Classics Week Guest Post: Marie Hall "Why I Love Regency Period Romance"

Happy Tuesday All,

Did you all enjoy yesterday's post? If you haven't checked it out, please do so by clicking here.

Today I welcome author Marie Hall to Write By Bethany. Marie is

an author I came across while browsing E-book options. I read Her Mad Hatter and was hooked. Now several more titles later, and having interviewed her, plus chit-chatting on Facebook (she's a Once Upon A Time show fan, too). I'm delighted to be able to welcome her once again to my blog as she discusses her love of Jane Austen, and other period romances.

Take away, Marie Hall...

I guess it’s no surprise that I as a romance writer would love romances. And I hardly doubt I’m in the minority when it comes to loving Jane Austen, and the Bronte sisters. I’m also very partial to Dickens, but he didn’t write the traditional romances. So for the sake of this piece I’ll stick with romance period writers.

I first picked up Pride and Prejudice in high school. It was a school assignment and I wasn’t too keen on the idea. My idea of a period romance was going to be a book full of big words I couldn’t understand, completely unrelatable characters, the ultimate snooze fest. Four hours after opening the book I was done and my world was forever changed. How could a woman who lived so long ago perfectly capture the spirit of love, desire, jealousy, and betrayal?

Realizing I may have just stumbled across a new genre of books never before read to me I picked up Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility. Though none of them quite captured my attention the way Mr. Darcy had, they were all very good. On a quest now to search out new authors I picked up the Bronte’s. I’ll be the first to say that I hated Wuthering Heights. To me that was most definitely not a romance, but a tragedy. As I’ve grown older I’ve come to appreciate the complexities and psychology of the story but I would still hesitate to call it a romance. That said, Jane Eyre stole my breath away. Mr. Rochester specifically. Wow, what an anti-hero. He was brusque, MARRIED, and just downright nasty. But I loved him. Loved everything about him. I loved the dark edge to him, how he could put on a show for others, but how with Jane he dared to be his true self.

Mr. Darcy and Mr. Rochester shaped my idea of what a wonderful hero could actually be. Someone who on the surface seemed so wrong and just horrid, but who in the end, you couldn’t help but root for. It is that archetype, more than any other that I love writing to this day. In a lot of ways Rumpelstiltskin is an amalgam of the two. Haughty, disdainful, and yet there’s something in him that calls to the heroine because she can see beyond the mask to the wounded man beneath. Thanks to two ladies who lived centuries ago I feel like I’ve found my true calling in life and I could not be happier. After all, isn’t that what romance is all about? Happily ever after.

Marie didn't mention it, but she has a brand-new release out in the Alphas After Dark anthology. Her story is entitled Rumpel's Prize (which I reviewed in this post) and is a part of her Kingdom series. You can get your copy of Alphas After Dark on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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