Why We Love, Why We Cheat by Helen Fisher [Video]

I think, us romance readers all agree with renowned anthropologist Helen Fisher when she says, “There's magic to love!” And, her and us, we should know. Ms. Fisher, because she's spent over 30 years studying sex, romantic love and attachment. And us, because we've spent decades reading these same things in our romance novels.

Anyways, I found this TED Talk that Ms. Fisher gave on the evolution, biology, biochemical underpinnings and importance of romantic love. While she talked, I was reminded of what we read over and over again in countless romances that we've consumed: that there's a difference between the three brain systems—sex, romantic love, and attachment, that we can experience them separately for three different people at one time, but that when all three come together, then the world becomes beautiful and amazing!

What Ms. Fisher says confirms what we already know from our romance novels. It goes to show that we learn a lot about life and the real world from what others belittle as “thrasy books.”

Disclaimer: The video below runs for about 23 minutes. I've included the transcript, courtesy of TED.com. All copyrights to the talk and the transcript belongs to TED Conferences LLC and are used here out of the goodness of their heart. (Thank you, TED!)

(By the way, all the emphases in the transcript are mine, just to mark out what were important bits of knowing for me. Feel free to agree or disagree, hee.)

Review: The Maid's Daughter by Janice Maynard

Burning thoughts
Him: I want her, but my soul can never afford her love.
Her: I find that I love him, yet he distances himself every time we get close.

The Maid's Daughter by Janice Maynard is somewhat a Cinderella story, somewhat a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast. Sort of the heroine taming the tormented, savage male...though by her admission, the heroine's a far cry from being a raving beauty.

It's the third of the Men of Wolff Mountain romance series but the story can stand on its own. I picked it up on Kindle and the fact that it was free didn't hurt a bit. I couldn't exactly say the same for the reading experience though.

But where do I begin?

First lines

Next to the blurb, I always check out the first lines and/or paragraph of a romance novel before I make a commitment to buy, and then to read. I'm not about to spend precious dollars on a romance read that's going to annoy, aggravate and anger me.

The thing is, I'm also an optimistic reader. Although I have the knee jerk reaction of judging books by its cover, I've got the irritating habit of plodding on to The End despite the fact that the first lines were a “Meh!” experience.

My disappointing encounter with The Maid's Daughter, though not a first of its kind, didn't put me off that habit.

Wet yellow leaves clung to the rain-slick, winding road. Devlyn Wolff took the curves with confidence, his vintage Aston Martin hugging the pavement despite the windswept October day. Dusk had fallen. He switched on his headlights, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel in rhythm to the hard-rock oldie blasting from his Bose speakers.

I get it that it's a dark, dangerous night. I get it that the hero's stupendously rich. But what the H?! Why bore me on the first paragraph, Romance? Why?

Profile of a Romance Reader

So, okay I'm a romance novel reader. And I'm unapologetic about it. Despite the fact that one of my policy wonk friends—now a respectable local politician—would rather have me consume tons and tons of policy research stuff.

Image credit: marin/freedigitalphotos.net

I do my work nicely, thank you, but when I want to take back my sanity, I dive into a feel-good happy ever after. Ergo, the romance novel.

I've gotten so much flak about this (not-so) secret obsession of mine that I buckled down and decided to find out who those romance novel readers are.

That means you, dear romance novel reader who got stuck in this blog. ;)

Who are you? Where do you come from? What do you do? Why do you read romance? These are the questions I wanted answered, STAT!

So being the research wonk that I was, I searched for studies that would pin down just who we are. And good Romance Writers of America had the information on their site. (Thank you, RWA.)

Here's what they (and now me and you) know about us romance novel readers (and buyers), so far:

Review: Wife by Wednesday by Catherine Bybee

Burning thoughts:
Him: I want my wife in my bed, and I'm willing to woo and seduce to get her there.
Her: You can never trust men and their motives. Their wants will always come first. 

Wife by Wednesday by Catherine Bybee kicks off the Weekday Brides series – four books so far – and I must say, it's such a fun and easy though no less evocative romance read. The premise of the story has been used so many times in so many ways in Romanceland that it's gotten very old and very tired: a secret marriage of convenience made safe and foolproof by an airtight contract.  Still when I saw it on sale on Kindle and read the blurb, I couldn't resist the one-click buy. I'm a sucker that way.

What hooked me though is a lot of curiosity. What kind of spin is Ms. Bybee going to do using this age-old romance plot?

You know a marriage of convenience in a romance has a set trajectory. Boy and girl – regardless of how they meet – enter into a contract to marry (hopefully with eyes wide open), attraction sizzles, sometimes they bicker, hijinks follows, and then the couple end up truly married. So what's different with Wife by Wednesday?

A lot of fun - and sexy - things obviously, when you've got a writer who's willing to explore how far characters who're not shy about who they are, their motivations and what they want, would dare go.

First lines

Ms. Bybee plunges us immediately into the premise at Paragraph One: Blake Harrison, current Duke of Albany and a wealthy entrepreneur in his own right, belabors his pressing problem to his BFF.

"I need a wife, Carter, and I needed her yesterday." Riding in the back of a town car, end route to a Starbucks, of all places, Blake Harrison glanced at his watch for the tenth time that hour.

Cover Reveal and Release Date: Dark Skye by Kresley Cole

I've just recently discovered paranormal romance...and who hasn't heard of Kresley Cole's Immortal After Dark series? Of course, lots of non-romance reading peeps, but then they're missing a lot. (Just sayin'.)

One of the stories I've been waiting for is the one between Lanthe, a Sorceri—she of the once powerful goddess, and Thronos, a Vrekener...who happens to be her he'll-absolutely-off-me-when-he-sees-me enemy.

We hear of them—and something of their back story—in Kiss of a Demon King, the seventh installment in Sabine and Rydstrom's love story. (Sabine, the Queen of Illusions sorceress, is Lanthe's sister.) And from that time on, I've been seeing flashes of them.
Enough to whet my ever-lovin' appetite!

Now, finally, Ms. Cole has deigned to announce the release date.