Whenever I went to the bookstore, there was always one aisle which I rarely looked at, and that was the romance novel section. There was just something about the concept of mainstream romance novels that never quite appealed to me. To be clear, I have no qualms about reading romance stories, and I would happily read one. But the type of romance stories that I prefer reading are stuff similar to Jane Austen's books.
Perhaps, my bias against romance novels of today are getting in the way as I have never attempted to read any of them. Maybe, it also has something to do with their covers. If you have walked through the romance section of a bookstore, then you'll most likely see a lot of clinch covers. In fact, The Pudding illustrates the history of romance novel covers, and mentions that clinch covers have been the staple for quite some time. However, in analyzing 1,400 romance novels from the past decade, they looked at several visual elements of the covers and how those remained or changed through time.
When in the 70s and 80s, clinch covers dominated the romance genre, these days, they have seen a decline in popularity. Publishers nowadays have opted for more illustrative covers with 72% of the books analyzed by The Pudding to have that kind of style in 2023. I think it just goes to show how the tastes and preferences of the culture has shifted. Romance is more than just the raunchiness of the characters, it's more to do with the emotion and the development of the characters, their relationships, and the dynamics of that. Still, it might take a little bit more persuasion for me to read some of the romance novels of today.
(Image credit: Reader's Digest)