This may seem like a stupid question because, it's when two people fall in love and end up together, right? In a general sense, yes. In a literary sense, it is a little more complex then that. Every book that includes two people falling in love is not always going to be a romance. As the genre with the most published books every year, you would think that anything and everything would be thrown into this category. To readers, there is a huge difference between a Romance novel and a novel that involves romance.
Romance novels vs. Novels with romance
The major difference here is which storyline is the main plot. You have probably seen me use the phrases, A-plot and B-plot, when describing events that happen in novels before. Let me explain: A story that only has one single great conflict happen in the entire story is either the shortest story ever or the most boring. Imagine the plot of Lord of the Rings where the only thing that happens is getting the ring to Mordor to destroy it. There are no battles with orcs, no outrunning waterfalls and rapids, no meeting Gollum, just a long peaceful walk and tossing the ring into the lava. That would be a book written with an A-plot and nothing else. The B-plot is all the little conflicts that are sprinkled throughout a story.
In a romance novel, the A-plot is the love story. The conflict of will-they-won't-they is the over arching, big picture, storyline. The same way Romance is the genre with the largest number of book published every year, romance is the most common B-plot to other genre novels. Pick up a historical fiction, a fantasy, or even a mystery and you will more likely than not find a love story buried somewhere in its pages. Even though Lord of the Rings includes not one, not two, but three different romances, you would never be caught dead shelving it next to the Nicholas Sparks novels, and the quickest way to piss off a Ringer (and yes I had to look up there fandom name, and yes it is really bad) is to say that Lord of the Rings is your favorite romance novel. Could you imagine?
Common Misconceptions
Of which there are 2:
1) Ya Boring
A lot of the general public are under the false impression that the only thing happening in a romance novel is the romance. As I explained in the section above, a story with no B-plot isn't a story at all. There is always other conflicts happening in romance stories. Even the most basic of basic, the Hallmark romance, has one to two other conflicts happening around the couple that is falling in love. There is an event to put on, a bakery/Christmas tree farm/family inn/bookstore business to save, or a major road development to put a stop to. Or if you want to keep the conflict closer to the couple, someone might be lying about their identity, their background or past relationships, or an old flame might show up out of nowhere to mess things up. Some of the most compelling stories of loss, personal growth, overcoming offs, or chasing dreams I have read in a novel happened in the B-plot of a romance.
2) Same, same, but different
In conjunction with the first point, the general public is under the false impression that all romance novels are the same thing in different fonts. "If you've read one, you've read them all." It is a derivative statement that boils the genre down to little more than fluff and boils my blood in the process. Could you imagine someone saying that about the entire genre of something like Sci-fi or Fantasy? It wouldn't be stood for. The breadth and variety found among the romance genre is hard to match in any other genre out there. You have my personal guarantee that if you were to give it a try, there is a romance book out there for you. It's a genre that truly has something for everyone.
Birthplace of the sub-genre
I say that with a lot of confidence, but it is indeed a statement I have made up. To be honest though, if someone were to tell me otherwise I don't know if I would believe them. Unlike what you see with other genres, when people are describing or recommending romance novels to someone, they will often use the sub-genre to help narrow down what kind of romance novel it is. Since love stories are universal, you can find a romance centered story anywhere. There are even entire bookstores that sell only romance novels. They will still have sections like sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, and realistic fiction, but added genres will pop up as well, like sports, paranormal, and western. This doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. Romance is such a money maker that smaller publishing houses will sometimes choose a few specific sub-genres to focus on and only publish those. Romance is also the only genre I know of where specific tropes within the genre have become so popular among readers that they have become their own sub-genre. Examples include, Enemies-to-loves, billionaire romance, and mafia romance.
This plays into what I was saying before about B-plot. While romance is the main goal here, always, the secondary goings-on are just as important to the story. They are literally used as selling points! Some of the sub-genres are so popular that they have begun to breakdown into sub-sub-genres. Hockey romance is currently the most popular sub-sub-genre of sports romance. Fae romance is currently the most popular sub-sub-genre of fantasy romance. (Which is so popular on its own that it has a nickname "Romantasy".) Really, guys, I'm telling you, there is a romance novel out there for every reader.
If you take anything away from this post, no matter what your personal reading preference is, you have to put respect on the romance game. They are out here making $1.44 billion in revenue in 2023 according the yearly study done by Wordsrated. The genre is this popular for a reason. The second thing I hope you take away is, try a romance novel this year. Find a topic you already love and pick up a romance about it! You might discover something new.
For those of you who have already been inducted into the club, what is the best romance you've read lately? Is there a sub-genre you are loving right now? Drop your recommendations in the comments below!
As always,
Keep wondering and stay wandering!
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