What Will Be the Next Era-Defining Trends in Romance?
The romance genre is vast and full of colors — not only because the covers of these titles are always stunning and lively, but also because they belong to multiple ever-evolving subgenres. Trends go in and out of style all the time, but which wave is going to stick around among romance storytellers? Here are my thoughts on the next era-defining trends in romance books.
1. Settings within the publishing industry
If there’s one good thing that has come out of the pandemic, it is our revived and growing love for reading. As a community, we have found our places in virtual book clubs and social media channels — like BookTok, for instance. Now more than ever, books are going viral.
That love for reading translates into a curiosity for the environment in which books are created — in literary agents’ offices, in publishing houses, or wherever it is that writers write. This is why you’ll see plenty of romance releases in 2022 that feature characters who love books and are involved in the process of making them.
Of course, this is not new as a topic per se — think The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, Beach Read by Emily Henry, or even the movie You’ve Got Mail. But we are moving beyond writers and big-boss publishers or retailers now. Literary agents, editors, authors, and booksellers are all getting lots of love in recent years, showing you other parts of the field.
And while these romantic stories are not necessarily representative of what working in publishing is actually like, it’s nonetheless thrilling to get to slip behind the scenes and get a sense of the book-making process while enjoying a good romance. Perhaps that will be the reason for this trend in the romance genre to prosper and keep growing in the years to come.
2. Male-oriented stories
Another interesting development in romance novels that could be era-defining is the focus on the male character’s perspective.
Traditionally, unless it’s a love story between two male characters, romances are almost always told from the point of view of a female protagonist. This is probably meant to cater to the genre’s readership, which is itself majority female. However, if fiction is a tool to put ourselves in other people’s perspective, then it is only fair that we get to see the perspective of the other side — the ‘love interest’ — as well.
The Kiss Quotient trilogy by Helen Hoang has done this well by making use of dual POV. Each of the books in the series follows two characters (alternating between their perspectives) as they fall in love. The last book, The Heart Principle, even makes full use of the audiobook format to render the story more realistically by having two narrators for the two protagonists. This allows Hoang to tackle the complex physical and mental health issues that each of the characters faces, as well as show how these problems affect their relationship.
That’s only the 50/50 approach — you can find a romance told fully in the male character’s perspective in Son of a Preacher Man by Karen M Cox.
Stories and perspectives like these bring a level of realism to the novels, making it that much easier for readers to fall in love with each of the characters and root for them to work through the challenges standing in between them. After all, women aren’t the only ones who fall in love or struggle with it. They’re not the only ones who have to learn how to navigate their own problems while nurturing their relationship with someone else. Men do, too, and it’s high time we tell love stories from their perspectives.
3. Addressing important issues with non-romantic subplots
Speaking of changes for better representation, the final trend that may shape the future of the genre is the prominence of non-romantic subplots. Previously, subplots were often used to set the background for the story, provide relief from high-tension scenes, or offer time for rumination on the part of the protagonist. In recent releases, however, we’re seeing some authors developing strong subplots that target more interesting social topics.
Take The Love Hypothesis, for example. With the backdrop being Stanford University, where the protagonist is a female PhD student in a male-dominant, STEM program, author Ali Hazelwood addresses the inequalities and bureaucracy of higher education institutions in her subplot.
Such a subplot is by no means a deep dive into these issues, but it can still shed a bit of light on a reality that not many of us know of. These important topics can include many things, from the experiences of women in STEM like The Love Hypothesis, to mental health issues, to interracial relationships — the list goes on.
And if you think that this is going to ruin the lightness of a romance, don’t worry! This all depends on the execution of the writer — and what kind of tone they want to set for their story. When done right, the author can add depth to their story and characters without dismissing important issues, meanwhile still allowing readers to escape from their own life into the butterfly-inducing world of a tender love story.
It does, however, take a special kind of care, and perhaps help from an expert, thoughtful editor, to balance the seriousness and light-heartedness in such a novel. But that is ultimately what we romance readers are here for — stories that can spark a warmth in our bellies and get us thinking about corners of the world we might not have thought about before.
If this final trend is the only one from this list that actually comes to define the next era of romance novels, then I will be over the moon. And you, what do you think is the trend that will be sticking around?
Savannah Cordova is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that helps authors publish their books by connecting them with some of the world’s best editors, designers, and marketers.
