"This is so boring," my husband whispered.
We were half way through the last episode of the first season of Bridgerton, a scandalous new show on Netflix based on the Victorian romances of Julia Quinn.
My husband and I are semi-avid readers of the Romance genre; however, we read them to make fun of them, not for pleasure. All of these books are so repetitive and boring - a 300 page romance could be summed up in 75 pages, and that's pushing it - and almost all of them contain some "strong" heroine who isn't actually strong, but stubborn and dumb. She lacks common sense and it's a wonder she's made it this far in life without a basic understanding of relationships and (gasp!) sex. The hero is no better, for he's always a rake with a heart of gold and he's always tall and muscular, with penetrating blue eyes (that match his uniform) and luxurious hair. He's a wild horse that can't be tamed - until he meets the heroine.
The problem with matches in every romance is that the couple never talks to each other. They lack the necessary communication skills required in a relationship which leads to misunderstanding after misunderstanding.
We've read the book and now we've finished the show and I'm sorry to say, the show is not much better.
The show started out enjoyable enough. The couple meets. They devise a plan that works in their mutual favors. They become friends who actually enjoy talking to each other. Then, of course, things get out of hand when they actually do begin to fall for each other. So far, so good.
Then they have to get married and from there on out, it's a constant game of hot and cold. By the end of the season, however, the show fast forwards at the blink of an eye to the future - wait, what? - and everything seems okay between them - wait, what??? - and then a few other important plot lines shrouded in mystery are revealed - wait, what?????
It's my constant gripe. Why are there no good romances? Is it that hard to write about a man and a woman falling in love? Why is the woman always soft and unworldly and why is the guy always a rake? Even books which you'd think sound AMAZING end up being some trash novel with very little interesting content. (I'm looking at you, Civil War Spy Romance.)
Perhaps this is the reason we ended up putting down the romances for a little while. There's no point in reading the same thing over and over again.
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