It's all Karen's fault.

See, Karen likes to do "themes" for gift-giving occasions. And she's pretty well-known for getting a bit overenthusiastic about them.

She sent K.T. a box of stuff (I don't even remember what the occasion was -- Christmas, perhaps? Or maybe it was a just-because thing?) having to do with K.T.'s Hall character, Bastian.

It included, among other things, a trashy romance novel, because Karen said the male lead reminded her of Bastian.

Karen doesn't generally read trashy romance novels, but her mother is addicted to the things, and since Karen works in a library, her mother uses her as a convenient delivery system. Every once in a while, Karen skims one, just to see if they're still as awful as she remembers them being.

So I could blame all of this on Karen's mother, I suppose. But I've never even met her, so I choose to blame Karen. I'm just arbitrary like that.

Anyhow, Karen happened to read this one, and was surprised to find that she enjoyed it so much. And, since the main character (well, the male one -- trashy romance novels do generally have a matched pair of protagonists) reminded her a bit of Bastian, into the box it went, along with another novel by the same author.

K.T. started reading somewhat dubiously, and then got sucked in and devoured them both in a single day.

Then she loaned them to me, and ordered more. And then more. I think she's got an even dozen of the books now, and I'm working my way through them a handful at a time, as I meet with her to do exchanges. All by the same author, who insists on defying trashy romance novel conventions by insisting on including actual plots, and characters with motives who make sense, and -- you'll not believe this -- actual humor. Sometimes a biting, sarcastic sense of humor, even.

The writing is very sharp, too. For trashy romance novels, they're quite good.

Mind you, they're still fluff. No intellectual effort required. But for fluff, they're pretty good.

They do, of course, stick to certain conventions of the genre. The characters are of course devastatingly attractive (though not always the most attractive). The woman is invariably younger than the man (though sometimes only by a year or so). The man is invariably taller and stronger than the woman. There's always some reluctance on the man's part (actual reasons vary) and often on the woman's as well.

And they always end up madly in love (of course, it being a trashy romance novel) which is fine, but... does it really have to be described so unrealistically? It's my one disappointment with the author, that she's perpetuating this unrealistic expectation of both romance and sex.

Especially when the real thing is so much immensely more satisfying.

Matt and I have been married for eight years, today.

So, to the man who loves me more perfectly than any romance hero could ever hope to understand: Happy anniversary, sweetie. I love you.

--Liz