Happily Ever After and Then Some

My current guilty pleasure? I love reading romance novels. Yes, I’m that girl in your local Barnes and Nobles scouring the desolate section of cliched romance books, picking up novel after novel of Fabio and damsel in distress covers. I enjoy the steaminess, the fantasy, the heartbreak, the passion, the fairytale, the conflict, and overall, the idea that love can happen anywhere at anytime. I know it’s cheesy but I can’t help but be drawn to these novels as a place of comfort in my days filled with with classes, work, and piles upon piles of homework. It’s my way to escape into a world in which a realistic love story will never be a thing, but the idea of happily ever after comes with some sticky, drama-filled ups and downs.

I’m going to be really PG here and say what captures my attention the most in these novels is the crazy storyline that fills the holes of the actual romance. I’ve been enraptured by storylines of love hardships due to secret societies, arranged marriages, murders, business corporations, evil fathers, and so much more. When I first began reading my now hefty collection of romance novels, I never understood what the point of these random secondary plots were, when there was a steamy storyline between the two lovers and their always present resistance to be together. But then I read The Blackstone Affair trilogy by Raine Miller. It wasn’t my favorite love story, but the conflicts that arose that put their love to the test, made me yell, punch, and gasp all in one page, and those are pretty varied emotions to have after reading your average romance novel.

After finishing my 50th novel in a span of two months, I began wondering, what is it about these books that has made me disregard any other genre  for so long? I’ve disregarded The Alchemist and the last Divergent installment on my kindle for some months now. Why do I find this excitement to lay back and read about unrealistic happily ever afters, instead of novels that I could actually be proud to say I’ve read in a job interview. Well…I can get lost in them. Yes, the almighty escapism triumphs again! These romance novels, with their cheesy lines, amazing passion, unrealistic hardships, and cute endings of marriage or kids, are lives that I enjoy reading about, and I’m not ashamed of that.

I started thinking about my guilty pleasures and what really gets me thinking creatively today, and this seemed to resonate most with me. Through your guilty pleasures you can find a means to better understand and express yourself. Don’t be afraid to proclaim what you love to read, watch, or do when you want to escape from your everyday lives. I know I’m not.

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