Of Swords and Parasols

I shall consider that option for other special finds!

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shewhohashope.livejournal.com

Read it, read it, read it, read it....

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But at this point, I'm getting close to 100 additions to the backlog JUST WITH THE BOOKSALE!

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artillie.livejournal.com

DO EET

Of course they give into the sins of the flesh. What kind of sleaze-o romance novel would it be if they didn't?

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Well, there are romance genres where they don't...

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Most of those don't fall under "Harlequin", though. :P

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Actually, Harlequin and Silhouette both have lines that don't. (I know this mostly from working in a bookstore.)

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I work in a book store and every Harlequinn that's crossed my register seemed to fit the stereotype. ^^;

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I think Harlequin Presents and plain Silhouette are the ones I'm thinking of. But who knows. They could have discontinued them sometime in the last 5 years.

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Or they could, perhaps, just be incredibly unpopular in my area.

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This (http://www.eharlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=538&chapter=0) should be their current lineup, straight from the horse's mouth. "Mills & Boon Tender Romance" is one of the secular lines that deemphasizes the really overt sexuality for more of an old-fashioned "sweet romance" sort of love story, while the "Steeple Hill" line are the wholesome, inspirational Christian romances with no explicit/pre-marital/etc. sex; in their African-American focused Kimani Press imprint, the "Arabesque Inspirational Romance" and "New Spirit" lines seem to be taking a similar religiously-focused, nothing explicit angle. There's probably a few more, those are just the first ones that jumped out at me on a quick browse.

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I have a friend who works at Harlequin, and has been encouraging every decent fannish writer she knows to submit manuscripts because they could do better than some of the dreck she sees... Anyway, they've got prospective writer's guidelines for all of the endless niche subgenres they publish, and some of them are quite chaste -- there are some sublines where the focus is on courtship and falling in love rather than raunchy sex scenes, and so anything much beyond kissing will fade to black at the bedroom door (and there may not even be any of that until the characters are married). And there are multiple "inspirational" Christian lines where the guidelines are very blunt about them being wholesome -- no mention of nudity, emphasis on emotion rather than sex/sensuality, no sex for unmarried characters and no explicit depiction of sex, etc. -- although considering how many books they put out every month, and how specialized some of the niche lines are, maybe your store just carried the more steamy stuff? I'd imagine stuff like the Christian romances would be stocked more heavily in religious-focused bookstores, for instance; and Harlequin also does a lot of direct-mail subscription sales, so that's probably where a lot of the niche lines are selling if they're not stocked as regularly in the average bookstore...

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That's probably so. I'm completely unread in the category--and honestly, only know what people talk about or buy in store. And that would be (generally) the horrible, bad smut. ^^;

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The specialization and branding seems to be really intense -- they've got multiple sub-lines focused on Christian stories, or black characters, or Spanish-language material, or stories with medical settings, or even NASCAR-based books. And they pump out new titles every month, so really it doesn't surprise me that an average bookstore couldn't possibly carry their entire line...

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o.o

Then why does every cover I see look so interchangeable? >>

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Judging from the cover snark I see on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, some of the same models get used over and over and over again for a lot of book covers with just a change of hairstyle and costume and props, to the point where they become pretty recognizable to aficionados (think Fabio, only not quite as well-known outside of romance fan circles). And apparently it's not unknown for publishers to recycle old art on new books, too...

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Hahaha, that's soooo horrible. xD;;;;

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animeshon.livejournal.com

Oh God I had forgotten how the plots of Harlequin books could go. It's been almost 3 years since I read one (except for a few absolute favs that I pull out every now and then)

My favourite was one about a girl who was apparently the daughter of a water sprite and a human and she could use magic, and some cynical detective who was apparently a magician, and sex helped his powers!

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