Why do women read romance?

On a winter’s day, worthy of a Tolstoy introduction with its bewildering sub-zero degrees and a freezing wind that rivals an ice bath, I was given this article to write. At first, I really didn’t have many answers. I love romantic fiction myself, but to put it in a logical and framed picture like an article is, I wasn’t sure.

But he knew that if he questioned family and friends, he would discover why 40 percent of the book sales market is devoted to this genre and why it sells so well.

These are some of the answers. Not surprisingly, many of these are intangible in our lives.

Renewal:

We could have a really lousy day at work or at our home business or as parents. The boss could have gone completely insane and assigned fifty projects for tomorrow. Or our home office fax machine could have eaten another fax where we now have to call someone and impress them with our office equipment. Maybe your two-year-old has figured out how to cut and run from the breakfast table with jam dripping down his kid fingers and, oh no, he’s heading to one of the clean rooms! Many days, life can be chaotic.

When all the craziness of everyday life requires a balance between living and reacting, there is nothing better than getting into a romance.

Romance readers report having a sense of renewal after plunging into a happy love story. It is a way to remove the dirt of the day from our shoes and sit down to relax.

A literary tome would not do the job. A mystery wouldn’t be all right, but a romance is always the hero of the day.

Hope:

Romance readers also reported seeing a sense of hope in romance books.

Maybe you really are that romance needs a bit of repair and a weekend in Bali, but it falls into a book and they have it much worse. I still remember a book I read years ago when the main character had done something out of the ordinary and taken a car on the moon that, of course, turned out to be driven by his new boss. He went through the entire book, more or less cringing every time he looked at it for fear that he would recognize his birthmark. From embarrassing, desperate to any kind of random misfortune, heroines and heroes get it all.

As human beings we need to have a sense of hope and when our own spirit is battered why not romance?

If you’ve read the story of Pandora’s box, in the midst of all the horrible things that got away, hope also got away. As an avid reader of romance fiction, I truly believe that romance offers hope. Regardless of the obstacles, the main characters go to work to overcome all the reasons why the world is rotten, but then they find throughout the book the moments of hope, the spirit to carry on. Romantic readers hope in each book that it really is a romance.

The predictability factor:

While not all romances are exactly the same, we can take the guesswork out of a book by selecting a romance right away. We can know for sure that at the end of the book, we are promised a happy ending.

For this reason, most romances try to stick to a general appearance of romance.

Sharing the hero:

And naturally we can also assume that women read romance en masse for heroes. Think of some of the heroes you may have read. Usually they are beautiful, tortured and complex souls that would absolutely melt the heart.

Truly, I think a lot of women just want to weave their own lives together by reading about these men who will do whatever it takes to solve the problem of the day.

If you’re looking for a romance and feel like you have to hide your cap from the store clerk, forget it. Women have been reading romance forever and it’s justifiably a good romance book any day of the week. Don’t forget to turn off the stove before tuning in for a good romance.