Romance is thriving and here’s why.
For as long as I’ve been reading romance novels, the genre has often amassed more snickers than respect. Pop culture trivializes these stories with labels such as chick lit, smut, bodice-rippers, and more. But like any good heroine, romance novels and novelists are showing their true mettle and joyfully fighting back.
If you’re into data, the proof is there: Romance is thriving. According to K-lytics, the romance genre was “lifted to a whole new performance level” during the pandemic and now it’s “the highest-selling bestseller list on Amazon Kindle.” In the Amazon mega ecosystem, there are more than 100 subgenres of romance and more than 1 million English titles available on Kindle. Beyond the ‘Zon behemoth, romance is building its stronghold.
Indie bookstores dedicated solely to romance are popping up across the U.S., from St. Louis’ Open Door Romance mini bookstore at the Novel Neighbor to the The Ripped Bodice with locations in Brooklyn and Los Angeles (where the owners co-opted a derogatory term for romance novels from the ‘70s and ‘80s and proudly put it on their shingle). Mainstream bestseller lists abound with traditionally published and indie published authors who grabbed their genres by the bootstraps and found a swell of avid readers who pack signings and book tours. I’m looking at you Abby Jiminez, Lucy Score, Carissa Broadbent (and so many more).
Why is romance so hot now (pun intended)? A bounty of reasons exists, but it all boils down to this: Reading a romance can be a masterclass in writing, love and hope. And so much more. Here’s why romance resonates so well with me and readers of all ages and how it teaches us to be better humans:
Romance Keeps Its Promises
When you read a romance—or for that matter, most genre-based novels (thrillers, horror, fantasy, etc.)—you know what to expect. Genre fiction offers a promise to its readers. These tropes and genre conventions exist because they’re effective. We like knowing the detective will find the killer in time, the hero will vanquish evil and save the day or the creepy clown in the sewer will scare the crap out of us. Romance readers know they’ll get an HEA (happily ever after), even if it’s in the second or third book of a series. The best romances meet those genre expectations while also surprising us, touching our hearts and making us care about the characters. About people. There’s magic in that.
Romance Gives Us The Feels
Emma Wheeler in Author Katherine Center’s The Rom-Commers offers a masterclass in writing a romance. She tells her grumpy writing partner, "The job of a rom-com is to give you a simulated feeling of falling in love." You know the feeling: swoopy butterflies in the stomach, hearts full of doubt and hope, a delicious anticipation for what’s to come. Readers get to come along for the ride, through ups and downs, through obstacles and misunderstandings, feeling pain, longing and connection as our lovers finally find their way into each other’s arms. I can’t be the only one who grins like an idiot when I read a delightful passage describing a surprising meet-cute, an unexpected deep connection or a first kiss felt all the way to your toes.
Romance Gives Us Insight
In one scene in Author Abby Jimenez’s Say You’ll Remember Me, love interests Samantha and Xavier describe to each other the characteristics of their dream man and woman. Those descriptions just happen to match each other. As an author myself, I read these descriptions and thought, “Now that’s great character development in just a couple of paragraphs.” But I also thought, these are the kind of people I’d want to be friends with. Xavier describes his dream woman as “a glass-half-full kind of person” who “fights for what she wants and believes in the humanity of others—and she’s usually right.” He adds even more, about her likes, her sense of humor, how she smells and even that she never brings the right jacket. I feel like I know this person, like I’ve met her. Maybe I recognize a small piece of her in myself. That’s the kind of deeper connection we can all hope for. As a writer, that’s the kind of writing I aspire to.
Romance Helps Us Escape AND Shows Us What’s Possible
Life is messy. The news is full of scary, sad and downright depressing stories. Romance novels offer us an escape, even when those novels are grounded in real pain and challenges. We see people striving to be their best, to persevere, to hope and to love when it would be easier not to. We know we’ll see a happy ending, even when our characters are dragged through the wringer. We know they’ll find their hearts’ desire at the end of the road and the journey will have been worth it. It’s what we want in our own lives.
Katherine Center’s author’s note in The Rom-Commers is a beautiful tribute to the power of love stories. Center says love stories allow us to witness the ways that characters change and master “pro-social behaviors,” the kinds of actions that benefit others and society. She notes how over the course of these stories, the characters learn to listen, connect, nurture, empathize and trust. Some overcome prejudices or learn to apologize, forgive or sacrifice. We see the best kinds of kindness in action in the pages of these books. This line from Center’s note is why I love romance so much, and it’s what I try to exemplify in my own storytelling: “Maybe stories that help us see our best possibilities are exactly what this bedraggled world needs.”
Find out more: Check out the authors mentioned in this post: