Scholarship on orientalist representations focus almost exclusively on the representations without regard to the people who consume them. As it is not the representation itself that imbues meaning, but the interaction between audience and text, this lack of attention to audiences is a major weakness in studies on orientalism. I draw on feminist audience response studies to argue through the inclusion of audience analysis scholars of orientalism will a) have a more thorough understanding of how cultural representations work, b) take individuals as agents who have the ability to engage with representations, and c) potentially open up space for moving through the dilemma of self/other and specifically the quagmire raised by orientalism. In this paper I will address the limitations of traditional scholarship on representations and explore the benefits of incorporating audience response studies through my case study of “Desert Romances” and their readers. Desert Romances are popular novels written in the West and feature a western woman in a romantic relationship with an Arab man in an “Arabian” setting. I have incorporated my collection of data from online forums/blogs, book reviews, and open-ended interviews with Desert Romance fans to substantiate my argument for the importance of audience response studies. Through my case study I found the readers, at times, create alternative readings and meanings from the texts that complicate a typical textually based analysis of orientalism.