Women who read romance novels do so for lots of different reasons. Maybe they like the romance; maybe they like the sex. Maybe they need a break from their daily life, or someone to fantasize about. But do we ever think about what the romance novel might mean in terms of the female psyche? Do we ever think that a romance novel could be a template of something we want in real life? I don't confuse fantasy and reality that way--to me, the fact of a romance being fantasy means there's something outside the borders of my life, something I don't want to be real, any more than I would want to live on candy instead of real food, or have chili powder as a main dish instead of a recipe where chili powder is just one element in a single recipe.

Anyway, thinking about the way that romances are composed of elements a woman might want in real life, It is reasonable to think a man might consider that making a study of romance novels would be like reading a manual on how to seduce a woman. If nothing else, it might give him a clue into how a woman thinks.

In Gail Faulkner's novel of the same name, the character Darius thinks that romance novels are "like finding instruction manuals on the capture and seduction of the modern woman." We don't find this out until he is in mid-plot putting his "rescue angle" into action, when he is in the process of rescuing Doctor Jesse Reese from an "emergency" landing in Alaska's Lake Aquarius. Fortunately for his plan, he is the physical personification of a romantic hero in Jesse's eyes.

What follows is as close to a romance novel brought to life as Darius Waterbear can put into his storybook world--with a few little dashes of forty-year old reality added in. Jesse is more than enough of a match for him, and holds her own, even as some surprising truths come to light. And the ending is a bit of a surprise, which makes me wonder if Darius or Jesse, (or Jesse's family) is going to make an appearance in a sequel. And while I would not recommend that any men reading this review (or any men who read the book for that matter) use it as a seduction template, Darius is still a fun read.

Reviewed by Maîtresse
© September 2007