Recently on Twitter, I posted about being sad when people run away from romance, as in judge it as simplistic and predictable drivel. Someone--as always on that platform--lowkey attacked me for it. To paraphrase their response because I do not wish to expose them, the person said that some people aren't interested in stories based on people falling in love. If my story has more than just falling in love, then I shouldn't call it a romance.
Let's break down this comment. I concede the first statement. I had not meant everyone should like the genre. I was describing the violent distaste for it that I've observed. I'm bothered by the unsolicited need to make nasty comments about a genre's lack of worth, much like this commenter did in the second statement. This person suggested romance can only be the falling in love concept. My post had primarily been about the depth of my stories--I mentioned deep characterization, world building, lore, politics, and war on top of romance, blending both fantasy and romance evenly. Whether the commenter intended it or not, they were saying that this depth I've added makes it no longer a romance. So what does that say for romance as a genre?
What a sad and off perspective. More importantly, what a closed view that doesn't accept genre bending and hybrids. So this begs the question...
What is a romance novel?
To paraphrase the reused definition all over the internet, it is a story about two people and their romantic love that has an optimistic ending which writers often coin as HFN (happy for now) or HEA (happily ever after) endings.
Do my books have that?
Yes. They do fit the definition of romance.
To continue with the definition...
It gets vague. It can vary in tone, style, time, location, and sensuality level. It has many subgenres. Lo and behold, one of those subgenres is Fantasy Romance, the exact term I use when describing my works.
What is fantasy romance?
According to FaRoFeb, it is "any work of fiction with fantastical, magical, or non-human elements...where there’s a significant romantic element."
The website breaks it down into types of fantasy and the best to explain my trilogy pictured above in its omnibus form is "epic, swords and sorcery."
Ergo, I write fantasy romance. I have war and dragons, but love and relationship struggles. I got all the hormones, infatuation, and kissing, but also sword swinging, betrayals, and rebellion. I didn't think this was a hard concept to grasp, but people have their own negative preconceived opinions about romance that they are unyielding about. Many fantasy books I've read have at least a small romantic element at some point. I simply make that a driving force, a series with dual overarching plots.
So this is my defense of romance and what I write; more so it is a defense to not police other authors and tell them what they must call their novels because you don't understand genre bending or hybrid genres.
I'm not a fan of sci-fi, but never would I demean it as an unworthy genre. It is my personal, subjective taste only. Never would I dare tell any author that if their sci-fi also has heavy romantic elements it isn't sci-fi anymore. In fact, I would urge them to use what labels they believe best represents their book. You never know who might be interested because you bended genres. I'm more likely to pick up sci-fi romance than sci-fi alone, for example.
If interested in a hybrid fantasy romance series, check out my Celestial Spheres Trilogy