Not So Interesting Reading

I just finished a not so great book. I won't say the title or the author's name, but it was a fairly recent Harlequin Blaze. It really pisses me off when this happens. I know most writers will read this and think, well, if something like this got published, then I definitely have a shot. but for me, I just think... "What was the editor thinking buying this in the first place?"

Most importantly, the characters pissed me off. I didn't like them, I thought their actions didn't make sense in the context of the character development and their "internal conflicts", if you can call them that, were dumb and were never resolved at the end. They both had the same internal conflict. She was afraid to tell him what she did for a living, because working construction would make her look somehow "less" in his eyes (she thought) and he was afraid to tell her that his family was a bunch of steelworkers from Pittsburgh. I'm sorry, what year is this? Really. Who gives a shit?

First, the heroine took the construction job mostly as a screw you to her family, but also because she needed the money and liked it better than working a desk job. Well then, be proud of what you do. If you can't even admit what you do (and it's not something that could get you killed, like working for SD-6 or the CIA), then why are you doing it? And how is it a screw you to your rich family, if you're ashamed about it and won't tell anyone?

And the hero being embarassed by his family? Well, that's not even something I can respect. And if he's afraid to tell the woman he supposedly loves, because he's afraid she'll dump him? That's not a woman I'd want to be in love with.

And in the end, the hero gave her a modelling job to get the heroine out of the "screw you" construction job so she didn't have to be embarassed, and he still never told her about his family...

Worse, and I think the most heinous crime a romance writer can commit. They didn't fall in love. IN A ROMANCE NOVEL!!! Sure they had sex. And they supposedly liked being around each other, even though the heroine kept avoiding the hero and running the other way from him. But I never saw why or how he fell in love with her, or vice versa.

But because she gave him a couple of blow jobs and pretended to be a "mystery woman" in the beginning of the book, somehow made it a sexy book worthy of the Blaze label. Puh-leeze. In this day of Black Lace and Brava, a few blow jobs does not erotica make.

In my opinion, as both a reader and a writer, these are the barebones of your romance novel.
1. Internal conflict. Something that keeps the hero and heroine apart throughout most of the book. Otherwise it's a happy little outline of how they met and fell in love. Ho hum. I want to be enthralled. I want to sit there on the edge of my seat screaming at them, it's the love of your life. Why won't you see that? Will they ever get together? And when they do get together, I want a big sigh and a smile, knowing it worked out they way it should.

2. Romance. Otherwise what's the point?

3.Character development that stays true. If a rich girl decides to shuck her rich, educated background to do construction, let her do it because she's passionate about it, and is proud of it. To have her be ashamed and hiding what she does completely goes against what it is that she's trying to accomplish in the first place.

4. Respect. If I can't respect the hero and heroine's decisions and actions, even if I don't agree with them, then I can't give two shits about them, and again, why bother reading the book.

Without this, you have a book that completely misses the mark.