Sometimes literature sneaks up on you.

I read a lot, and of wide variety. Much of it is because I enjoy getting lost in other worlds or times or lives. I read romance because it is cheap. Not just because I get them for a dollar at the used bookstore, but also because there is a minimum of commitment required in order to read them. Most can be picked up and chosen or discarded as suitable based on their cover and a glance at the back flap. They do not take horribly long to read; they are not weighty or complicated. So, by cheap, I also mean they don't require much time, focus, or thought, and are thus ideal to use as a way to relax with a couple of casual hours.

Sometimes, however, one will surprise you. I am just over 200 pages into a book called "Black Silk," written by Judith Ivory, and I am finding it to be not at all the usual sort of romance. In 200 pages, the hero and heroine have not kissed; they've scarcely had more than 3 or 4 conversations. Rather, they have had separate portraits painted, both intriguing in unique ways for this particular brand of fiction. While it seems completely typical: a jaded older male paired with a young, troubled widow, I am beginning to think that the impression is completely wrong.

Rather than a rake simultaneously lauded and ostracized by his peers, the male lead has instead been legally punished for his actions, both committed and falsely accused. He has not had a put upon "awakening" at falling in love with a fresh young miss, now needing to protect and shield her from his darker past. (This may be forthcoming, of course, but I would be surprised.) Rather, his motivations and morals (good and bad) have been quite clearly demonstrated and made entirely believable.

As for the female, she is not innocently and naively curious, easily falling into the arms of an attractive man. She, too, has been fleshed out and given life in a way that is not stereotypical of romance. She is realistically aloof, not said to be, but not. She is wary (justifiably so) and does not see the hero as such. She sees him (clearly, imo) as absurd and wasteful. Jaded and stupid, despite his clever intelligence.

It's refreshing, on the one hand. On the other, I picked up a romance to break myself out of a melancholic mood and have instead spiraled rather deeper into it as I sink further into their tale. I kind of feel I've been deceived, not received the advertised product. However, if this had been marketed as literature, how likely is it I would have picked it up? And I am certainly enjoying it as a very well-written story, which I sincerely hope has a happy ending.

Hopefully I can recapture my good mood tomorrow.