I flip around a great deal between the subgenres that I love, and I was curious what you like to read. If you’re so inclined, would you share with me what subgenres you like? Please click all that apply – and thank you!
Categorized:
Comments are Closed
By posting a comment, you consent to have your personally identifiable information collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.
Since you asked, I’m just going to put a request in the comments for more erotica reviews. I like reading erotica – or at least romantica, anything with a hot sex scene, I guess – and I feel like there are just aren’t many places to go for good, reliable reviews of those genres.
Check out Josh Lanyon’s books. He is an excellent writer and writes excellent, well-characterized M/M romance (mystery subgenre).
I mainly read Contemporary Romantica and Romanitc suspense. I will read some Paranormal stuff (such as J.D. Ward, Shiloh Walker’s “Hunter’s” series, and Lora Leigh’s “Breeds”). I also enjoy a good Western romance.
I spend too much time on this site in what sometimes has to substitute for conversation in my daily life. And sometimes I forget about, and am a little taken aback by, the bitchery that is probably implied by the title “Smart Bitches. . . ” Maybe cuz I am kinda cowed by the word “Smart”. Just sayin’, you guys.
To add to the What is Paranormal Romance? discussion – here’s a good iRoSF article from a few years ago on the history of the genre – http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10337
I like bisexual romance but I’ve only ever found 3 marketed as “romance” – Butterfly Tattoo & Ann Herendeen’s two. I love lesbian romances too but I guess I think of them as different than genre romance (maybe because they come from different publishers/bookstores and seem to mostly be in trade paperback size?)
I used to love medievals, Revolutionary War stories, and time travel, but I feel like I haven’t seen a new one in a decade!
And, SheaLuna, name me some postapocalyptic romance names! I would SO read those! I love postapocalyptic novels.
(higher28 – it’s higher than 26!)
Another catagory missed was multi-cultural, which seem to be romances aimed almost exclusively at African-American readers. I’ve seen about 4 aimed at Hispanics in the last twenty years and none at Asian Americans. I’ve read some, but I’ve given up on them. The ones I read had a lot of angst in their romance and you were lucky if you got a happy for now. Apparently HEA’s aren’t allowed.
Even if I don’t get a personal HEA, I want to have hope. That’s why I gave up on Multi-Culturals, Chick Lit, and Women’s Fiction.
Interesting discussions on genre definitions! In the end, I think I agree that they shift hellavalot often, and are just as often arbitrary, so, I, uh, picked both just to be safe. 😛
@Virgina E I would check out Beverly Jenkins. She writes wonderful multi-cultural/ African American romance with HEAs. For Hispanic romance I would try Lynda Sandoval.
A good F/F YA is Keeping You a Secret, by Julie Anne Peters. I don’t know if I’d categorize it as romance, but it’s definitely interesting and well-written. Peters does a lot of LGBT-themed YA.
Second the recommendation for Annie on My Mind. I read that in college and revisit it every once in a while.
Can anyone recommend some good contemporary erotica? I’ve discovered Lauren Dane and I absolutely love her. Tried Megan Hart and found her just okay.
states69: hee hee!
Mysteries can be romances without being Romantic Suspense.
There was a time when romances featured a lot of questionable behavior. There were some wonderful mysteries being written at the same time that had strong women who meet decent men and fall in love; no kidnapping, no rape, no forced marriage set-up that is so far fetched you can’t finish the book. (And I love a good arranged marriage set-up.)
Charlotte MacLeod had three series (one as Alisa Craig) that I loved for the relationships between the H/H. (The last of the series become absurd instead of fun, but her first 4 or 5 in each series are really great.)
Orania Papazoglou’s mysteries about romance writers work as romances.
I am blanking on other favorites, and a lot of the books faded into obscurity, but they are as much romances as Urban Fantasy.
This is different from Romantic Suspense, which seems to imply a serial killer and at least one shoot-out.
I would say that that is quite a narrow view of ‘Romantic Suspense’, though as I think we have all agreed, defining these genres is not an exact science, and there are probably nearly as many definitions as there are readers!
I would not regard murder (let alone a serial killer) or a shoot-out as essential elements of romantic suspense. I should say that there has to be a mystery, some form of perceived danger, and fear and uncertainty on the part of the hero / heroine. Those elements create the suspense. Justified fear of being attacked can be as effective, when well-written, as an actual attack, especially if the reasons for it, and when it might strike, are not properly understood.
🙂
@AgTigress
Romantic Suspense doesn’t always have a mystery, it is separate. The characters may be racing against time, or trying to block an action.
I was kidding about the need for a serial killer – it just seems that there are an awful lot of them in fiction, enough to depopulate a small city. There are almost as many serial killers as there are vampires. When I get annoyed with a series – like Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta or Kay Hooper’s Bishop/Special Crimes Unit – it seems like the total number of deaths by serial killers is climbing past the number of deaths by auto accident.
Thinking about it, henofthewoods, you’re quite right. The thing that matters is the tension, and that tends to include a lot of uncertainties, but ‘mystery’ in the classic sense is not essential.
Hey, if we all work at this, we might build up a full (albeit temporary and provisional) typology of sub-genres. It will have about a dozen classes, each of which will have around 5-6 sub-classes, most of which in turn will have a few sub-sub-classes…
Or why don’t we just forget it?
😀
I added steampunk to the list because it differs from sci-fi romance, which is often futuristic and/or focused in space. Steampunk is alternative history, usually Victorian and involving steam operated gadgetry beyond the scope of the actual time period. It isn’t always Victorian, although that’s the most common. It doesn’t fit the usual fantasy tag because the phrase “fantasy” too often conjures up elves and ogres.
I was frustrated this year when there wasn’t a category on the AAR pole for sci-fi romance, much less steampunk romance. Where to put excellent books like Linnea Sinclair’s Rebels and Lovers or Meljean Brooks’ The Iron Duke? Putting them in the PNR group doesn’t work. The closest category was romantic suspense, but then I couldn’t have put The Naked Edge by Pamela Clare where it belonged!
I just submitted my form and then immediately realized I should’ve added something. I don’t generally read Contemporary unless it’s a favorite author or highly recommended – it’s not one of my go to genres. BUT … I do read a significant number of Category Romances from the “modern fantasy” lines like HP. In my mind, there’s a definite distinction hence the non checking of the Contemporary option.
To me, the main distinction between Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, and the like is the Romance aspect. It’s not PR because it has a vampire. It’s PR because it’s Romance with a vampire. I.e., Dead End Dating is not PR because it’s not a Romance novel; it’s Chick-Lit, UF, whatever but it’s not Romance because it doesn’t have an HEA. When I made my selections on the form, I assumed that they were subgenres of Romance, “UF Romance” as opposed to the free standing UF genre.
Geez. Enough already. No one can be that elitist. Splitting hairs. Putting too fine a point on each and everyone of the splits. Beating the horse until its dead and then beating it some more.
This discussion reminds me of the ones that go on in taxonomy. There you have “lumpers” and “splitters.” Sarah tried to make some nice simple “lump” categories, and all of the splitters jumped in, on account of, geez, there’s a difference between historicals and Regencies, and paranormal romance and urban fantasy, and even weres and shifters. For me, as a congenital splitter, urban fantasy is what happens when you cross hard-boiled mysteries with fantasy. You have your first person narrator/hero/antihero, your mean streets, your world-weary cynical tone, the world going to hell, etc. I also like paranormal mysteries, like Madelyn Alt and Victoria Laurie, but I consider Diana Rowland’s books to paranormal police procedural…
By now, I think Sarah is sorry she asked.
My capcha word is wanted53: yes I wanted 53 or less sub-categories for my fiction, but guess what? Ain’t gonna happen.