Rebecca Kaye Barrett

Abstract

Christian romance novels, one of the most popular genres of fiction for Christian readers and one of the most ignored areas of study for scholars, provide countless readers, mostly evangelical Christian women, with emotional and spiritual encouragement. In this article, based upon research involving hundreds of women readers and writers of Christian romance novels, I share women¬s own stories about the emotional and spiritual transformations that happen via the reading experience in order to discover the reasons why women read from this particular genre.

[1]  Even scholars who argue for romance novels do so while believing "the abiding myth that romances fill an emotional void,” Carol Thurston recognizes.[1] Research focuses on this emotional void, and thus the conclusions that scholars typically draw are ones that depict women as needy and unfulfilled. Repeatedly, scholars, even those such as Thurston, Tania Modleski and Janice Radway who are more positive about romances, draw pessimistic conclusions about the ability of women to manage their lacks - lack of love, of nurture, of agency, of mother, or of whatever else the scholars diagnose. The books, claims Modleski, "take the actual situation of women in our society é and put it into a context that is soothing and flattering to women,” thus enabling them better to cope with their realities, "to convince themselves that limitations are really opportunities.”[2] This is "the attempt to adapt what for women are utopian ideals to existing circumstances.”[3] Each book, declares Lillian Robinson in her essay "On Reading Trash,” "repeats what direct experience and dominant ideology have already succeeded in communicating.” This message, according to Robinson, is that "love really is what motivates and justifies a woman¬s life.”[4] Kay Mussell concludes that the "romance fantasy may be both trivial and insignificant in the world of art, but it is genuinely tragic in the real world where women must live.”[5] These conclusions, drawn from scholars who are most positive about the reading experience, deny the possibility that romance-reading experiences can transform readers in meaningful ways, or help readers do anything beyond survive in patriarchy.

[2]  These unhappy conclusions are drawn from a false premise: the idea that women readers agree with the oppressive, patriarchal messages that scholars find in romance novels. Whether the novel is a "sweet” (without sex) Cinderella story or a sultrier Pretty Woman tale (to name just two incarnations of the popular formula), they generally tell the story of an emotionally innocent woman who finds personal fulfillment through a relationship - often of submission, always of rescue - to a hypermasculine man. Critics of the genre - which include not only literary scholars but pastors, mothers worried about their teenage daughters¬ reading habits, and school librarians - believe that readers of these novels subscribe to the patriarchal messages of the books and adopt attitudes regarding gender that permit women to be helpless and men to be aggressive. Given that, in the 1970s, many best-selling secular romances included rape of the heroine by the hero, the threat that women would adopt these values and thus might adapt their lives around them would be quite grave, if it were valid. Yet readers do not report that they internalize these particular messages. Jayne Anne Krentz, speaking for many writers of secular romances, offers an "exasperated declaration that the romance novel is based on fantasies and that readers are no more confused about this fact, nor any more likely to use their reading as a substitute for action in the real world” than are readers of other kinds of books.[6] Readers - even Christian women readers, who are so often stereotyped as more naÃve than the general population - know the difference between reality and fantasy; they recognize that they are reading conventions, not reality, even as they appreciate the uniqueness of each new book. They do not create fantasies from the books. Simply, women know the difference between what they read and what they want in real life. They do, however, use the books to change their individual realities. Critics do not measure this, though, because they do not grant readers agency, seeing them as passive consumers, swallowing novels without intelligent processing. While some of the critical work on romance novels so far - mostly completed in the 1980s, when the secular novels reached their peak popularity - is useful, but focuses on the negative effects of reading. Most research has not been supported with quantifiable data, personal interviews, or ethnographic studies (with the important exception of Radway¬s Reading the Romance) but is instead mostly ranting against the conventions of the genre and unsupported worry about how such novels might affect women without evidence of how the books actually do affect them. Scholars have left unexplored the areas women really want to discuss: the positive ways that reading changes their lives.

[3]  The genre, which was created through the novels of Grace Livingston Hill at the turn of the century and whose popularity has grown since Janette Oke began her prairie romances in 1979, shares some of the conventions of secular romances. Both kinds of novels follow a heroine from innocence to experience via a romantic relationship with a man. Generally, the novels begin with an initial attraction and then repulsion between hero and heroine, and the next 150 pages or so tease out the tension. Shortly after love is admitted, a "black period” separates the potential lovers, but this is always resolved. In the last pages of the book, marriage is guaranteed, and the novel ends. In the serial novels produced by major publishers such as Steeple Hill (owned by Harlequin) and Love Inspired, all of this takes place in 180 pages. In Christian romances, no sex, violence, or profanity occurs. Central to the plot is a religious conflict, often having to do with a woman overcoming her past sins or learning to accept love. Depending on the publishing house, exact details about faith may be more or less pronounced. For example, Steeple Hill¬s books are generically Christian, with no references to specific denominations or details about specific religious practices such as baptism or communion. Other publishing houses, such as Multnomah, offer a relatively simplistic view of Christianity that basically describes a born-again experience.

[4]  Readers of this genre are mostly white middle- and lower-class and range in age widely. For the most part, readers self-identify as born-again Christians or simply "Christian,” though, for them, this term implies a born-again experience. While a few readers are undoubtedly Catholic, and the Mormon publishing houses Deseret Book and Covenant Communications publish romance novels aimed at members of their church, all the women who participated in research for this article identified as Protestant, often nondenominational and evangelical. Strong beliefs in gender distinctions, original sin, the salvific death and resurrection of Christ, and a "born-again” experience in which, at some specific moment in one¬s life, Christ "enters into” the heart and offers forgiveness, once and for always, for all sins and guarantees salvation and a place in heaven after death, are shared by the majority of readers. The growth in born-again Christianity has been well documented, and thus the dominance of such believers in popular Christian culture is no surprise. In order to understand, in their own terms, what such women gain from reading Christian romance novels, I gathered responses from hundreds of readers and writers of the genre. In telephone interviews, email correspondence, and chatroom discussions, women shared information about their reading habits and personal stories about how the books affected them. Inviting questions such as "Has a book ever changed your life?” prompted eager responses. As a participant-observer in the fan world, I noted patterns of response and developed relationships with women that resulted in heartfelt, sometimes very intimate, discussions of reading, faith, and romance. Finally, many writers granted me access to their fan mail, which gave me further insights into what qualities women enjoy in Christian romance novels.

[5]  In part, the hundreds of women readers of Christian romance novels with whom I spoke or corresponded or who shared their fan letters with me as part of my research on readers¬ experiences with Christian romance novels are likely to be inspired through their reading because they are open to such an experience. Evangelical women - the bulk of the readership - writes Brenda E. Brasher, have a "tendency to emphasize intimacy over conceptual intricacy,” and thus "rank Øthe heart¬ higher than Øthe head.¬”[7] Thus romance novels, which "aim to engage the emotion, not the intellect, of the reader,” may be appealing to Christian women because they celebrate the gynocentric values of generosity, healing, sharing, and love, which Christian women also traditionally espouse.[8] In reading about the triumph of these values over evil, Christian women find affirmation for their beliefs. This affirmation results in an emotional response. As one reader, an evangelist working in Ireland, wrote to B.J. Hoff: "Your book has given me new courage.”[9] The evangelist¬s claim to "new courage” illustrates that emotional response to popular culture is not only possible but positive and potentially useful.

[6]  Most reader responses to Christian romances begin by relating emotional responses to the books. "I feel like a better person just for reading them,” one fan told Robin Lee Hatcher.[10] Her self-confidence increased because of her experience with Hatcher¬s novels, she reports. Though this does not necessarily correlate with changes in her life - that is, she only feels like a "better person” - the potential for change is present. It begins in emotional response to the texts. Repeatedly, women praise a book with words such as "it touched my soul and stole my heart,”[11] "it touched my heart,” "[i]t was like I was living through every moment,”[12] and "I had every emotion that I could think of.”[13] The books are valued because they inspire an emotional response. One fan, writing a letter to Deb Raney about her novel Beneath a Southern Sky, links these two ideas quite simply when she says that the novel was "deeply emotional and an inspiration.”[14] In order for the novel to be an inspiration, for this reader, it must be deeply emotional. Through emotional response, readers identify with characters and thus learn from them. Through their emotional response to characters, readers participate in the emotional journey of the novel. Since Christian novels are resolved in the always-loving nature of God, the reader, too, finally experiences God¬s love when she puts her book down, as woman after woman testified during our discussions of reading.

[7]  For the women to whom I spoke, the value of a text is not located in the text but in their own experience with the text. That is, overall, comments about the books did not focus on the book (for example, praise about diction or criticism of plot devices) but instead focused on their personal responses to the books, to, in other words, what the books did for them. Women¬s responses to the texts were not primarily critical reviews of texts (though most fan letters began with an enthusiastic but very general sentence or two about the novel about which they were writing), but were personal stories about how their lives changed in response to the novels.

 

[8]  Repeatedly, readers and writers of Christian romance novels reminded me that the story of God¬s love for humanity - as told in the Christian Scriptures - is a romance, a tale of perfect love. Miriam[15] captures this belief when she states, "I believe marriage is a powerful symbol of humanity¬s relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the Lover and we are the Beloved.”[16] Salvation discourse relies on this kind of romantic language. Brenda E. Brasher notes that women use metaphors describing Christ that "range widely, from friend, to lover or husband, and even to a child who needs the protection of a mother.”[17] These words - friend, lover, husband, child - are all words that are echoed in Christian (and secular) romances. At the same time, Christian marriage relationships are described using salvation discourse. For example, the church is the bride of Christ, and just as Christ loves his church, so ought husbands love their wives. Faith and romance are tied linguistically in Christianity, so that a kind of relationship between faith and romance exists that alienates those who cannot participate in it because they are single or because their own marital relationships fall short of the ideal espoused in Christian rhetoric.

[9]  For some women, Christian romance novels provide a site for accessing, in some ways, that kind of love. "[O]nly in romances is an enduring, constructive bond - love - between a man and a woman celebrated,” notes secular novelist Elizabeth Lowell, and only in Christian romance novels does God enter this union, making it, for Christian women, ideal.[18] This triad - God, man, and woman - forms the Christian marriage, a marriage that allows both men and women growth. Secular romantic love and mature identity, according to Suzanne Juhasz,

go together because true love turns out to be responsible, mutual, unconditional, and everlasting. Only a mature person, a person with genuine self-identity and the ability to use it in the world, can love properly. And love is necessary for a person to achieve this kind of selfhood. Consequently, love and identity are not two warring plots but aspects of the same story.[19]

If secular romantic love prompts this kind of response, then believers in Christian romantic love, which includes God, should have even higher expectations of the transforming power of love.[20]

[10] The pressure that readers of Christian romance novels place on Christian romantic love can be intense. Notes Jan Silvious, a Christian writer and therapist who focuses on relationship counseling, "Somehow it seems right and in some ways almost Christlike to be in a relationship that requires total absorption, devotion, and sacrifice.”[21] "Total absorption, devotion, and sacrifice” are words that lovers in secular romances often use in describing their own relationship. In contrast, heroes and heroines in Christian romance novels prioritize God before their love for each other. Best-selling author Francine Rivers, in an article that asks women to investigate their reasons for reading Christian romance novels, critiques media - including, presumably, the Christian romance novel industry - for preaching that "romance and sex are what count, not relationship.” This is not true, she writes, for "what we really need is Jesus¬ love and a relationship with him. Only then can our deepest needs be satisfied - something no novel can ever do.”[22] The necessity of God¬s love is a central theme in Rivers¬ own writing, but it does not negate the power of romantic love. Christian romance novels can thus help women reprioritize their own love lives so that God, not a man, is central to women¬s happiness, though the novels do not discount men. Readers must seek happiness in both God and marriage. "Thank God for being the Creator of love and for loving you,” for this kind of happiness, instructs Rivers. "Ask him to help you enjoy the moments of romance in your life without making them a priority.”[23] The Christian woman¬s first obligation is to God¬s kingdom, not to romance, and even Rivers, who is heavily invested in the sale of Christian romance novels, recognizes this. Writer Jacquelyn Cook shares this story:

A young woman in Texas told me how restless she was following a divorce. "Reading explicit romances made me feel worse. I was ready to rush into marriage again until I read The River Between and learned that marriage should be based on the love of God. I¬m going to wait like Lily for someone who can be one with me in mind, heart, and spirit.”[24]

[11] While the writer of the letter clearly yearns for marriage, despite her previous negative experience as a wife, and still believes that marriage will bring a happiness that singlehood cannot, she has redefined marriage. From a Christian perspective, this new definition, "based on the love of God,” should guarantee a happy union as defined in Cook¬s novels. That Christian romance novels provide advice for creating a happy marriage is not surprising. One woman declared that she enjoyed reading the novels because they "always show how relationships and life should be handled as a Christian.”[25] While many Christians would disagree with this absolute statement, readers of Christian romance novels understand that the books are about relationships. One reader, who grew up in a single-parent family headed by her mother, claims that she reads the books because she is "longing for” the father she lacked during childhood. "It makes me hungry for more,” Simone admits. "It shows me a world I didn¬t even know existed” - a world where men love women and God loves everyone. She continues:

It is my belief that these books are awakening needs I didn¬t recognize, which in turn gives voice to prayers I would not have known to pray. Parents want to reflect God so that their kids can get a picture of God. For those of us who did not have that, this becomes an awesome way to see what God¬s love is really like. For some reason, though, just telling me about God¬s love does not have the same effect as reading these romances.[26]

For this woman, men, God, and love are closely tied. The language of romance is the most accessible language for her to understand God¬s love. Her initial reason for reading Christian romance novels was her longing for a father figure, and she felt that the hero would fulfill this role, for he "is always stronger, always knows exactly what¬s going on.” In the model of a man who truly cherishes a woman, she found God¬s love.

[12] Simone is not alone in her spiritual experience. Nearly all of the women to whom I spoke discussed the ways that the books provided them with spiritual encouragement - far more than mentioned that the books provided them with models for relationships or hopes for a husband, despite Love Inspired editor Anne Canadeo¬s statement that many women "read these books as a how-to or self-help kind of read” to help them "deal with certain problems that they face in their own relationships.”[27] Many have more powerful, even supernatural, experiences than Canadeo suggests. Quite a few women share that God leads them to specific books. One reader told Robin Lee Hatcher, "I thank God that he put [one of Hatcher¬s novels] in my hands at this moment.”[28] This kind of comment - that God has led a reader to the book or has brought a book to the reader - is quite frequent. Penelope, in an article that she wrote for her church newsletter, suggests that women pray as they make a purchase. She instructs readers to "go to the Christian bookstore to the fiction section and let God pick one for you!”[29] God "picked one” for her previously, she relates. She was unable to fall asleep one night, a sign that, she tells readers, God has a message for her. That night, she read her Bible, then part of a Robin Lee Hatcher novel. After reading for a few minutes, she reports, "my eyes got wide with delight” because "God has put something wonderful in this book, just for me!” God¬s "just for Penelope” message was a reference to Hannah Whithall Smith¬s The Christian¬s Secret of a Happy Life, which Penelope then read and which consequently strengthened her faith, she writes. For many women, God¬s specific message for them is delivered through fiction. As Vanessa happily notes, "Not only do you get a romance but you generally get a message as well.”[30]

[13] Sometimes the message is quite personal. Many women see God¬s hand in their reading selections, believing that a message is "perfectly planted there by God so He could reveal His love and caring for ME!” as Penelope said of her experience.[31] One reader, reflecting on her initial disbelief, shared this with Robin Lee Hatcher:

Well, God has spoken to me in many ways, but never through the words in a bookéIt seems like God was saying those very words to my heart. I know without doubt that He was indeed speaking to meé Thank you for being obedient to the call of God on your life. If you hadn¬t been and hadn¬t written the book, I would not have been encouraged on Monday, March 19, 2001.[32]

[14] Many readers speak of "encouragement,” which is delivered through Bible references, inspiring plots, and transformed characters. The books, especially historical novels, according to one reader, "make me realize that I can trust more things to Him!” because they show how trust is rewarded.[33] Writes a fan of B.J. Hoff¬s novels, the books "made me realize that in the midst of evil, pain, and our own personal hell - God is with us, and light truly does come out of darkness.”[34] According to an online reviewer, the books show "the reality of a great God who is ever present,” of "God¬s willingness to intervene on our behalf.”[35] Because the novels always end happily these messages of God¬s love, forgiveness, and healing are repeated endlessly - as often as once a day for the most voracious readers.

[15] Encouragement can come from Biblical allusions and Bible verses that are included in novels, from plot turns, from specific characters, or from specific passages. When asked if a novel-reading experience had ever changed her life, Sue Ellen responded with an enthusiastic "yes,” then explained, illustrating how textual experiences can inspire religious experiences:

Now, let me get down to a detail. In [Robin Lee Hatcher¬s Whispers from Yesterday], on page 166 she wrote and I quote, "Open your heart and let it go. Release whatever fills your hands and your heart and receive the abundance I offer you. Receive from meé.Jesus!” Please knowé.this spoke to my heart in an awesome wayé.I put all of my heartaches and disappointments into my hands and released them to our precious and loving God. What better place for them to beéHE can handle themé.I cannoté.not on my own.[36]

Sue Ellen received encouragement through a prose passage, and her response was, she believes, one of most important spiritual experiences of her life. This encouragement prompts a more joyful relationship with God, for her and for hundreds of other readers who cite passages of special meaning by page.

[16] Often, the messages that readers sense from God are rebukes, yet joy is still the response. Shares one reader, after reading a Robin Lee Hatcher novel, "But boy! Did this book make me utterly ashamed of myself. I realized, to my dismay, that I don¬t anywhere near lean on the Lord as I should. Thanks from the bottom of my heart for the Øwake up¬ call!”[37] Readers are "awakened” to ignored sins including lust, pride, and doubt. Echoes another Robin Lee Hatcher fan, "You have made me see that I need to make some changes in my life. My religion has not been heart feltéI really believe my prayers were answered and I would have never believed before that God could send you a message in a book.”[38] Whether these changes occur or not is not stated, but the fact that the reader felt convicted - and convicted enough that she wrote to Hatcher - suggests an important spiritual experience. In online communities, fans share the long term effects of reading in stories about increased frequency of prayer and a resulting inner peace, greater church participation, an end to "sinful” behaviors from gluttony to adultery, and improved relationships with loved ones.

[17] At times, books provide more than rebuke or encouragement; they provide healing. Writes one fan of B.J. Hoff¬s novels, "[T]he Biblical principles and Scripture used in your books have reached to parts of me that were closed to sermons, Ødealing with pain¬ books, and even well-meaning Christian friends.”[39] She ranks Christian romance novels as more important to her spiritual well-being than more traditional methods of intervention. Another woman, whose husband of thirteen years had abandoned her and their four-year-old daughter, spoke of the way that Robin Lee Hatcher¬s The Forgiving Hour helped her "get rid of some of the bitterness and let go of the past” in order to proceed with her life.[40] The novels provide comfort, relaxation, encouragement, challenges, and spiritual reassurance that, with faith, everything can turn out well for those who love the Lord. As secular novelist Mary Jo Putney writes, "What matters, and what readers respond to, is the healing.” They enjoy a character who "manages to transcend the pain, to become stronger in the mended places, who can forgive the past, even if he or she can never entirely forget it.”[41] In other words, readers want love - in this case, both God¬s love and a romantic love based on God¬s love - to triumph over individual pain and brokenness.

[18] Readers understand such triumph through relationship - through, most often, their relationships with characters. For example, Robin Lee Hatcher¬s The Forgiving Hour and Francine Rivers¬ Atonement Child, which is about a woman facing life after an abortion, prompt the sharing of stories of heartache and recovery. "My marriage was a lot like Claire¬s [of The Forgiving Hour],” admits one woman. "It¬s always so astonishing when someone else seems to understand what I thought was only my world.”[42] For her, transformation - or, in this case, astonishment - comes not only through the text but through the community, the relationship between her as reader and Hatcher as writer. As secular novelists Linda Barlow and Jayne Anne Krentz note, "The author of a romance novel and her audience enter into a pact with one another.”[43] For readers and writers of Christian romance novels, God blesses this pact.

 

[19] "Perhaps,” suggests Deborah Belonick, romance novels are a "subconscious lifeline to a forgotten world, a world that remembers the feminine wisdom of abandonment, trust, and union in love with others.”[44] I disagree with Belonick¬s claim that this process is "subconscious” for readers; Christian romance readers are quite conscious of the wisdom, emotional advice, and community that Christian romance novels provide; they read for this exact purpose. "A majority of readers,” writes Carol Thurston, "incorporate into their lives at least some of what they learn from these stories.” What they "incorporate” goes beyond new knowledge of interior decorating and fashion, too. In particular, they internalize "the more intangible kinds of enlightenment that helps them to better understand themselves or to improve their relationships with others,” Thurston found in her own research on secular novels.[45] While Lillian Robinson criticizes dominant (i.e., patriarchal, heterosexist) ideology for teaching that love is the purpose of life, suggesting, by her tone, that making love the focus of life has negative consequences for women, the Christian theology of the women I met celebrates love for both sexes. Thus novels that make the struggle to love and be loved their central focus address the exact concerns of these women. Instead of seeking in women¬s desire for romance novels a lack that indicates that they are incomplete humans or women brain-washed by mass culture, I see an admission of the difficulty of self-acceptance, of confident spirituality, and of mutual, mature heterosexual relationships. As these are the concerns of many women - and many men - that the novels address them is expected. What makes Christian romance novels different from the "trash” that Robinson analyzes is that these novels do not depict women as sexually submissive or as sexual objects, give credit to the love of a man for a woman¬s fulfillment, or suggest that love is insignificant in a man¬s life. When Christian romance novels provide "enlightenment” with respect to the concerns of women who do agree that love is central to life, they serve their readers well. The books, then, do not function as superficial coping strategies for women trapped in patriarchy but as sources of genuine encouragement in the direction in which readers already want to grow: the direction of love.

References

"Accolades,” B.J. Hoff Fansite n.d. <http://www.homepagez.com/bjhoff/accolades.html> (15 February 2002).

Amazon.com. "Editorial Reviews,” Amazon.com Buying Information n.d.<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0965190617/
qid=1019704962/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-6849281-8515800> (16 February 2002).

Barlow, Linda. "The Androgynous Writer: Another Point of View.” In Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, edited by Jayne Ann Krentz, 45-52. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Belonick, Deborah. "The Bold and the Biblical: What Do Some Romance Novels Have in Common with Scripture? Both Celebrate Female Wisdom.” Beliefnet. n.d. http://www.beliefnet.com/story/33/story_3381.html (15 February 2002).

Brasher, Brenda E. Godly Women: Fundamentalism and Female Power. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998.

Dixon, Jay. The Romance Fiction of Mills and Boon, 1909-1990s. London: UCL Press, 1999.

Hatcher, Robin Lee. "What Readers are Saying.” Robin Lee Hatcher, Novelist. n.d. <http://www.robinleehatcher.com/note.htm> (15 February 2002).

Juhasz, Suzanne. Reading from the Heart: Women, Literature, and the Search for True Love. New York: Viking, 1994.

Krentz, Jayne Ann, ed. Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Leardi, Jeanette. "Christian Romance Novels, More Spiritual Than Stormy, Pick Up Readers,” Knight-Ridder Newspapers. 6 December 1997, <http://www.reporter-news.com/printthis.cf> (15 February 2002).

Lowell, Elizabeth. "Love Conquers All: The Warrior Hero and the Affirmation of Love.” In Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, edited by Jayne Ann Krentz, 89-97. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Modleski, Tania. Loving with a Vengeance: Mass Produced Fantasies for Women. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1982.

______ "My Life as a Romance Reader.” Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres. 3,1-2 (1997): 15-28.

Mussell, Kay. Fantasy and Reconciliation: Contemporary Formulas of Women¬s Romantic Fiction. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Putney, Mary Jo. "Welcome to the Dark Side.” In Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, edited by Jayne Ann Krentz, 99-106. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Rivers, Francine. "Day 20.” Excerpted from 30 Days to a More Incredible You by Ramona Cramer Tucker. Christianity Today. <http://www.christianitytoday. Com/holidays/mother/features/romance.html> (15 February 2002). n.d.

Robinson, Lillian S. "On Reading Trash.” In Sex, Class, and Culture, edited by Lillian S. Robinson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.

Silvious, Jan. Please Don¬t Say You Need Me: Biblical Answers to Codependency. Grand Rapids: Pyranee Books-Zondervan Publishing House, 1989.

Thurston, Carol. The Romance Revolution: Erotic Novels for Women and the Quest for a New Sexual Identity. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Notes

[1] Carol Thurston. The Romance Revolution: Erotic Novels for Women and the Quest for A New Sexual Identity (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 130-31.

[2] Tania Modleski "My Life as a Romance Reader,” Paradoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres 3,1-2 (1997), 17; Tania Modleski. Loving with a Vengeance: Mass Produced Fantasies for Women (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1992), 38.

[3] Modleski, Loving with a Vengeance, 58.

[4] Lillian S. Robinson. "On Reading Trash,” in Sex, Class, and Culture, ed. Lillian S. Robinson (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), 222.

[5] Kay Mussell. Fantasy and Reconciliation: Contemporary Formulas of Women¬s Romantic Fiction. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984), 186.

[6] Jayne Anne Krentz. Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, ed. Jayne Anne Krentz (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), 5.

[7] Brenda E. Brasher. Godly Women: Fundamentalism and Female Power (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998), 63.

[8] Jay Dixon. The Romance Fiction of Mills and Boon, 1909-1990s (London: UCL Press, 1999), 5.

[9] "Accolades,” B.J. Hoff Fansite n.d. <http://www.homepagez.com/bjhoff/accolades.html> (15 February 2002). Hoff writes primarily about Ireland.

[10] Robin Lee Hatcher, "What Readers Are Saying,” Robin Lee Hatcher, Novelist, n.d. <http://www.robinleehatcher.com/note.htm> (15 February 2002).

[11] Amazon.com. "Editorial Reviews,” Amazon.com Buying Information n.d. <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0965190617/
qid=1019704962/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-6849281-8515800> (16 February 2002).

[12] Email to the author from Deb Raney (13 March 2002).

[13] From two fan letters to Deb Raney in regard to her book Beneath a Southern Sky. Email to the author (13 March 2002).

[14] Email to the author (13 March 2002).

[15] The names of all readers have been changed.

[16] Email to the author (4 February 2002).

[17] Brasher, Godly Women, 63.

[18] Elizabeth Lowell, "Love Conquers All: The Warrior Hero and the Affirmation of

Love, in Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, ed. Jayne Ann Krentz (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), 89-97.

[19] Suzanne Juhasz. Reading from the Heart: Women, Literature, and the Search for True Love (New York: Viking, 1994), 12.

[20] Indeed, Juhasz¬s words capture the power that Paul ascribes to love in his famous passage on the topic (1 Cor 13). Here Paul is not talking about romantic love, but he is referring to a God-inspired love, and contemporary Christians often use these verses to define and express romantic love.

[21] Jan Silvious. Please Don¬t Say You Need Me: Biblical Answers to Codependency (Grand Rapids, MI: Pyranee-Zondervan, 1989), 35.

[22] Francine Rivers, "Day 20,” in 30 Days to a More Incredible You by Ramona Cramer Tucker (Christianity Today n.d. <http://www.christianitytoday.com/holidays/mother/features/romance.html> [15 February 2002]).

[23] Rivers, "Day 20.”

[24] Letter to the author (16 February 2002).

[25] Email to the author (5 February 2002).

[26] Email to the author (2 February 2002).

[27] Jeanette Leardi. "Christian Romance Novels, More Spiritual Than Stormy, Pick Up

Readers,” Knight-Ridder Newspapers. 6 December 1997, <http://www.reporter-news.com/printthis.cf> (15 February 2002).

[28] Hatcher, "What Readers Are Saying,” Robin Lee Hatcher, Novelist.

[29] Email to the author (3 February 2002).

[30] Email to the author (4 February 2002).

[31] Email to the author (3 February 2002).

[32] Hatcher, "What Readers Are Saying,” Robin Lee Hatcher, Novelist.

[33] Letter to the author (14 February 2002).

[34] "Accolades” B.J. Hoff Fansite.

[35] Amazon.com. "Editorial Reviews.” Amazon.com Buying Information.

[36] Email to the author (3 February 2002).

[37] Hatcher, "What Readers Are Saying,” Robin Lee Hatcher, Novelist.

[38] Hatcher, "What Readers Are Saying.”

[39] "Accolades,” B.J. Hoff Fansite n.d.

[40] Email to the author (4 February 2002). Many women mentioned this novel by title and discussed the ways that it helped them heal after broken relationships.

[41] May Jo Putney, "Welcome to the Darkside,” Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of Romance, ed. Jayne Ann Krentz (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), 104.

[42] Robin Lee Hatcher, "What Readers Are Saying,” Robin Lee Hatcher, Novelist.

[43] Linda Barlow. "The Androgynous Writer: Another Point of View,” in Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, ed. Jayne Ann Krentz (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), 14.

[44] Deborah Belonick, "The Bold and the Biblical: What Do Some Romance Novel Have in Common with Scripture? Both Celebrate Female Wisdom,” Beliefnet n.d., <http://www.beliefnet.com/story/33/ story_3381.html> (15 February 2002).

[45] Thurston, The Romance Revolution, 133.