Saturday, May 16, 2009

Bosom Heavin' Love

Photo Credit: Harlequin Celebrates

I've been hearing a lot on the tube lately that despite the fact that we are in a recession and people are not spending - not on retail purchases beyond the necessities, not on big ticket items or high end clothing, the housing market is in a major slump and car dealerships across the country are closing their doors - there is one thing that is selling like crazy.

Hot, steamy romance novels.

Hey, I'll bet that post title got your attention afterall, didn't it? ;)

Well, 'bosom heaving love' might be a little cheesy and dramatically silly for the sake of attention getting, but in truth, Harlequin, the leading publisher of romance novels, claims that their 4th quarter earnings were up 32 percent from a year ago. So they must have something there, wouldn't you say?

Even my own BFF, a lovely woman just a tad younger than I am, recently got herself all wrapped up in the Twilight series of books over a vacation, so much so, that she has now read them not once, not twice, but multiple times. The. Entire. Series. And that's in a period of just a few weeks. She swears she has to be the only woman her age in the whole wide world who has gotten obsessed with the main character, Edward Cullen, and the whole Twilight storyline.

I told her {though I admit I have not personally read them ... yet}, "my darlin', assuredly you are not."

There are probably as many mature women who have read that series as there are young women even if they don't openly say so to their peers {can I get a show of hands please?}.

So what is it? This draw? Why are sales of romance novels up when everything else is down, and people are losing their jobs and their homes, and nobody has any money for anything, and well, life is in such a turmoil right now? What is it?
"Central to the book is a relationship between a man and a woman and how that develops over the course of the book," she [Donna Hayes, Harlequin CEO] said. "And in the case of Harlequin, the must-have in the formula is that you must have a happy ending. Trials and tribulations as you date and break up, argue or all those things, but at the end you are going to be together with the love of your life and you are going to feel really good about it. So that's the key and that's why people love to read our books."
Source: ABC News
Love Story: Romance Novel
Continues to Sell in Down Economy
,
by JOHN BERMAN and TED GERSTEIN


Ah. So that's it. The happy ending. Always.

We do love happy endings, don't we?

Need a romantic diversion yourself? Well, have I got some news for you then!

You can download FREE ebook romance novels right now, courtesy of Harlequin Romance. They've got suspense and paranormal categories. They have passion. Home and family. Romance. And, as usual, historical.

And Harlequin, in celebration of their 60th year of "pure reading pleasure," is giving away not just one book. Oh no. And not just two books either. Harlequin is offering up to women everywhere, sixteen, yep, that's SIXTEEN full length - mostly 250+ page romance novels - to download in several ebook formats - pdf, ePub, MS Reader, or eReader format. To pick up copies in MobiPocket, go here instead and, in fact, it looks like there's a bonus book there for all the formats, so gals head on over, because that's SEVENTEEN FREE FULL LENGTH BOOKS.

Books written by some of Harlequins top-selling and best known authors. A retail value of about $60 bucks - totally free. Absolutely no strings attached. And, if you find yourself kindling a desire of your own to delve into a world of only happy endings on a regular basis, then you can run on over to eHarlequin, sign up and bury yourself in the multitude of choices before you.

By the way, besides the available formats offered by Harlequin, if you own a Kindle you can also get these books converted to be read on your Kindle. Just download the free books in pdf format, and then, using the email address that came with your Kindle, you have two choices:
The frugal free way: by sending an mail from your regular email client (gmail, Windows Live, Outlook, etc.) with the pdf attachment, to youraddress@free.kindle.com - the book will be converted and returned to you at your email address, not on your Kindle. You'll then need to attach a USB to your computer and transfer them over to your Kindle; or,

For only 10 cents each: Send an email from your regular email client with the pdf attachment to youraddress@kindle.com and the pdf will be converted and then sent wirelessly direct to your Kindle. Cost per conversion is only 10 cents for each book, so you can transfer all of these books direct to your Kindle for less than $2. Can't beat that price for 17 books!
I did this and it took literally seconds to convert and return one book straight to my Kindle. Pretty awesome. Keep in mind that sending multiple pdf attachments via your email will take a little extra time, both to send out, and to convert, but it still comes back in no time and ready for reading.

So if you're looking for a little bit of a diversion from the hectic world, why not check it out for yourself?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe I hear a bubble bath and a book callin' my name.

3 comments:

  1. Wow!! Thanks for telling us about this!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have to laugh. When I saw the your "Bosom Heavin' Love" title, I thought it was going to be a turkey breast recipe.

    But the information about the Harlequin books is even better than a recipe!!! Thank you for sharing it.

    ReplyDelete

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