I learned a new expression day before yesterday: Bonnet Books. So I Googled it and learned another new one: Bonnet Rippers.
Great. Just great.
There’s a new kind of romance novel out there and its plot includes forbidden love, a mysterious outsider and a heroine who has to decide between new love and her old life.
But these are not sexy Harlequin-like romances nicknamed bodice-rippers.
These are bonnet rippers.
Amish love stories are occupying many of the top spots in religious fiction.
[…]
The books’ plots usually include a young Amish woman who falls in love with an outsider. The woman is young enough, however, that she has not yet officially entered the Amish church, so she still can make a decision to leave the community.
[…]
In most cases, the woman does leave with the community and the reader perceives a happy ending.
If she doesn’t turn her back on her faith, does the book qualify as a bonnet ripper? (Get it? In case you don’t…she keeps her faith and her bonnet, ripping neither.)
One more quote from the article:
The books are marketed at conservative Christian readers, often showing up in devotional sections of bookstores.
Those things qualify as devotional?! 🙄