Hi, readers! I am beyond pleased to announce a very special post today on ILRB. Recently, I asked both authors and romance readers to come to me with their responses to this big question: “What Does Romance Mean to Me?” I was genuinely interested in what made us all tick, what continued to draw us to the genre. Why do we love “love” so much? I wanted to dig deep to the heart of each person. And I’ve gotten some incredible feedback.

Without further ado, let’s turn the mic over to author K.C. Sprayberry, who has a few things to say about the question at hand.

Romance with Gray Hair and Saggy Skin

What images come to mind when you hear about a new Romance book? Are the couple young, beautiful, and out to set the world on fire? Does the cover entice you with in-shape people who look as if they have their lives ahead of them? Does the story promise a long courtship or short period of getting to know each other before they settle into creating a family and living out their lives in what most assume must be boredom?

Most think a book where one of the characters decides on career over marriage and children wouldn’t be a romance. They’d decry that book if it was the woman making this decision. Yet, in our modern world, more and more women are putting aside romance and marriage to focus on a career. Yet, once that career is over and they’re facing retirement, they see their friends have something they lost along the way and they wonder… what if I’d taken the shot at a family?

Two Hearts One Soul is about such a couple. Beginning in the 1970s, Mel receives a proposal from Joe. She’s so focused on making a career in the Air Force she doesn’t think twice about telling him no. In her mind, he’s her best friend and had held that honor for years. Joe is lost and angry when she turns him down, so much so that he doesn’t reenlist, instead returning home to marry another girl on the rebound and raise a family.

Flash forward nearly thirty years and this is when the story of romance for those over fifty begins. There are no nursing homes, no couple that is less than healthy living out their last days. Mel and Joe rediscover what they lost. Can they make it as a couple?

This short story examines the difficulties of restarting a relationship and how they are overcome when both parties realize how much they still mean to each other. Has their love cooled? Or has it been simmering in the background, only to be revived once they’re in the same room? Is their romance one of the hot, passionate whirlwind associated with love for the twenty or thirty year old set? Or do they have a cautious approach, one where both are afraid they might never have this chance again?

For that, you’ll have to read the book and discover how a woman without children can reconnect with a man who has a passel of them. Perhaps along the way you’ll learn that gray in the hair and saggy skin doesn’t mean the heart doesn’t beat a little faster when that special person walks into the room. There are still discoveries to be made for those of retirement age; it only takes people with the desire to find them to be willing to accept they may or may not reconnect with an old love.

Two Hearts One Soul is available on Amazon, a short read that will confirm that those of us over fifty still have romantic hearts.

Wait, we’re not quite finished!

So, I put the question to you as a reader today as well. What does the word ‘romance’ really mean for you? Is ‘romance’ a driving force in your life? How have your beliefs about romantic relationships informed your own relationships? Perhaps seeing other couples (parents or friends) were some kind of influence. By reading romance novels, does that help to reaffirm things for you?

If you’d like to participate in this special feature, please contact me at [email protected] and I’ll schedule a spot for you. As you can tell from the schedule on the right hand side of the page, we’re getting booked fast, but don’t hesitate to join in! You do not need to be a writer or author. We want to hear from anyone. We’d love to get your take on how you feel about romance, and why you keep reading our books! ♥♥♥ 

Thanks again, K.C., for giving us a peak into romance for the retirement set, and how you’ve incorporated your own romantic beliefs into your books. Awesome!

Readers, stay tuned for our next special feature on this topic when author Dianne Hartsock visits us on May 11th! Yay!

We may have other posts before then, though.

Have a great week, everyone!