Romance novels – Mimi's Thoughts

Have I Read This Movie?

I started watching Voicemails for Isabelle on Netflix this evening. I was in need of a calm romcom and a few hours of entertainment. What I didn’t expect was the nagging feeling that I had somehow read this story before.

A few scenes into the movie, I found myself mentally flipping through the shelves of books I’ve read over the years. I kept asking myself, “Where have I read this before?”
I didn’t have to go too far. The book sat in my recent reads.

Wrong Number, Right Guy by Elle Casey.

Now, to be clear, Voicemails for Isabelle is not an adaptation of Wrong Number, Right Guy. The plots are different. The characters are different… But the emotional experience of the two stories feels remarkably similar.

Both stories revolve around a connection that begins indirectly. In Wrong Number, Right Guy, a mistaken text message opens the door to an unexpected relationship. In Voicemails for Isabelle, voicemails become a bridge between two people. In both cases, words create intimacy before life catches up.

There is something uniquely romantic about getting to know someone’s thoughts before fully knowing the person. Messages strip away appearances, distractions, and first impressions. They allow vulnerability to arrive first.

That is what I recognized.

Both stories capture the anticipation of waiting for the next message. The curiosity of wondering who is on the other side. The comfort that comes from being understood by someone you haven’t fully met. The emotional connection develops through conversations, not circumstances.

As readers and viewers, we’ve seen versions of this trope many times, but when it’s done well, it still works. There is something timeless about two people finding each other through words.

The more I watched Voicemails for Isabelle, the more I realized that what felt familiar wasn’t the storyline itself. It was the emotional rhythm. The same rhythm that made Wrong Number, Right Guy so engaging.

The movie wasn’t a book I’d already read. It simply reminded me why I love reading them.

Have you ever watched a movie that felt so familiar you were convinced you’d already read the book?

Why Choose?

I have been reading romance novels since I was a teenager…

I didn’t even know this was a thing.

Somewhere along the way, quietly and without any fanfare… the “why choose” trope found its way onto the shelves, built an audience, and settled into its own space in the world of romance… and I completely missed it.

From what I’ve now come to understand, the idea itself isn’t entirely new. Its roots stretch back into earlier romance (especially in fantasy and paranormal spaces) where a woman might be surrounded by multiple love interests, where each interest offers something different. But in those stories, there was almost always a final decision. A choice had to be made. One stayed, the others faded away. That was the rule…

Then something shifted. I have come to learn, that in the early to mid 2010s, particularly within indie publishing spaces, writers began to experiment. They questioned that rule. What if she didn’t have to choose? What if love didn’t need to be reduced to a single outcome? And just like that, without asking permission, the trope evolved.

My research tells me that by the late 2010s into the early 2020s, it had fully arrived. Not just as an idea, but as a recognized and named trope. Platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and Wattpad gave writers the freedom to explore it, and readers responded. Strongly.

Fans of this trope say there is something quietly relieving about it. No tension of “who will she pick.” No sense of loss when a favorite character is left behind. No pressure for one person to be everything. Just… an expansion of what love can look like.

And yet, here I am, only just discovering it.

But when I think about it, it makes sense why I didn’t.

This trope tends to live in genres I don’t naturally gravitate toward… fantasy romance, dark romance, paranormal worlds, academy settings (except the Love Hypothesis 😁)… spaces where imagination stretches wider and the rules of reality are more flexible. That’s where “why choose” feels most at home.

For me, I tend to sit more with quieter, grounded stories. The slow ones. The reflective ones. The ones that feel like sitting by a window in the evening with your thoughts. So yes, of course it slipped past me.

Still, I find something about it… interesting. It challenges something we have long accepted without questioning that love must be singular to be valid. That choosing one means losing others. That fullness only comes in one form. “What if it didn’t?” it seems to ask.

So, while I see why people would like the trope, I on the other hand, believe in choosing. I believe in the weight of it. In the clarity of it. I believe, even in the ache that sometimes comes with it.

I love the deep feeling that comes with “I choose You”… Not everyone. Not everything. Just… you.
Even if it hurts.
Even if it costs something.
Even if it doesn’t come easy.
That, to me, is where love sharpens into meaning.

So while the shelves may be expanding, and the stories evolving, I find myself still drawn to that singular thread… The courage and the consequence… of choosing one.

Someone Like You

I think I may be one of the biggest fans of a good romantic comedy, in film or in a book.

Some years ago, maybe twenty years, two movies captured my attention, I think may have seen both of them back then at least 10 times each. Over the years I’ve continued to repeat one of them; ‘The Wedding Planner’. The other one is ‘Someone Like You’.

Both of these movies were released in 2001.

Someone Like You is about a lady who is dumbed by her boyfriend, she begins to study the male animal, finding reasons why they act the way they do. She zooms in on her womanizing roommate as a case study. What she doesn’t prepare for, is how things turn out in the end. I think seeing Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman in those roles also contributed to how much I loved the film.

Last year, I saw a preview of a film adaptation of Karen Kingsbury’s book, ‘Someone Like You’. I have not read the book and I am eager to. I am also eager to jump on the film. I fear I may not read it anymore if I see the film.

The film was released in April,2024. It goes by the same name as the book.

I hope I like it just as much as I liked the older one even though they are not alike. The later is a romance drama while the former is a romance comedy.

Time out

Video from mills & boon

I found this video and I couldn’t stop thinking how many times a good romance novel has helped me relax and reset.

I don’t know how it happens but sometimes when I am stressed and overwhelmed, all I have to do is bury myself in a good romance novel and I’m healed.

Most girls say they stopped reading mills & boon, silhouette and other romance books after their teenage years.

I didn’t stop.

I love to dream and they make the best material.

Currently reading the Colleen Hoover 'Maybe Trilogy'; Someday, Not and Now