Review: Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell

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)

Straight from the heart of influential romance blogger Sarah Wendell, this inventive gift book provides the best wisdom about love that the romance genre has to offer. Laced with signature witty commentary and peppered with thoughts from bestselling romance authors (Nora Roberts, Jennifer Crusie, Debbie Macomber, Eloisa James, Robyn Carr, and lots more) and avid readers, these pages will reveal what every romance reader already knows: while romances are certainly steamy, they have more to offer than just a sexy hero. In fact, they might have more to say about love than we give them credit for. Sarah Wendell is cofounder of one of the top romance blogs, SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com.

This book is about celebrating romance novels for every important thing they teach us about ourselves, the people we love, and the relationships we value--and the sex we have.  

Amen!  And I loved every minute of it. 

I'm not a regular Smart Bitches reader, but when I do go for a visit, I'm always glad I did.  Everything I Know About Love... is exactly like that -- I'm glad I read it, and feel a little happier for it.  A book about promoting the positives of romance and romance reading, Everything I Know About Love... is a humorous yet poignant guide to romance, both the highs and lows.  Ms. Wendell's thought-provoking romantic ideals mixed with reader and/or author opinions was a great way to spend an afternoon.  It's a whole lot of fun that ended way too quickly.   Can I get a sequel? (Hell, yeah!)  


(A very special thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca who provided me with an ARC of Everything I Know About Love...)