Genre Deep Dive- Romance💗

Last week, I took a deep dive into the Fantasy genre. I enjoyed writing it a lot, so I decided to turn it into a series. This week, I have chosen the Romance genre! I’m going to think about why Romance has always been such a popular genre, how romance book covers have evolved, share my favourite types of romance books and some recommendations. I hope you enjoy!

Categorising and niches:

I think that one of the main reasons that the Romance genre has remained at the top is because of the way that authors can create specific niches and ‘tropes’ to suit any reader. Nowadays, there is a romance genre out there for everyone. From sports romance to fantasy romance (romantasy), contemporary romance to dark romance and paranormal romance… the list goes on. This is not the only way that this genre is categorised to suit as many readers as possible. Over the past few years, I have become accustomed to ‘tropes’ and ‘micro-tropes’, which narrow the basis of the book even further. An example of a trope might be that the characters were childhood friends and turned into lovers, or they were enemies who became lovers. Micro-tropes can be as small as one main character looking after the other main character when they get injured, or the male is grumpy and the female is super happy. There are so many ways that authors can advertise their books to very specific readers. I think that this is why the Romance genre is so popular. You can pick up books that are tailored to what you like so specifically that it almost feels as if there’s no way you won’t enjoy them.

However, there is always a risk that an author tries too hard to appeal to a vast spectrum of people, and they throw in micro-tropes after micro-tropes that feel unnatural and disrupt the flow of the narrative. I tend to avoid a lot of romance books for this reason. I have found many to be boring and unoriginal!

What Floats My Boat:

I like Romantasy the most. I find that combining Romance and Fantasy brings an action-packed plot, exciting storylines, in-depth and detailed characters and world, and a high-stakes romantic situation. Often, the couple’s love life relies on them surviving a crazy situation like betraying their respective kingdoms or winning a war, for example. For me, this makes the book so much more exciting and engaging. Some of my favourites include The Crowns of Nyaxia series by Carissa Broadbent, The Crimson Moth duology by Kristen Ciccarelli, and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas. Romantasy books on my radar are Faebound by Saara El-Arifi, The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E Schwab. If you know of any great Romantasy books, do let me know!

Another sub-genre of Romance that I tend to reach for is Contemporary Romance. These are romance books that are set in the present day that reflect real life, culture, relationships, and I feel have a deeper storyline. I find that these books appeal to me more as they often contain subject matters that are a bit more emotional, have characters that are well fleshed out and go through challenging experiences and discuss real issues that we, as real human beings, experience. My favourites are Abby Jimenez’s Part of Your World, Yours Truly and Just For the Summer, the Magnolia Parks series by Jessa Hastings, the Windy City series by Liz Tomforde and Annabel Monaghan’s books. I don’t have any of these on my list at the moment to read, so any recommendations are welcome!

Covers from Past to Present:

I watched Jack Edwards’ YouTube video on the evolution of Romance book covers and found it so interesting, so I wanted to touch on it in this genre deep dive. He talks about the era of ‘The Clinch’ book covers in the late 1970s and 1980s, where a shirtless man would be holding his ‘damsel in distress’ in a protective manner. They often used the same model, a man called Fabio whose appearance on these book covers led to a 50-60% in sales. He explains that as time has gone on, book covers have pictured shirtless characters less and less, with 2019 having less than 10% of their book covers containing unclothed people. He sites Helen Hoang’s request for a fun, cartoon-style cover for her book to ‘slip past unconscious bias’ relating to the main character being Asian. She wanted the actual plot of the book to be at the forefront of the cover. He uses this example to illustrate how plot context became the focus of book covers in the 20th century, with 18% of covers having this illustrated style in 2018, to 61% in 2022, 72% by 2023.

Edwards makes a really interesting point about the moral dilemma that arises as a result of illustrated book covers. He argues that they mask the often highly erotic content hidden within the pages of the book, comparing it to the old style of covers of novels like Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which sought not to reveal the erotic content of the book. He explains that the cover doesn’t give any indication of the adult content of the book and the problems that this causes when the book lands in the hands of young children. On the face of it, they look appropriate for young people, but their content most certainly isn’t. He mentions that the Romance genre is getting more popular with younger readers (Dimitriee Curic), and the reading group for this genre starts much younger than it used to, due to social media as well as the illustrated style covers which look appealing to this age group. I found his video interesting and have seen myself books with adult content put into Young Adult sections in bookstores, highlighting this issue even more. With BookTok, something I touched on last week, it is so easy for young people to pick up book recommendations without really knowing what the content is like or whether it is age-appropriate for them. The illustrated style of book covers makes this even more difficult. So many of us pick a book based on the cover, even if we still read the back to see if we think it’ll be interesting. That initial attraction to a book is so often based on what it looks like. So what is the answer? Do we add a parental advisory explicit content sticker, or a ranking of how erotic the content is, onto the book? Does this reduce Romance books to just the erotic content they contain? Does that ruin the book? So many questions! I’m not sure what the answer is, but I think that book sellers, whether they are independent, mainstream, or online, all have a responsibility to categorise their books appropriately, do the research required to ensure that this is done correctly, and do everything they can to ensure that young people don’t pick up books that aren’t suitable for them. This is also the responsibility of publishers. Whether they have a ‘spice rating’ or an age rating, or more distinct categories than ‘young adult.’

I hope you enjoyed this week’s deep dive! See you next time.