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Why you should start reading romance novels

Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth may seem like an odd couple on paper, but they share undeniable chemistry in Jocelyn Moorhouse’s film adaptation of Rosalie Ham’s romantically inclined The Dressmaker.

New research into personality and social psychology conducted by doctoral student Sean Murphy and Professor Bill von Hippel at the University of Queensland suggests that happily ever after is more likely to happen with a partner who doesn’t fit the Prince or Princess Charming illusion.

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Murphy, who acknowledges that romantic novels are something of a guilty pleasure, says our conceptions of the right relationship values are less important than we think they are.

“If you wrote down a list of all the things you’re looking for in a partner, it would be quite long, but there might only be a few things that are truly important to us and sway our decisions and even then, we might not be able to articulate which ones those are.”

So maybe romance really is just down to kismet, with no rhyme or reason? Murphy points out that while some romance novels reinforce the notion that a partner has to meet every criteria, others, including Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project or Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice, are ripping yarns about falling for someone unexpected.

When Simsion was writing The Rosie Project, about a genetics professor who devises a questionnaire to assess prospective partners’ romantic suitability only to have his feelings for the deeply unsuitable Rosie throw a spanner in the works, the author didn’t realise it was a romantic novel until his editors pointed it out.

“The first book has been co-opted as romance, and the very positive thing about that is that it probably meant I got a bunch of readers who would normally only read genre romance who decided to take the risk with my book,” Simsion says.

“The negative side is that romance writers typically only write romance, so those readers who’ve come back and read The Rosie Effect have been disappointed.”

The sequel, which just passed 300,000 sales in Australia, focuses on what comes next after the happily ever after, something romance novels often leave to the imagination.

Though he doesn’t see himself fitting easily into romance bookshelves, Simsion’s all for love in literature. “Nobody calls Possession by A.S. Byatt romance, or The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles, which follows the same sort of arc as The Rosie Project. I’m totally happy to call The Rosie Project a love story, and I would even call it a romantic comedy.”

While there’s certainly a swoonsome love story at the heart of Ham’s The Dressmaker, the zany piece also stitches in a murder mystery, vengeance yarn and a stab of gothic horror alongside the sort of Aussie comedy championed by The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert and Muriel’s Wedding.

In Ham’s third novel There Should be More Dancing the heartbroken Mrs Parsons, who migrated to be with her husband during WWII but was cruelly abandoned, turns to romantic fiction to feed her isolated heart.

“For Mrs Parsons, the angst of overcoming obstacles, the breathy anticipation… and the dramatic fantasy of swooning into someone’s arms was a great substitute for the real thing, especially given the real thing pales into comparison.”

Marisa Ferraro’s debut novel Once Bitten Twice Shy, featuring 30-something Maxine suddenly single and unemployed, draws from her own experiences. She says the genre has a role to play in helping people manage bumpy rides.

“The benefit for readers is they feel they are never really alone,” she says. “The themes of love, dating and everything in between will always capture the attention of people, young and old. Both men and women want to understand the inner workings of dating and relationships and how to interpret the subtle and mixed messages from the one that captures their attention.”

Romance writers have been shifting with the times too, according to Ferraro. “It has evolved significantly from the knight in shining armour saving the damsel in distress. The bigger issue is changing the way we think and feel and not conforming to the traditional, out-of-date roles of men and women. People don’t have to be married; it’s a choice.”

Nicki Reed’s new novel Unmarry Me points out that not everyone has a choice. A sequel to her first novel Unzipped, which detailed the unexpected lesbian romance of Peta, it picks up when the Australian High Court has annulled her marriage to another woman. Unmarry Me focuses on her sister Ruby, who married Peta’s ex-husband Mark but is so incensed by the court ruling she suggests divorcing in protest.

“I was able to explore the issue of marriage equality without using a big stick, because nobody likes to be talked down to,” Reed Says. “I could deliver a novel that was a nice mixture of serious and fun.”

She thinks romance has been unfairly maligned. “I did it myself this morning, then I remembered that all novel writing… takes faith and endurance. For some reason, perhaps because a romance novel is meant to finish with a breathy, ‘up’ ending, we think of it is a frippery. It’s harder than it looks to deliver a conclusion that meets the tropes and expectations of the genre that also surprises.”

Nicole Haddow, author of eBook Tweethearts, says deep down, we all yearn for a bit of romance in our hectic lives.

“Even at its worst, the genre can be a welcome escape from hook-up culture and poor dating etiquette. At its best it can remind us of the power of vulnerability, jolt us into action and inspire romance in our real lives. I’m a sucker for grand gestures and happy endings. I know I can find them in good books, even if my real life romances are a bit lacklustre.”

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