Published in 1992
200 pages
The author of over 50 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, Jayne Ann Krentz writes romantic-suspense in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print. She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz and went on to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University in California. Before she began writing full time she worked as a librarian in both academic and corporate libraries.
What is this book about?
In Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women, Jayne Ann Krentz and the contributors to this volume–all best-selling romance writers–explode myths and biases that haunt both the writers and readers of romances.
In this seamless, ultimately fascinating, and controversial book, the authors dispute some of the notions that plague their profession, including the time-worn theory that the romance genre contains only one single, monolithic story, which is cranked out over and over again. The authors discuss positive life-affirming values inherent in all romances: the celebration of female power, courage, intelligence, and gentleness; the inversion of the power structure of a patriarchal society; and the integration of male and female. Several of the essays also discuss the issue of reader identification with the characters, a relationship that is far more complex than most critics realize.
Helpful review on goodreads from Mir:
“This is a collection of short discussions from romance authors about why their stories are popular. Most of them use their own books and feelings as reference, so if you like the authors listed you may enjoy it. If you’re looking for a more scholarly examination of the appeal and themes of romance, don’t bother as this isn’t very rigorous. At some points I was even a bit embarrassed by the weakness or illogic of certain claims.”
