later Meredith Duran books! Especially Luck Be a Lady and Sins of Lord Lockwood!
Luck Be a Lady is tricky because it’s bad boy/crime lord hero and my opinions have shifted yet I still kinda like him, LOL. So I guess the presentation would be about learning your gaps in understanding and reconciling loving a problematic book or main characters.
Also a study on the role the Antipodes have played in romance, with a homage to The Count of Monte Cristo. That’s for Sins of Lord Lockwood.
Carrie: Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise because it is peak banter, has equal focus on male and female arcs, speaks to my personal struggles with body image, and features people who are total equals and who stand up for one another in the best ways.
Best of all at the end we find out not only the fates of the main characters but also their found family friends – and in that section multiple different kinds of happy endings are explored including staying single, which is given as much validation as all the romantic pairings. Also the main character starts the book not wanting kids and ends the book not wanting kids, and not having kids, and this is presented as a completely valid option.
Shana: Better Off Red by Rebekah Weatherspoon. I will talk to anyone who shows the slightest curiosity about my favorite lesbian vampire sorority book. It’s just so entertaining and camp and fun. And every time I’ve seen Weatherspoon at book events, I ask if I’m getting another book in the series.
So, what about you? What romance could you give a spontaneous 10 minute presentation about, and why?
Special note: If you’re a member of After Dark, I’m going to arrange presentation nights for us on Zoom, where we will actually give these presentations live, most likely with beverages hot and possibly strong. I’m definitely going to do one, and Amanda is on board, so if you think you’d like to tell us 10 minutes of your deep thoughts on a particular romance novel, stay tuned for that! And if you’re not in After Dark, you can join!
Probably The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery? That’s one of my favourite Valentine’s Day comfort rereads. There’s a lot to talk about, including how I HATE the ending and also how Cissy deserved better.
If you’re a member of After Dark, I’m going to arrange presentation nights for us on Zoom, where we will actually give these presentations live
I joined After Dark to support a site and community I value, but this? Holy cow, take all my moneys. I can’t wait to see these presentations.
I’m all about pattern analysis, so the romance dissertation that lives in my head is “The Use of Recycled Themes and Characters in the Works of Jayne Ann Krentz, 1979-1999.” I particularly loved how Krentz leveraged subgenres (category romance, single-title contemporary, historical, fantasy, paranormal) to refresh her formula.
If I had to choose just one book, it would be Family Man, which is peak JAK and gets me tangled in knots over romance and feminism and escapism and paradox. To give an example: the FMC’s stated ambition at the start of the book is “to be free of Gilchrists” (a goal emphasized by both her brother and her coworker/secretary), but the HEA traps her in her pivotal role in the Gilchrist family forever because Luke is now the head of the family and you just know every Gilchrist is going to try to get Katie to influence him.
I could rant for ten minutes about things I learned about myself reading Ruby Dixon’s Fire in Her Dreams. The first is that post apocalyptic absolutely does not work for me as a romance setting. The second is that while I don’t approve of censorship in the abstract, that there are some books that could change my mind.
The third thing might be that I will keep going with a book just to see how bad things will get, but if I’m honest, I already knew that about myself.
Nine Rules To Break When Romancing A Rake is by far the one I’ve read the most and always open when I need a good comfort read. I literally could go on and on about the structure, the tasks, the emotional arcs for the protagonists, and the antics. So. Many. Antics. It’s everything I love about historical romance
Lord of Scoundrels
I discovered it late in it’s life (about 5 years ago) but it feels like such an Ur-romance and it’s full of trope perfection and Jessica is such a BAMF without sacrificing any part of herself. God I love her
Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh.
“AND THEN IT TURNS OUT HE WON THE BET ON HOW BIG THE BABY WOULD BE AFTER SHE WENT INTO LABOR IN THE CHECKOUT LINE” – me, in tears, giving a presentation in the style of that gif where the guy has all the lines of string re: Key of Valor by Nora Roberts
I suspect not many will have heard of this book, but I could -this minute- give a presentation on Louann Gaeddert’s Perfect Strangers, despite not having read it for decades. I first read it in one of my mom’s magazines. Something in that story touched my heart. I had no idea it was in a category of fiction called Romance, and never thought to look for additional, similar books.
@Susan: I am also cry laughing. That’s hilarious!
Bear Meets Girl by Shelly Laurenston. First of hers books that I read. Awesome!! Also A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas.
Kathleen Woodiwiss, SHANA. Yep. Totally old skool crazy sauce. Fun fact, the BFF and I were watching Outlander in separate locations. The phone rings. I pick it up and we say at the exact same time “We’ve been pronouncing Ruark’s name wrong!”. Which is what happens when you’ve been friends for half a century and read the same books.
YA, but L.J. Smith’s The Night World series (which is still not complete) I had all the 90s fabulous mass market paperbacks as a kid, and recently repurchased them all as an adult (shout out to ThriftBooks!)
My personal favorite is still SECRET VAMPIRE, where Poppy gets diagnosed with cancer and then saved by being turned by her bff James, who’s a born vs made vampire. Friends to lovers, faking(?) your death, secret relationship? So much catnip.
OK, you guys have to stop the book listing immediately! I have been adding and adding to my re-read/first read pile til I’m in danger of an avalanche. I love how you give me insights into “new” books or remind me how much I liked certain books.
Though I don’t think I’ll forgive C for bringing to my attention Rudy Dixon’s crazy sauce post-apocalyptic dragon romance. Query: why did they want to collect women’s worn panties?
ACOTAR – really anything in the Maasverse. Lord of Scoundrels, my absolute fave Loretta Chase; Pride and Prejudice, my favorite Austen; Sunshine, by Robin McKinley; and most definitely Devil’s Cub, featuring my absolute favorite bad boy Heyer MMC. I usually read library books on my Kindle, but these books I actually own. These are the books I reread often and would want on a desert island. Given how things are going lately, I’ll probably be picking them all up soon.
This reminds me of something Henry James said about one of his heroines (Isabel Archer? Daisy Miller): he felt as if he knew her so well he could take a very detailed exam about her. I could go all the way back to the great-grandmother of romantic historical fiction: Anya Seton’s KATHERINE, a brilliant evocation of medieval England. Newer books I could talk ad infinitum about with no preparation: Kati Wilde’s GOING NOWHERE FAST; Cara McKenna’s AFTER HOURS; Ann Calhoun’s LIBERATING LACEY; Jill Sorensen’s RIDING DIRTY; Taylor Fitzpatrick’s THROWN OFF THE ICE; Cait Nary’s SEASON’S CHANGE; KD Casey’s UNWRITTEN RULES; and (a very new addition to the list) Ari Baran’s GOALTENDER INTERFERENCE. Like Henry James, I believe I could take a pretty detailed exam about any of these books.