Before we begin with my own suggestions for the newbie male romance reader, let's take a look at the covers of the eleven books (not ten, despite the article's title) that DeMarco recommended "that straight men could read to get started." I've not read any of them, but I've heard of nearly half the list before -- best-selling novels that have generated some buzz and attention in recent articles about the romance genre.
Did you notice anything about the covers? Although you can't judge a book by the cover (as the saying goes), the covers of popular fiction books are designed to appeal to specific types of readers. Cartoony covers are (apparently) made for people who are ashamed to be seen reading a book that looks like a traditional romance novel, but they look too fluffy and cutesy to the typical "straight male" reader. And the more realistic covers, focusing on the hunky (sometimes shirtless) male hero, doesn't exactly appeal to the hetero-male gaze either.
In 2019, I wrote a review of a 1996 Harlequin Intrigue novel where I mentioned how its cover alone would be an obstacle for most male readers: "The front cover, with its sexy couple in bed surrounded by a bright pink border, is almost guaranteed to ensure that no male reader would ever be caught dead with a copy. I'm a curious sort, though, and found the swamp setting in the prologue to be intriguing and kept reading to the end."
I only started reading romance novels in 2018, and one of the first that I read was a Harlequin Intrigue from 1986 that I had bought at a thrift store. I think the cover's focus on the hero in an action pose, crouching over the fallen heroine, made it look more like a Mack Bolan novel (published by Harlequin's now-defunct "men's adventure" imprint Gold Eagle) and thus acceptable for me to be seen reading on my front porch. In my Goodreads review of the novel, I wrote "For some reason the setting of this novel, on board a ship, sucked me right into the story." I rated the book four (out of five) stars in my review back then. So, having enjoyed one Harlequin Intrigue novel, I was prepared to read another, even the one with a pink cover that I mentioned above. But it takes time and experience for a newbie to see past the covers and give the genre a chance. I wouldn't recommend a pink cover for a straight male's first romance novel, no matter how good the story is.
Even better than a heroic male action hero on the cover, however, in order to appeal to the potential straight male reader, would be a sexy woman. I have occasionally thought that I should put together a list of what I think are the "hottest" romance covers, but quickly dropped the idea because I don't want to be accused of perpetuating societal depictions of women as sex objects. But if I'm going to be honest, I have to admit that I have sometimes bought paperback novels simply because of how attractive I thought the woman on the cover was. This is true not only of covers showing futuristic spacewomen in skintight uniforms, but of wholesome Amish women sewing a quilt or baking bread. If she's good looking, I will look (on book covers anyway, not in real life, where I respectfully try not to notice).
Shown here is the cover of Harlequin Desire #2874 (May 2022), which I rated 3.5 stars on Goodreads. (In my review, I said, "It would have been a 4 star book for me if not for two aspects that were occasionally annoying.") I bought this book at a store when I saw the cover on the shelf. Can you perhaps guess why?
Yep, it was the cover that initially got my interest. I hesitate to say this aloud, lest anyone conclude that all men are shallow fools like me, but I do think that if there were more romance novels with covers like this one, then there might be more straight male readers of the genre. But then the publishers would be aiming their books at those men, rather than at the women who read them now. So, if straight female readers are the core audience of the romance genre (as they obviously are), then it wouldn't make much economic sense to have more sexy women on the covers. Give the women what they want, I say. But I do appreciate the occasional cover like this one that appeals to the straight male gaze.
What is the purpose of getting more straight males to read romance? The answer we are usually given is not to increase the genre's appeal to even more people (since the romance genre is popular enough already) but to equip men to better understand women. In other words, men should read romance in order to make women happy (which, as a result, will make the men happy, too).
DeMarco writes "If more straight men read romance novels, there would be less confusion about what straight women want." That claim is debatable, of course. If anything, such men might end up even more confused about "what straight women want," given that not all women want the same things and that a woman reader's feelings about a fictional romantic hero doesn't mean that she would want to actually live with him in real life. Some people love to watch Godzilla movies, for example, but that doesn't mean they'd want to see a giant lizard stomping towards their house. We therefore shouldn't necessarily draw any real-world conclusions about "what a woman wants" based on their taste in escapist fiction.
Instead of reading romance for someone else's sake, I think men ought to read romance novels (or at least give them a try) because they might enjoy reading them for their own sake. In 2019, I wrote the following in a blog post about how I became a fan of the genre, and why I had ignored it for so long:
"If I had been told somewhere that romance novels were worth reading, then I probably would have taken a look at them. But whenever I encountered a mention of romance novels, the consensus seemed to be that they were mindless fluff, simply the 'guilty pleasure' of many women readers. The fandoms that I knew about, such as comics and science fiction, had vocal proponents for the artistic and literary merit of their own favorite genre/medium. I saw no such position being advanced by those in the romance novel genre, or by anyone who read it, or by anyone at all."
Sometimes we may wish that a time machine existed so that we could revisit our own past for nostalgic reasons. I would love now to see what the romance shelves of my local Kmart and B. Dalton were like during the boom decades of the 1980s and 1990s. I had the opportunity to experience it at the time, but I missed out because I wasn't paying attention to those particular shelves in the store. If I hadn't accepted the assumption that romance novels were not for males like me, then I could have enjoyed that golden age in real-time instead of looking back on it decades later with curiosity like an outsider, as if I hadn't been around back then.
It wasn't until 2018 that I finally put aside my prejudices towards the genre and found that I enjoyed it after all. One of the things that impressed me the most was its variety. As DeMarco notes, "the romance genre is vast.... You can find any interest explored in the sub-genres. There’s romantic suspense with spies, action, adventure; there’s paranormal with vampires, orcs, mythological creatures; there’s historical," and so on. The genre is so big that there are devoted lifelong romance fans who have never read some of the genre's biggest names because those authors may be writing mainly in one sub-category while that fan is mainly reading another sub-category.
In her article, DeMarco writes: "For the sake of easing in, I’m only recommending contemporary romance novels here. Those are romances written in the present day with everyday people." Historical romance novels are therefore absent from her list, which I think is a mistake considering her intended audience ("straight males"). If there are statistics available about who is buying westerns, my guess is that the majority are men. The same might be true of science fiction, especially for stories set in the future. Books, movies and TV documentaries about the US Civil War or World War Two are likely to be more avidly consumed by men than women. So, stories that take place "in the present day with everyday people" are not necessarily more welcoming to the potential male reader than a historical romance that takes place during the Middle Ages. In fact, the typical male reader might prefer to read about a Viking or a cowboy than about a librarian or landlord. (For this reason, my list below is heavily weighted with historicals. They are my favorite type of romance novel to read.)
Like women, individual men have individual tastes, and no two men will necessarily enjoy the same kind of story. I looked through my Goodreads reviews and compiled a list of some of the romance novels that I had rated four or five stars. There are many other authors and books that could be included in a list like this (for example in the subcategories of science fiction romance and military romance), but I've not read them so I've not included them. A link to my full Goodreads review is provided with each book below, if you wish to read in more detail what I thought about them.
CAPTIVE STAR by Nora Roberts (1997) The Silhouette Intimate Moments line (of which this novel was book #823) eventually evolved into the current Harlequin Romantic Suspense line that you can find on the shelves (along with the similarly long-running Harlequin Intrigue) at your local Walmart. If you are a guy who likes to read about crime, then you ought to give one of these books a try.
From my review: "I was unprepared for this book, which is a dynamite read. Based on the cover, one might assume that this is a romance novel with some mystery element to it, maybe like an old Alfred Hitchcock movie. Nope: think Quentin Tarantino instead (but without the swearing). Much of this book read like a 'men's adventure' or hard-boiled crime novel."
THE YANKEE WIDOW by Linda Lael Miller (2019) This is a novel that takes place during the battle of Gettysburg. For the book's first 200 pages, there is hardly any time for romance, as the wartime action dominates the narrative.
From my review: "In short, this is a terrific novel. If you know someone who is interested in the Civil War but doesn't read romance, give them this book. ...These characters felt alive to me as I was reading it and I was greatly impressed by the quality of Linda Lael Miller's prose, with the occasional turn of phrase that felt lyrical or poetic as it described some common thing. ...Even at 460 pages, it never wore out its welcome."
RAGS-TO-RICHES WIFE by Catherine Tinley (2020) The Harlequin Historical line publishes historical romance novels set during various time periods, most often in Regency England. This novel was book #1486. And it has the sexiest cover on this list, in my opinion.
From my review: "I pretty much knew that this would be a 5-star book from the first few pages because of how enjoyable it was to read and the writer's attention to detail of life during the Regency era (in a non-obtrusive way). ... I enjoyed this book thoroughly from beginning to end and highly recommend it for anyone wanting to read a new Regency romance that is written in the classic tradition but which is still relevant for readers now."
SHE DREAMED OF A COWBOY by Joanna Sims (2021) This is another of those novels that got my attention based on the cover. And when I looked inside (at the store, before I even bought it) I was intrigued by the acknowledgement of the COVID pandemic (which was a hot topic in the news every day at the time).
From my review: "The novel exceeded my expectations. The occasional mentions about mask-wearing do give the book a timely appeal, but what I liked best about the novel were the likable main characters (the hero, rancher Hunter Brand, and heroine, cancer survivor and city-girl Skyler Sinclair) and the details about life on the Montana ranch. .... The story's ending was not merely happy, but I would say joyous."
ABANDON by Neffetiti Austin (1996) The Arabesque line was introduced in 1994, focusing on African-American authors. This was the second (and last) romance novel by the author, which takes place during the Black Power era of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
From my review: "This is a revolutionary book about revolutionary times. .... I found it refreshing and exciting to read a romance novel that was so openly political, that engaged so strongly on an intellectual and moral level rather than simply an emotional one."
THE DEMON COUNT by Anne Stuart (1980) The "gothic romance" is perhaps the most socially-acceptable type of romance novel for male readers, since it contains aspects of the horror and mystery novel. (The "paranormal romance" which has a heavy supernatural element is also a subcategory that men may find more interesting than a regular romance novel.) This was one of the first romance novels I ever read, which I enjoyed enough to seek out and read its sequel, The Demon Count's Daughter (also from 1980).
From my review: "Charlotte finds herself both attracted to and repulsed by the demonic-seeming Count. She begins to believe that he may be a vampire based on some baffling murders that are happening in town. The central question of the novel is whether Luc is what he appears to be, man or beast?"
DANGEROUS by Amanda Quick (1993) Amanda Quick is Jayne Ann Krentz's pen-name for her historical romance novels. (She also writes as Jayne Castle.) The writing is fast-paced with a focus on action that will appeal to men who like stories that get to the point, with an undercurrent of mystery and a dash of the supernatural.
From my review: "The book is written for the modern reader (with a few somewhat detailed sex scenes) who vicariously enjoys reading about the foggy streets of London in the 19th century but wouldn't actually want to live there in reality. DANGEROUS is pure entertainment and makes for addictive reading."
LORD OF ICE by Gaelen Foley (2002)
From my review: "Damien has recently returned from fighting in the Napoleonic wars and is much admired for his heroism throughout England. The experience has taken a terrible toll on him mentally, however, as he suffers from PTSD (not named, of course). Whenever he has a nightmare, or even hears a wine bottle being uncorked at a party, his mindset goes back to the battlefield and his body goes into self-defense mode, sometimes putting those around him in danger as he sees them as a potential threat. The common romance trope of the heroine taming the savage male beast is here turned toward overcoming a psychological problem."
THE SUBSTITUTE BRIDEGROOM by Charlotte Louise Dolan (1991) From the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s, "traditional Regency" lines were published, most notably by Signet, Fawcett, and Zebra. These were thin novels around 200 pages that could be read in an afternoon. They usually had little if any sexual content in them, focusing on the societal rules and traditions of Regency-era (early 1800s) England.
From my review: "This was Dolan's first book and it is written as if it would be her last book as well, seemingly putting her all -- everything but the kitchen sink -- into its 224 pages."
CAPTURE THE WIND by Virginia Brown (1994) Okay, I admit that this book does have a shirtless man on the cover, so I probably shouldn't recommend it to a straight male as their first-ever romance novel. But the musclebound guy has a sword, so perhaps our potential male reader can pretend that he's reading a Conan novel instead. And the hero on the cover is a pirate, after all, so hopefully everyone will be cool with it.
From my review: "The majority of the novel takes place in 1802, following the fiery romance between the pirate captain Kit Saber (actually the son of a duke) and a young woman named Angela that he took aboard his ship instead of leaving her to die aboard another ship he and his pirate crew had raided. .... I found myself enjoying the book throughout its 444 pages."
And if none of the above books strike you as interesting, I recommend simply checking out the shelves at your local bookstore and seeing which romance novels look interesting to you. Usually I will read the first page of a book in the store if the front cover catches my eye. If I love the first page enough to turn to the second page, then there's a good chance that I may feel that way about the rest of the book. But you'll never know until you give the book a chance.
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