Harlequin Presents the world’s most cliched romance plots
I have a sad addiction to category romance novels – categories being those thin books available for sale in a grocery store near you. I started reading them my freshman year of college when the local More 4 (later EconoFoods) was as close as I could get to a bookstore, and while I have managed to kick the habit for extended periods of time in between then and now, I still have a weakness for them.
This is why I have two Harlequin Presents novels coming tomorrow from Amazon. Part of me kinda feels ashamed.
More so than other categories, and definitely more so than full-length romance novels, a Presents novel is likely to be so cliched it’s like following a recipe:
1 overbearing, tempestuous rich hero. Typically Italian, Spanish, Australian, British, Greek, or a mythical desert sheik.
1 innocent/probably somehow wronged heroine. Bonus points if she’s a virgin or badly maligned ex-girlfriend of the hero. Further bonus points if she’s an innocent virgin but the hero arrogantly disbelieves this because she’s so worldly or beautiful
1 exotic locale
1 element of illogical drama! Examples include the ever popular SECRET BABIES, coerced marriages, boss/secretary romances, and the afore-mentioned innocent virgin believed to be experienced thing.
Stir to combine and cook for 100 hundred pages, or until Happily Ever After has been achieved.
No, I have no idea why I keep reading them either. They’re the literary equivalent of a cheesy daytime soap opera, and equally addicting.