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Excellent Benefits of Reading Romance Novels for Men

August 1, 2023 By Melissa Rea Leave a Comment

Photo by cottonbro studio

The benefits of reading romance novels aren’t known to many men, mainly because many aren’t into novels, which is a shame because they’re missing out on many things.

Author Melissa Rea is a huge fan of romance and has written several books for the genre, including The Maestro by Rea. Men who love reading romance books should try Melissa’s fantasy and historical romance brand. It’ll take them to new and old places where love outshines even the blackest nights.

Read on to see how romance novels may help men of every generation, whether you’re an experienced romance reader or just intrigued about this well-liked genre.

Romance Novels Can Improve Relationships

Relationships in real life can benefit from reading romance books as well. Numerous romantic books show happy relationships based on open communication, mutual respect, and trust. Men may gain insight from the examples and apply the principles to their relationships by studying these kinds of relationships.

Additionally, they can learn more about their partners’ potential thoughts and emotions, enhancing communication and building their bond. Men who read romance novels can also better understand and value the value of emotional connection and intimacy in relationships. Overall, this may result in a more content and satisfying relationship.

One of the Great Benefits of Reading Romance Novels is Escapism

Reading romance novels also offers a sense of escapism, which is a bonus. A person may flee from the pressures of daily life and enter a new world by reading a romance novel. Men who could be experiencing a difficult time or facing a stressful situation may find this to be highly beneficial.

Men can vacation from their issues and feel relaxed and relieved by losing themselves in a romance novel. Additionally, romance books frequently have positive outcomes, giving readers a sense of optimism and hope. Romance books can enhance one’s mental health and well-being by offering a sense of escape.

The Maestro by Rea is an excellent example of a romance novel that drags people in with its fantastic tale. Its gripping narrative, interesting characters, and well-written plots offer excellent escapism. It’s one of the reasons why more men should romance.

Romance Novels Can Aid in Decreasing Stress Levels

Reading romance books can indeed help you decompress. A romance novel can assist a person in relaxing their body and mind by soothing their thinking. This is due to the reader’s capacity to withdraw into the realms of fantasy and romance, in which they can temporarily put their worries aside and focus solely on the narrative.

Browsing a good romance book may be a terrific way for men to relax and decompress after a stressful day at work or from other activities. The writing style used in romance books is frequently fascinating and compelling, which makes it simpler for readers to get sucked into the narrative.

Reading romance books can be a terrific approach to relieve stress and enhance general well-being.

Romance Novels Helps Boost Self-Esteem

Strong, self-assured male protagonists who are attractive to women are frequently found in romance stories. Men can develop self-confidence and feel good about themselves by hearing about these personalities. This is particularly beneficial for people who struggle with their self-image or confidence.

Men can learn to appreciate themselves and their worth through the people they read about. Additionally, readers of romance novels may get encouragement from how characters frequently overcome challenges and accomplish their objectives in real life.

By doing so, men can increase their sense of self-worth and confidence in all facets of their lives, especially with their relationships and employment. Perusing romance books can significantly improve one’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem.

Enhancing Communication Skills that Male Readers Have

Communication skills can also be enhanced by reading romance books. Many relationships in romance novels are healthy and based on communication, which can be an example for readers. By learning about these partnerships, men can improve their ability to speak and express themselves.

In Conclusion: Romance Novels Are Good for Everybody — Including Men

We can conclude that the benefits of reading romance novels that males worldwide shouldn’t ignore. Romance books can help with various things, including stress reduction, boosting self-esteem, developing emotional and empathy intelligence, improving relationships, communication skills, and mental health.

The benefits of reading romance books for guys may surprise some men who previously regarded the genre as exclusively for women. We encourage males to start reading The Maestro by Rea and enjoy the advantages of reading romance novels.

We hope this article helps you better understand that it’s okay for men to read romance novels. Read some of our other blogs too, and discover four of the greatest lovers from history!

Filed Under: Fantasy Novel, Maestro by Melissa Rae Tagged With: Maestro by Rea, Melissa Rea

I Am Woman: The Makings of Strong Female Characters

July 4, 2023 By Melissa Rea Leave a Comment

Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash

There’s a certain charm about innocent female protagonists who readers root for despite their clumsiness. However, these teeter toward being cliché over time, often creating an offensive stereotype for women. What readers deserve are strong female characters, naturally imposing and charismatic.

Female empowerment has reached new heights in today’s society. The fight for equal treatment and their pursuant to a new outlook about them have transcended from plain murmurs to measurable actions. Women have taken the responsibility of redefining their essence to their hands, with a proactive stance in reforming how society views and treats them.

To others, this may seem like a futile response, but given the impact of literature on societal systems, women have taken their cause of cutting these restraints to literature.

From female authors fighting for their crafts amid the male-dominated industry to books highlighting strong female characters as an attempt to reformat the female perception, the fight to break through a patriarchal system in literature has been unwavering. Fortunately, women’s empowerment has found the light in present-day literature.

Modern-Day Empowerment in Literature

The Pool of Tears Nights of Alice 2 follows an empowered woman who gets torn between her reality and fiction. Alice Hightower is initially introduced as a charismatic CEO of a medical device company. But her strong ground gets shaken when she loses everything, from the man she loves to her CEO position. She gets into a debacle, testing her grip on what’s real and what’s not.

She finds herself getting transported to different places and in the arms of different intriguing men whenever she chafes into the clothes that magically appear in her room every night. Although the story premises itself as a romantic fantasy, nothing short of a plot to satisfy women’s need for romance, a sliver of women empowerment is also present throughout its pages. Underneath the allure of multiple romantic connections, author Melissa Rea focuses on the commanding presence of the female protagonist and the choices she firmly stands by throughout.

What’s empowering about Alice Hightower isn’t her dominance of the success she finds for love overnight. Instead, her empowerment is found in the authenticity of her emotions and thoughts. Readers are given a glimpse of how vulnerability can also be empowering. It’s not all about strength and blatant bravery. Often, it’s showcased in vulnerability and the prioritization of her happiness.

Strong Female Characters Exist Not as Descent but as Empowerment

Women have long been associated with weakness, purity, and lightness. They’re expected to be meek and kind. Concepts like “damsels in distress” or the heroine who needs rescuing, while commonly enforced in a romantic light, limit women to submissive individuals. And whenever they’re portrayed in the opposite spectrum, this denotes a failure in their morality.

Strong female characters don’t exist solely as dissent to how society views women. Instead, having them at the forefront of literature highlights the existence of women embodying traits contrasting damaging stereotypes. There’s nothing wrong with women who are naturally clumsy, naïve, or frail. But to portray a generalization of women and to limit them to these traits is offensive and demeaning to their worth.

The portrayal of women in a positive light challenges existing stereotypes that influence how they’re treated in reality. By distancing them from adverse characteristics, women, young or old, are empowered and taught to stand up for themselves. It enforces the “if these characters can do it, so can you” mentality, motivating change for women and society.

Developing This Empowerment in Literary Characters

As authors, creating strong female characters have the power to reform society’s stories about females in general. If written well, a woman can be a strong symbol of courage. Here are tips and ways to create the perfect multifaceted two-dimensional character who can be an excellent role model.

She Finds Strength In Her Flaws

Empowered, strong female characters don’t have to be little-miss-perfects. They don’t need to be the epitome of perfection to be deemed powerful and charismatic. Their strength isn’t found in the lack of flaws but in how well they manage them. Imperfections and mistakes make these characters more relatable and closer to their readers, allowing them to resonate better.

A captivating story must be peppered with obstacles and errors that push the protagonist to their limits and wits’ end. It must allow them to maneuver, test themselves and show what they’re truly capable of. When they end up victorious at the end, that’s when they can be hailed as strong characters.

She Is Opinionated and Stands by It

Women are mostly known for their gut instincts and sticking with them. Strong female characters have the mental fortitude and resilience to make their own opinions and stand by what they believe is right despite the obstacles. These opinions shouldn’t be made without a rationale. Instead, they must be based on her principles and values, which makes her independent and separate from the rest.

Empowered women aren’t immune from persuasion. But she must take pride in her values while respecting conflicting opinions. Strong female characters must be capable of making and standing by their own choices.

These characters don’t have to start this way. Instead, authors can make them undergo a character arc that empowers them. There are no precise means of how strength comes to women, but how they will surpass these challenges must be known. Strong female characters must have a sense of purpose in these stories for readers to be interested in and resonate with them.

Filed Under: Fantasy Novel, Writing Tips Tagged With: Melissa Rea, Pool of Tears Nights of Alice 2

Four of the Greatest Lovers From History

June 9, 2023 By Melissa Rea Leave a Comment

Photo by Janko Ferlic

Melissa Rea’s Conjuring Casanova is a romantic novel mixing modern tastes with timeless mystique to showcase how the greatest lovers in history approached love. 

The name Casanova has become lodged in the global zeitgeist as the paragon of love, romance, and eroticism, such that people who are particularly amorous, passionate, and open with their emotions are called Casanovas.

What is a Casanova?

A Casanova is anyone, but especially a man, who is quite persistent and dauntless when it comes to matters of romance and sex. The stereotypical Casanova is a player, a lady-killer, someone who chases women and then abandons them after getting a taste—although this is not necessarily the case for every example of Casanova. 

What makes the Casanova a Casanova is the skill, whether innate or learned, of seduction and their mastery of manipulating the opposite sex. 

Who was THE Casanova?

Now, who was the true Casanova? 

An Italian adventurer, writer, and diplomat who was born in the 18th century, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova came into the zeitgeist through the writing of his vivid, salacious, and erotic autobiography, Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life). While most scholars agree that the events pertaining to Casanova’s life are heavily embellished, it is commonly agreed that it’s one of the more genuine portrayals of 18th-century customs and norms of European social life among the higher class.

Giacomo Casanova is a complex and contradictory individual. Although he was a brilliant and charming man, one of history’s greatest lovers, he was also—like many men of his period—a prominent gambler, a chronic womanizer, and a compulsive liar. 

The Other Greatest Lovers in History

While not as known as Casanova for his womanizing ways, there are still a few prominent lovers in history that are worth knowing about—some might even be on the level of Casanova’s exploits or have exceeded it. Regardless, learning more about their lives is surely an eye-opener.

Pablo Picasso

A relatively recent figure in history, Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (yes, that is his full name) is quite famous for his artistic works. Aside from being a painter, he also worked with sculptures, prints, ceramics, and theatre design. Born in 1881, the name Picasso—like the name of Casanova—has become a household name, a moniker for people who are gifted and well-versed in the arts. His greatest contributions to art are the Cubist movement, the constructed sculpture, and the collage, as well as other styles of modernism. 

While more known for his works of art, Pablo Picasso is also famous for his many romantic and sexual exploits, spanning from brief dalliances to whirlwind romances lasting years. Several of the women whom he slept with are the subject of many of his paintings, and while it is not known how many lovers he had exactly—women were an influential aspect of his life, both publicly and privately.

Suleiman I

Also known as the Magnificent or the Lawgiver, Suleiman I was the longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Born in 1520, he grew to become one of the greatest monarchs in Europe, lording over the height of Ottoman economic, military, and political dominance. It was under his rule that the empire was at its most powerful, reaching as far as the city of Belgrade (capital of modern Serbia), and during his administration, he was above 25 million subjects. In terms of cultural development, his reign as sultan is also sometimes called a Golden age, overseeing many developments in the arts, literature, and architecture.

Like many Eastern rulers, Suleiman I had a massive harem of several hundreds of concubines, the most beautiful women living within his territory and as gifts from friendly nations, though he would only have two consorts. 

Marquis de Sade (real name: Donatien Alphonse François de Sade)

Perhaps the only individual that has a relatively same level of notoriety as women as the vaunted Casanova is the Marquis de Sade, whose real name is Donatien Alphonse François. 

The Marquis was a member of the French nobility while also being a revolutionary, a politician, and a philosopher. Like Casanova, he is most well-known because of his writing, specifically his works that focus a lot on sexual freedom and deviancy, such that the term sadism is termed after his more unusual preferences during the act. Probably because of his non-standard proclivities, many courtesans in Paris were frequent patrons of his. It is even said that by the age of 23, he had visited every brothel in Paris.

Melissa Rea’s Conjuring Casanova is a romantic novel that heavily features the character of Giacomo Casanova, who finds himself living in the modern world with no way of returning back to his time. 

A fun, enjoyable, and thrilling read. Read about one of the greatest lovers in history as you’ve never read him before.

Filed Under: Conjuring Casanova, Fantasy Novel Tagged With: Conjuring Casanova, Melissa Rea

Clothing Empowerment for Women

May 10, 2023 By Melissa Rea Leave a Comment

Photo by Godisable Jacob

Do clothes make the woman? Does it affect how a woman sees herself? While it may not be the case sometimes, taking into account the impact of clothes on a woman must be examined.

Nobody should diminish or dismiss the significance of every woman’s struggle to look good. Be it for themselves or others, women dress up. If we were to trivialize their struggles over fashion, not only do we seem uninformed. It can impact their self-esteem and motivation in the future.

Clothes are part of our basic needs, placed at the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy. We can’t live without clothes daily; they are an imperative object we must always have. It’s secondary to one’s identity and can amplify clothing empowerment, especially about who we are than what we say about ourselves. Society tends to judge people solely on what they wear, and we must accept that.

How clothes affect our personality and outlook can also be reflected in the book ‘Rabbithole (Nights of Alice)’ by Melissa Rea. The story revolves around a girl who magically got random outfits from different periods. They took her to other worlds with extraordinary men spicing things up. As she later discovers the truth in her travels, Alice realizes that she must choose to choose her satisfying fantasies or enjoy the nights as they are.

It may be just another romance fantasy novel, but the book can still impart lessons to let readers pick up classes. Clothing empowerment reveals much about how we perceive everything around us.

What we wear is who we are.

As a debatable statement, there’s a tiny grain of truth regarding clothing empowerment. People around them feel disrespected once they choose to wear sloppy clothing without making an effort. It would seem inappropriate on certain occasions, especially in work settings and parties. Unless the event calls for it, we should be wise enough to know when and what to dress.

Confidence is a significant factor in how we feel about the clothes we put on. Since immemorial, societal standards around women’s clothing have been rigid and restrictive. Now that those standards have been broken down and blurred, women have more opportunities to exercise who they are.

It doesn’t matter if women wear revealing or flashy clothes. Those who are stuck in a time of outdated standards would still throw disdain at the changes they refuse to accept and see. The value of wearing clothes is not on their monetary price. It’s more on the way it makes the wearer look and feel. We must remember that how we look results in our treatment.

The struggle of today’s generation with their clothing

Every generation of women faces specific struggles in dress, while a few distinct individuals choose to challenge the norms. Such acts can go both ways: either they’ll be unforgettably terrible or admirable. In the present, women have broader choices in what they are comfortable with wearing.

We wake up hours early each morning to choose what we will wear. Sometimes it takes a tedious amount of time because “we have nothing to wear” on top of the pile we dug through. Once we find something that makes us feel great, that’s when we look great. Contrary to the simple clothing pattern, how we feel in them will translate into how we look at ourselves.

Clothes encourage creativity and joy.

Women and dressing up is common knowledge that’s not surprising. However, there needs to be a clarification about the perception of women wanting to look good and feel powerful. Some treat it as a craft and a form of self-expression that takes them to a specific place in their minds.

The joy and excitement couldn’t be discounted either, and it’s not just due to the idea of colors affecting the wearer’s personality. People can still feel joyful even when they’re pulling an all-black ensemble. As women dress up, they have a particular goal: to feel positive. They want a great day, and that should start with what they wear.

The entire process makes clothes sentimentally valuable to women, from browsing, selecting, matching, and until they’re worn daily. It can potentially boost mood levels, especially when fashion is involved.

Being comfortable wearing clothes we like can significantly affect our daily tasks. We can reinvent or look for more ways to invent our fashion sense, but the goal is to achieve empowerment in what we wear. It doesn’t matter how long or short the length is. Nor how much skin or less is revealed.

How women are viewed and treated doesn’t have anything to do with all that. Clothing empowerment involves the freedom of women to make their own choices despite what others say. What makes you feel good will surely make you look good.

Filed Under: Blog, Fantasy Novel Tagged With: clothing empowerment, Melissa Rea, Rabbithole (Nights of Alice)

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Rabbithole - Wins The Reader Views Reviewers Choice Award (Gold)

Maestro - Wins The Reader Views Reviewers Choice Award (Silver)


Conjuring Casanova - Wins 2016 Beverly Hills International Book Award for Romantic Comedy


About Melissa Rea

Melissa Rea - Rabbithole Nights of Alice Book | Author

As a little girl, Melissa Rea fell asleep whispering stories to herself in the dark.  In elementary school, she got in trouble for embellishing when the truth … Read More

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