Have All Contemporary Romances Turned Into Fifty Shades?

The movie at least made a great drinking game.

In 2011 I was the assistant manager at a retail electronics store that had begun to sink faster than the Titanic (we shall call them ShadioRack) and was just coming into my own in the male dominated electronics field. During my tenure here I met some of the greatest people to ever enter my life and I am fortunate to have these people still be a major part of my life. One of these people happened to be my now close friend Cassie who like me was a secret bibliophile. Our bond over normal nerd culture and WWE was already a huge topic of conversation while we were in the store, but we took it one step further. We had a fond appreciation of contemporary romance novels and in a somewhat larger part, of the gorgeous men who graced the covers of the books.

So naturally during the summer of 2011 we heard of the newest book craze that was sweeping the nation in droves. Every woman and some reluctant men were flocking to this book series that was by all accounts a spin off of the dreaded yet highly praised Twilight series. People everywhere were talking about it. People were both praising and repulsed by it. Parodies and reviews were springing up everywhere media could be found. And the world was fascinated, whether they loved or hated the series.

Written as an ode to the counter culture and lifestyles of the BDSM community. It was turning the heads of readers worldwide, and Cassie and I were about to join this wild ride. And I won’t lie, initially I loved everything about the first book and its wiltingly handsome Christian Grey. The pacing seemed alright and I found Ana’s inner monologue to be what can only be described as mildly annoying at best. And then I got to the second book, and I began to become “palm twitchingly” annoyed with Ana and Mr. Grey’s tedious personalities.

The overarching plot with his crazy former sub and his evil Mrs. Robinson were actually handled as well as could be managed, and in the hands of a more proficient author could have possible been even better and more developed. What turned me off midway through the books was the near abusive relationship and Ana and Christian had. On top of their problems, I was faced with spelling errors, British slang and lingo that had no place being in a book set in SEATTLE and several other little quirks that managed to annoy me. (Yes, I AM talking about the inner goddess? How did you know?) The ending however was satisfying enough and seemed to resolve all of the issues of both books with a tidy little bow.

And then that dreaded third book made its way into my life, and I seriously spent an entire e-book trying not to mentally flay the nearest person for just how bad the plot was. HOW DO YOU UNDO ALL OF THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT OF TWO BOOKS IN JUST THREE PAGES?! All of the “growth” that Christian gained by the end of Fifty Shades Darker just seemed to evaporate out of nowhere and we are left with a pure doormat Ana enduring even more restriction and jealousy from her husband. I barely trudged through this book with my sanity in tact as it puts my rage meter right up there with Surrender to Love as one of the absolute worst books and I have ever read. We won’t even begin to delve into the “How To Be a Stalker” how-to guide that was Grey.

Fast forward five years and I am still working in the retail electronics field for one of the biggest names in the world, and am now a blogger reviewing my passion for reading. A 50 Shades of Grey movie has come and gone and the sequel is in the works. And as I scroll through Facebook I get ads that read “Check out ________! The Next 50 Shades!” Or “If you loved Mr. Grey, __________ will see you now.” And internally I cringe as I pass each book by authors both known and unknown. Which in turn isn’t fair to the author at all if you think about it. Ms. James’ novels have almost tainted my love of contemporary erotica to the point where for almost two years after I read exclusively historical romances. All to avoid falling into a pit of endless knockoffs trying to capitalize on the BDSM/Rich Guy market.

And you know what I mean besides the fact that these writers were wanting to push BDSM

It's not you Grey...no wait. It is

to the forefront of literature, but I mean the whole style of the genre at that moment. Poor broke college student or plain Jane is suddenly discovered by uber rich business tycoon and they fall head over heels in love with the man generally being some kind of emotionally unstable mess. My Facebook suggestions are full of them, as are my inbox on twitter. So I understandably became quite jaded when it came to that style of writing. 

Then last year it finally happened. I scrolled across an author whom I had never heard of and the tag line was akin to the ones above. Yet at the same time it was intriguing because it featured some elements that were foreign to other books and FSOG that I have read. It was If I Were You by Lisa Renee Jones. The story of how a teacher and her best friend come across a journal in an auctioned off storage unit, that sets off a chain of events that span almost three seperate book series by the author. And it was INCREDIBLE. The characters are not some copy pasted bland clones of books past. Each character serves a purpose and furthers the plot. The sex scenes are steamy, the BDSM involvement is well researched and not the main focus of the book and oh my the men! 

The main character starts off as they typically do in these books where she is this shy meek little thing. But the difference with Sara, the heroine of the series, is that she comes into her own and gains confidence. She harnesses her own confidence and steps out of the shadow of the woman she was trying to find and becomes much stronger for it. She is able to look the men in her life in the eye and stand firm by what she wants and what she wants to accomplish, and Chris supports her and helps her achieve it. All the while weaving in a mystery and a steamy romance all into one neat package.

While the beginning of the series does handle some of the tropes that I mentioned above (see rich tycoon falls for plain Jane,) the books go above and beyond to distance itself from what had become the norm. While Sara does consider herself plain, and both Chris and Max are a rich as humanly possible, Sara has an already established career that she gives up not only to find and rescue someone else, but to find herself in the process. She pursues a new career in the field that she has always loved but was too afraid to chase after. Chris does have some emotional trauma, but has a much sunnier outlook on life than Christian Grey could’ve ever dreamed up, and Max is domineering and almost douer at times but even comes around to find the person who makes his life complete.The Inside Out and Careless Whispers series have given me a renewed hope to go out and try the contemporary genre now more than ever before because the game has finally changed. 

At this moment I am on the second book in a series that I would not have even considered a year ago. The series is the “Gaming The System”, and for what it is worth I am having both a love and hate relationship with it. While it does start with the same formula as the other two series mentioned, it prominently features the other side of my nerd culture. Gaming of both the video game and tabletop variety. My issue with this series is the author’s online gaming knowledge that seems to be quite limited to only urban dictionary style terminology, but the deeper knowledge of tabletop D&D, software engineering, and maintaining an online blogger lifestyle (shocker right?) makes up for it. And this time the hero isn’t who is making me cringe but the heroine herself because some of the choices she keeps making keep making her own life more difficult. But that is a review for another day.

Thunderclap is just an amazing book.

I guess what I am trying to say is that in the end, the genre did become a tedious adventure in seeing the same story told over and over again but with little to no variation. But years after the craze that was 50 Shades, we are seeing some amazing work from authors both new and old start to finally shine through. The tropes are becoming less and less predictable and more diverse. The stories are starting to add humor and depth back in while still keeping things hot and mysterious. And that is what I have been waiting patiently these last few years for. For the characters to feel believable and human again. 

My kindle is starting to fill with new contemporaries left right and sideways from well known names that offer varying degrees of hot romance. From Sophie Jordan, to Dez Burke, Brenna Aubrey, and Lisa Renee Jones, my spirits are finally being lifted out of the abyss of repetitive stories. I am looking forward to what is to come later on down the line now that we have learned from the past. From more than just startlingly hot business tycoons with little to no personality. Give me more mob bosses out for vengeance. Bring me your motorcycle gangs and your software engineers! Roll out the time travelers from the present going backwards in time on accident. Give me even the pro wrestling romances and the MMA fighter erotica, and I shall read them with gusto. I live for where romance is finally traveling. Out of the shadow of 50 Shades and onward into more uncharted terrain than ever before.