Everything I Know about Love I Learned from Romance Novels [Paperback]

Sarah Wendell (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 4, 2011

Take a dashing hero with a heart of gold and a mullet of awesome. Add a heroine with a bustle and the will to kick major butt. Then include enough contrivances to keep them fighting while getting them alone and possibly without key pieces of clothing, and what do you have? A romance novel. What else? Enough lessons about life, love, and everything in between to help you with your own happily-ever-after.

Lessons like...

•Romance means believing you are worthy of a happy ending

•Learning to tell the prince from the frog

•Real-life romance is still alive and kicking

•No matter how bad it is, at least you haven't been kidnapped by a Scottish duke (probably)

Sarah Wendell is cofounder of one of the top romance blogs, SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com.

Editorial Reviews

Review

If you read it through and still come away in any doubt as to how amazing both Romance Novels and the people of the Romance Community truly are, then I do believe your heart and soul and possibly brain may be made of stone. And, if that is the case, then you are in most desperate need of reading one of the books Sarah uses as examples throughout the book.

Winning, entertaining and highly persuasive... Fans of the romance genre are likely to come away feeling vindicated; newcomers may be inspired to pick up a few new paperbacks with racy covers

A joyous celebration of those novels we all love to read, romances.

If you ever had anyone sneer at you when you say you read romance novels, this is a book you should whip out and start quoting from.

As a reader and a writer, I think this is a must read...

A pleasure to read... It promote[s] the positive elements of romance books.

This little book packs a wallop of laughs, spews smart sarcastic rhetoric with sound advise - add to that creative longings to make us dream, and mullets for years to come.

Ra-ra-romance!

There's a strong argument here that the genre helps readers identify and articulate needs and feelings they already have, as they notice what kinds of books and heroes they gravitate toward.

A humorous yet poignant guide to romance, both the highs and lows... a whole lot of fun that ended way too quickly.

Wendell's book is an irreverent celebration of the romance genre and the women who write it and read it.

A smart, fun exploration of romance novels ... if you know anyone who is dismissive of romance and needs to be convinced of its awesomeness, give him or her this book. I think it could change some minds.

Wendell will make you laugh while reprimanding you and shock the socks right off your feet, all with a smile and a no-nonsense manner.

[Wendell] opens your eyes by connecting romance with everyday life.

Don't you love it when a book reinforces what you already believe?

A delightful read... humorous and entertaining.

I realized how much romance novels have played and continue to play an important role in helping me and my husband with our relationship... funny and thoughtful.

A fun and insightful look at why romance novels are so popular and have been for decades and how readers can benefit from reading them.

A great tribute to romance readers and the genre...

Witty, funny, and utterly entertaining...

Filled with short, amusing topics that are lighthearted, insightful and take a look at how romance books have affected readers.

[Wendell] talks at length about applying the lessons of romance to that real life and enriching it – not to mention, entertaining yourself in the bargain.

Romance novels have come a long way from the "bodice rippers" people scorn when they think of romances. There just might be valuable lessons for everyone in Sarah Wendell's Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels.

Make that person who's been harping at you about your romance novels read this book. Maybe they'll get something out of it and start reading them too!

More than just a passionate defense of romance novels, EIKAL is also a witty, racy, humorous read that does not hesitate to make fun of the stereotypes in the romance genre...

A fast paced and enjoyable read. It was nice to see a book that builds woman up not tear them down because of what they read

An entertaining book...

About the Author

Sarah Wendell's day job involves a cloak, and possibly a dagger, but by night she's the cofounder of the influential romance blog SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband and two children.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca; Original edition (October 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402254490
• ISBN-13: 978-1402254499
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 7.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,514 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sarah Wendell is co-author of the book, Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels, and co-founder of Smart Bitches Trashy Books.com, one of the most popular blogs examining romance fiction. The site specializes in reviewing romance novels, pondering the history and future of the genre in digital form and in print, and bemoaning the enormous prevalence of bodacious pectorals adorning male cover models. Sarah can be found at smartbitchestrashybooks.com, or via Twitter at @smartbitches.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it, and I'm not a romance reader!! December 2, 2011

By Ellen Olenska

Format:Paperback

I've randomly picked up a romance here or there but don't qualify as a strong romance reader, but have read fiction all my life. However, having said that, I LOVED this book, it's witty and on the money on why we love to escape in fiction. The "rules" that Sarah lays out resonated and even being unfamiliar with many of the titles she cites, I could instantly see what she was trying to share. And now I'm buying some of the books she mentioned, she certainly has opened my eyes a bit.

I loved it, it gave me a whole new appreciation for the genre.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Humorous and Insightful Look at Romance Novels December 6, 2011

By S. Wright

Format:Paperback

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels (henceforth known as EIKAL), since I'm not a large nonfiction reader. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

EIKAL is filled with short, amusing topics that are light-hearted, insightful and take a look at how romance books have affected readers. Topics such as: We Know More Than a Few Good Men, We Know What Not to Want, We Know Good Sex and We Know How to Ask for What we Want share reader's and author's real life experiences about each of the topics. These stories are wonderful and it was nice to hear from some of my favorite authors.

The lesson that resonated the most with me, was the one that direct communication and problem solving is essential for a solid relationship foundation. So often in romance novels we watch events unfold where the hero and heroine could have sorted the whole disastrous situation out if that had stopped to communicate with the other person. Another favorite was that romance novels give us a safe place to explore how we want to want to approach life: what kind of relationships we want, what we want out of sex, and how to go about asking for those things.

Overall, if you are a romance fanatic, then this is a book you should add to your reading list. It is very short, much shorter than the 222 pages listed, mainly due to the reiteration of text quotes in block quote boxes. that was probably my only issue with the book and it lost a star for the overuse of them.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Cut and Paste December 28, 2012

By SS

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I loved Sarah Wendell's essay in Book: A Futurist's Manifesto: A Collection of Essays from the Bleeding Edge of Publishing, so I bought this book on the strength of that essay and also because I'm curious about what draws readers to the romance genre. I love love stories, but can rarely find one that fits my needs.

And EIKALILFRN does succeed in assembling and analyzing patterns across a wide swath of the genre, and explicating why reading novels about fictional people meeting and falling in love is a legitimately fulfilling and even productive experience on multiple levels.

She also talked to a lot of romance authors about their writing processes and relationships with their readers, which I presume is quite interesting to those readers who are fans of these authors.

However, there was a lot of fat in this book, and frankly I don't think it's worth the current retail price as is. Wendell culls a lot of her "evidence" from her readers' blog comments, Tweets, and messages. So there's a lot of: "Reader Amanda sees romances as a lesson in speaking up, and not avoiding the scary, difficult, awkward conversation, especially when the plots are a little ridiculous."

I feel this way, though, because I believe in Wendell's underlying point, that, as frivolous and frothy as the subject matter may appear, there is something real going on during all these (wo)man-hours spent writing and reading romance books. It's a subject deserving of much more than anecdotal evidence and hearsay, but real data and statistical analysis.