The Accidental Convert

My husband travels a lot. He also reads quite a bit while traveling, due to many hours on airplanes (it takes a good long time to get Outside from here) and being cooped up in hotel rooms when not meeting with colleagues. Quite often, he'll buy books in airport bookstores. Recently, he returned home with a number of new purchases.

Me (perusing cover with scantily clad female in red leather): Um, Hon? Whatcha reading?

Hubby (dismissively): Some fantasy. It has vampires and werewolves.

Me: Uh huh. It's an Urban Fantasy, not the stuff you normally read.

Hubby (defensively): It was in the Science Fiction section.

Me: It says on the spine "Urban Fantasy."

Hubby: That print is too small; I didn't see it. Anyway, it was in the Science Fiction section.

Me: Yeah, you said that. (I look at the books in his TBR pile) So if your purchase was a "mistake" why did you buy all five books in the series on your next trip?

Hubby (returning to reading book with scantily clad female smooching equally scantily clad male on cover): They're good. You should try them.

Me (smiling): Uh huh.

I have had a number of Science Fiction Romance and Fantasy Romance and other sort of romance novels on our shelves for months, if not years, and I have yet to convince him that reading them would be worth his while. There are some things he, like many of us, have to "discover" for themselves. So thank you, limited airport bookstore shelves! With any luck, more people will accidentally discover SFR and Fantasy Romance then go on to get their friends and loved ones to give them a try.