A genre of literature that has become popular starting in the early 20th century and by the end of the century did much to suppress all other meanings of Romance. While romantic subplots have existed in fiction since fairly close to the beginning, romance as a focal point and driving force hadn't really been explored in depth until the last few centuries. Romance novels as an industry started in The '30s with the company of Mills and Boon releasing hardcover romance novels. The genre changed significantly with the distribution of The Flame and the Flower, which is noteworthy for showing that buyers of romance novels are more than happy to read about sex. Because of the single requirement required for a book to be a Romance (a Happily Ever After) many different genres have been incorporated into subgenres, such as Historical Romance, Paranormal Romance and even Military Fiction.
While subversions, aversions, deconstructions, and parodies exist, most romance novels are fairly idealistic and end Happily Ever After.
A couple of companies such as Harlequin (Mills and Boon in the U.K.) have started a business model of releasing relatively short (~55,000 words), Strictly Formula paperbacks. These are known as "category" or "series" romances because they are divided into series, each of which has its own requirements for setting, tone, and level of sensuality and is visually distinguishable by consistent cover design. It's usually these that most people think of when the genre is brought up. Almost all listed authors of such books are female, although many are written by men using female pseudonyms, since the reader base expects the author to be a woman. Also, the main character is usually female; some authors include a lot of writing from the point of view of the hero, but ones exclusively from his perspective are rare or nonexistent. Except for male/male romances, that is — also frequently read (and written) by women.
"Single title" romances — those released as standalones rather than associated with a category — are usually longer, sometimes come out in hardcover, and have more overlap with mainstream fiction. Particularly successful series romance writers often move up to writing books of this type.
The genre has always experienced a lot of stigma, generally getting critically dismissed as "not literature" for most of its existence. They are often derisively known as "bodice-rippers" (particularly the historic ones) or "trashy romance novels" though it's obviously a stereotype that they all have gratuitous sex scenes.
For tropes popular within Romance Novels, see Romance Novel Tropes. Paranormal Romance is a subgenre. Another subgenre is the "Clean and Wholesome Romance," a type of Christian Fiction with elements similar to a Cozy Mystery or A Hallmark Presentation — small towns with cute names (and shops, ditto), independent businesswomen, strong and caring male allies/love interests, etc. Sometimes, as with Rae Anne Thayne's Blackberry Summer, these actually are Cozy Mysteries as well. See also Romance Game, for Romance Visual Novels.
Compare and contrast Erotic Literature.
Examples of the genre (Paranormal Romance is on its own page):
- 365 Days
- Abram's Daughters
- Addicted Series
- The Alien Series
- All-American Girl (Meg Cabot)
- Anna and the French Kiss
- April Lady
- Assistant To The Villain
- Avalon High
- Bath Tangle
- Beastly
- The Bedwyn Saga
- The Black Moth
- Black Sheep (1966)
- The Blue Castle
- The Boss
- Boyfriend Material
- Boy Meets Girl
- The Bridgerton Series
- The Bridges of Madison County
- Broken Love Series
- A Brother's Price (fantasy with romance plot)
- ByAnyOtherName
- Captive Prince (fantasy trilogy with heavy emphasis on romance, more so from the second book onwards)
- Charly
- The Charmed Sphere
- The Chesapeake Bay Saga
- A Civil Contract
- The Comfortable Courtesan
- The Convenient Marriage
- The Corinthian
- Cotillion
- Dark Ones Mistress
- Dangerous Damsels
- Dear John
- Devil's Cub
- Earth's Children (speculative/historical fiction that heavily includes romance from the second book onwards)
- Emma
- The Faith
- Faking It
- The Fatal Dream
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Finding Gaia
- Finding Snowflakes
- The Flame and the Flower
- Forever Amber
- Friday's Child
- The Gargoyle
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
- Gives Light
- The Golden Demon
- The Grand Sophy
- Hands Held in the Snow
- High Fidelity
- Hotel Oriente
- Imminent Danger and How To Fly Straight into It
- In A World Just Right
- Keeping You a Secret
- The Kiss Quotient
- The Last Song
- Let It Snow
- Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.
- The Love Hypothesis
- Love in a Nutshell
- Lowlands of Scotland Series
- The Lucky One
- Mara, Daughter of the Nile
- A Match Made in High School
- The Middlemist Trilogy
- Mister & Missus series
- Mistress of My Fate
- The Never After series, a standalone dark romance series by Emily McIntire.
- Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
- The Notebook
- November 9
- One Last Stop
- Outlander
- Överenskommelser
- Parasite Eve
- Passage to November
- Persuasion
- Powder and Patch
- Pride and Prejudice
- A Promise of Roses
- Psyche
- Queen of Babble
- The Quiet Gentleman
- Ramona
- Redeeming Love
- Red, White & Royal Blue
- The Reluctant Widow
- Return to Sender
- The Rifter
- Rose of Rapture
- Saving Charlie (a Heroes Tie-In Novel focusing on the relationship between Hiro and Charlie)
- Sense and Sensibility
- The Sharing Knife
- The Sheik
- Sholan Alliance
- Sorcery and Cecelia
- The Sound of Waves
- Spellster
- Sprig Muslin
- Sylvester
- Tairen Soul
- Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms
- Teen Idol
- Tempting Hymn
- These Old Shades
- The Thorn Birds
- The Time Traveler's Wife
- Three Weeks
- Troubleshooters series
- Two By Two
- Underground
- The Unknown Ajax
- Until We Meet Again
- Venetia
- Verity (combined with thriller)
- The Virgin Widow
- Vita Nuova
- Wet Goddess (man x dolphin)
- Wolfe Brothers Saga
