[...]More Than I Bargained For – When Books Come With a Message « All About Romance’s News & Commentary Blog[...]…

@ Katie(kat) – here’s hoping you get to read a few vegan romances one of these days!

Anne: Oh, my! For example, the heroine (and it’s usually the heroine) who states that she’s a vegan and restates it, and restates it, and makes everyone uncomfortable including me… the reader. I’m really not interested in what any character eats or doesn’t eat and I refuse to feel guilty because I enjoy a good steak (medium rare, please.) .

Sorry, you touched on one of my pet peeves. As a vegan I’m sick to death of hearing about how much people like steak when they find out I don’t eat animals/animal products. I love the animals that I’m fortunate to share my life with and I sponsor a pig & a cow at a farm sanctuary. I really don’t appreciate people who feel the need to share how great it is to eat these animals.

I’m sure there are not a run on stories featuring vegans, especially vegans shown in a good light. I get to read about people eating flesh all the time. I’m sure the odd vegan or two won’t hurt anyone.

In the “reality” closet If you want to be *SHOWN* all that pick up any newspaper in any city. Turn on any news program. That’s why I’m in the FICTION section. MY POINT is I CAN THINK for myself….don’t need anyone else to tell me HOW to think or WHAT I HAVE to think about or that I SHOULD be thinking like the author. There are tons of people that think you have a right to your opinion as long as it agrees with them. We shouldn’t judge BUT when you don’t agree with them they become the MOST JUDGEMENTAL people on the planet. Freedom of speech is a TWO WAY street. Like I said, definitely her option to cram it down my throat (my opinion DOES NOT change on that) so definitely MY OPTION to stop reading it. I admire her for sticking to her guns and keeping that at the FOREFRONT of her books if that’s where her convictions lead her. Mine lead me elsewhere. I never criticized Jules thinking or concerns about laws….but I think Jules lost his voice and became SUZANNE. If you noticed it was CONSTANT in her newsletters as well. Plus, honestly…I think that series had run its course.
I totally don’t mind authors mentioning groups/charities/foundations they support and asking you to donate or whatever. And most authors do have something near and dear to their heart. But most of them mention it and leave it at that.
There and oodles and oodles of authors that have themes in their books, that don’t magically erase issues and injustice. They thread it through very nicely. I prefer those. Doesn’t mean I’m in a “fantasy closet”.

Just sayin’

Not picking on you specifically, Melissa, but this is a criticism I hear of Brockmann over and over, and it really makes me want to bang my head against the wall.

The subtext I always hear in this complaint is “Oh, I love Jules, he was so fabulous and funny — see, I don’t mind gay people at all! But then Brockmann had to go and RUIN his character by making him actually think about and care about the way that our laws and prejudice affect his life. Why couldn’t he just stay in my fantasy closet so I could pretend that the world was more fair than it actually is?”

I personally *like* it when an author makes me a little uncomfortable with my unthinking assumptions and privileges. *Show* me the homeless starving Peninsular veterans on the streets, while all those Marquesses and Viscounts waltz at their glittering balls. *Show* me that recovery from alcoholism is a long, painful process that requires strength, patience, and a lot of grace, not just “the love of a good woman.” And yes, *show* me that persons of particular races, races, and orientations still have to deal with a thousand daily injuries and insults that are not magically erased by the Power of Love.

It’s not like I can’t find a million other books that will feed me fantasies and fairytales when that’s what I’m in the mood for.

Jules was one of my most favorite characters. Then came the over and over and over again. Not just in her book but it’s like that’s all she talked about in her newsletters too. It just got to be too much. On her soap box constantly. It just got old. She was just crammin it down your throat. Not just stating her views, but pretty much insinuating if you didn’t agree you were a narrow minded and horrible person.

She has every right to write about it, scream it from the roof tops, and put it in her newsletters. Her prerogative. Just like I have the right to roll my eyes and say enough already!

I think Sandy C summarized all of our posts with her last comment:

“Subtlety is key, that’s all”.

I refuse to read SK anymore and I’m very wary of others who do this. In fact, I’ve been known to have thrown a book out without even reading it after I read reviews that said this was hammered over the head of the reader. “Dome” taught me a lesson in that I will never waste my time being lectured like I’m 6 again. I would have quit that book early on, but after spending that much time on it (gigantic book) I didn’t want it all to have been for naught. Though it was in the end. Total waste of my time.