romancing the reader

Dear Romance Authors,

Please note, before I go any further, that this is not a dis of the romance genre. But for the love of all that is holy, please give me a reason to want your characters to be together. You can wax poetic all you want about how they are meant to be together, but if there is not one scene in your book that actually SHOWS chemistry between them, that actually makes me think "man, they belong together", then all those words are just wasted.

And throwing in a random romp in the sack doesn't count. That's not to say there can't be a little nooky now and then. Hell, I'm all for it. But sex does not always equal chemistry, and chemistry does not always equal sex.

Seriously. You can go on for pages about A's amazing, flawless personality and why B loves him/her so much, but if every time your characters are together there is no chemistry, nothing to support these claims, I'm going to put the book down and walk away. If I am reading a romance it is because I want to read about love, passion, two people who are made for each other/making it work despite not being made for each other.

And characters do not have to be irritatingly perfect. Hello? Mary Sue? Is that you? I, personally, like a little flaw now and then. It makes the characters real, believable. And, again, if I can't believe the characters I am going to put the book down and walk away. I don't have to love a character to care what happens to them, but I do have to believe that character, understand them to a point. And I just can't root for cardboard.

Yes, I do realize that this rant can pertain to genres other than just romance, but it feels like at least one of every three romance novels I pick up lately suffers from this problem. Too many want to get right to the 'good stuff', but, to me at least, the good stuff just isn't as good without the believable characters/chemistry.

PS: This rant may, or may not, be the product of not enough wine in the house.