Low-Angst Loveliness!
Low angst as per Goodreads Lists: Sometimes you don't want a couple that constantly fights that loving feeling. You don't mind drama but don't want the excessive wavering back and forth in a relationship.
Like many avid readers I expect, I’m a mood reader. Not only that, my tastes are also seriously eclectic. I love angst, adore snort-tastic humour, and enjoy spine-tingling thrillers as much as the next book nerd.
What I pick up—the genre and subgenre—all depends on my mood, what my life and my mind can handle on that given day.
But one subgenre with a clear tone that I usually always find a pull towards is low-angst contemporary romance, especially LGBTQ+. While I love reading and writing angsty and drama-fueled scenes, sometimes there’s a real need to find easygoing loveliness—inclusive of delicious heat—in the pages of the books I read (and write).
The concept of “real” or “realistic” romance is an aspect I regularly enjoy and can very much be the motivation for selecting a book to read. That doesn’t mean I whip off my rose-tinted glasses, as I definitely look for sweet and swoon-worthy too, but it does mean knives and guns being drawn in the midst of drama usually won’t be between the pages. Fists don’t go flying even though some characters perhaps “deserve” a karate chop or two.
Instead, I look for conflicts in stories where a protagonist has to deal with whatever issue they’re facing with bravery and dignity and no punches involved. As well as intelligence. In the “real worlds” I look for, a punch would likely result in arrest, a child without their father or mother, stains in the carpet….
Taking the moral high ground can be so crazy hard in this thing called life, not giving bullies or perpetrators of violence the upper hand by lowering yourself to their level takes courage. And I love gorgeous protagonists who have that in bucketloads.
I want the protagonists I fall for and turn the pages for to have victory in turning their back, not engaging in BS or worthless arguments. I don’t want them to waste their energy on the insignificant. That doesn’t mean the characters’ pasts don’t help to shape and define them. Rather, the purpose of rising above between the pages of a low-angst romance is for the characters to take control of their lives and their future. For them to realize and accept that they’re better than those who would bring them down.
Idealistic. Sure.
Not necessarily the real world. Absolutely.
But in low-angst fictional worlds that I love, that’s exactly what I crave.
A few low-angst fun reads to check out:
What about you? Do you have a soft spot for a particular genre or trope? Are you a mood reader? Share with Two Nerds With Words your opinion and some of your favourite low-angst reads.