Do older people deserve an HEA?
One of my new podcast favorites is Book Riot’s When in Romance. Recently, hosts Jess and Trisha pondered who deserves a Happy Ever After. The upshot of their entertaining, thought-provoking discussion: Everyone who’s not evil deserves an HEA.
What about characters over fifty? Specifically, women over fifty? And can that HEA involve some hot sex?
This is not a new topic. Here’s a link to author Kathleen Jones’s excellent article, Where Are the Midlife Heroines in Romance Novels? which appeared in 2017 on Romance Junkies Book Reviews.
http://romancejunkies.com/where-are-the-midlife-heroines-in-romance-novels-kathleen-jones/
So far, I’ve only read one steamy romance in which both characters are over fifty, Penny Watson’s charming novella Apples Should Be Red. Her heroine and hero are fifty-nine and sixty-two, respectively. There’s only one sexy scene, but it’s beautifully written. https://www.amazon.com/Apples-Should-Red-Penny-Watson-ebook/dp/B00IH5QHTS/
Here’s the thing: I’m fifty-six, and my darling hubs is older than me. Ours is a late-in-life romance. We’re having a marvelous time—and I don’t mean reminiscing in our rocking chairs (though that might be a fun position to try). I’d like to read more romance stories with heroines in my age group whose experiences reflect the full spectrum of falling in love.
Ageism is one of the last prejudices that still goes unquestioned by many. Marketers benefit from promoting youth culture and preying on our insecurities, but we don’t have to play along. If you think about it, ageism is a really stupid prejudice. When looking down on older people, you’re looking down on your future self.
I hope to do my part as an author to challenge notions of who deserves love, in all its physical and emotional glory. So far, my heroines are thirty-nine, thirty-one, and—oh dear—the next one’s in her early twenties. But the heroine of my as-yet-unpublished cozy mystery/romance series is fifty-five, and her man is fifty. Their sexy times happen behind closed doors, in line with the expectations of cozy mystery readers, but they’re smooching and boinking all the time. Why not? They’re in love.
Whether reading or writing, I prefer complex, layered love stories that incorporate steamy love scenes, and I don’t want to have to close the bedroom door once the heroine passes a certain age. That feels like a radical notion. It shouldn’t.
To younger readers who wince and say “Eew” at the notion of older lovers, I issue a challenge: What do you have to gain by holding onto that prejudice? What do you have to lose?
Have you enjoyed a romance with an over-fifty heroine? If so, please share the title in the comments.
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