Thoughts & Things

20 Reasons I Read Romance

I have been reading romance novels for about a decade now. When I was younger, I was one of those who assumed that romance was trashy, without merit, boring, lacking in real plot, lacking in good characters, and all sorts of other things. I realised this wasn't the case when I accidentally read a romance novel that I thought was a fantasy novel. I pretty quickly fell in love with that specific novel, but it also made me realise that all of my preconceived notions were pretty far off base. I read a wide variety of genres, but for the last decade I have counted romance among them. Today I am going to share with you some of the reasons that I read romance.

1. A guaranteed happy ending is reassuring. It makes for good anxiety free (or anxiety limited) reading.
2. Good romance novels have the best main characters. A character driven story relies on believable and relatable characters.
3. Romance can be blended with just about any other genre I'm in the mood for. Fantasy, mystery, historical, thriller, sci-fi, etc.
4. Romance can be wholesome or filthy depending upon my mood.
5. It feels good to read books that reassure you that love can work out in the end.
6. Romance can be for people of any age, about any age. YA couples in YA stories, NA couples in NA stories, middle aged couples in traditional romance, and so on.
7. Romance can be feminist and female friendly.
8. Romance can support the LGBT+ community.
9. Romance often features a lot of really fun, funny, cute side characters that feel like real friends and family.
10. Romance can show how different couples work, or how they work with people outside the central relationship.
11. There can be different levels of lightness or darkness depending on what you feel like reading.
12. Romance can reflect the real world and the love that exists within it.
13. Romance can reflect complete fantasy, and serve as escapism, a sort of fairy tale for adults.
14. Romance can provide cute twists on old stories.
15. Supporting romance authors often means supporting women authors.
16. Romance novels have so many really pretty covers.
17. Romance series often end up giving many characters you love a happy ending rather than just two.
18. Romance novels are often less costly to buy paperback versions of than novels in other genres.
19. Romance is easy to read free/cheap. Libraries usually offer a very wide selection of romance novels to choose from, and many romance authors offer digital promotions for free copies of ebooks.
20. I like it. This is the simplest reason.

(I have committed to blogging daily with Give It 100. This is Day Seventy-Four. Eight days of leave taken total.)