What is Romance?? A Definition & Example Post

Recently when deciding to clarify what I was going to be doing on my Booktube channel, I came to the decision to create a video about what romance was. What I was going to read, review and share. I wanted to clarify for those who didn't know that Romance is an overarching umbrella under which many sub genres exist.  This is my idea of romance is., If you have something else in mind please do share.

There are many sub genres including

Romantic Suspense  with authors like Heather Graham, Linda Howard, Maggie Shayne, Lora Leigh, and Julie Garwood

Paranormal Romance: Charlaine Harris, Laurell K Hamilton, Cheyenne McCray, Tanya Huff, Katie MacAlister, just to name a few.

Erotica Romance which has several different sub genres of it's own. Some of my favorite authors are Sylvia Day, Maya Banks, Tiffany Reisz, Lily Harlem, Jory Strong, Zane, Shayla Black just to name a few.  Their categories vary but include:

• Big Beautiful Women, 
• Interracial Erotica,
• Polyamouros Romance (romance with more than one love interest NOT CHEATING, but consensual multiple and multifaceted relationships) , 
• BDSM themed novels, 
• paranormal Erotica: Shapeshifters, and Witchs abound!!
• Contemporary Erotica (happening in current time with mention of most of social media, or well known and understood vernacular being used as well) , 
• Science Fiction Erotica (featuring time travel, alien planets, futuristic Earth and even other planets).  

Historical Romance which includes the sub genre of Steampunk Romance.  A few authors include Amanda Quick, Julia Quinn, and Elisabeth Lowell,

Dystopian Romance: These tend to be more of a sub category of SciFi Romance,   JD Robb

Christian Romance: This romance is categorized with having the main protagonists wait until marriage to consummate their relationships, Amish Romance stories and books with a strong Church focus within them.

New Adult Romance:  This subcategory is a new one; it's been gaining popularity recently even though before it was just considered regular romance and only broken down by it's content instead of the age of the characters, and it age of it's target audience.  It's mostly written with readers being between the age of 21-35, they tend to have characters who have recently graduated from college or are in their last year, attempting to find their way in the world.  Some characters haven't gone to college but the basic demographic is women and men who are trying to figure out what they want to really do with their lives.    Authors include: Erin McCarthy, Jay Crownover, Cora Cormack, J Lynn, Elisa Dane and many more.

Contemporary Romance hot men and even better women, struggling to figure out their romance lives while juggling their expectations for life and how to make it in this modern world.  This is the broadest category and it even has it own sub genres including cowboy romance, men in uniform romance, 'paranormal' romance where psychics and witches exist along with ghosts.  Heather Graham, Brenda Jackson, Lynn Emery, Sandra Kitt, Robyn Carr, Brenda Novak, Nora Roberts are some of the few who are well known for these books.

Interracial/African American/Native American Romance:  There are many book written that include interracial romance, including those by JJ Murray, Eric Jerome Dickey and many more.
African American romance has it's own category and it's own sub-genres as well.  Brenda Jackson, Beverly Jenkins, Sandra Kitt, Lynn Emery, Zuri Day, Omar Tyree, Eric Jerome Dickey, Kinberla Lawson Roby, Terry Macmillan are just a few of the greats.

The sub genres in AA Romance are vast and I'm only just beginning to explore, so I'm sorry that I don't have authors to recommend, but in 2015 that's going to change so be on the lookout for other videos and more discussion posts.

These are just some of the categories and some of the authors in each.  Do you have some favorites?? Please share as I'm always looking for new authors.

What do you think romance is?? Share in the comments and let me know.