Library Musings…Trashy Books get Trashier

I’m heading into uncharted territory here.

Yes. The perceived Trashiest of the Trashy reads.

We all know I’m a huge fan of the romance genre and I had thought my reading palate was fairly diverse. Bring me your Urban Paranormal Vampire Kings, Your haunted Medieval Scotsman, Rugged Cowboys, Rakish Regency Dukes, and the Modern Men at all socioeconomic levels…fisherman to billionaire their sexy six-packs are all welcome in my reads.

But the more fond I became of the uber-intelligent Smart Bitches Trashy Books blog the more open my eyes became in regards to my ‘trashy’ reads. These women look at the romance genre from a literary criticism point of view as well as a simple pleasure read. I hate to admit that I almost enjoy their posts more when they don’t like the read. The way they break it down is hilarious.

But back to my point. I noticed a plethora of Harlequin Silhouette Desires books in their review base. You know those red-spined books that are aplenty in your local grocery store? The ones you cleaned out of your mother’s bookshelves (grandma for me!). Those trope filled, quick and dirty reads that we’ve all tried at some point. I realized that I was kinda prejudiced against them. I don’t think I’d picked one up since age 14 instead running toward the more mass-market best sellers…the romance books that looked more like ‘real’ literature to me.

I know.

“For shame!” I thought.

I’m a defender of romance. A white knight of the virgin/rake pairing. I’m willing to suspend reality to follow just about any love story. But a nagging feeling told me I had turned my back on a huge selection of the genre. I needed to return to my teen-reads and revisit a Harlequin. When I saw the title “Enticed by his Forgotten Lover“, part of a Pregnancy and Passion series, I thought: “This is it, it doesn’t get more Harlequin-esque than that”

And so I began. I’m 3 books in already and not sure what I think. Later today I’ll post my review of Enticed by his Forgotten Lover so you can see how this little experiment is going. Get excited…if you haven’t already gathered this little nugget is about a case of amnesia and seduction by a pregnant lady. True, at times it’s slightly more subtle than that…but I suppose you’ll have to tune in later to see what I really think!