Romance novels changed after Sept. 11

I have this theory about the romance genre. You can let me know if you think it's crazy.

Back in the '90s, I didn't get much sleep. I didn't watch a lot of television or talk on the phone late at night. If my stomach was rumbling, I'd ignore it, and if it was my bladder... well, I'd try to hold it for as long as I could.

You see, I was usually in the middle of an amazing romance novel that I just couldn't bring myself to stop reading. And, back then, every book seemed amazing.

One night it could Marsha Canham keeping me up late with her inventive reimagining of the legend of Robin Hood in her medieval trilogy, starting with "Through a Dark Mist" and ending with "The Last Arrow." Then Kimberly Cates would have me weeping at 2 in the morning as I finished one of her heartrending stories, such as "Gather the Stars" or "Angel's Fall," that told of men trying to atone for sins real or imagined and the women who had the courage to love them.

Mary Jo Putney would have me dazzled with her exotic settings in books, such as "Silk and Secrets," which had bittersweet lessons about love and forgiveness. Meagan McKinney's book "The Ground She Walks Upon" was so extraordinarily beautiful that I literally could not breathe while I finished it. Candice Proctor stunned me with her daring first novel, "Night in Eden"; Theresa Medeiros had me absolutely riveted through "Heather and Velvet," "Once an Angel," "A Whisper of Roses" and "Thief of Hearts"; and Connie Brockway had me shaking my head in wonder at the incredibly original ending in "All Through the Night."

Then came Sept. 11.

The books that had been keeping me up at night were complex stories full of danger and uncertainty, and suddenly so was the world we were living in. Not knowing what would happen next was scary, not entertaining.

I'm not sure who decided to lighten up romance.

Maybe it was the readers who collectively decided they wanted humor and simple, straightforward love stories that, however fleeting, took them to another place where you didn't have to worry if the terror alert had gone from orange to red. Or maybe the publishing industry figured that since life had become dark, the stories we read shouldn't be.

And just like that, romance changed.

Most of the books became something you could put down when the phone rang or when "CSI" came on. They were breezy love stories full of humor and feel-good emotion. Even authors whose previous books had been intense found their funny bone. I started getting my beauty sleep again.

These days, I look back on those '90s romances with nostalgia because I'm not sure we'll ever see those kinds of books again. The world post-Sept. 11 is different.

I just wish our romance novels didn't have to be as well.

Reach Rebekah Bradford at rebekahbradford@hotmail.com.