By Rebecca Anderson, Author of Orchids of Ashthorne Hall
Something I love about reading Proper Romance novels is the way that some things never change. Settings differ for every book and sub-genre, but people (fictional and real) throughout time have the same aim: Find true love and hold on tight.
What’s the draw to a Regency romance? Among other things, gorgeous costumes, playful banter, and perfect manners. How about a Western? I mean, come on. There’s something so beautiful about the idea of riding off into the sunset together. And a modern romance? Real love in real life? What could be more delicious?
Courtship rituals depend on time and place, of course. Is the story we’re reading taking place in a ballroom? On a cruise ship? Across a booth in a diner? In a haunted house?
Details, details.
Not that the details don’t matter. A carefully drawn historical setting is a perfect backdrop to a first meeting. A windswept moor or a lush forest are magical places to watch a relationship unfold. If you read enough romances, you’ll find you have favorite time periods. Beloved locations. Certain types of encounters that make your toes curl in anticipation.
What matters most is the ways we see the characters interacting. The initial moment when they first meet. The pull of attraction fighting against the very real reasons these two can never be together. The way their eyes lock in an unbreakable gaze. The brush of fingers. The struggle to make it work against all odds. The kissing (don’t forget the kissing).
Romance novels, whatever their setting, focus on the most fundamental of human needs: to be safe with someone else. Discovering reciprocal love and joy and fulfillment, whether in a novel or in real life, is a delight. How lovely that as readers, we can find it in all kinds of places and all kinds of moods, again and again.
NEW! ORCHIDS OF ASHTHORNE HALL: A ghostly estate. A handsome caretaker hiding a secret. And the intrepid Hyacinth Bell, who is set on solving the mystery of both.
This is Rebecca Anderson’s debut Victorian Romance. She loves hiking, Broadway shows, food, books, and movies. She is happily married and a mom to four above-average kids.