Mornin' one and all - This blog comes to you from the road... I left home on Friday afternoon... hope to be home later tonight.
We had a fun but very busy weekend. Friday night - a rehearsal dinner... Saturday - lunch with our daughter and family and a peek at the house they just bought. Simple but nice and a lot bigger than where they have been! Then a wedding Saturday night.
On Sunday, we christened little Ainsley in Athens, TN. Family came down from Knoxville, TN, over from Pulaski, TN, and up from Chattanooga, TN. We all rendezvouzed and went to church together... had lunch afterward. Very nice day.
Last night and this morning I have been babysitting. Which brings me to today's blog question...
Are you a fan of romances with babies in them? I know we love babies in real life, but how do you feel about fictional bundles of joy??
I'm curious to hear your answers. I'll weigh in later this evening with my take on the subject!
Hope everyone had a pleasant Monday with a minimum of the usual Monday stuff.
Talk to you soon.
Janice M.
8 comments:
It doesn't matter to me if there are babies or kids in a romance. I will read anything with an interesting storyline.
My mom, however, will only read romances with kids or babies in them (and it has always been this way). I am not sure why. So, if you want my mom to buy your books put a baby, a kid, or a pregnant lady on the cover...LOL. I think that is how she chooses her books at the store...she looks at the covers with kids, babies, and pregnant women on them and then reads the backs.
Ah! This is SUCH an interesting question, and it's one of my two romance hot buttons. I absolutely HATE kids in a romance novel! Nothing will make me put a book back on the shelf faster than reading "When Samantha and her two kids" or whatever, on the back. It turns me off, completely. I even dislike stories where the driving force behind one or the other major characters (usually the heroine) is 'having a baby.'
I think it's maybe a Stage Of Life thing. I've never wanted children. I enjoy kids, but I have no desire to have any. (Of course, I'm 28; that could change. *g*) I've talked to other romance readers who wish they could have had a dozen children, or desperately want one and aren't able to have one, and that's the only kind of romance they WILL read, like Jennifer's mom. :o) One woman I spoke to told me she feels unfulfilled by a romance if there isn't a child in the story. I feel the romance is diluted if there *are* children. I want my h/h to focus on *each other* for the story, not naptime and animal crackers and daycare. How unappealing! *grin* My interest is on the couple, not a family. I spend a lot of time around kids, and I know when there are children present, they are the focus, period. I always find romances with kids in them to be unrealistic. The little guys are always so conveniently out of the way! LOL
For those of us that have a preference, it's an interesting dichotomy. I guess, maybe, we're just most drawn to stories that offer us a picture of what we would consider to be 'completion' in our lives, something that fulfills what we are currently seeking, or something that complements our desires. And a happy ending, of course. :oD
Well, there's my excessively wordy two cents, lol.
I absolutely hate the "secret baby" stories, they just completely turn me off. I will not pick up a book from the shelf if the blurb is about the secret baby. Come on now......that gets to me everytime
I don't mind babies or kids in a story, but it has to have an interesting storyline. Although I do not like stories where the focus is all on the children, babies, etc.
I like to get to know my hero/heroine and sometimes, not always, that cannot be done when there is the overriding emphasis on the children
Again this is just my opinion, and what I feel.
I don't mind kids in stories. I am not real fond of secret babies found out ten years or so later. I mean come on how hard is it to tell the dad about a child. I don't think if I were a guy would be as quick to forgive that. But that is just me.
Awwww, little Ainsley is just gorgeous. Look at that smile :)
I can take them or leave them, but I prefer no baby/kids. I don't enjoy the story when the baby/kids become the central focus of the story. That is definitely going to irritate me. I love kids, but like LadyB, have no desire to have any, at least not right now, and that might have something to do with my feelings about it. I also have to agree a lot with what LadyB said about the time and attention put on children in real life, and how I don't want to read about that in my romances - it's too much like real life. I want the couple to enjoy each other, and not have to be distracted by a child. Sure, sure, a child is a product of their love, etc., but they have time. Don't rush it people LOL.
I will say though that one exception that I've found is Erin McCarthy's "The Pregnancy Test". Erin used the pregnancy to bring these two characters together and it was sweet and poignant and very, very funny. She handled it very well.
Arggg... blogger hates me! I wrote a really long comment on this blog topic this afternoon, and somehow, it didn't post. Don't know why!
Anyway, I basically said that in very sexy romances - no kids, please.
I also don't like stories where the heroine is pregnant with (or just delivered) her ex-husband's baby, and the hubby was a terrible guy. Couldn't she have used birth control if she knew the relationship wasn't in great shape???
Lori has written some wonderful stories that have older children in them, so I guess the right author can make it work.
But in general, the only ones I really enjoy are maybe the ones where the heroine takes on the responsibility of a baby that is not hers, and the hero steps up to the plate and loves them both!
Loved hearing everyone's feelings on the subject!
Janice M.
It depends on how whether or not the blurb catches my attention.
Babies in stories definitely don't turn me off. I've written one. I treat them just like I treat any other book... does the title/cover/blurb catch my attention...have i read and loved the author before...
if so, then yep, I'll buy it.
I have *very* mixed feelings on this topic. I read romances with pregnant heroines, new babies and/or children. However, many are a tad unrealistic, IMO. I think there are a lot of romantic notions tied to being pregnant that oftentimes just aren't there. Maybe I'm just jealous because pregnant heroines are sunny and cheerful, glowing in their pregnancy and impending motherhood, with their still- slender legs and ankles, or they are perfect mothers to perfect little cherubs with clean, shiny faces and spotless clothes. When I was pregnant I felt waterlogged, splotchy-skinned and rather cow-like with legs that wouldn't know slender if it kicked them, certainly not glowing or beautiful in my droopy maternity undies. My children sometimes had popsicle drips or ketchup stains on their clothes; I'm not sure how many men looking for a little romantic action would find all of that an attractive package. Now I will admit that my daughters' faces were typically always clean - a little spit on a mother's thumb can remove anything that might attach itself to a child's face. Well that, and the ever-present wet wipes in her purse!
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