An Introduction to. . . Romance

I'll be the first to admit I don't read a lot of romance books, mostly because I want a little more meat to a story than just a will the leads get together or won't they (hint: they almost always do). I'd rather read a book with love in it, although I will admit I'm a sucker for a well written romance book. But I want to cover a lot of genres with this series so both you and I can learn about them.

Genre: Romance

Romance, as the name implies, is genre dedicated to stories of falling in love. As such, many of them can be racy and bad, but like any genre, there are plenty of good reads as well. They normally feature two main characters that fall in love and the problems that ensue, ending with a happily ever after.

I think what attracts people to romance novels is because love is a huge part of our lives. We all dream of finding "the one" and having a happy ending to our lives. But at the same time, romance novels can set the bar too high for love. It's not all a chocolates and big romantic gestures. I find the little things sweeter, like leaving a note for the one you love, or holding hands under the table. That doesn't mean that giant declarations of love aren't fun to read.

Tropes

Due to the nature of romance, most of these tropes will be centered around the plot or situation the leads go through.

• A couple. Obviously, the first thing you need for a romance book is the romantic leads. It can take some thought to get the right ones, however. They need to work together, but also not be exactly the same, because that won't work.

• Enemy or friend to lover. Romance blossoming from enemies is a common plot in romance. We love watching love grow between the people we ship, even if they didn't originally like each other.

• Childhood friends. They were friends as children and now that they're older, they start to see each other differently. This is normally accompanied by being apart for a long time, generally most of their teenage years.

• Slow burn romance. This is where we have two main characters that go through the book very slowly leading up to realizing they love each other, most of the time not until the end. Everyone loves that moment where the two of them look at each other and discover they're in love.

• Forbidden love. Ah, our Romeo and Juliets of the love world. The ones kept apart by family/situation/something, and yet manage to fall in love anyway. It's been around since Shakespeare and probably isn't going away any time soon.

To Avoid

• Love triangles. It's unrealistic. I'd rather read insta love than that. If a girl can't make up her mind about what boy she likes, maybe she needs to avoid a relationship right now.

• Hot guys, bad boys, sexy girls. Romance also seems to be full of people who are either amazingly hot, attractively bad, or both. This can happen to either the boy or the girl, but mostly the guys. No girl is going to go for an angsty bad boy. Just sayin'.

• The other girl. You know, the super cute blonde one that's always trying to steal the boy from the girl? (Just think Sharpay from HSM.) It's another thing that's been done enough and needs to stop. All it does is cause unnecessary tension and make the heroine doubt herself.

• Perfect couples. Jordan from Blimey Cow recently did a great video about being a "goals" couple. You should watch it. It perfectly sums up this point, that no couple is perfect no matter how great they look.

• No plot. Even a romance book, the plot should never fall by the wayside for love. That's my biggest aversion to them. Your story needs meat to it, or no one will read it.

• Sex scenes. I'm going to come out and say it. Sex doesn't equal love and I think it's not needed in romance novels. It may be a part of life, but that doesn't mean we need to read about it. Close the door and stop encouraging teen sex. Thank you.

Example Books

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (or almost anything else by her)

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

To All the Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Dear Mr. Knightly by Katherine Reay

Alex and Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz

Do you read or write romance? What are some of the things you love (or hate) about it? Tell me in the comments.

An Introduction to. . .

Steampunk
Contemporary/Realistic Fiction
Historical Fiction
Science Fiction
Fantasy