I started reading adult romance when I was a freshman in high school. I barely graduated because I was reading so much. Even though I was writing YA, I found adult romance so much more intriguing.
And the sex scenes were h-a-w-t.
I’m so glad my parents weren’t the kind of people who censored what my older sister and I read. I think they were just happy that we were reading. LOL Granted, I was spending a lot of my allowance money on teenybopper magazines, but my library card was sure as hell getting a workout with those romance books.
Despite the reader shaming I would get for reading this genre, it never made me want to stop reading them. People ridicule what they don’t know or understand, and romance has always gotten a bad rap for basically being porn. You’re going to talk trash about a billion-dollar industry even though you’ve never read a romance book?
Yeah, that’s smart.
Get outta my face with your negative talk.
There are many reasons why I chose this genre to work with when I started my business and I’ll give you four right now:
1) Location, Location, Location
While the majority of the stories I read are based in big cities, sometimes I end up downloading ones based in small towns (beach towns, in the mountains, etc.) or even other countries. I love reading those because it makes me wonder if that place really exists or if it was based off a place that the author had visited. Reading romance, you get to learn about different places and different cultures.
2) Career Day
You can only read so much about firefighters, cops, military personnel, hockey players, football players, baseball players, etc before you know that shit inside and out. But you also get to read about people who own/run businesses: cafes, bookstores, nightclubs, auto body shops, construction companies, software companies, shelters, hotels, restaurants, nonprofits…. the list goes on.
You get a little behind the scenes look at what it takes to run a business, be a professional athlete, be a detective, be a smoke jumper, be an EMT…yadda, yadda, yadda. Who knows, you may decide to change careers based on something you read in a book.
3) You Got Schooled!
Do you know what prosopagnosia is? I didn’t either until I read Susan Stoker’s Trusting Taylor (Silverstone series) and how this disability affected the life of the heroine. For the record, I read this book for pleasure. Two words: incredibly. Fascinating. Needless to say, I really enjoyed reading this book and felt it was one of her best books in a series.
When you read a romance book, you can learn so much about different mental, physical, or psychological issues that it’s possible you may be able to help someone in your own life.
4) So. Many. Choices.
Sci-fi, urban fantasy, contemporary, paranormal, historical, mystery, thriller, suspense, action/adventure, erotic, erotica, sweet, Christian, multicultural, LGBTQ+. The romance subgenre is like the Baskin Robbins (I’ll take a hot fudge sundae, please) of the publishing industry. So many flavors to choose from and if you love this genre as much as I do, you’ll find something to read. Check out my Reading Policy to see which ones I prefer.
I think it’s safe to say that you can’t judge a romance book by its cover, because this genre is more than just about fucking.
This is why I love to read romance. Why do YOU?
If you're a female entrepreneur or independent romance author who dreams of publishing content—without the fear of being called out publicly for all the mistakes you've made--click the button below.