Older Romance Heroines with Justine Lewis

Older romance heroines…

“Are they too old or too serious to be shagged senseless by a debaucherous Duke or a sexy billionaire or a ruggedly ripped farmer?” Woah, the hot questions need answers.

Hello Friends,

This week it’s my pleasure to welcome Australian romance author, Justine Lewis back to the blogger site. Justine joins us today with a guest post about older heroines and why she thinks they aren’t past their use by date in romance stories.

Guest Blog with Justine

All romance readers and writers love a hero, but we don’t seem to talk as much about heroines. I’ve even heard a few people say they only read romances because of the heroes and that they don’t care at all about the heroines. For me, one of the main attractions of romances is that they are about women (with the obvious exception of male/male, but you know what I mean). In romance novels women are usually the main characters, the protagonists. And in a world where men still dominate almost all aspects of public life, this is a big reason to love romance.

So I want to talk about heroines for a change. In particular, why do the majority of romances feature younger heroines? We may have moved on from virginal twenty year olds to women in their late twenties … early thirties … but we haven’t moved much further than that.

I’ve read only handful of books featuring heroines over forty over the years, including Amy Andrews’ lovely Ruby-winning A Doctor, A Nurse, A Christmas Baby and Sandra Antonelli’s Driving in Neutral. But these are the only two that instantly spring to mind (though admittedly my memory is not as reliable as it once was). I haven’t sought books with older heroines out, but they haven’t overwhelmed my Kindle either.

And I want to know why.

source:fotofolia.com

Is it that there isn’t a readership? I doubt it. If anything, older heroines should be more interesting. Older women have more memories, both to comfort and haunt them. That should make for deeper, more complex conflicts. Maybe it’s because we have all been younger women and can all relate to someone who still has their entire life ahead of them and hasn’t made all those mistakes we’ve made? Romance is about escape after all.

Or maybe once the heroine is over a certain age a book tends to be classified as women’s fiction because past a certain point women are considered too old or too serious to be shagged senseless by a debaucherous Duke or a sexy billionaire or a ruggedly ripped farmer. I hope I’m never too old for any of those things.

I think the age from thirty-five onwards is particularly interesting. This is often a time of change, a time when so many women face their last chance to have a family (or add to the one they may have). Aren’t the stakes higher? The rewards so much sweeter? A woman in her later forties probably no longer has the endless beat of the ticking clock in her head, but she is likely to have a much more interesting backstory than the twenty-year-old virgin. And she probably still wants, consciously or not, love and great sex. Being past child-bearing age does change some things, but not everything. It is perfectly possible to have a full and happy life without children (some would say it’s the only way!) I have a theory that women make better choices about men when the possibility of having children is not on the cards anyway.

My latest release is a contemporary romance about a television anchor woman who is about to turn forty. She fears she’s reaching her use-by date and finds herself both threatened and attracted to a new gun foreign correspondent who becomes her offsider.

I’m interested in what you think? Do you like reading about older heroines? What is your favorite book with an older heroine? Leave a comment or connect with Justine on her social media sites.

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Connect with Justine

Website: justinelewis.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjustinelewis

Twitter: @justineromance

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The Older Romance Heroine in “The Reluctant Lover” by Justine

The heroine in my new book, “The Reluctant Lover”, is about to turn forty. I started to write this book when I was thirty-nine and six months old. I’m not sure if it occurred to me at the time, but writing this novel in the lead up to the big Four-Zero probably saved me thousands in counselling fees. My heroine, Katherine, is conflicted about her big birthday – she’s a television journalist who has kept her birthdate a secret. But the ratings on her show are declining and while she believes that age shouldn’t matter, she also knows all too well how women in the public eye are judged by the way they look. And to make Katherine’s fortieth even more eventful, I gave her a new, younger colleague to challenge all of her assumptions. I hope you enjoy Katherine and Liam’s story. 

"The Reluctant Lover" Blog Post Link

Links to book retailers,

Amazon US

Amazon Australia

iTunes

Kobo

Justine’s 2 other romance books, 

Justine, thanks for sharing your guest post and I look forward to hearing about your next romance book.

Have a happy weekend everyone. 
♥ Ashlyn

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