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Date Posted: 09:47:19 10/27/04 Wed
Author: By Dinah Eng, Special for USA TODAY
Subject: Strong, sexy women save the day, get their man

Strong, sexy women save the day, get their man
By Dinah Eng, Special for USA TODAY

Readers of 21st-century romance novels aren't just looking for alpha males to save the day, then marry the helpless damsel. Strong, sexy heroines who save the day and then pick their own man are seducing the romance genre.

Though romance novels remain the top-selling genre of paperback fiction, a dip in sales in the past couple of years - market share was 48.8% in 2003 compared with 54.1% in 1999 - has publishers and authors rethinking the romance-novel protagonist. Enter the kick-butt heroines.

Like the female stars of Charlie's Angels and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, the women in these novels have the physical moves and mental savvy to take down anyone who gets in their way. Stories are plot- and heroine-driven rather than romance-driven, and they are set in contemporary or futuristic settings rather than the Victorian or Regency periods, for example.

• Harlequin, the world's largest publisher of romance novels - nearly 110 titles a month - has launched Silhouette Bombshell, a line that features tough women. Recently published Body Double by Vicki Hinze, the 12th book in the series, is the story of a Special Forces captain who must figure out who is cloning government agents.

The Bombshell series grew out of company brainstorming sessions on how to expand the romance genre. After the series launched, "we had a wonderful response from readers who wrote in to our Web site, but it'll take a year to really judge it," says Natashya Wilson, associate senior editor of the Bombshell series.

• Dorchester Publishing, the fourth-largest publisher of romance novels, came out with its 2176 action-adventure romance series in April. Targeting a younger, hipper audience, the books, including The Shadow Runners by Liz Maverick, feature heroines embroiled in a futuristic revolution for freedom.

"Sales are going very well for 2176, " says Christopher Keeslar, senior editor with Dorchester. "Distribution increased every time for the first three books and has plateaued out with the last two books as we approach the Christmas buying season. But we're very pleased. We're launching another series, called Crimson City, next July, which will be a paranormal action series, and will definitely do more if they do as well as we expect them to."


• Avon Books, which offers historical and contemporary romances, does not have lines with specific themes, but it does publish authors who feature physically fit, tough-as-nails women in their stories. "The kick-butt heroine is another incarnation of earlier heroines who have existed in books for a long time," says Carrie Feron, vice president and executive editor of William Morrow and Avon Books. "We don't have lines where we develop a theme. But these heroines exist in our novels, even in historical times."

Says author Suzanne Brockmann, whose latest heroine works with former Navy SEALS to find a terrorist's laptop in Flashback (Ballantine, $6.99), out in paperback today: "I love that the heroines are such fabulous role models for women. They have the soul of the warrior, which is what modern women have to have in order to do what we do.

"The heroines I write about have an unwillingness to quit. When they're in danger, they're going to fight hard."

Heroines such as those in Brockmann's books "are really multi-dimensional and more layered than some in the past," says Linda Marrow, vice president and editorial director for Ballantine Books, another large American publisher of romance novels. "They may be single mothers or divorced, and tremendously accomplished. Their goal is not to be in a couple, but to catch the serial killer.

"They also happen to find love and happiness, possibly kicking and screaming, along the way," Marrow says. "It's a terribly powerful and appealing fantasy, to be very feminine and accomplished, and also very strong."

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