Nicholas Sparks is notorious for his many heartbreaking, love infused novels that have taken the work by storm. And while the plots of the stories may be more or less “different” I found a common pattern when scrolling through his top charts… allow me to explain.
Category 1 –
Two protaginists from completely different backgrounds, who are struggling to overcome a tragedy find eachother at a crossroad form a bond that will help them find their answers and heal them both.
(or)
Every Breath, See Me, A Bend in the Road, and The Rescue (All by Nicholas Sparks)
Category 2 –
A troubled soul searching for a purpose, stumbles upon something that drives them to make a connection with someone they never thought they would, only to discover the others mysterious past.
(or)
Two by Two, True Believer, At First Sight, Nights in Rodanthe, Message in a Bottle, The Lucky One, Dear John (all by Nicholas Sparks)
Category 3 –
Protaginist (or two) how come from different background come together to form a relationship only for another aspect to come into play that will put their relationship to the test.
(or)
The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, The Guardian, The Choice, Safe Haven, The Notebook, The Last Song, A Walk to Remember (all by Nicholas Sparks)
“Libraries were full of ideas-perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.” ~ Sarah J. Maas
To keep an introduction short: the books I love DO include romance, I just prefer when the romance isn’t the main picture. So, I present my βnot so romantic, but kinda romanticβ recommendations:
11. Children of Eden
Romance Level: Twilight love triangle status π
In short, Children of Eden, by Joey Graceffa, takes place in a world where the Earth is posioned and dead, all animals and most planets have gone extrincted due to a man made catastrophe. And thanks to a hand-full of brillant scientists, the last of Earths population lives in a giant dome that seperates them from the outside and provides for them. The story, (and three book series), follows the illegal second-child, Rowen, as she discovers life outside of her families basement, which ends in her going renegade and discovering adventure, action, and even romance (in more ways than one).
To be honest, the reason why I even purchased this book was because of the actual author. Not because he was well known AS an author, but because as a young influencal mind, I thought it would be cool to own a story written by a well-known Youtuber. Personally, as much as I enjoyed the actual story, it just didn’t have that wow factor that I got from so many other stories. But, again, thats just me.
10. The Forbidden Orchid
Romance Level: I mean, there is… kinda a marriage? π€·πΌββοΈ
This story, for some reason, has always stuck with me even though its something I would have never seen myself enjoying. Taking place in 1861, Elodie Buchanan was the oldest of 10 sisters. While there mother stays home to care for the family, her father works as a planet hunter for various clients until tragedy strikes and her father, and herself, go to China in search for a rare orchid that will save her family from debt and seperation. She finds herself on an adventure that will bring her new sights, dangers, and romance.
I discovered this book pushed to the back shelf of my school library and its worn and faded cover seemed to just rope me in. It was like a diamond in the rough among all of the new hardcovers. If enjoy historical fiction, adventure, and even romance, I would definetly recommed this as a read.
9. Where the Red Fern Grows
Romance Level: A. BOY. AND. HIS. DOGS. π
If you didn’t read this book in middle school, I. ENVY. YOU! I read it once and will never read it again. So… how would I describe this book in only a few words: Dogs. Hunting. Sadness. TEARS. TEARS. AND MORE TEARS. that is all. (and the only “romance” has to do with A BOYS LOVE FOR HIS DOGS, I’m still crying π.)
8. The Giver + Gathering Blue
Romance Level: like *____* <- this much π
Woah… WOAH! Two books in one? hAVe I GonE nuTS!?! (most likely, yes.). ‘The Giver’, (by Lois Lowry), follows 12 year old Jonas (unlike the movie) as he seemingly lives in the ideal community where there are (seemingly) no issues. Its only after he gains the title of The Reciever, does he begin to discover that there is more to his is community that meets the eye. (AND! This is a rare occastion that the movie can actually compete with how good the movie was!)
‘Gathering Blue’, (also by Lois Lowry), actually is considered ‘The Giver #2’. Instead of a world where everything is perfect, Kira lives in a world where the weak are discarded, and only her talent of embroidery has helped her to stay alive, (which, yes is strange, but TRUST ME ITS SO GOOD). I can’t even remember how I came across this book, and its hard to describe without spoiling to much.
7. Dragon Keeper (series)
Romance Level: just a sprinkle π¨π»βπ³
I actually believe this is one of the first books to get me hooked onto the fantasy genre, I’ve always loved dragons so… π²
The story takes place in ancient China where the rule of a cruel emporer has resulted in the near extinction of dragons. In the story you meet a nameless orphan who, under her “owner”, is tasked with taking care of THE LAST KNOWN DRAGON IN CHINA(and we thought college was hard). After escaping with the dragon they go on an adventure across China to “heal” the dragon and bring his “purple stone” to safety. Even though my description is crap, you can read a better one here, its actually a really good story that goes on throughout six other books.
6. Red Queen (series)
Romance Level: TITANIC (<- the movie, just an FYI) π’
β¨This is a good book if you like more of a modern feel, but still like the idea of magic. β¨
“This is a world divided by blood – red or silver. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power. Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime. But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.”
There is not much I can say about this book except that its an AMAZING read. The entire series has so many twists in turns its sure to keep any reader on their toes!
5. Hatchet
Romance Level: NON-EXISTENT ππ»
If you don’t know who Gary Paulsen is, he is probably the grandfather of ALL survival books. This one in particular covers the story of Brian, who is stranded in the middle of the woods after a plane crash. The book follows Brians struggle as he learns to survive on his own with only the help of the hatchet his mother bought him.
I remember my 6th grade teacher reading this to use whenever we had time, this resulted in me investing my time in our schools library reading all, (and I mean ALL), of Gary Paulsens’ books and calling myself a “survival expert”.
4. Name of the Wind (series)
Romance Level: Like a bard in DnD πΈ
Four words to describe this book: Magic. Music. Red Head. Enjoy π (<- in other words, this book is hard to describe. This will help π)
3. The Book Thief
Romance Level: Nada, Zip, Zero, None ππ»
Allow me to set a scene. Imagine me, in highschool, BALLING OVER THIS STUPID BOOK IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASS, and then, MARCHING DOWN TO THE OFFICE OF THE TEACHER WHO RECOMMENDED IT TO ME AND CRYING SOME MORE. 10 out of 10 would read again.
This story is told from the point of view of Death during 1939, Nazi Germany. And tells the story of a young girl named Liesel whose life changes after she finds a book half hidden in the snow. Thus marks an adventure of girl who defys the odds by stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, and wherever there are books to be found.
2. A Court of Throne and Roses (series)
Romance Level: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ππ₯°
Okay so, there is a reason why the top two books are by the same author. Reason? BECAUSE SHE IS THE QUEEN OF MAAS DESTRUCTION! OMG, HER BOOKS ARE AMAZING!!!!!!
If you are a fan of Beauty and the Beast, then allow me to intrigue you. In a world of faries and Fae, Feyre is only a poor human in this huge world. After killing a farie to provide for her family, a creature bursts into her home and demands redemption. The price? Feyre going with the creature into the land of the faries. In a world so different from the one she is used to, she discovers friends in the most unlikely of places and help them to save both of their worlds. (ITS SOOOOOOO GOOD, please read π).
1. Throne of Glass (series)
Romance Level: Forget Love Triangles, more like Love Dodecagons βοΈπ
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
I’m not going to try to describe this book, I’ll just let the actual description do the talking:
“In a world without magic, an assassin is summonded to the castle. She comes not to kill the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass but to win her freedom, she will be released from prison to serve as the King’s Champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. And a princess from a faraway land will befriend her. But something evil dwells in the castle– ands it’s there to kill. When competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’a fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival– and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.”
I’m not even slightly joking when I say this is one of the best books i’ve ever read, and the continued (and now finished, may I add) series adds SO MUCH!!! This book holds such a special place in my heart that it will always be the first book I recommend to people.
Fun Fact: I misspelled ‘Romeo’ as ‘Romano’ a total of 57 times π
“Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake — its everything except what it is!” (Act 1, scene 1)
Ah, Romeo and Juliet, the most renown love story ever known. The tragic story of two star-cross lovers trapped in the middle of a family feud that goes back generations, only to end when they lovers choose to die than be apart…
WhERE tO beGiN!?!
For those of us who weren’t subjected to reading the story aloud in front of the ENTIRE CLASS, allow me to summerize. Romeo and Juliet was written by the renown William Shakesphere in 1597, and follows the tragic “love story” of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet as they fall in love in the middle of an ongoing feud between the two families. To make a long story short, the story ends with both Romeo and Juliet dead, choosing to die toegther then live without the other, which, in turn, ends the feud between the two families. (If thats not romance, I don’t know what is!!!… but in this scenario, I don’t think Shakesphere did either).
But what people don’t understand is that there is so much more detail in the story that is hidden under the old english and love confessions. So, let me elaborate on how much we truly over look while reading this literate masterpiece.
1. Juliet is a rebound
Yes, you read that correctly. Juliet was the rebound chick. After Romeo is friend-zoned by Rosaline (who has taken a vow of chastity), his friends decide to take him to a party so that he can forget about her and , I quote “By giving liberty unto thine eyes” (1.2.225) <– which pretty much means, check out other girls. He then meets Juliet and instantly falls in love. Even if he does actually love her, Juliet is none-the-less the rebound for Romeo to mend his broken heart.
2. Stalker-ish Romance?
When the party ends, Romeo decides the best thing for him to do is to sneak into Juilets backyard so he can see her again. When he does see her again [insert cheesy yet well known balcony scene], upon seeing someone in her backyard Juliet exclaims “What man art thou that thus bescreened in night / So stumbles on my counsel?”, which would translate roughly into…”WTF dude?!” Romeo then procceds to spout poetry, even as Juliet continuously refuses, βAlthough I joy in thee / I have no joy of this contract tonight; / It is too rash, to unadvised, too suddenβ (2.2.116-118). This continues until Mr. Montague pulls the senstive card and crys “βO, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?β and asking for βThβ exchange of thy loveβs faithful vow for mineβ, which in results in Juliet “confessing” her own love.
Fun Fact: The famous balcony scene never even took place on a balcony (during those times balconies weren’t even a thing). The actual line quotes that Romeo saw Juliet through a window, “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun,” (Act 2, Scene 2). Making Romeo sorta like a peeping tom, in my opinion π€·πΌββοΈπ€¦πΌββοΈπ.
3) A short lived romance…
Romeo and Juliet literally know eachother FOR A DAY! Allow me to lay out a timeline for you: Sunday night Romeo goes to the Capulet party and meets Juliet for the first time, they lock eyes and instantly fall in love! The next day they get married and then DIE a few days later… I couldn’t imagine going on a DATE with someone I have only known for a day, none the less MARRYING THEM! This is literal a love story about two teenagers whose love manages to kill six people, INCLUDING THEMSELVES!
4) Literal YOUNG Love
While many retellings of the story (movies and such), interperat Romeo and Juliet as the same age (16), Shakesphere decides to dramatise the story and makes Juliet 13 YEARS OLD! At the age of 13, Juliet has not only decided to marry Romeo, but also kill herself to be with him! Though it makes sense that Juliet represents ‘young love’, I don’t think anyone actually imagines her to be THAT young.
5) Shakesphere didn’t write Romance
Allow us to take a step away from the story and actual take into account that Shakesphere DIDN’T WRITE ROMANCE! This is a man who was notorious for stories such as Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar; all well known TRAGEDYS that make it an absolute shock that he would pull a ROMANCE out of nowhere. Which can also make someone wonder: is it truly a romance? A story, about two children who fell in love which resulted in the deaths of six people, including themselves? If this story was truly a romance, wouldn’t the story end after the wedding? But that didn’t happen. Instead the only thing good that happened was that the fued between the two families, (that had been begun so long that no one even knows why the fued even started), was finally over due to a pile of corpses.
Harsh? Yes. True? Also yes.
Romeo and Juliet is a story about two kids, not even of legal age, falling in love and then dying. A story that even 422 years later is the foundation for all English classes, and is still the hot topic on whether or not it should be a considered a true story of romance.
Someone who retells the story better than I ever could —> click here.
“No measure of time with you will be long enough, but we’ll start with forever..” – Edward Cullen (…coming from a man whos watches a girl sleep in his spare time, that would be a motive for a restraning order)
Ah, Twilight. The love story between an 18-year-old girl and a 109-year-old man, trapped in a 17-year-old body, who’s favorite past time is playing the piano and watching a girl sleep. A story about a girl with apparently no personality what-so-ever, who manages to attract a group of vegetarian vampires but is constantly at risk of getting killed because of a papercut.
But, lets start at the beginning…
Twilight was written by Stephenie Meyer’s in 2005 and follows the story of Isabella “Bella” Swan who falls in love with the dark, mysterious, vampire Edward Cullen. In the first book, Bella leaves her home in Phoenix, Arizona to live with her dad (Charlie Swan) in Forks, Washington. When attending her new school Bella gains attention from many of her classmates, along with Edward Cullen. Edward is written off as the quiet brooding type, slowly forms a relationship with Bella, despite his and his families’ better judgment. As the story continues, Bella discovers Edward and his family are vampires, but despite Edward’s advice to forget about him, Bella refuses and thus a relationship begins. Their story continues through four books which end with Edward having turned Bella into a vampire, married, and with a half-human, half-vampire child, Renesme. And everyone lives happily-ever-afterβ¦
… where to begin…
Its good to know that the word vampire was coined in 1734 in a travelogue titled Travels of Three English Gentlemen. It began as folklores that have existed for millennia in cultures such as Hebrews, ancient Greeks, and Romans and told of demonic creatures who thrive off drinking the blood of a living (or dead) creature. From there we have Dracula, a story, written by Bram Stoker in 1879 and tells the story of Count Dracula and his attempt to move from Transylvania to England, which an overall goal of finding new blood and spreading the undead curse. And now, Twilight, the world’s favorite vampire love story…
I read the series cover to cover during my seventh-grade year, and I understood the rage. There was drama, action, VAMPIRES, love; it had everything that people seemed to swoon over, but it seemed (to me) all too generic… let me explain.
Bella (The Protaginist)
Bella in most ways can be described as a “blank canvas”, meaning she has absolutely NO QUALITIES that make her interesting what so ever. Throughout the books (and movies) she is shown to have very little personality. The only interesting aspect of Bella’s character is via her sparkly boyfriend (Edward). It feeds into the mentality that girls need to find a significant other to find fulfillment. At the beginning of the book, Bella is welcomed to the school by a friendly, extroverted girl but despite the girl’s kindness, Bella instead shrugs her off and instead spends her time staring at Edward across the cafeteria. And once Bella and Edward are officially together, she immediately loses interest in her new friends and shifts her life to completely orbit about Edward.
Edward (The ‘Love’ Interest)
Edward displays many stereotypical characteristics of an abuser, he begins by attempting to isolate her from others. This is used by abusers so that their victim will have no way to escape after he decides he wants her, he is quick to get her alone and throughout the rest of the series, he continuously shields her away from other interactions (her father and friends included). He even goes as far as to forbid her from seeing Jacob (a potential rival) and even goes as far as sabotages her car to make sure she can’t leave. Another sign of potential abuse is extreme levels of jealousy or possessiveness, this begins to show when Bella goes to Port Angeles and he follows her there. Even when Bella is attacked and is saved by Edward, she doesn’t seem to notice that his behavior is a bit stalker-ish. Bella and Edwards relationship throughout the seriesΒ evenΒ meets all fifteen criteria set by theΒ National Domestic Violence HotlineΒ for being in an abusive relationship.Β Β
Twilight will forever be known as βthe story that will have started a war between who you wanted the main character to end up withβ, sparking inspiration for top-selling novels today such as β50 Shades of Grey; which was a Twilight fan fiction. A story of an 18-year-old girl, in love with a vampire, admired by a werewolf, and still manages to have little to no character development throughout the entire four-book seriesβ¦ what’s not to love?
“She leaned in and kissed him, hard on the mouth, letting their lips linger together on a sigh of memory and regret. Then she pulled back and winked at him, leaving the familiar argument for the moment. She wouldn’t give up. Not on him. Not on them.” (The literal first page I turned to in Maureen Child’s book, A Crazy Kind of Love.)
It’s not hard to walk into a book store and walk right into the romance section. It is almost impossible to miss their mile-high case filled with books that seemingly wanna shove the idea of LOVE down your throat. They might as well have a giant sign above the section saying “Hey! Even though you’re sad and lonely, why don’t you come over and read about the happily-ever-after that you will never get to have!” All the PTA moms are all busy reading about Fabio under the table while their teenage daughters are reading Harry Styles fan fiction during their AP Chemistry class. But everyone does it! At one point some of us have picked up a story, decided it was the cheesiest thing they had ever laid eyes on, but continued to read-only to see if Jack ended up with Diane. The idea of “perfect relationships” are often created by the pure inspiration from books that’s fall into the romance category, but it is safe to say that these ideas are simply UNREALISTIC! Now before you get your pitchforks, let me explain…
The idea of Romance was coined at the end of the 11th century and was originally known asΒ l’amour courtois’Β (French for courtly love). An idea created by poets of southern France that was used as an essential theme for a relationship between a man and women and the idea of it continued to grow from there. A few centuries later we have Shakespeare with Romeo and Juliet, Jane Austen who wrote Pride and Prejudice, Margret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind, Nicholas Sparks creator of many famous reads (The Notebook, A Walk to Remember and Dear John). And today one of the best selling “romance” novels of our time was originally a Twilight fan fiction. Throughout time we were given these ideas of romance and how anyone from anywhere can fall in love. We learned about Romeo and Juliet in school, our moms were reading Nora Roberts before bed, and now we have the opportunity to create our own on websites like Wattpad, Ao3, Tumblr, etc. We have this idea instilled in our minds to find our “happily-ever-after” and if we can’t have it then we will enter (and/or imagine) a world where we can.
I’m not here to say that these books are in any way shape or form bad. Nicholas Sparks wouldn’t be Nicholas Sparks if his writing looked and sounded like it was done by a toddler. But there are common patterns you can see in almost any “romantic genre” book you pull off the shelf.
Introduce Protagonist (who feels incomplete)
Protagonist meets love interest, but there is conflict
Characters’ are forced to spend time together
Characters goals cross
Characters are bound together in a situation
Protagonists individual desires conflicts with growing relationship
CRISIS – shift to prioritize relationship ends in disaster
Climax – protagonist makes personal sacrifice for ultimate fulfilling relationship
And the best part of these books is that the author can choose to end the story at either step 7 or 8. Even when the main character seemingly finds their “happy ending”, the author decides to turn the simplistic romance novel into a tragedy and kills someone important to the storyline. This method is called the “Kill Off” and is a method used by authors everywhere to make the reader feel sympathy towards these fictional characters, thus making the story more memorable in the long run. Granted, other genres of writing also do this, but here is when things get a bit more serious. People die every day, so why do fictional characters get more sympathy than a homeless veteran on the side of the road? Or a child fleeing from a war-ridden country, but is still turned away by the country that was supposed to be their salvation? (Okay, serious part overβ¦ moving on.)
But the reason that I say romance novels are so unrealistic is that they can create unrealistic expectations. Have you ever seen the t-shirts that say “Run like Christen Grey is waiting at the finish line” or when people “change” their last name on social media to match a celebrity? Even though some of these might be a joke, it is almost like they are screaming to the world “iF yoU ARnE’t fAMOus or hoT dON’T TaLK tO ME!”, stating that if you aren’t the readers standard of perfect, then you aren’t worth their time. A British Physiologist named Susan Quilliam even stated that “The novels give women unrealistic views about what to expect out of a relationship because they, well, romanticize love,” and can make women feel bad about their relationship because it doesn’t follow what an author outlines as the “perfect relationship”.
Romance isn’t a bad category, I’m not trying to say what it is. I just believe that romance is held to such a high standard that other genres are often forgotten about. And it’s hard to escape. Its been hard to find books that I enjoy that doesn’t include romance, but the stories I enjoy are never just about two people falling in love. It’s about a bigger picture. A story about something much bigger than just two people, but that’s a personal preference. I’m never going to tell anyone they are wrong for reading a romance novel, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and start reading a story just because of its label as a “love story”.
My “not so romantic, but kinda romantic” Recommendations:
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