I opened my Chicago Tribune last Sunday to a half page of the book section devoted to my favorite topic: romance reading in the twenty-first century. “Read What You Want to Read” the headline proclaimed. The article was a reprint by Jackie Varriano of the Seattle Times.
Jackie, like me, remembers a time when romance readers read their books in secret, a guilty itch they were loath to admit they loved to scratch. “There was no way I could read it in public or even admit I was reading it. Romance novels were cheesy and embarrassing—even if I enjoyed them.”
Romances can still be cheesy, and embarrassing, but most of them are funny, poignant, smart, and sassy, written by talented authors who happen to love romance. Writers like me who try to do more with a romance than boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back.
I grew up on happy endings, fifties and sixties musicals and fabulous romantic films. They might have been cheesy, but they were also funny, touching, poignant and inspiring. Just as those Spencer Tracy/Kate Hepburn movies have become classics, so too have the early romance novels. They had staying power because the themes of love, betrayal and forgiveness are universal and never go out of style. Neither do smart, sassy characters and happy endings.
But a new era brings new authors who usher in new ideas that are more contemporary, in keeping with the times and the demands of their readers. Romance is no different. Women more engaged in the working world have left behind the helpless virgin in books of old. But those Barbara Cartland novels with the ingenue and the Duke aren’t very different from today’s billionaire romances. Really, take another look at the Fifty Shades series and you can see that old themes can be refreshed and relevant.
Sure, we still want those universal themes in more modern settings. Those universal themes are what make romance the number one selling book genre, and cause its readers to come back for more, and more, and more. Romance readers want to be swept off their feet, they want to feel that tug at their heart when things go badly for our lovers, and the aah-factor when they overcome all odds to win each other in the end. But these days, they want more too.
How the Romance Brand is Evolving
Whether a reader goes for steamy or sweet, urban or small town, they are looking for those same themes of attraction, chemistry, and eventually lasting relationships. Whether a novel starts with a fake relationship, a forced proximity, a misunderstood Rockstar or a childhood crush on the boy next door they all end in the same place, with a happily ever after. And that, and good writing is what makes readers reach for romance after romance.
What’s changed then? These days the hero might be a Vampire, the heroine a shapeshifter. An author might create a romance on Mars, or in a fictional world of fire-breathing dragons. That’s okay. Romance comes in every shape and size as do its fans. Add a murder to the plot and you have romantic suspense for the romance reader who loves a good mystery. Add a strange new setting for romantic fantasy, one of the fastest growing genres of romance today. Add tabu kidnappings, guns and scary but compelling alpha males and you have all the trappings of a Mafia Romance. Add sex to that tabu and it’s fits the dark romance genre.
Something for every reader.
Romance Comes out of the Closet
It has always been my goal as a romance writer, to help readers understand that romance novels cannot be pigeonholed or denigrated anymore. They are popular for a reason, and as authors we need to be proud to write them just as our readers can be proud to read them. Especially when we offer readers so many options.
Time to come out of the closet about romances.
We don’t hide our love of “Bridgerton” when we binge it on Netflix, we tell all our friends to watch, and we relive our favorite moments together. Of course, the series is based on the successful romance series of the same name by Julia Quinn. So why don’t we tell all our friends when we read a great romance novel.
Actually, these days we do. Using TikTok. TikTok has allowed readers to leave reviews and recommendations for other readers. The use of BookTok has skyrocketed, so much so that TikTok now allows you to buy the book directly from their site. Someone with a big following can create a bestseller this way, and a smart TikTok marketing campaign can change an author’s trajectory. Don’t believe me? Check out Keila Shaheen’s remarkable TikTok success story here.
So, in this constantly changing romance novel landscape, where do I fit in?
When I started writing romance, I didn’t imagine publishing my stories. I wrote because I had entertaining ideas to share, and compelling characters who haunted my dreams and whose voices I heard all day long. Not literally, you may be relieved to know. They felt like friends, people I wanted to know better, whose stories I wanted to create and explore.
I was all about the character. I still am. Once I get a character in my head, he or she almost writes their own story, speaks their own dialog. They are with me day and night, like an annoying best guest who sometimes overstays their welcome.
I was reading a lot of billionaire romance when I began as a writer, so I started by creating an arrogant billionaire with an entitled and snobbish family who would never accept the starving artist he loved. Bedazzled was born. But my hero, Wyatt, needing friends to talk to, that my readers might know what he was thinking and feeling. Lo and behold, the entire Beguiling Bachelor series was created from that one small friend-to-confide-in requirement.
My style as a writer emerged during this time, too. I discovered a need to share my hometown of Chicago with readers, and to give my version of classic fairy tales a less helpless Cinderella and a less than perfect prince. After all, I am an educated woman and an educated reader. I wouldn’t tolerate a clueless heroine. No way I would ask my readers to either.
In fact, smart characters, especially my females, became a critical component to me. There might be a hero lurking, ready to rescue Keeli, but not before she rescues herself. And Keeli might be a starving artist, but by the time I completed the series, my heroine, Regan, was the CEO and a power to be reckoned with.
Smart, Sassy and Satisfying: A New Brand
My style gelled as I wrote Cinderella stories, high-tension romantic suspense novels, even a little Russian Mafia moment. It continued as I wrote my B&B romance duo, Moonlight & Moet, and Desire & Dessert. My leading ladies would find themselves in a bind, a hero we could drool over would emerge, but instead of saving the day, they would solve problems together, and fall in love in the process.
Readers responded well as my novels emboldened women, tackled current topics like privilege, stereotyping, politics, and gender roles all through the pages of a romance. I wrote steamy sex, because my characters were women, not girls. They had been in prior relationships, they had sex before they came to my story. And let’s face it, steamy sex makes for a very satisfying read.
Without realizing it, I had created a brand. My readers could pick up a Madison Michael romance knowing the sex would sizzle, the men would start our arrogant, rich and entitled, the women would be smart, strong and self-sufficient and they would learn from each other as they moved through compelling plots that included more than just the love story.
It was only logical that I would eventually come to write more about women, women’s friendships and women’s struggles in my romance novels. Smart and sassy was all about the women in my stories. Using my own good fortune in being surrounded by wonderful women throughout my life as my inspiration, I created the Crazy Eights, childhood friends who remain friends until the stories in the All’s Crazy in Love series begin thirty years later.
Smart, Sassy and Satisfying with strong female characters and hunky heroes you’ll dream of, great friendships and that oh-so-critical happily ever after. Page turning stories set in today’s world but seen through the lens of rose-colored glasses.
That’s why people read romance, isn’t it?
I get enough of reality every day, so giving you very believable characters, but softening the lens when I write about them is on brand for me.
And hopefully, satisfying for you.