by Crymsyn Hart
What is Paranormal Romance besides it being a subgenre of romantic fiction?
Paranormal is considered to be “beyond” the normal world, supernatural and something that science can’t explain. And romance would be a relationship between two or more characters and the feelings that develop between them. To me, at least, this is what the phrase entails. Now, you throw in a little bit of spice, a vampire or two, or a hunky shifter and to me that is paranormal romance.
While I love a good vampire book that might not have a happy ending, most romance novels end with a happy ever after or a happy for now ending. I write both the HEA and HFN, sometimes, as I reader, I really want to read that horrible ending where everything doesn’t turn out all right and there are a few dangling strings that keep me wondering and on the edge of my seat. But that is my opinion and with five bookcases bursting with books that are mostly vampire novels across all genres, it seems most of the books end with the happy endings, except the horror ones. Even I am not immune to those novels.
Reading paranormal romance novels are like candy, I read one and then I can’t wait to get my hands on another one. My sub genre of choice within the paranormal realm is vampires. I enjoy the bloodsucking fiends more than any other creature. The dark immortals who prey on the blood of virgins only to find themselves falling hopelessly in love with one of their victims. Or the lustful seductress who stalks the clerk at her local blood bank only to rescue him from some dark fate that he is being hunted by the local vampire mob boss because he has uncovered some dirty secret. Together they fall madly in love, embark on a few sexual escapades in between the assassination attempts on their lives, and then end up happily ever after living together until the next disaster comes along and a sequel has to be written.
So besides my explanation of what paranormal romance is, what do you define it as? What draws you into the world of the supernatural? Is it the luscious descriptions of the heroes that makes you delve into the pages? Or is it something more?
If you are like me, then it is more than that. It is the idea that I can put myself into the shoes of the main characters and live through their eyes even if it is for the briefest time of being between the pages. As I said before, books are like candy to me. I open them, get sucked into the sweetness of the story, and then before I know it, time has melted away and the real world has returned because the book is done.
So tell me, what pulls you toward the romance and the paranormal? Hopefully, it’s the sweet taste of the world the author has written and you just want to come back again and again.
