Romance Evangelism—The Book Club Votes
As I promised in my post, Romance Evangelism, I presented my book club with five choices of romance books to read at our meeting two months from now. The choices were, in order, The Unsung Hero, by Suzanne Brockmann (Troubleshooter Series #1), Bet Me, by Jennifer Cruisie, What Happens in London, by Julia Quinn, Slightly Married, by Mary Balogh, and Blue-Eyed Devil, by Lisa Kleypas.
I gave a short introduction about how big and varied the romance market was. That just succeeded in making them think I was cute. Then I presented the books. There was a lot of eye rolling. I think I may have mentioned that the members of my book club are hard-nosed and left-brained.
They gave all the books nicknames, which isn’t uncommon in the club voting process. The Unsung Hero became “Navy Seal/terrorists,” Bet Me became “woman w/body-image issues eating doughnut,” What Happens in London became “spy-on-spy in London,” Slightly Married became “man marries woman because he promised her brother he’d protect her,” and Blue-Eyed Devil became “domestic abuse and hot kiss in a wine cellar.” I loved all these books, and I feel pretty bad about the reductionist descriptions, but I was willing to tolerate just about anything to get my way.
The ranks rapidly split into two camps, The Unsung Hero supporters and the Bet Me lobbyists. When we voted, four chose The Unsung Hero and three voted for Bet Me. I’d abstained. So I voted for Bet Me and tied it up, because I knew that meant we’d have to discuss both choices more, and I felt like that could only be good for my overall mission.
Paralysis and indecision settled over the group, and then my friend came to my rescue. She said, “Well, since these are relatively quick reads, I think we should read both of them.” What we ultimately decided was that we would all read Bet Me, and that those who finished Bet Me and were intrigued would go on to read The Unsung Hero, and then we would all discuss romance as a genre.
It felt like a coup. I’d gone in hoping to get them to read one book, knowing that that book would appeal to some but not others. Instead, I’d gotten them to read two books, thus doubling the chances of conversion.
In two months, will I will report back on their reactions. My guess is that I will have no converts among the eye-rollers. But I sense that there were two or three in the group who were interested in finding out what they been missing. We’ll see.
August 16, 2011 @ 3:28 pm
Can’t wait to find out what happens! BET ME is a great read, I thought, but fraught with all sorts of discussable issues. Some of it struck me as totally over the top (all those theories about love — Disney romance vs. chaos theory vs. wasn’t-there-another-one) and the magical THIS ONE thing, plus the whole set-up with the bet, and the way the universe seems to be conspiring to get the couple together. I wouldn’t list any of that as high on my “to-read” list — and yet it all worked, somehow. The hero and heroine worked. The story worked. It was really compelling, though if forced to try to explain why, I’d probably draw a blank. I’m going to try to write a mini-review later on, but I have low expectations of succeeding in explaining why I liked the book. (Normally, this means I end up writing a giant, thinky blog post, but I’m hoping to avoid that.)
August 16, 2011 @ 3:36 pm
I often feel with Crusie that the whole is way more than the sum of the parts. Some kind of mysterious alchemy that makes it all work, despite any problems with implausibility or weirdness or the other things that would normally torpedo a book for me. Can’t wait to read your mini-review — feel free to come back and post a link to it here in the comments, too.
August 16, 2011 @ 3:39 pm
This should be interesting. I’ve not had too many converts, myself, but if you’re going to get them, Crusie will usually do it. Ruthie: The other theory was the whole mature love thing Cynthie had going on. Crusie actually lifted the theories straight from non-fiction books. Somewhere out there is a real-live Cynthie, though probably without the skimpy dresses.
August 16, 2011 @ 3:51 pm
Right! That one. I’m not surprised to hear she lifted them. They felt lifted. That’s one reason I found them over the top. But I say that in a non-condemning way. I’m okay with over the top. 🙂
August 16, 2011 @ 3:41 pm
My optimism may spring from the fact that I’m a convert myself (although to be fair, I *did* love romance as a teenager, so I was probably pretty easy), and that within a short time of becoming a convert, I succeeding in winning over two more, with help from the woman who converted me. But my book club is definitely an unlikely field for victory.
Romance Evangelism–The First News from the Front « Serena Bell
September 14, 2011 @ 9:46 am
[…] Last night my book club met to discuss Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, but the conversation veered wildly and found its way to the subject of next month’s book club, when we’re supposed to discuss my romance novel picks. (If you missed the original posts on this subject, check out Romance Evangelism and Romance Evangelism–The Book Club Votes.) […]