For this week’s Throwback Thursday post I’m looking back to this very day last year! In anticipation of the upcoming release of Evelyn’s Promise I love remembering all the reasons I love historical romance.
I’d like to share the reasons why I fell in love with reading historical romance. The follow-on is that I enjoy writing it as well, but that’s because I love reading it so there’s no list to make for that aspect. There is a difference, of course, between historical romance and historical fiction. I read both and enjoy both but for slightly different reasons. So for the top 5 reasons I love historical romance (drum roll, please):
#5. In addition to the happily-ever-after, feel good ending, I learn a bit about the history of that time and place and the people involved. I am a romantic at heart, so having a man and woman fall in love adds to the story no matter the “parent” genre.
#4. I feel like I’m cheating my history professors by reading fun and interesting facts about history instead of boring names, places, and dates and/or figures. And numbers are so NOT my friend! I remember concepts presented in words far easier than equations and statistics, so for me reading a story helps me remember the history even though when researching for my books the stats and dates are often what triggers the story line. Go figure…
#3. Seeing how a man and woman courted in the past is fascinating. The limitations and expectations their society imposed upon them contrasts sharply with my own experience dating my hubby. Makes me feel rather wanton by comparison, let me tell ya. That’s not a bad thing, either!
#2. My love of learning about language is satisfied by the peek into the past of how folks spoke to each other, the words they chose to use, and the idioms to be found that we find quaint or even shocking today. Words evolve over time as far as when they originate in our language and how they are used (meanings shift or even flip from being a negative to a positive) over time.
#1. Historical romances bring the past alive in a way that allows me to see what life was like in other regions at other times. I can start to see the continuum of human existence and how we affect each other. Grappling with understanding how and why people treat each other makes me an ever better author as well.
How about you? Why do you enjoy reading historical romances?
Betty Bolte's Musings 