{"id":1396,"date":"2017-10-22T17:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T21:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/?p=1396"},"modified":"2017-10-22T13:51:08","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T17:51:08","slug":"are-you-a-romance-or-love-stories-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/are-you-a-romance-or-love-stories-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You a Romance or Love Stories Girl?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(This post was first published on the Long and Short Reviews <\/a>blog as part of my RECKONING blog tour)<\/p>\n

Do you believe there\u2019s a difference between a romance and a love story? I do \u2013 but do you? And, more importantly, are you a romance girl<\/em> or a love story girl (or dude…I use the term interchangeably)<\/em>?<\/p>\n

The Romance Writers of America can help us out here! Their definition of a romance is a story with \u201ca central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.\u201d It follows that any story which doesn\u2019t conform to these two elements is not a romance. \u201cLove story\u201d implies the primary plot is focused on love, so the difference is the HEA.<\/p>\n

So: central love story plus HEA = romance; central love story with no HEA = love story.<\/p>\n

Or does it?<\/p>\n

What about the first 50 Shades of Grey?<\/em> That one doesn\u2019t have an HEA. It follows the same couple, Christian and Ana, through two more books of their romantic misadventures. In fact, some would argue there\u2019s no love story, either, as Christian displays what many consider stalking and abusive behavior throughout the series. Is it a romance, a love story, or neither?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What about Out of Africa<\/em>, a movie adaption of a book starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep as two ill-fated lovers in the early 1900s and described on Wikipedia as an \u201cepic romantic drama?\u201d That story doesn\u2019t have an HEA, either. You could also argue it\u2019s more about a woman\u2019s voyage of self-discovery than a love story.<\/p>\n

How about Me before You? Romeo and Juliet? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Casablanca? Gone with the Wind?<\/em> All centered on love, but none of them fit the definition of romance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The first novel in my Valentine Shepherd series, Vengeance<\/em>, ends with a major plot twist that pushes the two main characters apart after they fought so hard for love. It was hard to write! But like the 50 Shades<\/em> series, it follows the same couple through two more books, and (spoiler?) they eventually get their HEA in the final story, Reckoning<\/em>. Does this mean Vengeance<\/em> isn\u2019t technically a romance, but the whole series is?<\/p>\n

In the end, it comes down to what you, the reader, believe a \u201cromance\u201d should be. I think the RWA\u2019s definition of romance says more about the people making the definition than it does about the actual genre.<\/p>\n

Personally, I don\u2019t like the idea of being characterized as \u201cnot romantic\u201d because I can be satisfied with ambiguous endings more complicated than \u201cAnd then they lived happily ever after.\u201d I think if a couple is blissfully married for fifty years, and then one of them gets hit by a car and dies, that shouldn\u2019t discount the previous romance they experienced together. Everybody dies. Everything ends. Hell, one day the sun will swell into a red giant and swallow the earth. Why should these facts of life mean that romance isn\u2019t possible for any of us in the real world?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I guess this means I\u2019m a love story girl \u2013 it\u2019s more about the journey than the HEA for me. Which is it for you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This post was first published on the Long and Short Reviews blog as part of my RECKONING blog tour) Do you believe there\u2019s a difference between a romance and a love story? I do \u2013 but do you? And, more importantly, are you a romance girl or a love story girl (or dude…I use the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Are You a Romance or Love Stories Girl?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[157,309,313,310,311,308,312,240,218],"class_list":["post-1396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-50-shades-of-grey","tag-casablanca","tag-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind","tag-gone-with-the-wind","tag-heas","tag-love-story-vs-romance","tag-romeo-and-juliet","tag-valentine-shepherd-series","tag-vengeance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Vyi8-mw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1396"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1405,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions\/1405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}