The Romance Factor

Do you like romance in a book? (And by romance, in NO way do I mean s - e - x. I mean the falling in love parts. Or the being in love parts.)

I like it. As long as it's not the main storyline. And as long as it isn't terribly descriptive. I like to cry while reading a book. I like to laugh while reading a book. I like to gasp while reading a book. I do not like to have my cheeks flush while reading a book.

And that alone is about 50% of the reason why I don't write Young Adult books. The cheek flushing. I mean you can't get away from that kind of stuff when you're writing YA. The excitement that forms inside the main characters when falling in love? How a first kiss feels? Any touching that goes on? Blech. If I wasn't too embarrassed to sit in front of a computer and write about that kind of stuff, I'd definitely be too embarrassed to actually let someone read it.

But twice in my life, I've come across a book where the romance factor is just sweet. Books where I think, "Hey. I could handle writing romance into a book if I wrote it like that."

I think what both books had was subtlety.

The first book was one I read months ago--- The King of Attolia. The second I finished just last night--- Fire. (And if you don't know anything about Fire, it's a "companion" book to Graceling. And by "companion," they apparently mean "has very little to do with Graceling, but nonetheless seriously rocks the house in a clear-your-entire-schedule-because-you-won't-want-to-put-it-down kind of way." And if you don't know what Graceling is, we need to talk.)


Fire is the girl main character. She falls in love with the boy main character (I'm not even going to say his name, because it then it will change what you think the first time you meet him). They fell in love slowly, while a BUNCH of other stuff is going on. Tons. Them falling in love was definitely not the main story line. What I loved is the way the author made us (as readers) come to love the main characters. Then when they fell in love with each other, we got it. We understood. We knew why they loved each other. We felt what they felt.

So, toward the end of the book, when they had their first kiss, there didn't need to be any fanfare. The fact that it was the first kiss wasn't even mentioned. She didn't write how the characters felt about it--- we already knew.

I love that.

(And I'm not saying that there wasn't any s - e - x in the book, because there was more than I'd like going on. We just weren't in the room for it. Whew.)