Guy Friendly Romance Novels that aren’t Fifty Shades of Grey
By John Pecoraro, Associate Director
OK men, Thursday is Valentine’s Day. If you are looking for a gift for that someone special a little more creative than the usual flowers and chocolates in a heart-shaped box, look no further than the library. Choose among the wide assortment of romance novels to read, share, and impress.
Thousands of new romance titles are published every year. To help make sense of the overwhelming number and variety of romance fiction available, here are a few of the more guy friendly selections.
A mysterious plague has taken over the quaint English village of Meryton, and the dead are returning to life, as zombies. This is the premise of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” by Seth Grahame-Smith. The author maintains the structure and language of Jane Austen’s original. Elizabeth Bennett is still beautiful and intelligent, but now is an expert in the “deadly arts.” She is determined to destroy the zombie menace. Enter the arrogant Mr. Darcy, who distracts Elizabeth from her quest. As much comedy and satire as romance, there is enough blood spilled in this book to satisfy everyone.
Librarian Henry DeTamble suffers from Chrono-Displacement Disorder. He travels involuntarily through time. His wife, artist Clare Abshire’s life follows a natural course. This is the impossibly romantic trap in which these lovers find themselves in “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” by Audrey Niffenegger. Henry and Clare tell the story from their own perspectives at various times in their lives. In Henry’s time travels he visits Clare as a little girl and later as an aged widow, and explains how it feels to be living outside the constraints of time. Both fantasy and love story, this creative tale explores the themes of fate and the belief in the bonds of love.
Agnes Crandall is a food writer and cookbook author whose future with her fiancé, Taylor Beaufort looks rosy in “Agnes and the Hitman,” by Jennifer Crusie. They’ve bought an old house owned by widowed mob wife Brenda Fortunato, and promised to host a Fortunato family wedding. Maybe that’s where things began to go wrong. Someone broke into the house, fell down the stairs into a hidden basement, and died. Enter hit men, Shane and Carpenter to investigate. Who sent the intruder? Who sent the hit men? This is a romantic comedy mixed with a measure of action adventure.
British spymaster Robert Grey came to France to track down Annique Villiers, the notorious spy known as Fox Cub. In “The Spymaster’s Lady,” by Joanna Bourne, the spymaster and the spy must enter into a reluctant partnership to escape from prison. Grey must get the Fox Cub back to London to thwart Napoleon’s plans to invade England. But Annique is determined to block him at every turn. She’s never met a man she couldn’t deceive, but has she finally met her match?
“How to Fall in Love with a Man who Lives in a Bush,” that’s the problem faced by Julia in the novel by Emmy Abrahamson. Julia lives a life of waiting: waiting to think of an original story, waiting to quit her job teaching English. She is convinced that she is content with her dull life, until she meets Ben. Ben is younger, Canadian, strong in his conviction that he is going to marry Julia, and he lives in a bush. Julia’s life from that point on takes a turn stranger than any fiction she can imagine.
In “No One Like You,” by Kate Angell, we find Beth Avery running away from her past and landing in the beach community of Barefoot William. She is out of money, but maybe not completely out of luck. Baseball star Rylan Cates needs a personal assistant to organize his life, and to take care of his four dogs. Beth loves the dogs, and Ryan feels safe from romantic entanglement because Beth isn’t his type. But Cupid has another opinion.
And, of course, anything and everything by Jane Austen. So maybe not guy friendly, but a great way to impress that special someone in your life. Also, Austen’s novels are the closest I’ve ever come to reading Romance.