Romance Novel Unmentionables

So are there taboos in Romance novels? A friend of mine had a scathing review printed about her book over on Amazon. In the review, the woman actually admitted that she did not finish the novel. She said it was depraved because the villain had committed a sexually motivated murder of a prostitute. Of course, she didn’t say that the crime was committed by the villain against a prostitute. She left people under the impression that this was the hero, since she compared it to the obligatory rape scenes of the old 1970’s “bodice ripper.” She also complained that she had read several books in the last few weeks with such depravity as rape and child molestation.

Well, this hit home for me, because the opening scene in FOR HER LOVE is the molestation of the heroine as a child by her uncle. Yes, I knew that was pretty risky in a romance novel. Of course, the scene isn’t intended to bit the slightest bit titillating. It is supposed to be depraved. I had quite another reason for including this scene in my book. I wanted to show that even incest survivors can have, and deserve to have, a happy ending. I wanted people to feel for Grace and understand her sense of powerlessness. I wanted to reach out to women who had been hurt and reaffirm that real men are kind and patient and gentle, like Giles (the hero).

Now, this particular reviewer said that she had stopped reading each of these books as soon as she had read something that disgusted her. Naturally, that’s her right. I don’t believe in any kind of government censorship, but if I find something deeply offensive and without redeeming social qualities, I turn it off or stop reading it or whatever. At the same time, if mine was among the books she started to read, she would have put it down almost immediately and never read about Grace’s ultimate triumph over her demons. That’s a shame, because I admit, of my three published works, FOR HER LOVE is my favorite.

The whole thing had me wondering whether there are subjects that we just shouldn’t broach in romance. One woman wrote to me and told me that of the 15 members of her romance book club, no one could finish INTO HIS ARMS. She said that it was too religious. Now, see, I just don’t get that. It’s not a preachy book. I’m not telling anyone what to believe. Goodness knows, as a Unitarian Universalist, that would be the last thing I would ever do. It’s about religious tolerance. I can see a fundamentalist taking issue with the fact that it doesn’t really push the idea of one true faith, but “too religious”? A religious conflict is unacceptable in romance? Like there are no real-life couples for whom this is an issue. What’s so terrible about suggesting that two people from very different religious backgrounds can love and accept one another without either one giving up what they believe?

So, what’s off limits? Religion? Politics? (I’ve already had an editor inform me that social causes aren’t sexy.) Oh, please, don’t say SEX!