By Helen Lacey
I know, that’s a pretty corny blog title and I think I stole it from a song. But I’ve been having a to-and-fro email conversation with a reader over the past few days and some of the things she’s said has stuck with me. It started out as a lovely fan email and now I feel as though I have connected with a kindred spirit. Because she just loves ‘love’ …. In books, in movies, in songs. When she opens a book it’s what she looks for, even in books that aren’t traditionally romances. And I realized that I’m like that too.
I know, that’s a pretty corny blog title and I think I stole it from a song. But I’ve been having a to-and-fro email conversation with a reader over the past few days and some of the things she’s said has stuck with me. It started out as a lovely fan email and now I feel as though I have connected with a kindred spirit. Because she just loves ‘love’ …. In books, in movies, in songs. When she opens a book it’s what she looks for, even in books that aren’t traditionally romances. And I realized that I’m like that too.
For instance, one of my favourite movies is the classic
Terminator. Not because I care for the sci-fi elements, or the gun-toting,
muscle bulging Arnie – but because when Kyle Reece says, “I came back through
time for you, Sarah,” it just melts my bones. It’s the love story that
resonates and I find I look for that in pretty much every movie I watch. Do I
care if the Hobbits get to Mount Doom? Not particularly ….. But I do watch the twelve
hours of extended version Lord Of The Rings Trilogy to see Aragorn and Arwen locks
lips near the very end. Even when I sat through the Bourne Identity for the
first time I was cheering for Matt Damon to hurry up and slay the bad guys so
he could get the girl.
As I’m chatting to this reader back and forth on email and
she’s telling me which movies she loves and which books are her favourites, I
started thinking about my own favourite books and how I started reading Mills
& Boon when I was eleven. It turns out this reader has read and loved many
of the same classic M&B romances that I did. Here’s a few of my classic keepers.
What amazed me is how suddenly, this person, this stranger
who lives on the other side of the world and only happened to connect with me because
she liked my latest release, has been reading and loving romances all her life
for the same reasons I have. Like the thrill of sharing the journey as two
people fall in love - which is often fraught with will-they or won’t-they as
they overcome the many hurdles in front of them. Or waiting for the first kiss,
and of course, hoping for that magical happily ever after. So, we’re two people
with no connection, and are suddenly connected by our mutual love of Harlequin
novels and romantic movies.
So, corny or not, it seems love certainly is all around.
Do you also look for the love-story in the books and movies
you read and watch? Even if it's not a traditional romance?
