From the NoveList database: EBSCO Publishing © 2005
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LaVyrle Spencer
by Georgine Olson
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Genre: Historical Romance Americana
Contemporary Romances
From her first novel, The Fulfillment, in 1979, to her last, Then Came Heaven, in 1997, LaVyrle Spencer presented her readers with twenty-five warm-hearted, emotionally involving love stories. Spencer's fans (and publishers) were devastated when the best-selling author announced her retirement in 1998, but retired she has. However, her books remain in print, reappearing with new covers every few years, regularly garnering new fans to join the old ones waiting in vain for a new LaVyrle Spencer.
Spencer followed in the path of early Romance greats, Katherine Woodwiss and Rosemary Rogers, but she toned down their highly emotional writing style into something a bit warmer and more human. Then she brought her stories "home" from exotic times and locales, peopling them with fairly ordinary Americans — characters that we or our grandparents might have known. Finally, her Romances deal not only with erotic love, rather they encompass all kinds of love and its varied expressions — from physical, to romantic, to familial, to friendship. These are entertaining stories that leave the reader feeling good, not wild and exotic tales that leave the reader breathless.
Spencer's stories follow a recognizable pattern, one that becomes pleasantly familiar to the reader. It is the time, setting and characters that are truly different from book to book. All offer different slices of Americana, and all are windows into the day-to-day life of the characters, be they a female photographer in the 1980's, a nurse in 1916, or an ex-con seeking his way in 1940. Her descriptions of clothing, food, schoolrooms, housekeeping, travel, jobs — the stuff of daily life — are authentic and detailed. It's no wonder that more than half of Spencer's novels have been filmed, for her settings are almost cinegraphic. This means that as Spencer's Contemporaries "age," the details of time, place, and setting make them true slices of life. For instance, A Promise to Cherish now shows what it was like to be a woman in a man's profession in the early 1980's rather than being a picture of a truly contemporary female construction estimator.
Realistic, well-drawn characters with whom readers can identify are hallmarks of Spencer's Romance. These are rather ordinary, imperfect people (teachers, farmers, seamen, carpenters, housewives) who find their mettle tested by realistic dilemmas with which readers can empathize. Often characters have to deal with inner turmoil of past pains and conflicting emotions. The path might be rough, but integrity, love, and goodness ultimately prevail — and the lovers earn their "happy ever after" ending.
Spencer's stories are infused with tenderness, warmth, and sensuality. Expressions of physical love are integral to developing relationships and descriptions of sexual encounters, especially foreplay, can cover several pages. However, while quite emotional and sensual, descriptions are not graphic. In Spencer's stories, the enjoyment of sex does not await marriage, nor does every sexual encounter result in mind-blowing ecstasy. Spencer is adept at building sexual tension — something that can make her books hard to put down!
For readers new to Spencer, offer Morning Glory, the story of a "crazy" young widow and the lonely ex-con who answers her ad for a husband in pre-WWII rural Georgia. This warm, love-filled "two hanky read" was still in the top 15 of all-time favorite Romances in 2004, six years after Spencer's retirement.
