Why I read romance novels

Lori Foster just posted on her FB that she hates it when people call romance novels trashy or smut books. While I  have read a few that had too many sex scenes (even for me), it wasn't because of what they were doing, I didn't like them because there was no real story line. I like a story.

I've always been intrigued by human emotion - I read an article called What Books Do for the Human Soul. Every point makes sense but the point that really hits for me was

"It looks like it’s wasting time, but literature is actually the ultimate time-saver — because it gives us access to a range of emotions and events that it would take you years, decades, millennia to try to experience directly."

I think romance novels are especially great for showing range of emotion...cause really there's not a more volatile emotion than amorous love (the falling in, the making of, the loss of, etc.)  That's why I read romance novels - the emotion is fascinating.

So when a writer takes the love out - or any emotion but lust out - and it's just a sex book (it just gets boring for me personally) then I think it's apropos to refer to that as a smut book (and perhaps that's why romances get a bad rap)? But hey - sometimes people just want to read that - so why not...

My favorite Lori Foster book? I'm torn between Wild and Too Much Temptation