Valentine’s Day has become Valentine’s week and has me thinking. Should I include a romantic interest in the historical novel I’m currently writing? My little French peasant, Marie, is only twelve, but she could find puppy love with the young goat herder who came to her rescue.
Romance creeps in on all my books. The novels start out as mysteries involving a crime and danger, but the main characters manage to squeeze love in while trying to survive. For example, in Gator Bait of the Tennis Team mystery series, it’s Packi and a man her team mates think is inappropriate for her. In The Neighbor’s Wife…Anna needs someone to care for her. Even in my Young Adult novel, the kids are too young to call it love, but an attraction is budding.
What do you think? Should a girl with heaps of trouble in the 17th century bother with romance?
Jeanne Meeks ~ Fiction Author 
Very true. Thanks for your input. Those of the peasant class wouldn’t have those issues, but would be protected from inappriopriate liasons by the church/orphanage, if she is lucky. Still, attractions will happen in even twelve-year-olds. We’ll see what happens as the story progresses.
LikeLike
One has to answer that question in what was acceptable in 17th Century France among the peasentry. Early teen weddings happened.
Historians say property, status, birth order and past alliances determined marital choices. Little room was left for romance. Historians linked low rates of illiteracy to attempts to obtain a spouse of higher wealth. So, the answer would be unlikely to be bothered with romance.
LikeLike