Honestly, I used to be embarrassed by clinch covers. But that was when I was sixteen and felt that I needed to hide what I was reading. I associated shame with even daring to read a romance. And gasp, never in public. Always under the covers. Or hidden behind the pages of another more “acceptable” book.
My grandmother had dozens of romance novels with these explicit covers, and I was fascinated by the messages they sent. Could sixteen-year-old me—lonely, boyfriendless, and under-developed—ever dream to have a man stare at me with such devoted passion? Could I one day have a cold, fractious duke deign to be mine? You bet I could…at least for a few hours while I devoured those pages.
Though, sidebar, my husband’s English ancestry traces back to the Duke of Norfolk and Arundel Castle so I did marry a descendant of a duke (take that, disbelievers)! And also, thank you, clinch covers!
In hindsight (I just turned forty-five yesterday), those very romance novels with their gloriously scandalous covers told me one important truth—that I was deserving of love, and that I would find it one day. They made me feel like I had a chance. And that, dear reader, is what most of us want. A chance to connect with whichever partner we choose. A chance to love and be loved. To be happy in a healthy, satisfying relationship.
As a romance writer, I want to deliver the same message to my readers…that you are absolutely worthy of love. That you are worthy of respect and care and attention. That you should not associate shame with feeling desire, in wanting pleasure, in wanting to be pleased. You deserve that at a minimum. But most of all, I want women to know that they should not be afraid of having their own agency, of advocating for their wants and desires. Men have done it for millennia. It’s our turn.
There is no shame in pleasure. There is no shame in passion. And there’s no shame in wanting either of those. Whether that’s in a book with a sexy AF cover, or in real life.
Though styles and stories have evolved to suit our times, our cultures, and our broadening philosophies, the core of the romance novel will remain the same, and hopefully, so will the clinch cover and what it offers to readers: the promise and delivery of a happy ever after. So what if you dream about a prince of your own? Princes don’t always wear crowns—they come in all shapes, colors, sizes, and packages. Kind of like princesses.
Now, go get that cake. You know you want it.
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