Tag: Books

Popularity of the Arranged Marriage

Historical romance novels often feature wonderful tropes. The Arranged Marriage is one of my favorites, where characters are forced into a marriage for political or social reasons, leading to unexpected love.

There’s something about women being forced into marriage in times past that I find equally horrifying, angering, and fascinating.

It makes one wonder what we would do if we had so little autonomy that another person could direct our lives in such an egregious way.

One of the reasons I like this trope in historical romance is that the story arc can go in so many different directions. The heroine can begin hating her husband and gradually fall in love with him. She can try to escape the marriage by running away, aided by her true love. Some other noble hero can swoop in and spoil the marriage plan by rescuing her.

The heroine can try somehow to invalidate the marriage or foil her parent’s plot by making her fiancé withdraw from the contract, as was done in the latest season of Bridgerton. Cressida’s move to discredit herself was brilliant.

I recently read a fun historical romance in which friends of the prospective bride and groom foiled two different prospective marriages. That was a very unusual take on this very popular trope, and a lot of fun.
Of course, I had to try my hand at this. So, in my second novel, Marry Me, Duke, I decided that the arranged marriage would be orchestrated by the heroine, Ginny, rather than an authority figure. She arranges her own marriage in order to escape from a life of forced caregiving.
And, of course, there is resistance, and problems arise. A love between the couple grows, and there is a happily ever after. Marry Me, Duke is now on Kindle Unlimited; if you like this trope, you should check it out.

Image AI made by MidJourney

A Writer’s Corner – Reading

This very interesting question was posed on Reddit: Can you be a good writer if you’re not reading?
My vote is—no; you can’t unless you have superpowers. Yes, it’s difficult to juggle a writing schedule and manage time to read, but it’s certainly doable. I would say it’s essential.

One brilliant answer to this question was this:
“I think part of what explains your bafflement it is that the resistance to reading more/constantly/as a life-long requirement comes up against two big psychological bugaboos:

  1. ⁠Reading puts it right in front of you just how long that path is, and that even if you have confidence and willfulness, people get very uncomfortable being aware just how much great writing already exists, and always will, and therefore, there will always be somebody better at it than you. Conclusion: if you don’t read then you won’t have to face the truth that the odds are not in your favor.
  2. ⁠The more you read the better you get at analysis and critique, which leads to expanding awareness about structure, and how much structure exists in subtext. This freaks people out. There is more craft to writing than we want to admit, and once you face up to that, you have to go through a difficult process of learning how to separate your ego from the work itself.”

Image AI made by MidJourney