A humorous and highly biased introduction to the world's most popular and least understood genre: the romance novel.

2. A librarian’s introduction to the
world’s best-selling, least
understood genre—literature by
women, for women, from the
eighteenth century to the
twenty-first.

3. It’s the best-selling genre of fiction.
• In the 2008 recession, romance sales rose while
all other fiction sales were flat
• Romance is the top-selling genre, rivaled only by
mystery/crime/thriller
• Romance readers prefer ebooks and contribute
significantly and consistently to Overdrive
circulation in libraries

4. What is a romance?
Three main criteria:
1. A romantic love story
2. that is central to the narrative and
3. resolves in a happy ending for the lovers.
Source: Dear Author, "Too Many Rules, Too Little Romance"
Jennifer Crusie, "I Know What It Is When I Read It: Defining the
Romance Genre"

5. Is it a romance?
Pride and Prejudice: Yes
Gone with the Wind: Yes?
Outlander: Yes?
Madame Bovary: No
Message in a Bottle: No

6. Romance Jargon
Hero: male lead character
Heroine: female lead character
HEA: Happily ever after (see also HFN, “happy for now”)
Alpha: Traditional dominating hero
Beta: Mild-mannered, sensitive hero
Gamma: Hero who doesn’t fit either mold
TSTL: Characters who are “Too Stupid To Live”
The Big Misunderstanding: tiresome plot device where
conflict could have been avoided if characters communicated
Keeper: that rare book so good you kept it (“it’s on my
Keeper shelf”)
Wallbanger: book so infuriating you hurled it at the wall
DNF: Did Not Finish

7. How Romances Work
Romances, like mysteries, have a formula and familiar tropes.
In a successful romance:
• Author must create equally compelling hero and heroine
• Author must create conflict to keep couple apart
• Author must resolve conflict believably
• Any power imbalance between hero and heroine is rectified
(both must show vulnerability)
• Heroine’s desires (for love, pleasure, success) are fulfilled
Romance novels are meant to be fun. There may be sorrow and pain, murder
and mayhem, tears and loss. But in the end, our heroine isn't going to throw
herself in front of a train. She's going to stick it out, shove up her sleeves, and
dig deep. And when she wins, we win.
-Nora Roberts, “Women Who Win” 2003 RWA Convention Speech

8. How Romances Work
Some Romance Tropes:
• Enemies to lovers (“Kiss or Kill”)
• Damaged hero redeemed by the love of a good woman
• Playboy falls for average-looking heroine
• Uptight hero/heroine learns to let go
• Damsel in distress rescued by hero (and she rescues him
right back)
• Estranged lovers reunite
• Marriage of convenience
• Secret/unexpected baby
• Posing as lovers (“Fake It ‘Til You Make Out”)
Thanks to Heroes and Heartbreakers for some great names for tropes!

9. Why Read Romance?
I write romance novels because …it’s the best antidote I know
for a graduate degree in literature. I spent years reading
about miserable women like the one who pursued the life she
wanted, had great sex, and then ate arsenic; or the one who
pursued the life she wanted, had great sex, and then threw
herself under a train; or my personal fave, the one who
pursued the life she wanted, had lousy sex with a masochistic
dweeb, and spent the rest of her endless life atoning by doing
good works in a letter sweater. What a great literary
education gets a woman is depressed.
-Jennifer Crusie, “Glee and Sympathy”

10. Types of Romance
Subgenres
• Historical: Regency, Western, Scottish highlands, Viking,
Medieval, Victorian, Georgian
• Contemporary: funny or serious? May contain
supernatural elements
• Romantic Suspense
• Inspirational/Christian (Amish settings popular)
• Paranormal: vampires, werewolves, angels, mythical
creatures, ghosts, time travel, futuristic
• Erotica: Is this really a subgenre? Kind of…

11. Types of Romance
Category vs. Single Title
Single Titles : Harlequin HQN and Mira, Avon (HarperCollins), Berkeley, Jove,
Signet (Penguin), Forever (Hachette), Casablanca (Sourcebooks), St. Martin’s
(Macmillan)
Category: Harlequin (which purchased Mills and Boone, Silhouette, and
basically all its competitors!)
AKA “Series” romance: a certain number of titles in a series/line are released
each month.

12. Judging a Book By Its Cover

13. Those Covers

14. WARNING: THE NEXT SLIDE MAY
CONTAIN CONTENT UNSUITABLE
FOR MINORS

15. Types of Romance
Heat Levels
Mild/Sweet: like classic Harlequins that ended with a clinch
or an offscreen sex scene
Hot: the average romance. One or two partial scenes
(foreplay), at least one descriptive penetrative sex scene
Spicy/Scorching: all of the above with more positions,
female on male oral, BDSM/”kink” elements
Erotica: menage a trois, BDSM, anal, you name it

16. Romance: A History
A “romance” was originally a verse narrative, usually a story
of chivalry (Le roman de la rose)
1740: Pamela: Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson
1794: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
1813: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
1919: The Sheik by Edith Maud Hull
1935: Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
1936: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1938: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
1972: The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss
1979: The Fulfillment by LaVyrle Spencer
1981: Irish Thoroughbred by Nora Roberts
1991: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

17. Dame Barbara Cartland (1901-2000)
Romance: A History
Cartland’s name was
practically synonymous
with romance from the
1920s on.

18. Romance: A History
1970s: The
“Bodice Ripper”
is Born
1980s: Rise of the
Contemporary
1990s: The Reign
of Queen Nora
1985: Judith McNaught’s
Whitney, My Love
revolutionizes the
Regency
1974: Rosemary Rogers,
Sweet Savage Love
2000s: Attack of
the Vampires
2004: MaryJanice Davidson,
Undead and Unwed
2005: J. R. Ward, Dark Lover,
Stephenie Mayer, Twilight
2010s: Age of Erotica?
2007:
Amazon
Kindle
2011: E. L.
James, Fifty
Shades of Grey1996: Bridget
Jones’ Diary
spawns “Chick Lit”
1960s: The
Gothic Legacy*
* A humorous side-trip to
the era of gothic romance

19. Collection Development
• Most romances are published as mass-market paperbacks, so older
works disappear quickly. Libraries should take care to stock more than
just the newest works by an author.
• Many single-title romances are part of a trilogy or series. Increasingly,
authors assume readers have read the previous books in the series.
• Romance readers were early adopters of ebooks, and ebooks now
dominate romance sales.
• Many romance authors are turning to self-publishing due to shrinking
advances, the decline of shelf space in brick and mortar stores, and the
demand for ebooks. Many out of print titles are now available as ebooks.

20. Readers’ Advisory
• Romance fans are mostly self-sufficient. They get their
recommendations from online communities or word of
mouth.
• Romance is an appeal factor in many types of books!
• When recommending a non-romance book to a romance
fan, be sure to ask if lack of an HEA , infidelity, or promiscuity
are major turn-offs.

21. The Romance Canon?
All About Romance Top 100
The Ten Romance Novels You Should Read (Heroes
and Heartbreakers)
RITA Award Winners
RT Award
No fan will agree with everything on these lists, and
romance has never had serious critical attention…but here’s
a starting point for the best of the genre.

22. For Further Reading:
Until recently, academic writing on the romance tended to focus on whether
reading romances was good or bad for women. Early feminist criticism raised
many valid concerns, but fortunately more recent scholars have taken a more
nuanced view.
A Natural History of the Romance Novel by Pamela Regis,
University of Pennsylvia Press 2003
Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers
on the Appeal of the Romance edited by Jayne Ann Krentz,
University of Pennsylvia Press 1992
The Romance Revolution: Erotic Novels for Women and the
Quest for a New Sexual Identity by Carol Thurston,
University of Illinois Press 1987

23. For Further Reading:
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Also check out the two Smart Bitches books, Beyond
Heaving Bosoms and Everything I Know About Love I Learned
From Romance Novels
Dear Author
Heroes and Heartbreakers
Romance Writers of America
RT Book Reviews (formerly Romantic Times)

24. For Further Reading:
And finally, Jen’s highly biased list of best romances:
Contemporary:
Suzanne Brockmann: Hot Target (Suspense; features a gay subplot!)
Jennifer Crusie: Bet Me, Faking It
Lisa Kleypas: Smooth Talking Stranger
Susan Mallery: All Summer Long, Two of a Kind, Three Little Words
Molly O'Keefe: Can't Buy Me Love (damaged hero and heroine)
Susan Elizabeth Phillips: Match Me If You Can, Natural Born Charmer
Nora Roberts: Three Sisters Island trilogy, Irish trilogy, Vision in White (great example of a Beta hero)
Historical:
Jennifer Ashley: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (features an autistic savant hero!)
Joanna Bourne: The Spymaster's Lady (Regency spy vs. spy)
Celeste Bradley: The Pretender
Connie Brockway: The Other Guy's Bride (if you like Amelia Peabody, you might enjoy this!)
Loretta Chase: Silk is for Seduction, Lord Perfect, Miss Wonderful, Mr. Impossible
Tessa Dare: Goddess of the Hunt, A Week to be Wicked
Juliana Gray: A Lady Never Lies (closer to Edwardian period, involves early automobiles!)
Elizabeth Hoyt: To Seduce a Sinner, To Beguile a Beast, Wicked Intentions
Eloisa James: The Taming of the Duke, Pleasure for Pleasure, Desperate Duchesses series
Sabrina Jeffries: To Pleasure a Prince
Lisa Kleypas: Again the Magic, Worth Any Price, Devil in Winter (Wallflowers series)
Rose Lerner: In for a Penny
Teresa Medeiros: The Bride and the Beast (Scottish)
Courtney Milan: Unclaimed, Unraveled
Amanda Quick: I Thee Wed
Julia Quinn: The Viscount Who Loved Me, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton (Bridgerton series)
Jodi Thomas: To Kiss a Texan (Western)
Sherry Thomas: Delicious