Now that Halloween is but a memory, costumes packed away for another year, and leftover bite sized sweets at hand for reading binge snacking, the holiday season is truly upon us. Days grow shorter, nights longer, the temperature drops, as do leaves from the trees. Perfect time to snuggle under a warm blanket, with a beverage of choice, and a great romance novel to remind us that, no matter what holidays we celebrate, it’s all about the love…stories, that is. Where else could we start, but where it all begins – with family?
Mention the words, “holiday travel,” and “romance” may not be the first thing that comes to mind. More likely, it will be traffic jams, crowded airports, delayed flights, lost luggage, chaotic bus or train stations, squabbling kids in the back seat, and questionable rest stops. Thankfully, romance novels make excellent traveling companions, and, for those so inclined, have a few journeys of their own, that we can take without leaving home, or even our chairs. This can only mean one thing – road trip!
The appeal of the road story is much the same as the appeal of road trips in real life. Leaving one place, to get to another, may seem like basic transportation, but in romance novels, there is the added aspect of the romantic journey along with the physical one. Not all of these tales take place during the holidays. Many times, the journey to the love of a lifetime happens on the most ordinary of days. Other times, there’s a ticking clock, where one lover needs to reach their destination by a particular time (or date, in historicals) and their other half can help or hinder in this regard.
Either way can make for a memorable story. Two strangers, both headed for the same destination, already have one thing in common; they want to get from where they are, to where they need or want to be. This may involve combining forces and resources to achieve that goal. Travel can accelerate the growth of a relationship, be the means of that travel as fast as a bullet train, or as leisurely as walking on foot. Readers of western or prairie romance know this well, as it’s a huge part of the wagon train experience, while contemporary readers can cite road trips, commutes, and international flights. Stick two people in a carriage or space shuttle, point them toward their destination, and they’re going to have to talk to each other sometime, aren’t they?
When the voyage takes place on the open seas, the road story becomes a cabin story. That’s ship’s cabin, as opposed to log cabin, though we can see the western fans nodding here again, because snowbound in a remote cabin with a mysterious stranger stories have been pleasing readers since there were log cabins and mysterious strangers in the first place. That’s another story, though, but not an entirely unrelated one. Whether the cabin is on shipboard or out in the wilderness, its occupants are in close quarters, and finding other lodging is going to be tricky, so they’d best try to get along.
It’s said that every story is a character’s journey from wanting something, to either getting it, or accepting that they will never get it. When they get the thing they want, that’s a happy ending. When they don’t, it’s tragic. In romance, we know the ending is guaranteed, so, if the character doesn’t get what they initially wanted, that’s okay, too, because they get something even better in its place. Combining the metaphorical journey with a literal one can underscore this theme, and provide for some adventures, or introspective soul searching along the way. Sometimes, we can even get both, wrapped up in a big, shiny bow.
No matter if the road the two eventual lovers take is a pulse-pounding race or a leisurely tour, road or cabin stories give us the chance to travel along with the characters, see how the changing landscape (or seascape, or even spacescape) changes both their relationship and who they are from the start of their travels, until journey’s end. Whether it’s strangers thrown together by chance, enemies who become reluctant allies, or estranged lovers who rediscover what made them fall in love in the first place, the eventual destination is always the same – true love, at last. For that, we can handle a few travel delays.
S0, dear readers. I turn it now over to you. Do you like road and cabin romances? Why or why not? Is there a special setting or character type that works best for a road or cabin romance for you? Have any favorites to share? Pull up a chair in the comment section and tell us all about it. If you’re more of a homebody and would rather your heroes and heroines not take their show on the road, we want to hear about that, too. There’s room for everybody at this table.