enVISIONing Genres

I made this comment about DOUBLE VISION in a comment on another Tourer’s blog, but I thought I’d re-post it here. He had said that

…the book seemed to stray very close to “hard science fiction,” which isn’t a bad thing as far as I’m concerned.

But I wonder what romantic suspense fans thought of those moments. I fear that they may have been turned off by it. Maybe not. I have no idea. I don’t read romantic suspense normally, so I don’t know what keeps readers interested and what doesn’t.

And so I responded:

See, I *do* read romantic suspense, and I would hesitate to place DOUBLE VISION in that genre. The problem is, most romantic suspense books include more than just a courtship. And so most readers of “romantic suspense” expect to see a romance (any romance) consummated. Since DOUBLE VISION is also a Christian book with the hero a very Christian man, the steamy scenes implied by the “romantic suspense” label just isn’t going to happen.

I am not saying that this is a bad thing, nor a good one. But people that come to DOUBLE VISION expecting it to be like other romantic suspense books will, I fear, be more put off by the light tone to the romance part than by the sci-fi elements to the story.

To be honest, while I enjoyed DOUBLE VISION, there is no way I would class it in the same genre as Holly Lisle’s MIDNIGHT RAIN or LAST GIRL DANCING, both of which are very definitely romantic suspense.