Romance is still a mystery to me

Yes, romance is a mystery to me, but not in the sense you might think. I’m not talking about romance as in candle light dinners, long walks on the beach, or even spending a few hours on make-out mountain on a Saturday night.

I’m talking about the genre of romance in fiction. I was browsing through my local bookstore recently and came across the romance section. Normally, I’ll walk right past on my way to the self-help section without giving it a second thought. But on this particular visit, I became intrigued.

So, being the stealthy guy that I am, I managed to browse the romance department without garnering much attention. Most of the titles I saw looked pretty sappy, and the covers of these books were filled with hunky guys holding helpless women in skimpy clothing in various erotic poses. However, some of the books did look interesting – as in the type of books I wouldn’t feel too self-conscious reading.

Within the romance genre, there are sub-genres like suspense, horror, historical romance, etc. And a few looked like they could be a romance/mystery mix. Without a doubt this is a large genre, and a very diversified one to say the least. From my own limited research, I know that the romance genre has a very devoted following and there’s even an association dedicated to romance writers.

Having never actually read a romance novel, I’m hoping some of you well-read readers out there in internetland can help to enlighten me. What draws you to this genre? Is there any literary merit to these novels (I usually don’t hear the words "literary" and "romance" in the same sentence). So please leave a comment below and help me understand this genre because I’m very interested by it.

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