What is Romance?
Romance is a genre defined by its happy ending. In fact, a happy ending is so crucial that love stories that do not end with a Happily Ever After (HEA) or a Happy for Now (HFN) are not considered Romance. Typically, Romance focuses on the emotional and physical connections between people. The core story is about the relationship. The characters are expected to go both on personal journeys and journeys together. And, the couple should be better together than without each other. No matter the plot or subgenre, this core story is the heart of any Romance.
What is a trope?
Romance is full of tropes. Tropes are common themes or plot devices. For example, imagine the characters are on a road trip. How does an author get them to spend more time together? Perhaps, the hotel or inn only has one room available, so the characters have to share! To take this trope even further, the room might only have one bed. Will someone sleep on the floor? Will they share? Many authors put their own spin on tropes, but when reading a Romance, tropes can often provide comfort. You know what to expect. And if you like a particular trope, you can seek out more books that contain that trope.
Trope: Widow and Widower
Widows and Widowers are common characters in Romance. Their stories are compelling because they tend to be older characters who have already lived a life and are finding love again. Sometimes the previous marriage was good and full of love, and sometimes it was bad. Either way, the character has already suffered when the book begins, either through their grief or through their loveless marriage. Healing and learning to trust are often key parts of the widow’s or widower's journey.
Recommendations
Contemporary Romance
Jackson Koch lost his wife to cancer and lost his job when the town's coal mines shut down. Moving across the country, he finds a new life in Bridgeport, Ohio, where he tends bar by night and navigates life as a single dad to his three-year-old daughter by day. Dani Brown also knows what it's like to lose a spouse and raise a child on her own. Cleaning houses during the day and taking online classes at night, she dreams of running her own preschool someday. She babysits for Jackson's daughter. The babysitting money goes toward her son Jeremy's baseball team, but it's still tight. The Bridgeport Social Club plans a charity poker tournament to support Jeremy's dream and help out a hardworking single mom. But will Dani be able to accept what she sees as charity?
Carl Herbold is a cold-blooded psychopath who has just escaped the penitentiary where he was serving a life sentence. Bent on revenge, he's going back to where he began--Blewer County, Texas. Born deaf, lately widowed, Anna Corbett fights to keep the ranch that is her son's birthright, unaware that she is at the center of Herbold's horrific scheme--and that her world of self-imposed isolation is about to explode. Drifter Jack Sawyer arrives at Anna's ranch asking for work, hoping to protect the innocent woman and her son from Herbold's rage. But Sawyer can't outrun the secrets that stalk him--or the day of reckoning awaiting them all.
Wanted: Midwife/nurse practitioner in Virgin River, population six hundred. Make a difference against a backdrop of towering California redwoods and crystal clear rivers. Rent-free cabin included. When the recently widowed Melinda Monroe sees this ad, she quickly decides that the remote mountain town of Virgin River might be the perfect place to escape her heartache and to reenergize the nursing career she loves. But her high hopes are dashed within an hour of arriving--the cabin is a dump, the roads are treacherous, and the local doctor wants nothing to do with her. Realizing she's made a huge mistake, Mel decides to leave town the following morning. But a tiny baby abandoned on a front porch changes her plans...and former marine Jack Sheridan cements them into place.
Piper Bellinger is fashionable and influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father's dive bar...in Washington. Piper hasn't even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won't last a week outside of Beverly Hills. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there's an undeniable attraction simmering between them. As she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew in L.A. is what she truly wants.
Historical Romance
When headstrong West Indian heiress Patience Jordan questioned her English husband's mysterious suicide, she lost everything: her newborn son, Lionel, her fortune--and her freedom. Falsely imprisoned, she risks her life to be near her child--until The Widow's Grace gets her hired as her own son's nanny. But working for his unsuspecting new guardian, Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington, has perils of its own. A wounded military hero, Busick is determined to resolve his dead cousin's dangerous financial dealings for Lionel's sake. But his investigation is a minor skirmish compared to dealing with the forthright, courageous, and alluring Patience. Soon, between formidable enemies and obstacles, they form a fragile trust--but will it be enough to save the future they long to dare together?
Marty Dandridge Olson is a widow looking for a way out of Texas. Widower Jake Wythe has secured a job as a bank manager in Denver, only to discover that the bank board wants him to be a married man. With Texas in his roots, he advertises for a Lone Star bride, and Marty answers the call. They both agree they are done with romance and love and will make this nothing more than a marriage of convenience. When missing money and a collapsing economy threaten his job, Jake's yearning to return to ranching grows ever stronger, much to Marty's dismay. But a fondness has grown between them further complicating matters. What will happen when their relationship shifts in unexpected ways...and dreams and secrets collide?
England, 1865: As one of England's most notorious newspaper columnists, Lady Katherine Bascomb believes knowledge is power. When her reporting leads to the arrest of a notorious killer, however, Katherine flees to a country house party to escape her newfound notoriety-only to witness a murder on her very first night. Detective Inspector Andrew Eversham's refusal to compromise his investigations nearly cost him his own career, and he blames Katherine. When he discovers she's the key witness in a new crime, he's determined to prevent the beautiful widow from once again wreaking havoc on his case. Yet as Katherine proves surprisingly insightful and Andrew impresses Katherine with his lethal competency, both are forced to admit the fire between them is more flirtatious than furious. But to explore the passion between them, they'll need to catch a killer.
Jessie Tucker is beloved throughout Lexington, Alabama for her kind heart and endless generosity. But the widow feels it's past time she rewarded herself, especially when upstanding Hubert Wiggins tragically loses his wife and son. Discouraged by Hubert's lack of romantic interest, she cooks up a deception she knows will make pious Hubert do right by her. She doesn't know Hubert has a new, much-riskier secret love. When he is not the ardent lover Jessie always dreamed he was, she turns her desires to a handsome younger man, Conway. Jessie's longtime rival, Blondeen, is watching. Now she has the perfect opportunity to destroy Jessie's reputation, drive her out of town, and become the real wife Hubert should have had all along.
If you love Romance books, be sure to check out our upcoming Romance library event!
Tuesday, February 14
6:00-7:00 p.m.
Hampton Park Library
If you missed part one and part two, click here for Romance featuring Fake Relationships and Sports Romance.
Brittany
Information Specialist
Post Road Library
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