Readers break for romance

As the blood flows to every inch of her quivering flesh, Isabella recalls the passionate embrace of last night.

She envisions her and Roark, arms wound around each other, bodies pressed so closely that even their heavy breathing was synchronized, caught in a kiss that seemed to blissfully last forever.

And now as she lounges on the beach under the sizzling sun with a book in her slender hands, she watches as his sculpted body emerges from the surf, beads of water collecting in the defined lines of his muscular form.

She grins with contentment until the book is suddenly snatched from her hands.

It's not Roark.

It's her friend Chad. He was the one calling to her from the surf. He wasn't professing his undying love for her; he asked her to get him another beer from the cooler.

She sighs, deeply disappointed. Well, at least it is spring break, she thinks.

Although Isabella and her friends exist only as figments of a writer's imagination, many real-life University students have decided to spend some of their spring break simultaneously reading and enriching their love lives with a work of romantic fiction.

"I'm sort of carried away out of the real world when I read a romance novel," said Jenny Althouse (freshman-animal biological science), a confessed reader of these books of love and passion.

Althouse names Danielle Steel as her favorite romance novelist, citing Steel's Changes as the work she enjoyed the most.

"Changes is probably my favorite because I liked the fact that it was set in modern times and focused on a woman balancing a career and a love life," she said.

Althouse is certainly not alone in her passion for romance. The World Wide Web site for "Romance Writers of America" states that 49.8 percent of all mass market paperback books sold in the United States are romance novels.

But this craze for ardor in the written form is not confined to the present. Romance writing has its roots with novelists such as Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters.

"I like Austen novels because they aren't just love stories; they involve problems of social organization," said Amanda Chiprich (freshman-animal biological science).

Chiprich said she finds works such as Austen's more intellectual than the romantic fiction produced today.

Susan Squier, professor of women's studies, also said more complex forms of fiction are available. But she acknowledges the timeless appeal of the romance novel.

"I think there will always be a place for romance fiction because women and men can find in it some predictable pleasures . . . as well as some acceptable places to imagine alternatives to the way life is for them everyday," she said in an E-mail.

Back in the fictitious world, Isabella -- lying on the beach and imagining the perfect man -- experiences an alternative life through a good book.

"You know," Chad says to Isabella between sips of his beer, "you look kinda nice today."

Isabella smiles. He's not Roark and her life's not a romance novel, but maybe there can still be a happy ending after all.