My interest in romantic fiction really only blossomed after I was married. That may sound a bit backwards, but I always found romance while you’re alone and single to be a bit like eating a big bag of pizza rolls. Your brain may tell you it’s exactly what you want, but it will leave you with a horrible feeling in your stomach and the emptiness will doubtlessly return before long. Now that I have a husband, that emptiness is gone and I can cram as many pizza rolls into my face as I want without feeling the awful side-effects. I can delve into the drama of fictional romance and then escape to my stable real-life one.
I find a lot of romantic fiction to be trite, structurally similar, and mired in common themes and tropes. I still enjoy a good love triangle, fish out of water, or the old “will they, won’t they?” tale, but I understand that’s just brain candy. A truly great romance is taking two characters and telling you why these two imperfect people need each other. Or three or more characters, as the case may be. I’m not judging. But in Perfect Gold’s case, it’s two characters.
