Readers of inspirational romance want both a compelling, wholesome love story and an uplifting Christian faith element. A good inspirational romance supplies both of these, and more. Many contemporary readers find it challenging to live an authentic Christian life in today’s world, to act with integrity in an impure culture and to keep their faith, hope, and love alive in [...]
Filed under Behind the Scenes · Tagged with A Father's Place, adoption, Amish romance, bodyguards, characters, Christianity, churches, community, convicts, cowboys, Delaware, editors, Ellie Wayne, embezzlers, Emma Miller, faith, family, fathers, forgiveness, Golden Rule, Harlequin, HEA, historical romance, idealism, inspirational romance, Joan Marlow Golan, Johanna's Bridegroom, Linda Ford, Love Inspired, Marta Perry, materialism, morality, murder suspects, orphans, parents, positive, profanity, prostitutes, prostitution, readers, redemption, relationships, self-improvement, sex, simplification, sin, spirituality, Terri Reed, The Cowboy Target, The Cowboy's Unexpected Family, transformation, voice, weddings, widows, Wyoming
As the 1960s progressed, mainstream media looked warily at a changing American sexual culture. In 1960 the Food and Drug Administration approved the marketing of Enovid, the first oral contraceptive, and by 1962, more than 1,000,000 women were “on the pill.” In 1965 the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that all women, not merely married women, had a [...]
Filed under Talking About Romance · Tagged with 1960s, affairs, Anne Bancroft, Benjamin Braddock, California, chastity, commitment, contraceptives, Dustin Hoffman, Elaine Robinson, FDA, film, Griswold v. Connecticut, intimacy, Karen Dunak, legal history, marriage, media, middle age, morality, Mrs. Robinson, romance, San Francisco, sexuality, social history, Summer of Love, Supreme Court, The Graduate
Back in 1979, during the first wave of popular romance criticism, Ann Barr Snitow claimed that “virginity is a given” in the mass-market category romance. Things changed for heroines some time ago; in fact, they’d changed in longer historical romance novels well before Snitow published her essay, and in Harlequins shortly thereafter. Is a comparable shift underway for heroes, this [...]
Filed under Talking About Romance · Tagged with 1970s, ambiguity, Ann Barr Snitow, archetypes, chastity, Christianity, courtesans, Courtney Milan, Gaithersburg, Harlequin, Innocent Ecstasy: How Christianity Gave America an Ethic of Sexual Pleasure, inspirational romance, Jessica Farleigh, Jonathan A. Allan, Joshua Harris, Journal of Popular Romance Studies, lust, M/M romance, Maryland, masculinity, morality, North America, pastors, Peter Gardella, purity, Queen Victoria, Sir Mark Turner, theology, Theorising Male Virginity in Popular Romance Novels, Unclaimed, virgin hero, virginity
Korean television dramas (K-dramas) rarely present a straightforward romance. They are often driven by convoluted courtships where likeable couples spend the series overcoming obstacles in order to eventually embark on an uplifting relationship. In My Lovely Samsoon, for example, the romance slowly develops between a “chubby,” down-on-her luck baker with an old-fashioned name (“Samsoon” has the ring of “Gertrude” or [...]
Filed under Talking About Romance · Tagged with adultery, Baker King Kim Tak Goo, bakers, Boys over Flowers, careers, child out of wedlock, childhood sweethearts, class, Crystal S. Anderson, dysfunctional romance, emotional abuse, K-dramas, Kim Tak Goo, Ma Joon, morality, mothers, My Lovely Sam-Soon, names, parents, physical abuse, redemption, revenge, Samsoon, Secret Garden, Seo In Sook, The Duo, tycoons, Yoo Kyung
