Seeking Recommendations

Here is a crazy idea: I’m going to write a romance novel.

Why? Mostly because I need a quick writing project to build my writing muscles back up. Plus, Hallmark Publishing is having open submissions next month, which is what prompted the idea, and conveniently it also provided a deadline. Strictly speaking, I’d only need three chapters to submit, but I’d like to finish the book by the deadline, because I don’t want another unfinished project on my desk (like I don’t have enough of those already!).

I understand the basics of how romances work. I’ve read more than a few over the years, though not so much recently, and I’ve watched many of them on the screen. But the genre is vast, and I don’t know everything I need to know about it, so I ordered some how-tos. I also downloaded a romance e-book so that I could immediately start reacquainting myself with the form. I picked one with a Christmas theme, because I like watching Hallmark Christmas movies. It seemed like a relatively safe choice.

I started reading the book last night, and it soon reminded me of why I don’t read romances anymore. Most of them stink. The stories are boring, the characters are cardboard, and the writing is ghastly. This is not me being overly picky. When it comes to romances, I’m eager to be entertained. All I want is for two characters who are reasonably likeable to engage in some believable dialogue while circumstances conspire to throw them together, pull them apart, and then bring them together again for a happy ending. The circumstances don’t need to be extraordinary. They just need to be interesting, and almost anything can be made interesting with a little spin. The formulaic plot structure doesn’t have to drag the quality down. If anything, it should liberate the writers to spend more time on getting the details right. And flashy language is not required. Simple, grammatical English will suffice.

That’s not asking a lot, and I don’t understand why the books of this genre tend to be so bad given that the bar is set so low. It’s incredibly frustrating to me, both as a reader who would love nothing more than to curl up with a good romance novel, and as a writer who wants a good model upon which to build one. I know that some authors have managed to get it right, at least often enough to keep the reading population hopeful, but I don’t have time to read through dozens of bad ones in the hopes of finding a few that are good. I could definitely use some recommendations.

So, have you read any good romances lately?