Reader, I love them ... a detail from the cover of Susan Mallery's Falling For Gracie
The combination of a dead phone, a frozen iPod and a distinct lack of any reading or writing material whatsoever on a recent train journey down from Leeds forced me to do something I've never done before. I picked up a discarded Mills & Boon book from the seat opposite me and read it. And I loved it.
Having spent a lifetime looking down my nose at the genre I would like to praise them for their honesty, dependability and fail-safe ability to cheer. Free from literary pretension, marketing babble, or anyone else's convoluted opinion brandished on the front, the book was refreshingly honest with me from the start.
At a glance I was provided with the essence of the story; image, category and title. On the bottom right corner of the book you learn what kind of tale you're in for: Modern Romance, Romance, Historical Romance, Medical Romance and Blaze, the spread of which ensures that there's something for everyone, using an orderly system of filling that is appealing in itself.
The names are also in keeping with the explanatory and honest formatting; a Medical tale is called His Pregnant Nurse, a Modern Romance is Bedded by a Bad Boy. Submission, a Blaze title, presents sees a beautiful blonde yielding to the muscled embrace of a generic Mr Dark-and-Handsome. Although you could argue that very little has been left to the imagination, as indeed it has not, there is definitely something reassuring about this predictability.
April sees the release of not one, not two, but 70 new Mills and Boon titles;every other month is much the same. Mills & Boon has received a huge amount of bad press in the past for reinforcing traditional views of men and women, and whilst Historical Tales may well deliver "chivalrous knights, roguish rakes and rugged cattlemen to impetuous heiresses, unconventional ladies and defiant bluestockings", with new titles being written on a daily basis these books also have a contemporary relevance. Founded in 1908, Mills & Boon has been the staple literary diet of the 20th century, seeing Britain through World War II with medical romances, with the addition of career-minded heroines in the 70s and arguably adding a touch of multiculturalism with the likes of The Sheikh's Ransomed Bride more recently.
I got off the train at Kings Cross with a sense of achievement, I had of course completed a book, and glowing with optimism, buoyed by the obligatory happy ending.
