Five Things Every Romance Novel Should Have
- Humor.
- A strong female lead.
- Have both the male and female leads have lives of their own in the story (ie. scenes with the female lead and her friends/family and same with the male lead and his friends/family) I believe that ads more depth to their character.
- Show some sort of vulnerability in both characters. I don’t mean vulnerability with each other, that’s already a given in romance stories, but something in their personal life that makes them human and that the reader will find endearing. For example in Love and Miss Communication by Elyssa Friedland, the main character had a close relationship with her grandmother who developed severe health problems. This showed a compassionate side.
- A likeable male lead. Too many stories feature “alpha males.” In real life a lot of men tend to be more confused and anxious in relationships than anything else, especially in the beginning in a relationship. Touching on that can make the male lead a more personalble character.
Title: My Life As I Knew It
Author: Brenda Thornlow
Genre: Adult Contemporary
What would you do if you were sent back in time for some unknown reason? When Brianna wakes up this morning she will be faced with that very question.
Brianna lives in New York with her husband, the love of her life, Greg. She’s happily married, has a great job, travels around the world and this year will be celebrating her birthday in style. Until the morning she wakes up in an apartment 3,000 miles from where she and Greg live, and seventeen years in the past! Returning to a life she hoped she would never have to think about ever again, much less relive!
About The Author:
Brenda Thornlow is an author from the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, NY. Brenda started writing at a very young age as sort of an escape from the real world. My Life As I Knew It, is her first book of a series on which she’s working. Brenda came up with the premise for this story while undergoing some pretty harsh challenges in her personal life. While going through these particularly tough times, she had moments when she thought about what it would be like to go back in time and do certain things differently…which almost everyone has thought about from time to time. She sat in front of her keyboard one morning, thought about what she would do if she had that chance and went from there.
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Oooo yes! I agree! I especially like the point about showing each character with their respective families. Sometimes romance can tend to focus on the backstory of one side of the relationship.
Yes, the characters do need to feel balanced, don’t they 🙂
Yes to humor and strong female heroines! 😀 Best hooks ever!
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