I honestly just wanted to be really lazy and post this picture, but I guess I should make a half-assed attempt at being relevant so...
There's been a lot of buzz online about books being sold as romances that really aren't. A troubling trend to be sure. I'm not a die-hard *reads romance only* type gal, but tellya what, if you slap Romance on the spine and I ante up some cold hard cash for it and it is not *primarily* a romance novel? Imma gonna be pissified.
This is probably why I'm still a hard core historical romance reader. Yeah, maybe there hasn't been a lot of freshness of character and plot there in years gone by, but who cares. I get what I want, character, romance, some lovely prose that wraps up the senses. Beside, *fresh* new voices like Elizabeth Hoyt, Anna Campbell and others, are shaking things up a bit.
So what does this all have to do with the picture?
My friendly neighborhood bookseller was trying to hand sell me this book yesterday. DEVOUR:
From the Publisher
A spellbinding debut, paranormal thriller
A Werewolf...
A vampire...
And the woman who wants them both.
The dashing Pierre du Montfort is a werewolf who's never had trouble hiding his cursed heritage. But now with his dark secret about to be unleashed, he's willing to do anything-and savage anyone-in order to stay alive...
Beautiful and intrepid werewolf hunter Catherine Marais has no qualms about her destiny. Nothing will stop her from destroying the …+ read moreA spellbinding debut, paranormal thriller
A Werewolf...
A vampire...
And the woman who wants them both.
The dashing Pierre du Montfort is a werewolf who's never had trouble hiding his cursed heritage. But now with his dark secret about to be unleashed, he's willing to do anything-and savage anyone-in order to stay alive...
Beautiful and intrepid werewolf hunter Catherine Marais has no qualms about her destiny. Nothing will stop her from destroying the last Montfort werewolf. Not even Ian Morgan-the 200-year-old vampire whose electrifying touch could tempt Catherine to indulge in a forbidden darkness from which she may never return...
Turns out she had no more in stock, but was reading it herself (she was only on page 50). It looks really interesting, but something tells me this is not *primarily* a romance. Yet, there it is in the romance section. If someone's read the book, correct me if I'm wrong.
I think they (the publishers) are chipping away at the romance reader market and the thin carbon steel edge subgenre they're using to do this is paranormal/urban fantasy. I've got no problem with para/u.f and my favs most likely will have a romance in there somewhere, but don't put in on the romance shelves when the romantic relation is an "also ran" within the storyline and you might not even give me my damn HEA/HFN!
I'll probably get the book, btw, it really does sound cool. I just had to take that extra minute to think about what I might be getting and adjust my expectations accordingly.
3 comments:
That book looks real interesting. I think I might check it out. I don't think I've read an urban fantasy before. Maybe I have, but I'm not that knowledgeable about the genre.
It certainly does sound intriguing, doesn't it? I check 3 bookstores for it and they were sold out. By bookseller said she has more on order, so I'll probably pick it up then.
UF is hard to define because everyone has a different take on it. Some para fits, so does some sci-fi, imo. Sort of like how a bunch of book that I'd been reading for years were suddenly classified as chick lit. ::shrug::
Keep in mind that writers have NO say-so in how their books are classified or shelved.
As to UF...you're right it is hard to define. My agent has called my futuristic an UF but I got a rejection from one house because it felt too "paranormal romance"--so go figure
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