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. Some cynical souls have observed that, due to the Wish Fulfillment nature of the genre, most romance novels end with nothing more than the two lovers sharing a passionate kiss against a setting sun. What we don't see is the consequences of the impulsive or irrational actions of the characters leading up to that kiss.
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):
- Abram's Daughters
- Addicted Series
- The Alien Series
- All-American Girl
- Anna and the French Kiss
- Avalon High
- Beastly
- The Bedwyn Saga
- Boy Meets Girl
- The Blue Castle
- Bride of Pendorric
- The Bridgerton Series
- The Bridges of Madison County
- Broken Love Series
- A Brother's Price (fantasy with romance plot)
- Charly
- The Chesapeake Bay Saga
- The Comfortable Courtesan
- Most books by Danielle Steel
- Dark Ones Mistress
- Dear John
- 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
- The Gargoyle
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
- Girl Vs Boy
- Gives Light
- Hands Held In The Snow
- High Fidelity
- Hotel Oriente
- If I Have A Wicked Stepmother Wheres My Prince
- Imminent Danger And How To Fly Straight Into It
- Jane Eyre
- Keeping You a Secret
- Kirkland Revels
- The Last Song
- The Legend Of The Seventh Virgin
- Let It Snow
- Love in a Nutshell
- Lowlands of Scotland Series
- The Lucky One
- Mara, Daughter of the Nile
- A Match Made in High School
- Menfreya In The Morning
- The Mister
- Mistress Of Mellyn
- Mistress of My Fate
- Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
- The Notebook
- Outlander
- Överenskommelser
- Parasite Eve
- Passage to November
- Persuasion
- Pride and Prejudice
- A Promise of Roses
- Queen of Babble
- Redeeming Love
- Return to Sender
- The Rifter
- 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 & Cecelia
- The Sound of Waves
- Spellster
- Tairen Soul
- Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms
- Teen Idol
- The Boss
- The Thorn Birds
- The Time Traveler's Wife
- This Must Be Love
- Three Weeks
- Troubleshooters series
- Two By Two
- Vita Nuova
- Wet Goddess (man x dolphin)
- Wolfe Brothers Saga
