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Ok, as a romance author, you get used to a certain amount of tittering and sneering. But this Daily Mail article is full of so many out and out lies that I'm not going to let it pass.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9145211/Why-smart-women-swoon-Mills-Boon-LIBBY-PURVES-pays-tribute-literary-institution.html #ireadromance
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9145211/Why-smart-women-swoon-Mills-Boon-LIBBY-PURVES-pays-tribute-literary-institution.html #ireadromance
First, let's get the snidey comment from a lit fic author out of the way, just so that we can tick that box, and make sure that we all know no SERIOUS author (or journalist) would ever like this sort of book #ireadromance
Ah, so, we get to the first material lie. The hero must be tanned to highlight the porcelain skin of the heroine. So are we just pretending that authors of colour, and the characters that they write who look like them, just don't exist? #ireadromance
That this genre is by and for white people, populated by characters who look like them? Look, I know this industry has a long way to go in terms of diversity and inclusion. But this statement erases in one swipe every heroine of colour who has ever been written #ireadromance
Every story by an author of colour with a character who looks like them gone, with one careless line in an article, because the journalist wants to make a point about heroes being tanned #ireadromance
And then of course we get to 'all the heroes are assholes'. Apart, perhaps, from the hero in my last book, who one reviewer described as a Consent King (the highest praise I have ever received) #ireadromance
And the converse, that all the heroines are helplessly needy. So I must have imagined writing that last book where the heroine helps the hero save his business.... #ireadromance
Ah, of course. the cover of a nearly thirty-year-old book. Essential in any discussion of what women in 2021 are reading #ireadromance https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/01/14/00/37980984-9145211-The_front_cover_of_the_Mills_Boon_book_Legacy_of_Love_The_Raven_-m-17_1610585900548.jpgAh,
Ah, and now of course the compulsory discussion of Romance's bad boys: Dominic from Georgette Heyer's Devil's Club (published 1932), Rupert Campbell-Black (published 1985), or Rhett Butler (1936). So relevant. Of course. #ireadromance
But here's where it gets really nasty: aligning women who write and consume romance with sex offenders #ireadromance
Yes, some romances have alpha heroes, and yes, some women choose to read stories with power dynamics that we might not welcome in real life. But you know what?
WOMEN KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BOOK AND REAL LIFE.
WOMEN READING BOOKS DO NOT CREATE SEX OFFENDERS
#ireadromance
WOMEN KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BOOK AND REAL LIFE.
WOMEN READING BOOKS DO NOT CREATE SEX OFFENDERS
#ireadromance
Ah, and now to the big question: why would any woman read this crap? #ireadromance
Is this truly what they think our fantasies are? To be infantalised by having a man sweep in and take care of everything for us? Is this what they think our stories are about? #ireadromance
Rather than people who forge strong emotional bonds, overcome trauma and conflict, and achieve their personal and professional goals? Yes, often while having some great sex and falling in love, because when is that a bad thing? #ireadromance
Seriously, once, just ONCE, I would like for the author of one of these pieces to sit down and read some Mills & Boon books written this century. #ireadromance
Read a few books from across the board. From the steamy super alpha high fantasy of Mills and Boon Modern @AcinelliAuthor and @abbygreen3 to the intense emotional connections of True Love @Sophie_Pembroke and @ThereseBeharrie
Don't just list that some of our characters are single parents or sex workers, do the research and see how skillfully we work to build believable lives for these charcters. How carefully we think about conflict and trauma.
How we examine the power dynamics in traditional tropes such as 'forced proximity' or 'office romance' and create situations within those frameworks where both parties have agency and power, and aren't at risk
Relationships where one partner encourages the other to truly see themselves, and supports them while they grow.
We should consider how some women see our books not only as an escape, but as a safe place where they can indulge in fantasies that aren't a part of their real life
We should consider how some women see our books not only as an escape, but as a safe place where they can indulge in fantasies that aren't a part of their real life
Most importantly, see for yourself how our genre shows that everyone, regardless of who you are, the body you live in, the person you love, the pain in your past DESERVES TO LOVE AND BE LOVED
Because really, that's all we're here to do. We don't do it for the money (ha!) or the plaudits (ha!!). We do it because we want to tell uplifting, hopeful stories. Because we want to create worlds where can trust in a happy outcome
I read 112 books last year. At least 100 of the romance. In 2020, I witnessed a hundred people fall in love, safe in the knowledge that nothing going on in the world could hurt them. That regardless of how dark things looked, that love would triumph in the end #ireadromance
Think of the power of that. The joy that comes from having that space to live in, when the real world is too hard
I'm so so proud and honoured that my books might have been that space for someone too. And that's why I keep writing, even in the face of articles like this. Because I KNOW that the work that I do is important #ireadromance
[sidenote: I didn't call out the heteronormativity in the article because it is mainly talking about M&B category, which at the moment are all mf romance. But, people writing queer romance, I SEE YOU. I LOVE YOUR STORIES 
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[sidenote 2: I'm so sorry the images are missing ALT TEXT Twitter isn't letting me add it in. If anyone knows how to do that pls HMU!]
