There is even a set of 'historical' novels about the Wakefield Twins' ancestors - many Websites. While some of the assumptions below are true, it is unwise to dismiss texts which may be the only fiction your students are reading voluntarily, with enjoyment. Plots are written to a formula. It is quite interesting for students to work out the plot pattern in, say, a Mills and Boon romance and then ask the publishers for their advice to writers to see if they analysed 'correctly'. Readers enjoy this familiar, predictable plot pattern and escape happily into a fictional world with familiar 'rules' governing relationships and outcomes.
Characters are often stereotypical.
Again, comparing male and female protagonists across a range of Mills and Boon romances reveals patterns of age, socio-economic class, work, appearance, obvious personality traits and ethnicity in the male and female protagonists. The 'commercial' links go further, as series about modern people tend to advertise fashionable brand names in describing the dress, cars, drinking and shopping habits of the characters. No innovative narrative techniques are used. The endings are 'closed'. 5. The ideology frequently reinforces conservative, patriarchal values.