scijessreads

While my main source of reading material these days is some sort of romance and/or smut book, this isn’t a new genre for me. As many of us probably did, I grew up reading from my mom’s harlequin romance books. Granted, they were all basically closed-door, fade-to-black in terms of the smut, but they still had all the hallmarks of a romance book: the meeting, the push and pull, the third act breakup/conflict, and an HEA. Because romance always has an HEA, no matter how dark or tortuous the road is to get there.

I very vividly remember reading a lot of Johanna Lindsey in my middle and high school years. With the Fabio covers. Oh, yes, those “bodice ripper” romance covers were everywhere. Fabio was everywhere. And there was just enough plot and pace to keep me coming back for new books, for more. Nothing is overly complicated in these books. The females are all in some sort of “damsel in distress” situation, but they are not completely without agency. They give just as good as they get, at least in relation to the time and the story.

When I was in Half Price Books the other day, I saw these three Johanna Lindsey books. Man of My Dreams, Keeper of the Heart, and Warrior Woman are all books I’ve read before (in high school), and I have a couple of them in eBook. But I couldn’t pass up the original mass-market paperback form. With the classic Fabio cover images. It brought a sense of nostalgia to see these books and to buy them. They are the ultimate in “comfort reading,” as they are light and fun and a reminder of how far my romance-reading journey has come. From regency fade-to-black to full on dark mafia why choose. And they all have a place. They all hit a different itch. And I will never stop reading any of them.