Modern romance

By MARGO HAMMON

c St. Petersburg Times, published February 14, 1999


Here's a trick question. Which woman recently in the news would make
the better romance novel heroine: Monica Lewinsky of steamy Starr
report fame or Viola De Lesseps, the dreamy Shakespearean muse
played by Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love?

The answer: Neither.

Neither Lewinsky nor De Lesseps would pass muster as a female
protagonist in a romance novel: They're both too unlucky in love.
Neither, after all, ends up with her man.

Romance novels, which represent nearly half of all paperbacks sold
in America, have a faithful following, but not just for those hot
sex scenes. Romances are devoured -- at an astonishing rate of 100
new titles each month -- because they give their overwhelmingly
female audience a guarantee that no other genre can: a happy ending.

And to romance readers a happy ending means one thing: the heroine
ends up in a monogamous relationship with the man she loves.

Affairs with married men are just not the stuff of romance novels.
In Shakespeare in Love Viola De Lessep may have inspired one of the
greatest writers of all times, but so what? She ends up on a ship
bound for America with a husband she doesn't love. She should have
known better than get involved with a man who had a wife back in
Stratford-on-Avon. Lewinsky? She ends up with a subpoena.

"Even if she dropped 10 pounds and lost the blue dress, she could
never be a Harlequin heroine," scoffed Tampa's Cheryl Anne Porter.

Porter, one of more than a dozen published writers living on
Florida's Gulf Coast who specializes in romances, was aghast when
the Starr report was compared to a Harlequin novel. Romance novels,
said Porter and other local romance writers, have nothing in common
with the immoral tale of an intern seeking her presidential knee
pads.

"Our heroines are strong, moral women," said Julie Elizabeth Leto,
a former Tampa Catholic School teacher who writes romances which
are, as she put it, "a mix of reality, fantasy and ultra-hot
sensuality." The morality in them is very much in line with her own
traditional, religious upbringing in a large Italian-American
family, Leto said.

"Those who think romance novels are just trash haven't read one
lately," said Porter, who has penned 13 of them, ranging from
Westerns to light-hearted contemporary comedies. The genre has
dramatically changed in recent years, she pointed out.

Porter's latest romance, for example, could be safely flashed
around at a church supper. From Here to Maternity, which she
wrote for Harlequin's Love & Laughter series, sports a man, a
woman and a baby on the cover.

The cover of Leto's latest, Private Lessons, written for Harlequin's
steamier Temptation Blaze series, is more in keeping with the red-hot
image of romances: a scantily clad woman is pinning down a stunned
but obliging hunk in bed. But Leto insisted that after all the sex,
there still has to be the big C for a romance to work. "Even the
sexiest tale published by Harlequin is about commitment," she said.

Unfortunately, the genre is often judged by people who have never
read a romance, said Leto -- like the priest who told her she would
burn in hell for writing one. Even Leto's mother had her doubts
until her daughter assured her that her novels contained no
profanity. Romance novels rarely do these days.

What they do contain are strong '90s kinds of gals. And that's what
women love about them, said Kimberly Llewellyn, a Safety Harbor
writer whose first romance novel, Soft Shoulders, out this month
from Kensington, will appear exclusively in Wal-Mart stores, the
largest distributor of romances. "This world is a real ugly place,
especially for women, and women can feel empowered by these books,"
she said.

Forget the white knight who sweeps the fair maiden off her feet.
Forget the rake who ravishes the helpless waif. "The modern romance
novel heroine never, ever, waits around to be rescued," according to
Victoria Johnson in All I Need to Know in Life I Learned From
Romance Novels, self-help advice based on themes from romance novels.

Strength though has not been enough to win over all those romance
readers' hearts -- or else Viola De Lessep and Monica Lewinsky would
have surely qualified. Romance heroines can have sex (as long as
it's safe sex, of course). They can even like having sex. But they
have to wind up convincing the guy to be faithful and stay with them
happily ever after.

After all, what good is romance if all you get is a book contract?