Please welcome debut author Ashley March to my blog! I know you're going to love both her and her fabulous story, Seducing the Duchess!
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Sharing Reading and Romance with My Daughters
When I first had the dream of becoming a romance writer, I was newly married. I knew that a family would come down the road, but I didn’t really think about how being a romance writer might affect my children. Now that I’m published and have a 19-month-old as well as a 2-month-old daughter, I can’t help but think about the day when they actually understand what I write about.
My own mother never read romances. Actually, she didn’t read much of anything. I think the only book I remember her reading was a picture biography of Princess Diana after she died. But she wholeheartedly believed in the importance of reading, and always encouraged my brother and me to read.
Like my mother, I want to instill the importance of reading in my daughters. One of the first things we bought my oldest daughter when we found out we were pregnant was a book. Whenever we go out to the bookstore, she gets a book. We have a tradition of buying books for presents. To us, books aren’t a luxury; they are a necessity.
Now that I’m a mother, I get to look back at my own mom and see what I want to do differently. There were so many things that she did right, but still I want to take it a step beyond. I want to be able to read together with my daughters, to share their delight in the worlds created by words. I hope they develop a crush on Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables like I did; I want to be able to discuss our disappoint in Jo letting Amy have Laurie in Little Women instead of choosing him for herself, but also discuss how that plot point actually fit with the characters.
And if they ever decide they want to read romance, and I think they’re mature enough, I’ll allow them. Just like Anne or Jo or Scarlett O’Hara—one of my personal favorites—I believe girls can learn from romance heroines.
I know that the heroines I write about are strong women, independent and intelligent. They are women who are vulnerable enough to fall in love, but don’t need a man to rescue them from their problems. A romance heroine isn’t afraid of what society thinks about them if they depart from the expected…or, if they are, they learn how to stand tall and embrace who they are over the course of the character journeys. I want to be able to read together with my daughters, and that includes romance novels. I want to sigh over heroes with them, and cry at one of those my-chest-literally-aches moments. I want to talk about the morals of the characters in romance novels, about what my daughters do and don’t like. I want to discuss our favorite authors and laugh together about some of the absurd titles.
I want to share with them.
And when they grow into young women and begin dating, if they compare all the boys to the romance heroes they’ve read about and the boys come up lacking…well, then they’ll make their dad happy by staying single forever. ;)
Does your family share a love of books? Are there any particular books that have become family treasures? Please share! 
One lucky commenter will win a copy of Ashley’s debut, SEDUCING THE DUCHESS, which features one of the strongest and most independent women you could ask for…and one who knows the only true chance at happiness she has is to trust her heart with the man who once betrayed her.
