by hollandrae | Dec 10, 2019 | Art, Beauty, Characters, Heroines, Humor, Musings, Regency, Romance Novels
I’m going to come right out and say it. I’m over alpha males who can’t string a sentence together. Shocker, I know. But seriously. I know our loins get all fluttery and we revert back to some real knuckle-dragger tendencies when it comes to the hot...
by hollandrae | May 29, 2019 | Characters, Industry, Inspiration, Musings, Romance Novels, Statistics, Women's Rights
One of the most common themes that comes up when discussing romance novels is the idea of the ‘unrealistic expectation’ regarding men, relationships and sexual prowess. Romance novels create a utopian relationship, critics often squawk. There aren’t any real men like...
by hollandrae | Apr 8, 2019 | Art, Characters, Heroines, Inspiration, Musings, My Books, Reading, Research, Writing
I recently finished the novel Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, the story of Achilles’s and Patrocles’s eternal love that ultimately led to the end of the Trojan War. The story is brilliant, beautiful and incredibly told and when I was planning the next creative...
by hollandrae | Nov 26, 2018 | Audiobooks, Characters, Feminism, Industry, Musings, Reading, Reviews, Romance Novels, Women, Writing
What We Can Take Away From Books That Just Don’t Get it Right Last week, I quit a book. I’m terrible at quitting books. Mostly, even if the narrator grates up my spine or the main character sounds like something out of a PBS special, I’ll keep listening or...
by hollandrae | Oct 29, 2018 | Characters, Feminism, Industry, Inspiration, Intersectional Feminism, Musings, Reading, Research, Reviews, Romance Novels, Series, Women, Women's Rights
Every genre has its pitfalls. Mysteries that give away the whodunit too early. Sci-fi that falls this side of derivative. Romance with two-dimensional Ken doll heroes. Writing genre fiction comes with all sorts of challenges, and it takes a certain set of skills and...
