Happily Ever After

How was your Valentine’s Day? Did you get the flowers? The card? The candy? Dinner out? My writer friend, Nicole Miller, pretty much summed up my feelings about the holiday here.

But, so much for that. Let’s get back to novels. And let’s talk romance. After all, when was the last time you read a novel that didn’t have some kind of romantic thread running through it? Even male authors will include it in their “manly” adventures. And strict romance is always a hot seller. (It would be even without the half-dressed-guy covers.)

The Young Adult market doesn’t leave the teens out of the equation, either. Writer Barbara Hartzler tells me, “I just read a new young adult book by Stefne Miller called Salvaged. The teenage hero Riley rivals Edward of the Twilight series in his proctectiveness of the heroine who has nightmares every night about a deadly car crash where her mother and best friend were killed. He watches over her every night while keeping his hormones at bay. An inspiring teenage love story of healing and purity.”

There’s nothing we like better than happily ever after. So, What Say You? What is your favorite “Happily Ever After” novel? What attracted you to the hero or heroine? Do you prefer strictly romance or a love story mixed into your thriller/suspense/mystery/western/women’s fiction?