Romance

Romance as a genre of pleasure reading has always been looked down upon as lesser when compared to lofty genres like literary fiction and classics, but make no mistake: romance is the bestselling pleasure reading genre in publishing, and in times of crisis—from the Great Depression to the COVID-19 pandemic—book sales overall may drop, but romance sales go through the roof. Why is this? What makes romance so appealing to readers, even when so many people hold such a negative view of it? On this episode, we discuss romance’s role in publishing, in pleasure reading, and in representation, using two smash hit titles from 2018 as a vehicle: Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient, featuring two Asian leads, one of whom lives with high-functioning autism, and Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date, which opens with a meet-cute in an elevator between a white man and a Black woman. Come for the popcorn, stay for the comfort food.