It’s Romance Awareness Month and we’re dishing all month long about everything romance related. Sabrina Sol talks about insta-love…works? Doesn’t work? What do you think?
She watched as he ran across the beach, kicking up sand every time his foot touched the soccer ball. His deep laugh traveled even against the roar of the waves and she instinctively smiled. It didn’t matter that she’d only met him for the first time that day or that he’d only said a few sentences to her in broken English. That laugh and everything else about him spoke volumes.
And what they told her was that she was going to marry this man one day.
What do you think? Could this type of scenario—this so-called insta-love— actually happen outside of a romance novel? Or is it so far-fetched that you were rolling your eyes as you read?
What if I told you that this scene was 100% NOT fiction?
It actually happened. In real life. It’s the story of how my mom fell in love with my dad after only a few hours of meeting him for the first time. He barely spoke any English and her Spanish was limited. Yet they connected that day for some reason and have been married now for 45 years.
Insta-love (which has nothing to do with Instagram by the way) is one of those things that you either love or hate in a romance novel. The biggest criticism is that some people don’t believe that it can really happen in real life.
I’m one of the true believers though. Maybe it’s because of my mom and dad’s story, or maybe it’s because my own husband proposed to me on our first date (I said yes on the second date). Either way, I don’t mind if a hero and heroine proclaim their love after dating/sleeping together for only three months. I believe that love could be genuine. Even more so, I want that love to be genuine. That’s why I bought the book in the first place, right?
That said, it can be a challenge to write insta-love. The characters have to be worthy. And readers must feel invested in their journey from their first meeting. In other words, readers have to fall in insta-love too.
I’m not saying that I won’t raise my eyebrows at a story where the characters are married by the end of Chapter Two (unless it’s a marriage of convenience, of course). I still want to experience the fall, the doubt and the final realization that they have found their soul mates. I’m just saying I don’t really care about the timeline.
Because if the story has done what it’s supposed to do, then I’m more willing than most to give the characters—and the author—the benefit of the doubt.
What are your thoughts about insta-love in romance novels?
-Sabrina Sol, author of Delicious Satisfaction
About Author
My husband claims to have fallen in love with me at first sight. He saw me across a crowded room, vaulted over a table and appeared at my side. I was clueless. We talked for about thirty minutes and when I left, he turned to his best friend, Bill, and said, “I’m going to marry that girl.”
“Okay,” Bill said. “I’ll be your best man.”
Sixteen months later, he was.
The same thing happened with my in-laws. My father-in-law was standing with his best friend (also Bill) outside a movie theater in the 1950s when he saw a woman he didn’t know laughing with her date across the street. He turned to Bill and asked, “Do you know that girl’s name?”
His Bill said, “No. Why?” and Pop replied, “Because that’s the girl I’m going to marry.”
It took him less than a year to win her hand and they were married for over 37 years, until her untimely death from cancer.
So in our family, we believe in insta-love!
And by the way, my husband did not know his parents’ story until after we were together!