Another month, and another authors’ Round Robin. For the month of Valentine’s, our topic has been set by author Skye Taylor
What do you love about the romance genre?
Romance is the bestselling genre in the world. It’s also the most looked down on. Check out this Guardian review of the film of Beth O’Leary’s novel The Road Trip. OK, so perhaps the film isn’t very good. There are lots of films and books of all sorts of genres that aren’t very good. But one sentence in the review struck me: ‘Like a rat, a potential love affair is never more than 6ft away in O’Leary’s world.’
What??? A love story is like finding a rat? Seriously? Would anyone ever say: ‘Like a rat, a potential crime is never more than 6ft away in Sherlock Holmes’ world’? Or ‘a spy in John le Carré’s’?
Just what is it about novels featuring love affairs that people find so trashy? I have an idea on this, but first, here’s what I find admirable about romance novels.
From a technical point of view, my feeling is romance is the hardest genre to write. I write romance novels and I also edit them, so believe me, I know how hard it is. Try writing a page-turning novel that doesn’t have any tension-building plot devices such as murder, tsunamis, car chases, alien invasions, etc. Romance writers get readers invested and have them glued to the page about a developing relationship. This is a real skill.
One of the most important messages romance novels hold for me is this: This is how the world could be if we were all just better people.
In this present world, which can seem so full of violence, greed, selfishness and intolerance, the message of romance novels is that selflessness, compassion, tolerance of others and plain, ordinary thoughtfulness are qualities that are rewarded and foster happiness in others.
Romance novels are often about ordinary people, but the best romance novels have something really profound to say about getting through life. I have lots of examples of scenes that have had an impact on me personally, but here are just two:
In Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget’s mum Pauline, a comical character who everyone finds laughable, leaves her dad and has an affair with Julian, a cheesy shopping-channel presenter. This provides lots of hilarity, until Pauline tells Bridget that Julian paid her some attention and treated her seriously.
Pauline found her role as the sidelined family idiot deeply upsetting. How many mums/wives, who do everything round the house, from remembering to buy bog roll, to putting tea on the table, to nursing the sick, spend their lives being treated as unimportant and vaguely comical? I thought this was a really moving and meaningful scene.
In David Nicholls’ One Day, the hero Dexter goes to visit his dad. Both of them have lost the loves of their lives, and are grieving. Dexter asks his dad on the doorstep ‘What are you doing?’ His dad replies ‘Just watching television.’ Dexter goes inside and he and his dad sit and watch TV together. It’s such a simple scene, but I found it really touching. Again, it’s about ordinary people dealing with something significant and profound in a way nearly all of us have to at some point.
Another criticism levelled at romance novels is that women are seeking an ideal in men who don’t exist. This isn’t true, even in the oldest romance novels. Mr Darcy is hardly the ideal man. In romance novels, the hero may make mistakes, but he not only always tries to do the right thing, he goes out of his way to do what’s right (e.g. Darcy tracking down Lizzie’s sister after she’s eloped, and paying off dastardly Wickham).
‘Noble’ is the perfect word to describe romance heroes, and a hero can be noble whether he’s a lord or the plumber next door. Who wouldn’t want to be with someone who tries to do the right thing?
As for the heroine, in how many other genres is a female character consistently at the centre of the story? In my own novels, I like to make my heroines hard-working, sensible, thoughtful and compassionate women. They aren’t paragons of virtue – they have faults, same as anyone else – but they’re the sort of women you’d love to have as a friend. They’re also self-reliant. They aren’t desperate to find love, but when love strikes they are loyal and passionate.
Romance novels bring hope
I find something really uplifting in the way ordinary good qualities are represented in romance novels, and how they show us about compromise and selflessness, love and loyalty. One of the best things about romance novels is that they can transport readers out of whatever personal stressful situation they may be in and leave them with that feeling of being uplifted. People’s lives – my own included – are full of personal tragedy. (And during the pandemic sales of romantic fiction saw a particular boom.)
I mentioned above about how I had an idea why people find romance novels ‘trashy’ and ‘fluff’. One reason might be because they are generally written by women, and mainly read by women, and therefore they’re not ‘serious’.
Another reason might be that they’re also about relationships between ordinary people, and therefore these stories aren’t ‘important’. Spy thrillers are seen as superior to romance, but how many of us have ever met a spy? But every single person on the planet has a relationship with someone else, be it family, friends or lovers
I’ve seen really deep reactions from readers to ‘simple’ romance stories about relationships that have said something to them. I’ve mentioned examples of scenes I’ve loved personally. In just one more example, a reader once left a review of my novel The Summer of Love and Secrets that said: ‘OMG I loved this book!!!! Being a widow who has found love again and remarried, this one was really close to my heart.’
Romance novels create an optimistic and relatable world for others. Above all, for me, they give a message of hope in what can often seem a hopeless world.
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I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s topic.
Do you read romance novels, and if so, what do you enjoy about them? Why do you think this genre is so looked down on?
I’m looking forward to reading the other authors’ take on romance! Please click on the links below for my fellow authors in the Round Robin.
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com
Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3pV
A.J. Maguire http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Belinda Edwards https://booksbybelinda.com/blog/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Diane Bator https://escapewithawriter.wordpress.com/
Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooks.blogspot.com/2025/02/romance.html
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea