Saturday, December 6, 1997

Christian romance novels, more spiritual than steamy, pick up readers

By Jeanette Leardi

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

In a romance, the heroine always ends up in the arms of her one and only. But in more and more novels, there's room in that embrace for another.

God.

Take this passage from Jane Peart's "The Risk of Loving":

"She looked at Mark, and was caught up in the directness and honesty of his regard. . . . Whatever dragons' lay ahead, whatever was before her, with God's help and Mark beside her, she was ready to begin."

So ends a climactic episode in one of the latest Harlequin romances.

If romance novels conjure images of steamy sex and ripped bodices, you won't find them in this book, or in any of the others in a new "Love Inspired" series the mainstream publisher began releasing in September.

If you like the racier novels, don't worry. Harlequin still will produce the kinds of books it's famous for. But it's adding a new line of "inspirational romances," under the Steeple Hill imprint. Harlequin and other publishing giants are hoping to cash in on a trend that is fast becoming a major success story of its own. Simply put, many women want a kinder, gentler romance novel.

"I think a lot of the women who have always been romance readers got turned off by some of the secular romances because they became too graphic," says Publishers Weekly Religion Editor Lynn Garrett. "And a lot of these readers are evangelical Christians, and they are seeking something that will shore up their world view and not challenge it or attack it."

"The inspirational or Christian market has been a hot spot in publishing for a number of years, and Harlequin and many other secular publishers certainly have taken notice ..." says Anne Canadeo, editor for the Love Inspired series.

Just how hot is the market? It's hard to get definitive sales figures because book sales nationwide are not recorded in a centralized computer system.

But several Christian bookstores in the Charlotte, N.C., area report that inspirational romance sales are on the rise.

Cornerstone Christian Gifts owner Betty Lockhart says 13 years ago 5 percent of her book sales were of Christian women's fiction. Today the figure is 20 percent.

And Don Cunningham, owner of the New Creation Christian Book Store in Matthews, N.C., says Christian fiction sales have doubled in the past five years, and that Christian women's fiction has remained a steady 50 percent of those sales.

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According to the Romance Writers of America, in 1996, 55 percent of published paperback fiction was romance, with the genre netting $1 billion, up from 1995 figures of 49 percent and $884 million.

Add to this the Christian Booksellers Association statistic that in 1995 the top seven Christian fiction publishers sold 5.25 million Christian fiction books, totaling more than $43 million in sales.

Since the 1980s, combining romance and Christian fiction has been, shall we say, an inspired move.

"Romance readers tend to buy a lot of these books, and they tend to be mass-market editions, pocket-size, which are inexpensive," says Garrett. "The average romance reader ... buys three or four of these a month. You'll find these books in bookstores, but you'll also find them in many nonbook outlets - supermarkets, Target, Kmart, that sort of place."

Chances are, there's at least one inspirational romance on display among the other books at your supermarket. Romance Writers of America reports that in 1996 alone, 92 new inspirational romances were released.

But what exactly is an inspirational or Christian romance?

It follows the basic rules for secular romance: "It has to have a happy ending, and it's the relationship story of one man and one woman," says Charis McEachern, communications manager for the Romance Writers of America.

But that's where the similarities end. In Christian romances, there's no cursing or vulgar language. And there's no premarital sex or explicit sexuality. "Even in the books where the characters are married ... there may be scenes of lovemaking, but the door just closes," says editor Canadeo, "like a 1940s movie; it's implied."

"Obviously you couldn't call the Christian variety bodice-rippers,' " says Garrett. "Maybe you can call them high-buttoned bodices.' "

For romance readers used to a wilder ride, these books may seem quite tame. But tameness, to the inspirational aficionado is secondary to the genre's real goal: interweaving Christian values into the plot.

Says Canadeo: "(The characters) are either discovering faith or rediscovering faith they've lost for some reason, due to their personal history."

"Oftentimes our characters are striving not only to fall in love and stay in love, but also trying to learn something about themselves and their God and how that relates to their life at the present time," says Lisa Bergren, executive editor of fiction for WaterBrook Press, a new subsidiary of Bantam Doubleday Dell that focuses on inspirational romances.

Do readers think the spiritual dimension detracts from the books' entertainment value?

"I like the stories," says Julie Cox, 38, of Mount Holly, N.C. "It seems like the stories are better; it's like the movies you used to see when you were a kid, how much you enjoyed them and you see what the people are going through in their faith, and it's all tied in there."

Pam Zigler, 43, of Huntersville, N.C., is encouraged that characters react to life the way she would. "I'm not far off," she says when she imagines how she would react to some of the situations characters face. She reads about four Christian romances a month.

"A lot of women read these books as a how-to or self-help kind of read," says Canadeo, "... that these books are instructing them in a way on how to deal with certain problems that they face in their own relationships."

But for some, the books offer more than entertainment or how-to support.

Claire Hager, 79, of Mineral Springs began reading inspirational romances six years ago, coincidentally just before her husband, James, died of a heart attack. "I started reading nonstop. I think the Lord was preparing me for (James') departure ... for long, lonely evenings ... I started reading continuously, and it's been a source of comfort and company. ... It's like a friend." In the past year, Hager has bought 56 Christian romances and read even more.

The books are so inspirational to many readers they pass them on to friends, family, church members. In fact, Hager and Zigler share their books with their daughters, ages 55 and 13 respectively.

As an African American, Beverley Thornton, 41, of Waxhaw, N.C., is hoping that inspirational genre will someday expand. "I would like to see a black Christian romance novel based on the same Christian point of view. And also from a Hispanic (point-of-view) you know, different backgrounds, because we're all born in Christ."

Women are finding Christian romances not only inspiring to read but also to write. Charlotte, N.C., romance writer Peg Robarchek has just signed a contract with Steeple Hill for her first inspirational romance, to be released around Christmas 1998.

"Recently my spiritual life has become a lot more important to me and when I saw that my publisher was launching into this, it seemed a natural fit for me, it seemed a place for me where I could go and use some of the tools I'm now using in my own life and bring it to my fictional characters," she says.

Clearly, Christian romances are coming into their own.

"(Spirituality) is a very big part of American life today," says Robarchek, "and the fact that women also attach that to stories of love and finding the right person and so forth is really not surprising; it's just an extension of what's happening everywhere."

(c) 1997, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.). Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.