Is Sci-Fi/ Fantasy Killing the Romance Novel?

I admit that I sort of drifted away from reading romances quite some time ago. Just haven't paid attention. However, today I had a craving for a fluffy Signet Regency Romance (which I never had any time to read anyway, so the entire point is moot).

Anyway when I went to Books-A-Million to buy a new calendar, I didn't see any Regencies. This was when I noticed that about 75% of the romance section was populated with demon hunters, vampires, and chick-lit. Is Signet dead? I know Mary Balogh still writes but honestly, how many times (and with how many covers) are they going to publish The Secret Pearl (err... The Precious Jewel... variation on the same book though. A book that in my somewhat vague memory was downright offensive (if memory is correct, calling the lead male 'of average intelligence' is being overly generous. He was mentally challenged, right? He was mentally challenged. Seriously. I'm not even snarking. I could swear that he was mentally challenged in the original publication-- far, far moreso than the dude in Kinsale's Flowers From the Storm who was a straight-up stroke victim... and STILL not as WTF as the 'Christian romances' mentioned in Harlequin kerfuffle on Fandom_Wank a month or two ago. (Oops. Wrong Fandom_Wank Kerfuffle.) Wiki-ing those actually blew my mind with the WTF and the epic fail. Seriously, they're apalling astounding.

Anyway, I know Balogh is still around but I got turned off by the Pearl/Jewel prostitute novels. And I know that Jayne Castle/Amanda Quick is still around and occasionally writing Regencies, but since she writes the same book over and over again, I gave up on hers ages ago as well. And Catherine Coulter wound up in my bad books as far back as the 1980s because her 'heroes' were quite often loathesome.

Anyway, I admit that I didn't spend a great deal of time looking, so I could have missed something (and I ended up with a Neil Gaimen novel instead... which, hey, I love sci-fi/fantasy too!) But even searching on Amazon, the most recent Signet Regency novel publishing date they list is October 2008.

I don't know much about the romance market these days, but while noting the near extinction of the regency, I noticed that they'd completely mainstreamed erotica (nothing wrong with that, just it didn't used to be that way). There's fluffy chick-lit (albeit I've never developed a taste for the Devil Wears Prada) and Buffy/Twilight/Charlaine Harris rip-offs. Is that all that's being marketed in romance these days? Even having drifted away from the genre, this makes me sad.

Then again, maybe it was just the preferences of the Books-A-Million buyer at my local store. It's just that entire area of the store looks quite different than it did ten years ago.

ETA:
And I don't want it to sound as though I'm downing all romances, because I'm not. In addition to the aforementioned Flowers from the Storm, which was a good book. I also have fond memories of Carla Kelly's The Lady's Companion and Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand as well as Balogh's Lord Carew's Bride and others. It's just that every genre has a wide range in quality and sometimes the bad is really, really bad.

Anyway, are the fluffy, quickie regencies now a dead genre? It sort of looks like it.

Is Sci-Fi/ Fantasy Killing the Romance Novel?

I admit that I sort of drifted away from reading romances quite some time ago. Just haven't paid attention. However, today I had a craving for a fluffy Signet Regency Romance (which I never had any time to read anyway, so the entire point is moot).

Anyway when I went to Books-A-Million to buy a new calendar, I didn't see any Regencies. This was when I noticed that about 75% of the romance section was populated with demon hunters, vampires, and chick-lit. Is Signet dead? I know Mary Balogh still writes but honestly, how many times (and with how many covers) are they going to publish The Secret Pearl (err... The Precious Jewel... variation on the same book though. A book that in my somewhat vague memory was downright offensive (if memory is correct, calling the lead male 'of average intelligence' is being overly generous. He was mentally challenged, right? He was mentally challenged. Seriously. I'm not even snarking. I could swear that he was mentally challenged in the original publication-- far, far moreso than the dude in Kinsale's Flowers From the Storm who was a straight-up stroke victim... and STILL not as WTF as the 'Christian romances' mentioned in Harlequin kerfuffle on Fandom_Wank a month or two ago. (Oops. Wrong Fandom_Wank Kerfuffle.) Wiki-ing those actually blew my mind with the WTF and the epic fail. Seriously, they're apalling astounding.

Anyway, I know Balogh is still around but I got turned off by the Pearl/Jewel prostitute novels. And I know that Jayne Castle/Amanda Quick is still around and occasionally writing Regencies, but since she writes the same book over and over again, I gave up on hers ages ago as well. And Catherine Coulter wound up in my bad books as far back as the 1980s because her 'heroes' were quite often loathesome.

Anyway, I admit that I didn't spend a great deal of time looking, so I could have missed something (and I ended up with a Neil Gaimen novel instead... which, hey, I love sci-fi/fantasy too!) But even searching on Amazon, the most recent Signet Regency novel publishing date they list is October 2008.

I don't know much about the romance market these days, but while noting the near extinction of the regency, I noticed that they'd completely mainstreamed erotica (nothing wrong with that, just it didn't used to be that way). There's fluffy chick-lit (albeit I've never developed a taste for the Devil Wears Prada) and Buffy/Twilight/Charlaine Harris rip-offs. Is that all that's being marketed in romance these days? Even having drifted away from the genre, this makes me sad.

Then again, maybe it was just the preferences of the Books-A-Million buyer at my local store. It's just that entire area of the store looks quite different than it did ten years ago.

ETA:
And I don't want it to sound as though I'm downing all romances, because I'm not. In addition to the aforementioned Flowers from the Storm, which was a good book. I also have fond memories of Carla Kelly's The Lady's Companion and Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand as well as Balogh's Lord Carew's Bride and others. It's just that every genre has a wide range in quality and sometimes the bad is really, really bad.

Anyway, are the fluffy, quickie regencies now a dead genre? It sort of looks like it.

Is Sci-Fi/ Fantasy Killing the Romance Novel?

I admit that I sort of drifted away from reading romances quite some time ago. Just haven't paid attention. However, today I had a craving for a fluffy Signet Regency Romance (which I never had any time to read anyway, so the entire point is moot).

Anyway when I went to Books-A-Million to buy a new calendar, I didn't see any Regencies. This was when I noticed that about 75% of the romance section was populated with demon hunters, vampires, and chick-lit. Is Signet dead? I know Mary Balogh still writes but honestly, how many times (and with how many covers) are they going to publish The Secret Pearl (err... The Precious Jewel... variation on the same book though. A book that in my somewhat vague memory was downright offensive (if memory is correct, calling the lead male 'of average intelligence' is being overly generous. He was mentally challenged, right? He was mentally challenged. Seriously. I'm not even snarking. I could swear that he was mentally challenged in the original publication-- far, far moreso than the dude in Kinsale's Flowers From the Storm who was a straight-up stroke victim... and STILL not as WTF as the 'Christian romances' mentioned in Harlequin kerfuffle on Fandom_Wank a month or two ago. (Oops. Wrong Fandom_Wank Kerfuffle.) Wiki-ing those actually blew my mind with the WTF and the epic fail. Seriously, they're apalling astounding.

Anyway, I know Balogh is still around but I got turned off by the Pearl/Jewel prostitute novels. And I know that Jayne Castle/Amanda Quick is still around and occasionally writing Regencies, but since she writes the same book over and over again, I gave up on hers ages ago as well. And Catherine Coulter wound up in my bad books as far back as the 1980s because her 'heroes' were quite often loathesome.

Anyway, I admit that I didn't spend a great deal of time looking, so I could have missed something (and I ended up with a Neil Gaimen novel instead... which, hey, I love sci-fi/fantasy too!) But even searching on Amazon, the most recent Signet Regency novel publishing date they list is October 2008.

I don't know much about the romance market these days, but while noting the near extinction of the regency, I noticed that they'd completely mainstreamed erotica (nothing wrong with that, just it didn't used to be that way). There's fluffy chick-lit (albeit I've never developed a taste for the Devil Wears Prada) and Buffy/Twilight/Charlaine Harris rip-offs. Is that all that's being marketed in romance these days? Even having drifted away from the genre, this makes me sad.

Then again, maybe it was just the preferences of the Books-A-Million buyer at my local store. It's just that entire area of the store looks quite different than it did ten years ago.

ETA:
And I don't want it to sound as though I'm downing all romances, because I'm not. In addition to the aforementioned Flowers from the Storm, which was a good book. I also have fond memories of Carla Kelly's The Lady's Companion and Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand as well as Balogh's Lord Carew's Bride and others. It's just that every genre has a wide range in quality and sometimes the bad is really, really bad.

Anyway, are the fluffy, quickie regencies now a dead genre? It sort of looks like it.