Ah, the month of June. Four weeks. Four Saturdays ... which, for many, means four weddings. June is the most popular month for getting married, and it brings with it an endless round of parties, showers and receptions. In addition to powdered mints, the one thing all of these events have in common is the need for a gift. Traditionally this gift is something along the impersonal lines of a pan, a pillow case, or pair of serving tongs. This year, however, Romance Writers of America recommends adding a little fun and pizzazz to your right-off-the-registry gift: a romance novel.
Romance novels can be as insightful as any how-to book on love and passion, and a lot more fun than towels or juice glasses. Besides being great honeymoon reading, romance novels put and keep readers in the mood for a wedding celebration -- because so many of their plots, settings and characters feature that joyous wedding time. Weddings and brides are great inspiration for romance authors, and they inspire the reader in return.
"As a romance author, I've always found writing about brides, and those first few months of marriage, particularly appealing," says Day Leclaire, RWA member and author of 12 romance novels featuring brides. "There's an innate source of tension and conflict that comes from exploring the early days of married life. The give and take. The scary newness of the relationship. The gradual blending of strengths and weaknesses that comes when the love is real and the desire to commit runs deep."
But you don't have to be a bride yourself to enjoy a romance novel featuring a wedding. Anyone can celebrate the great wedding month of June simply by enjoying a fabulous bride or wedding romance novel. "Brides remind us of first love, of the intense passion we've all experienced when the intensity of our emotions were young and fresh," says Leclaire. "Brides, in particular, offer the image of innocence and new beginnings, of a burgeoning love we've all known and still hold dear, or which we long to recapture. A bride is at the start of her journey and even the most cynical among us can't help but hope that she succeeds where others have failed, that her life will be filled with happiness and a soul-deep, forever-after love. We know that this one story will end well, that this particular man and woman will triumph over adversity. Such a story rejuvenates us. It brightens the darkness that all too often can seep into our days," she says.
Romance Writers of America recommends these bride or wedding romances to brighten your June, or the wedding day of the bride on your gift list: "Scottish Brides" (Avon Books-June '99), "Holiday Honeymoons (Harlequin-June 99), "The Wedding Gamble by Julia Justiss (Harlequin-June '99) or the classic "Brides" trilogy from Catherine Coulter.
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