‘I fell head over heels in love with Mills & Boon novels’
Romance novels aren’t miracle workers, but they can be the support to escape life’s curve balls, writes Clare Connelly. So why not celebrate Valentine’s Day swept off your feet by a book.
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Look, friends, it’s been a tough start to 2020. The devastating fires, Coronavirus, would-be political leadership challenges – I’m spent and it’s only mid-February.
Recently reflecting on the different ways we cope with grief, loss and devastation, I read a quote from the great Marian Keyes.
“When my dad died a year ago, I mainlined Mills & Boon,” the best-selling author said. “It’s the absolute escape from my sorrow. I know nothing’s going to jump out and scare me. And this has been very good for me.’
My love affair with romance – courtesy of Mills & Boon – began early. I was about 12 years old when I picked up my first one – an Emma Darcy – and found myself swept into a world of glamour, fantasy and endings happier than I could ever, at that age, have imagined.
The only thing that brings me more joy than reading a Mills & Boon is writing them – my first was published in 2017 and my twenty-first has just hit shelves around the world.
They truly are books for all seasons, but at this time of year, as the sound of St Valentine rings through the air, what better time is there to talk about my first great love? If you’re someone who hasn’t read a Mills & Boon recently – or ever – maybe you’ll even think about grabbing a book and falling as head over heels as I am.
There are various theories on the origins of Valentine’s Day. One of these holds that the festival is named after a priest named Valentine, who healed his jailer’s daughter from blindness. Another belief is that St Valentine married hundreds of couples so that the husbands were saved from the necessity of going to war. Whatever the true genesis of this holiday, it would seem to me that the day is about loving, but also healing. Maybe the two have always gone hand-in-hand.
Romance novels aren’t miracle workers but they can be – and are to so many people – the support that’s needed when life throws an unimaginable curve ball. Lemons are a part of life but lemonade is all you’ll find in romance novels – and that’s okay with me.
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Romance novels are, as Ms Keyes points out, a safe space. While there are myriad subgenres within the broad church of ‘romance’, certain conventions are always met – there is a love story, a conflict, and a resolution that leaves us sure the main characters will live happily ever after.
The last is a non-negotiable requirement of a romance. Anything else – for example a love story where one of the main characters meets a poignant, poetic demise near the end is exactly that: a love story rather than a romance (think Romeo and Juliet).
Why does this matter? Because the happy ending is part of this ‘safe space’ we crave. It’s opening the pages of a book and knowing that no matter the turmoil you encounter along the way, the ending will satisfy you, fulfil you and give you hope. Hope not just in the lasting power of love but in the goodness of people and the beauty of life.
Falling in love evokes within us a chemical response. That obsessive fascination we feel for the object of our desire releases certain neurotransmitters and these chemicals make us feel really, really great.
If you’ve ever lost your head and heart then you know what I’m talking about.
So imagine feeling that rush again and again, with satisfying regularity, every time you crack open the pages of a romance novel.
There’s a reason a Mills & Boon sells somewhere around the world every two seconds (not counting all the op-shop copies!). Or Jane Austen’s Emma is about to have another iteration released in cinemas, or Mr Thornton’s ‘Look back at me’ line has become endlessly memed.
Love is addictive, in and of itself, but combine that with the guarantee that nothing unexpected is going to ‘pop out’ from the pages of the book and upset you, and the pleasure of relaxing into a guaranteed, satisfying happily-ever-after and it’s easy to understand why these stories continue to be enduring favourites.
However you’re planning to celebrate this holiday, I hope your day is as filled with love as the books I adore reading and writing.
#LoveHeals
To aid bushfire recovery and relief efforts 10 per cent of all sales from millsandboon.com.au in the month of February will be
donated to the Red Cross relief appeal.
Clare Connelly is an Australian author who writes for Mills & Boon