[Note from Frolic: We are so excited to have author Melonie Johnson guest post on the site today. Take it away Melonie!]
On a recent afternoon stroll down the aisles of my local bookstore, I spied a parade of brightly colored cartoon covers dotting the shelf. Gorgeous and eye-catching, these books are cropping up everywhere like crocuses in a spring meadow. That evening, while scrolling through my Netflix library, sprinkled like candy, I discover a fresh array of fun, sweet flicks.
The rumors are true. Romantic comedy is experiencing a renaissance.
As a debut author with three books coming out back to back to back this season, I suddenly find myself part of the return to these feel-good stories. Categorized as romantic comedies, the Sometimes in Love series straddles the line between traditional contemporary romance and what is commonly referred to as “chick-lit.”
Let’s press pause for moment to address the elephant, er chick, in the room. Coined in the mid-90s, the era of Bridget Jones’s Diary, the term “chick-lit” refers to stories by female authors focused on female characters for a mainly female audience. Unlike women’s fiction (another term that makes me stabby), they tend to be more humorous and lighthearted. And are often described using a variety of ‘f’ words such as: Forgettable. Frothy. Fluff.
Well, F that.
Books slapped with these labels are another “f” word. They are fun. And that’s a perfectly legitimate thing to be. Just because a story is enjoyed for the break it provides from the real world doesn’t mean it is void of literary merit. For one thing, all fiction, by its very nature, is a form of escape. For another, I believe we need those escapes. Now more than ever.