Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Kristen Ashley and Epic Romance

I'm on a big old Kristen Ashley glom. It isn't pretty. Hell, it's like watching someone going into a food frenzy, just stuffing themselves until they can't move out of the chair and they look dazed and beyond sated.

So why am I doing this?

I realized about a week ago that KA writes romance that's epic. Huge. It's fated love when two people see each other and it's immediate. But their happiness is jeopardized by their own inner demons, by outer demons (often carrying guns and/or knives) and HUGE misunderstanding.

Oh there are things that drive me crazy, like the heroines are all gorgeous but don't realize that they are. And every single hero talks the same way: "You got two different kinds of sweet and I like them both."

No human male talks the way KA's heroes talk. And if they did, we'd laugh hysterically.

But the romance is HUGE. These are men and women who are willing to uproot their entire lives for one another. They take bullets for the person they love. They're virtuous and honorable and nothing about them is small (except their conversational skills).

These are books romance writers should read. Because when you open up to the complete EPICness of what KA is doing, it becomes a lesson in writing.

Romance should be big. It should be huge. Falling in love should shake up the very foundation of the earth. Nobody should be unchanged by it.

Romance should be big stories with big emotions and sweeping declarations of love. It should disarm the hero, stun the heroine and leave worlds in its wake.

It should leave the readers breathless and drained and turned on.

KA got it. And I'm diving in headfirst and losing myself in the amazing world of love.

3 comments:

  1. When, after turning that last page of a novel, I yearn and feel bereft, I know I've read about love that moves mountains.

    That is the kind of love that I want to read about--the other kind often ends in divorce or apathy, and why would anyone want to read about either of those?

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  2. I agree AZ. I think it might just be the place that I'm in right now but KA's heroes are leaving me yearny and that's just such an awesome feeling.

    I like falling in love with these guys as much as the heroines do.

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  3. Totally agree, Lori. Many of her books are the 'finish and read them again immediately' kind. I admit I'm hero-centric and my favorite is the caring alpha, which all of her heroes are. ♥

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