Paperback Heroes

Like thousands of women, I'm a sucker for trashy love stories, particularly historical romances set in the Regency and Victorian eras. The funny thing is, I never paid these types of novels much attention until my sister shoved one of her books to me.

(Hui Yin has always been the reader in the family. She never leaves home without a book or two. And sometimes, she reads two books simultaneously!

And she is nuts about historical romances.)

Sure, I spent a fair amount of time reading Mills & Boon stuff during my teens. But I outgrew those (she is still at it, though) and went on to more "serious" and "intelligent" stuff - non-fictions like biographies, real-life crime stories as well as murder mysteries and sci-fi fantasies. And I absolutely had no interest in reading any historical romance novels, until about 2 years ago.

And I've been hooked since. Most of the stories are silly to begin with - titled, dashing and wickedly handsome aristocrats who would move mountains and swim the seven seas to be with their lovely (and often in distress) damsels. There would be conflicts, scandals and even tragedies before they could find true love with each other. And of course, the besotted lovers would live happily ever after.

Predictable? Absolutely. Waste of time? Not entirely.

You see, the words are usually written so beautifully. Even when the characters quarrel, they do so with so much finesse and grace. Check this out:

"If your carriage had been moving at any speed above an almost imperceptible crawl, madam, it would not have posed a reckless endangerment to serious, responsible travellers who would really prefer to get somewhere by the end of a day instead of spending eternity on one stretch of road." - Lucius Marshall, Viscount Sinclair in Simply Unforgettable

Or this:

"A woman can use charms and looks for three things. She can go into the theatre, she can become a man's mistress or she can marry. As for me, I have no inclination or talent for acting and no wish to shame my family by entering into an illicit relationship. My only choice is marriage. That, I suppose, is what it means for a woman to be a survivor." - Elizabeth Hotchkiss in How To Marry A Marquis

Classy, no? I absolutely adore this kind of language (of course the book titles are often really no brainers). Which explains why I'm so besotted with Hugh Jackman's Leopold in Kate & Leopold! Leopold talks like that - and he's tall, dark and handsome! Ha ha.

Well, there's nothing wrong with indulging in a little fantasy, as silly as it sounds. After all, grown men the world over are obsessed with their comics. At least I don't need to look at pages of drawings to read my books. That's for kids, isn't it?