Thursday, May 15, 2014

The Curvy Female is Now the Romance Heroine

Over the last year, more and more romance e-books are carrying the label curvy or BBW (Big Beautiful Woman), including my series Bryant Station Curves. 
I’ve been an avid reader of romance books for a long time. I remember sneaking my mom’s Harlequin books and reading them. The stories and characters were great, though very tame compared to some of the stories available today. But as I got older, I noticed there were not very many romance stories that had a female character who really reflected me, a woman with extra padding or curves.
More often than not, when a story had a curvy female, she was typically the best friend or even, in some cases, the comic relief. She was not as pretty as the heroine. She was not athletic. She was seen as bookish or the brains instead of the beauty.
The hunky guys never paid any attention to her, unless they wanted help with something or to get the heroine’s telephone number. Sometimes the curvy female had to deal with comments such as “you would be so pretty, if you would just lose some weight” or “you have such a pretty face, but it’s hidden by all that weight."
Authors are realizing there is a growing group of readers who wants a curvy heroine who is smart, strong, sexy, desirable, and beautiful. We want the curvy female facing her issues and working through them, and yes, sometimes we need to cry with her as she struggles with her demons.
We want her catching the attention of the good looking men, and for the alpha male to desire her, to love her, and to make her feel special, because she is the only woman in the world for him.
Women come in all shapes and sizes. Based on what I’ve seen, the stories are starting to reflect this diversity that is found in the female population.
Are my female characters limited to curvy characters? No
Do I read only stories with curvy characters? No
Do I wish there were more stories with feisty, curvy heroines? Yes