The title of this post was originally “In defense of romances.” I am an unashamed lover of historical romances, and I planned on using this space to delve into the many wonderful things about them. So there I was, merrily surfing the web for the bits and pieces that would serve as my defense for the genre I love, when I got sidetracked. By this:

It’s the book trailer for Julia Quinn’s newest, What Happens in London, due out on June 30. I confess, I winced while watching it. Many words sprang to mind: cheesy, painful, embarrassing, funny. Where to start? The atrocious accent, the sepia-tone colors, the overly dramatic acting… I’ll still read the book anyway, since I know and love Julia Quinn’s writing (one of the few romance authors to garner a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly), but this trailer wouldn’t be the first thing I’d show to someone I was trying to convert to romance-reading. I can find it in my heart to love the trailer, much in the same way I love The Crawling Eye, but I can’t honestly say it’s any good.

I have a love-hate relationship with book trailers. Some of them are so well-done, even with minimal production resources, they make me want to run out and read the book immediately. Others…well, others make me want to say defensively, “Not all books are as lame as this trailer makes that one look!” Most books are decidedly un-lame, but you wouldn’t know it judging by a lot of the trailers floating around on Youtube these days.

I think book trailers have a goal in common with this blog: to “entice non-readers to think about reading in fun and interesting ways.” However, the quality of book trailers is so hit and miss that I wonder if they’re any good at it. I get excited about many of the trailers, but I also get excited just by seeing the cover of a much-anticipated new book. (My reaction upon seeing Shannon Hale’s newest book being given away at a conference: jumping up and down, literally.) Have people who aren’t avid readers been hooked by a trailer, or has it merely made them giggle? Am I totally wrong about the trailer above, thinking it’s terrible when it’s actually completely awesome? Do I just need to learn how to have fun and stop expecting book trailers to rock my world like movie trailers sometimes do?

A post in defense of romances (particularly my favorite, historical romances) is coming soon…