Temple Now spoke with Assistant Professor Laura McGrath to learn more about definition and history of romance novels and how the genre has evolved in recent years.
Laura McGrath, assistant professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts, is a literary sociologist whose research focuses on contemporary literary production.
Photo by Ryan S. Brandenberg
Enemies-to-lovers. Love triangles. Forbidden love. First love. Romance novels, and their many tropes and stereotypes, have been a beloved genre since the 1940s as the genre has captured hearts and minds through its mass market proliferation of love stories. Not only are fans enamored with these never-ending love stories, but romance novels are the highest-earning fiction genre, generating $1.4 billion in annual sales in recent years. The genre has been called “recession-proof,” and despite declining sales in other publishing categories, romance continues to thrive. But what exactly is a romance novel, and how does it differ from literary fiction that involves romance? How did they become so popular and why are readers so devoted?
Temple Now spoke with Laura McGrath, assistant professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts, to learn more about the genre. As a literary sociologist, McGrath focuses her research on the publishing industry and the structures and systems that produce the literature we read. She studies how decisions are made about which books get published and the many steps between when a book is drafted to when it lands in a reader’s hands. Her first book, Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction, will be released on April 28 by Princeton University Press.
Temple Now: Let’s start with the basics: What is a romance novel?
Laura McGrath: The romance novel, as a genre, really emerges with the mass market paperback, beginning in the 1940s.
These were cheap books that were produced quickly. They were not luxury goods or commodities, like a nice hardback book that you might get from a library or bookstore. Readers would buy these books at a dime store, grocery store, at a newsstand, something meant to fit in your pocket and be read on the go.
Romance evolved alongside other commercial genres, like science fiction, fantasy and detective novels. But unlike this other genre fiction, romance was intentionally marketed to women. This is key to our understanding of what romance novels are today, what the publishing industry’s priorities are for the genre, and the way that stereotypes around the genre have evolved.
TN: What is the difference between romance novels and literary fiction?
LM: I think it’s important to distinguish between novels that involve romance and that are properly treated as literary, versus romance novels. Because of sexism overall in our society, romance novels are looked down upon, as opposed to something like Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence. The acclaimed novel, which was also subject to a major book banning case, centers a woman protagonist and her sexual awakening. It is a romance novel, in that it contains a story about love, sex and romance, but it was published and treated as literature. No one would doubt the literary merits of that book or its position in the modern literary canon.
The romance novel, by contrast, is very much a commercial form. It does not have the same prestige as literary fiction or works of literature. It is not afforded the same respect as “literature that includes romance.” Romance novels are often dismissed or castigated because of their gendered nature. Romance novel protagonists are often women, and the books are often written by and for women.
It’s a slippery term to unpack and that’s why I think it’s useful to think of romance novels as a product of a particular moment in publishing, the development of a particular market and the development of particular book production technologies. These distinctions give us a better understanding of what a “romance novel” is, versus books that involve romance in their plot.
TN: What are some of the industry differences between romance novels and literary fiction?
LM: Since World War II, romance novels have been a high-volume genre. They are produced at a high volume, and they are consumed at a high volume, by an extremely loyal readership. Historically, this has had to do with leisure time available for the women these books were being marketed to. It has also had to do with the way that the books are produced and the expectations that are placed on writers. It can be a different way of producing books, with romance novelists signing 10 book contracts at a time, whereas more literary fiction writers are working one book at a time. There are different expectations around speed, franchises and volume of production that romance authors are placed under.
TN: What are some of the defining features of romance novels readers?
LM: People who are really invested in romance novels as a genre tend to be high-volume readers, to match the high-volume genre. There has always been an intensity with romance novels in terms of consumption. Even the earliest academic research into romance novels remarked on how voraciously romance readers are reading. Janice Radway’s work in the early 1980s noted that “these women are reading so much more than anyone I’ve ever met.” And that’s because many readers were stay-at-home moms, they were not engaged in a professional context, and they were looking for ways to stay engaged mentally and with literary work.
In 2026, we are seeing people really identify with being a romance reader as an identity, in a way that is different than before. In the past, these mass market books were designed to be small, discreet, to slip into a pocket and be read privately. Now, we are seeing greater visibility and pride for romance novels. People are reading them in public spaces, forming romance-only book clubs, buying romance novel merchandise. There are even romance-only independent bookstores popping up and succeeding.
TN: What is the advantage of a romance-only bookstore?
LM: Brick-and-mortar bookstores and independent bookstores have really been experiencing growth in recent years, romance bookstores included. The romance bookstore is a really good indication of the value of bookstores. In the age of Amazon, sure you can go online and have something algorithmically selected for you. But increasingly, readers value the curated, expert recommendation.
This is especially useful for romance novels, since it is a genre with a wide proliferation of subgenres. You really could fill a bookstore with only romance novels, based on the sheer number of books that are being published and ready today and the diversity of the genre. And, at the store, there are knowledgeable booksellers who can help readers navigate the immense amount of options.
TN: What effect has the increased visibility of romance novels had on the publishing industry?
LM: Previously, the conventional wisdom in the publishing industry was that nonfiction was always going to be better selling than fiction. But we’ve seen that flip since the COVID-19 pandemic, when readers were really interested in escape. Romance is really the driver of that. We are seeing continued growth in the romance category and this is what’s driving the growth overall in adult fiction. And if you look at some of the juggernauts of the genre, their success has really come after the pandemic, with writers like Emily Henry or Taylor Jenkins Reid.
And within the genre of romance, the top subgenre is romantasy, or fantasy-based romance. In particular, Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm broke records with 2.7 million copies sold in its first week. The romantasy genre in particular is really driving current romance.
TN: How has the romance genre changed in recent years?
LM: One thing that has really changed is, as romance is becoming more mainstream and more visible, romance is becoming less white and less heteronormative and more inclusive, in a variety of ways. These books are very different from the Harlequin romance bodice rippers of previous generations. Now we have authors like Jasmine Guillory who feature Black and African American characters. There have always been Black romance writers, but the mainstream uptake of Guillory’s work is new.
And we have an increase in queer/LGBTQIA+ romance novels, like Game Changers by Rachel Reid, which was adapted into the massively popular TV series Heated Rivalry. Queer romance is having a huge moment right now and that is a change as the genre has achieved mainstream visibility. And this is also informed by social media, and BookTok, which is driving preferences and alerting the industry to the existence of different pockets of readers that have otherwise been underserved, who are just as avid readers and want to see themselves represented in fiction in a mainstream way.
