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I love forbidden love stories. It started with Romeo and Juliet, which I saw as a thirteen year old in a revival of the Zefferelli version with Olivia Hussey as Juliet, one of the most beautiful Juliets ever with her endlessly long black hair and buxom figure. (Not to mention some seriously great gowns!) For a great clip of the first kiss scene, check out this YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCOafzKxfpA
I was absolutely lost. Memorized the entire play, made my sister rehearse the balcony scene over and over on the fire escape of the local school. I even made a Juliet dress and wore it to church.
It’s just so wildly romantic, isn’t it? That these two lovers, fierce and sure in their love for each other, are forced to battle against a hostile world to win happiness. Since I’m a romance writer, I like the happy ending version of the story, but suffering along the way is very important to my sense of satisfaction. I like serious conflict.
I’ve written forbidden love many times over the course of my career: A Bed of Spices was the first, a medieval romance set in Germany just as the Black Death was about to sweep through. It’s a dark romance between Rica, the noble daughter of the local lord, and Solomon, a wildly handsome Jew, son of a wealthy merchant, who is home on leave from his studies. The two meet at the cottage of the local herbalist and fall madly in love. The book did not sell a lot of copies, but developed a passionate cult following, and before I re-released it as an ebook, paper copies were selling for more than $150.
Another is the badly titled Meant To Be Married (it was a bad era for titles at Silhouette), which won the RITA for best contemporary romance. Set in Taos, New Mexico between a white girl and a Latin boy, it’s forbidden love and hints of reincarnation, and a lost child. It’s one of my absolute favorites.
You must know that I’m going to tell you about a new book of forbidden love. In The Sleeping Night, Angel Corey and Isaiah High have 
known each other all of their lives, and each has yearned secretly for the other. When Isaiah is sent to war, Angel marries another man, who is killed in the Pacific. Isaiah’s condolence letter to Angel begins a war-long correspondence that opens their hearts, and leads to terrible danger for them when Isaiah comes home. Because this is not merely difficult—it’s against the law. Isaiah is black, Angel is white, and it’s 1946 in east Texas.
It is one of my favorite forbidden love stories. Angel is a courageous woman fighting for the right to have the life she dreams of, and Isaiah is a strong, honorable man who has been battling his love for his soul mate his whole life. In a time when a multicultural love affair is about as shocking as a glass of milk, we sometimes forget how far we’ve come.
The Sleeping Night has just been released by Bell Bridge Books, and I promise it is a romance that you will not soon forget.
Are you a fan of forbidden love? What are some of your favorite kinds of romances—cabin romances, road romances, Cinderella?
36 Comments on “The Eternal Appeal of Forbbiden Love”
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I do like the occasional forbidden love story. My favorite is West Side Story with Maria and Tony. I love most romances, they take me to a happy place.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 4:29 am.
Oh, yes. West Side Story is a classic!
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 4:59 pm.
Read The Sleeping Night and absolutely loved it. I love stories about forbidden love. Yeah, I’m a big fan of West Side Story, too.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:50 am.
Aida, so glad you enjoyed The Sleeping Night! Keep your eyes peeled for a contest.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:15 pm.
Congratulations on your new release.
I find myself thinking “Why are so many people concerned about these people loving each other? How could it possibly affect their lives.” when I read forbidden love books.
Romeo and Juliette, all I think is about how it’s a case of total miscommunication on all levels.
LIve your life as you please, love whom you wish, spread happiness and good where you can.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:56 am.
Amen lol
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 4:08 pm.
Because life is so danged complicated already, it would be crazy to get mixed up in other people’s love affairs. Although, I guess we still do.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:16 pm.
I definitely haven’t read enough forbidden romance but I’m going to be reading this one.
Now that you point out the segments of road and cabin stories, I guess I do have a preference – road. Creates opportunity for diverse outside influences.
Congrats on your new book. Happy Sales!
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 7:28 am.
I really love road romances, too, and have done a couple of those, too. Road/cabin is usually what I end up with. It’s a fast, deep plunge into intimacy.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:17 pm.
Forbidden love is one of my all time favorite romance plots! I have The Sleeping Night on order with Amazon. They were out! But I just received an email that it was shipping this week. So excited.
I had a poster of the Zefferelli Romeo and Juliet couple on my wall as a teen. Was totally in love with Leonard Whiting.
Off to check out BED OF SPICES. Sounds fabulous.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 7:59 am.
Another fan of the Zeff version! It was so romantic…and I’d really love to see the place where it was filmed someday.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:19 pm.
I do like them, just on a sporadic basis, and definitely with a happy ending. Sometimes the theme can be a bit depressing if not done correctly, so I only read one every now and then. The Sleeping Night sounds really good…
I loved Zefferelli’s Romeo & Juliet, too! It was such an epic film, and Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey were both so beautiful… *sigh* Lori, I so agree with you…I had a HUGE crush on Leonard Whiting!
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 8:59 am.
Always the happy ending! Too many have tragic ends, of course, but I am firmly in the romance camp, so mine have the happily ever after, even when it’s hard.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:20 pm.
I do like forbidden love, but I need a happy ending! The Sleeping Night sounds intriguing. I will get to it very soon, I promise. I have lived in NC for the past 12 years and still cannot believe the prejudice here. It is just sad.
I like all kinds of romances, but probably prefer road romances the most. I scratch my head though because I am currently fiddling with a cabin romance. Huh. Confusing? Thats me on a daily basis.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 9:37 am.
Sorry you see the prejudice still, Kelly.
See? Cabin romance work well with road romances. They kind of go together.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:21 pm.
First of all, I love that you had a Juliet dress. I had a civil war dress that I wore all the time. I love forbidden love. The Seduction of Lady X is about forbidden love.
I love Romeo and Juliet, and especially that version!
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 10:02 am.
A kindred spirit! I still think about the velvet, pearl-beaded bodice of that dress and think about how kind everybody in church was to never let me think for a minute that I was over the top.
You had a civil war dress. That’s fantastic.
I’m off to find The Seduction of Lady X.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:22 pm.
I love a good forbidden love story! Feuding families, from the wrong side of the tracks… they’re delicious! And, since I also love reading about the World War II era, I am all over THE SLEEPING NIGHT. Sounds wonderful!
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 10:09 am.
Oh, yeah…wrong side of the tracks stories. Feuding familes. Yes, yes, yes.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:24 pm.
I like forbidden love romances and have written a few. I think my favorite romance type is the road story, but they are really hard to do well.
Congratulations on the new release. It sounds great and I’ll be buying it.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 10:09 am.
Road stories are very popular here today. I was trying to come up with more examples of categories, but my brain was not cooperating.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:25 pm.
Every now and then I like a forbidden love story. In one of my books, my heroine Maria is married to a Spanish Don when she falls in love with Michael Fenwick, a handsome English pirate…
Not for forbidden love in real life, though. I would never cheat on the love of my life.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 10:44 am.
Yeah, like a lot of romance ideas, the reality would not be as great as the fantasy, but we all know that. That story sounds intriguing!
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:26 pm.
Ohhh, I ADORE stories about forbidden love. They always keep me on the edge of my seat – will they be together? but what about the COST?
I’m looking forward to getting IN THE SLEEPING NIGHT! I have no doubt that it’s going to be awesome!
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 11:37 am.
Right. The cost. The COST!
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:26 pm.
I loved THE SLEEPING NIGHT.
I have liked some forbidden love stories and not liked others. I think I can get into them more when there are major outside forces keeping the couple apart rather than “daddy doesn’t like him” if that makes sense.
There were some pretty big obstacles and some very real fear about Angel and Isaiah being together. It’s a very thought provoking book and a wonderful story.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 12:20 pm.
I don’t like that kind of forbidden love, either. It’s exasperating.
Thanks for the comments, Sheridan.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:27 pm.
I’ve read some great forbidden love stories and some not so great.
Personally, I didn’t like Romeo and Juliet. Maybe it’s because my freshman hs English teacher made us read, listen, and watch it, in addition to watching Westside Story. MAJOR overkill. Then, my fil was OBSESSED with Baz Luhrman’s version. If I never see, read, or hear Romeo and Juliet ever again, that’s fine with me. To me it’s poor communication at its finest.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 1:07 pm.
LOL. That’s how I feel about MacBeth, which seemed to be the favorite play of every English teacher/professor I had for a dozen years. By the end of college, I could practically recite the entire time in my sleep, and I still snort when I hear certain lines.
Over kill takes the pleasure out of anything.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:28 pm.
I love “forbidden love” stories! Everything from Romeo and Juliet, over to Angel and Buffy, and your Angel and Isaiah. Can’t wait, Barbara!
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 1:17 pm.
Angel and Buffy! Great example, Suzie.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:28 pm.
One of my favorite Loveswepts years ago was Taboo, by Olivia Rupprecht, about a hero and heroine who were raised in the same household almost as brother and sister (but with no blood relation). I loved that book. I bet readers now would say that’s an ick factor, but I thought it was very well-done and really hot.
I also like other taboos–the kind you’re talking about, different class, different race, different ages even. I haven’t done them as much as I’d like, but one day …
My brother’s wife is half-Puerto Rican, half-Hungarian, and my sister’s husband is half-Aftrican-American, half-Japanese, and MY husband is a New Orleans Creole, so we’ve got a LOT of multiculturalism in our family.
My mom says we were trying to get as many races in the family as possible.
But that makes sense because we have Irish, German, Cajun, and who knows what else blood in the family already. We like to mix it up!
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 1:33 pm.
I loved Rupprecht’s Loveswepts, but I don’t think I ever read Taboo. They’ve done a lot of e-releases. Wonder if it’s available that way? Sounds delicious. (I did check…not yet. God awful cover, but I’m going to find a copy.)
Love your multi-multi-multi-cultural family, Sabrina. Same here. My favorite aunt is Jewish, My ex husband is African American and we were married 19 years, living in a heavily Latin and Italian city. My sons are mixed race, and it has enriched their lives, rather than taken anything way, but I remember when my ex and I got married, people moaned about what would happen to “the children.”
Big difference when my youngest and his white wife were pregnant and everybody was just so excited to see what combination of traits she might arrive with. (Verdict: beautiful!) <3 <3
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:36 pm.
My parents were an example of forbidden love. My mom married my dad, a paraplegic, in 1949. Her parents were NOT happy about that. It looked like quite a grim future for my mom, but she was in love and he was in love and they were sick with it.
And it worked.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 4:52 pm.
What a beautiful story, Claudia! That’s so lovely. (Blinking away tears.)
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:37 pm.
Sorry for being so late today. Not sure where my brain went–I seriously think we’re all out of space and time after the fires here last week. Everything was turned upside down and I haven’t come back fully to myself yet.
Posted on July 2, 2012 at 6:18 pm.