Romance Novel Primer

With ao3 currently down, I wanted to take the opportunity to write a romance novel primer for anyone who might be interested in dipping their toes in.

There is a tremendous amount of cross pollination between fanfic and romance writing. Lots of romance writers started as fic writers and there is plenty of fanfic that's been scrubbed of its serial numbers and sold as original fiction.

Genre Expectations and Terminology

The single defining trait of a romance novel, and Romance as a genre is the promise of a HEA or 'happily ever after.' This is part of the social contract you enter when you write or read a romance novel. You get a happy ending with the main characters in a romantic relationship.

You will quickly learn after your second or third romance novel that plots are generally very standard, especially in contemporary and historic settings. I am not an expert in fantasy romance or romantasy, so I will not speak with authority to those subgenres.

Most of the books play out like this: Characters are introduced to the reader, something brings the characters together, they get closer, they have sex, there is a conflict that breaks them up, they reunite (usually having sex again) then the story ends with them together. Sometimes there is an epilogue of them married or whatever. The plots are not the star of a romance novel. It's is fully character and relationship driven.

As you start to look into romance you may see these words used to describe books, especially in tiktok/Goodreads/user reviews. If you're coming from fanfic, there's going to be lots of familiar trope usage (grumpu x sunshine, childhood friends to lovers, etc.)

Glossary:

Open door/closed door: romance novels contain a spectrum of explicit content. When two characters have sex that is implied via a cut to black and commented on from the other side during pillow talk for example, but no acts are described, this is a closed door scene. You, the reader, are on the other side of the closed door. Open door has its own mini-spectrum that ranges from euphemism to explicit descriptions of acts and fluids.

Spice: a much more amorphous concept, but related to open door romances. Spice refers to the level of extremity of the sex depicted on page. This could mean more descriptions of the acts or it can imply kink or "dark" themes that get into dub or non con.

Recommendations and where to start

Romance is a huge genre. Apparently it's basically the only kind of book anyone buys anymore. It means that it's kind of intimidating to find something you might like. There's a LOT of bad and poor quality romance out there so it can be helpful to find a launching off point. I will provide some recommendations and guides on how to find something you might like.

Bridgerton

Did you watch and enjoy Bridgerton? Try one of the books! I am personally very partial to Eloise's book, but there are books for every child. These are very solid historical romance novels. If you'd rather read something new to you, some of my favorite historical & regency flavored romances:

A Most Agreeable Murder is part regency romance, part murder mystery. A great book for a romance skeptic, or someone who wants a little more plot than a pure romance would give you. The protagonist is the #1 fan of this world's Sherlock Holmes and is invited to a party where his (estranged) Watson is also in attendance. They have to work together to solve the mystery and maybe fall in love? A rare book that made me laugh out loud.

Evie Dunmore's a league of extraordinary women series is a very fun version of historical romance. Less debuts and balls, more engagement with the political realities of what it meant to be a woman in the time, these are really enjoyable books about brave & confident women and the men who fall in love with them.

Contemporary Romance

Humans kissing humans in the 21st century. This has overlap with other subgenres, like sports romances (we'll get there), but fundamentally it about mundane people falling in love. Sometimes one of them is really rich or famous or something, but most of them are normal people.

Tessa Bailey has a special space in my heart. She's one of the first writers in the genre I really connected with and Fix Her Up is my absolute favorite from her   Female protagonist is a youngest daughter fighting to be seen as an adult by her family, impeded by her job as a birthday clown. Her lifelong crush, her older brother's best friend comes back to town after his baseball career ended. He wants to shed his reputation as a slut and she wants to be seen as a grown up, so they agree to pretend to date. Maybe the most fanfic esque of these recommendations as it is imo deliciously trope heavy. I think it's a really fun book.

In A Jam is about a woman who inherits her family's tulip farm on the condition she gets married within a year. A former classmate who always had a crush on her offers to help. (I am a sucker for marriage of convenience & fake dating as tropes.) A book so good i bought a paper copy because just having the ebook was insufficient.

Heated Rivalry

I'll admit I am not crazy about sports romances as a subgenre. I tend to read m/f romances most which means that it's incredibly rare for it to be between teammates or rivals. If you liked heated rivalry and want more sports peers, you'll want to stick to m/m or f/f sports romances. m/f is going to be two people in different sports, or someone who is a coach/manager/team employee in a relationship with an athlete. There just aren't a lot of co-ed sports. Occasionally you'll get one in ice skating.

The bergman brothers novels by Chloe Liese are about a family full of athletes, each book focusing on a different member of the family. Most of them are m/f and soccer focused, but there is one m/m book and there's some hockey sprinkled in. They're a series but you can just look through them and see which sibling & relationship dynamic appeals to you most and jump right in. Non-fantasy romance novel series rarely have plots that are complicated enough for you need to worry about reading multiple books to get to the one that appeals to you. Jump right in!

I have a couple f/f sports romances in my tbr but I don't want to vouch for them before I read them. I only read books with women in them so I don't have any specific m/m recommendations. Sorry!!

Fantasy Romance & Romantasy

I'm going to be so honest with you, I don't read mainstream fantasy romance or romantasy. I would actively discourage you from reading Sarah Maas or Rebecca Yarros books. But! If you are into the freakier monster fucker stuff that is fairly common on ao3, I do have recommendations.

OKAY, you made it this far, please stick with me. Lyonne writes very sweet very raunchy books. I find these to be the mental equivalent of a little popcorn snack. It will whet my appetite to dig into more challenging literature. It will get me back reading after a break. It's a palate cleanser and a fun little silly romp. I've read so many of her books and have had fun with every single one of them. Shes got a lot of arranged monster/alien marriage & a series about human surrogacy for monster babies if you're into that. Her casual world building is fun and not distracting from the central relationship. All the mythological monsters and aliens in her books are very fun and distinctly not human in ways that are logical and enjoyable, her heroines feel like real people, I like her books! So sue me!

I'll be honest I read this in a whirlwind over a long vacation weekend. Darker in tone with a less friendly monster. I love forced proximity as a trope in romance. I haven't read the other books in the series but I thought the first one was good.

Diversity?

I am a bisexual white woman and tend to mostly read works by white women that have primarily white characters, so my recommendations skew in that direction, BUT there is a tremendous amount of diversity in the genre if you broaden your scope a little. Here are some writers of color whose works I've enjoyed: Jackie Lau (her holiday books are really fun, like A Match Made for Thanksgiving. She's Canadian and her books are largely about the children of Asian immigrants), and Helen Hoang (writes really wonderful characters, frequently includes depictions of Autism).

Other authors whose books are on my tbr list: Jasmine Guillory (in my bedside tbr pile pictured up top), Sara Desai, Farah Heron, and Alisha Rai.

For queer romance, I have recently picked up some f/f and f/enby books, that I'm excited to get into them. I did recently read a f/enby fantasy romance about a halfling and a goblin that was very cute. Some of the books in my list:

Wrap Up

These are the big subgenres that I have something to say about and recommendations to give. What is your favorite romance? Do you have a favorite trope or ship you would like a recommendation for? Do you have a favorite forced proximity/arranged marriage/marriage of convenience/fake dating romance that I should read? Would you like a romance manga primer also?

Please let me know, I'm @jennegatron literally everywhere including storygraph where you can see for yourself how many Lyonne Riley books I read.