When you hear the term "romance novel," does it conjure up images of Fabio’s flying hair, or maybe some bodice ripping?
Romance fiction is hugely popular. And a lot of new romance novelists are breaking away from old cliches.
Florida Matters host Matthew Peddie talked with local author Alicia Thompson and Steamy Lit bookstore owner and convention founder Melissa Saavedra about the demand for a new breed of romance fiction. And how you're just as likely to find characters at a baseball game as reading about the stereotypical ripped bodice.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity
Let's start with some stereotype busting. What are reactions you hear when you tell someone you work in the romance genre? Melissa, what about you?
We mostly see it when we go to festivals, we go to a lot of festivals like LA Times, Miami book fair, Tucson festival of books, things like that.
And it's mostly, you know, snickering, mostly from men who are walking past, and they're like romance, or like ew, romance, or like, who buys romance, which it's always, always fun to hear on a day-to-day basis. I think people are more like, not as confrontational.
So they don't say it to you, to your face. But when you're at festivals like this, that you just kind of hear them pass by. You hear some of that, and it's always funny to hear.
Okay, Alicia, what about you? What is the response you get when you tell people that that's the genre you work in?
I think some people think of romance as being very kind of like cheesy or predictable, or words that I hear a lot, and my answer to that would be kind of that. I mean, any genre can be cheesy and any genre can be predictable, like every book. Genre has those characteristics if you don't find the right book that's for you.
So I always say that there's a romance out there for everybody.
There's some, but there's some romance that exactly hits whatever it is that you want it to hit. I also think it's kind of a challenge to write in a format that can be very formulaic and somewhat predictable, like, you know, they're gonna end up together.
And to me, that's one of the challenges of writing a romance, is writing a compelling and engaging and believable happy ending. Sometimes I think it's easier to be bleak than it is to be joyful. And that's something that I wish that people knew about romance.
And then also, you get some of the like, Not Your Mother's bodice rippers type of thing, which is always so funny, because it's like, it'd be like, saying football, like, not your mom's football. And it's like, because they don't wear leather helmets anymore, you know, it's like, the Fabio days are just so far behind us and so different that I'm always like, Where have you been?
Okay, so what makes a good romance novel then? Because there's a lot out there, right? So how do you stand out? What makes a good one?
For me, a really good romance novel — it offers me a relationship that I can really root for and where I really feel like I know those people, like I know those characters. I know why they care about each other. I'm very invested in their relationship together. But then there's more to it than that, you know? Because I think, you know, we don't fall in love in a vacuum, in the real world and in a book.
I think that's true as well. So I love romances that really give me something about their work lives, about their you know, their belief systems, their perspectives, the way that they see the world. I just think that all of that makes a romance novel really rich, and it's a good opportunity for it, because it's so character-focused that you're really getting to see these people.
Melissa, what about you?
I think romance is a good romance, it's obviously so subjective to who's reading it and what you're looking for. I'm also what people like to call a "mood reader." So it just really depends on what mood I'm in and what will hit best at the time.
Overall, I think just something that has, you know, found family and things that are relatable, in a sense, whether that's within the world or within, like the people in the book, and kind of how, how I can see myself in the book, and obviously, like a really great, happy and ending and most importantly, just like a beautiful love story, I think.
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