Susan Mallery is an American author of popular romance novels set in non-urban, close-knit communities. Because of her love for animals, pets play a significant role in her books.
Romance Writers of America (RWA) is an American non-profit writers' association founded in 1980. Its mission is to "advance the professional and common business interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy and by increasing public awareness of the romance genre." Relevant works must be themed around the development of a romantic relationship between two people, and there must be a happy ending. As well as published authors, those with complete but unpublished manuscripts are eligible for membership.
Christina Lauren, the combined pen name of Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, is an American author duo of contemporary fiction, teen fiction and romance novels.
Amish romance is a literary subgenre of Christian fiction featuring Amish characters, but written and read mostly by evangelical Christian women. An industry term for Amish romance novels is "bonnet rippers" because most feature a woman in a bonnet on the cover, and "bonnet ripper" is a play on the term "bodice ripper" from classic romance novels.
LGBT romance is a genre within gay literature and romance fiction focused on same-sex characters who fall in love and have a homosexual or homoromantic relationship. The genre has met with increasing acceptance and sales from the 1980s onward. Bussel, in Publishers Weekly, notes that as of 2020, presses that specialize in LGBTQ romance, mainstream publishers, and booksellers are expanding their offerings and inviting a more diverse authorship.
Flame in the Mist is a 2017 young adult novel by Renee Ahdieh. It is a historical fantasy, based loosely on feudal Japan, about the betrothed daughter of a prominent samurai, Hattori, who having survived an assassination attempt disguises herself as a boy and infiltrates the clan responsible.
Fonda Lee is a Canadian-American author of speculative fiction. She is best known for writing The Green Bone Saga, the first of which, Jade City, won the 2018 World Fantasy Award and was named one of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Time magazine. The Green Bone Saga was also included on NPR's list, "50 Favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade".
Alyssa Cole is an American author of historical, science fiction, and contemporary romance novels. Her stories include diverse casts of characters with a variety of professions, from Civil War spies to modern day epidemiologists. Her romance works explore both straight and gay relationships.
The Ripped Bodice, established March 4, 2016, is a bookstore in Culver City, California in the United States, which sells only romance novels. It was the first romance book store opened in the Northern Hemisphere.
Alisha Rai is an American author of contemporary, erotic, and paranormal romance novels. She advocates for greater diversity in the romance genre.
Talia Hibbert is a British romance novelist. She writes contemporary and paranormal romance. Critics describe her as a writer of diverse narratives, with characters of varying race, ethnicity, body shape, sexual orientation, and life experience. She is best known for her 2019 novel Get a Life, Chloe Brown.
Rebekah Weatherspoon is an American author and romance novelist. Her books often feature heroines who are Black, plus-size, disabled, and/or LGBTQ. She founded the website WOC in Romance. Weatherspoon received a 2017 Lambda Literary Award for her novel Soul to Keep and was an honoree at the inaugural Ripped Bodice Awards for Excellence in Romance Fiction for Xeni.
Tiffany Reisz is an American author. She is best known for the Original Sinners series of erotica and she has won the RITA Award and a Lambda Literary Award.
Travis John Klune is an American author of fantasy and romantic fiction featuring gay and LGBTQ+ characters. His fantasy novel The House in the Cerulean Sea is a New York Times best seller and winner of the 2021 Alex and Mythopoeic Awards. Klune has spoken about how his asexuality influences his writing. His novel Into This River I Drown won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance in 2014.
Lovely War is a young adult romance novel by Julie Berry, published March 5, 2019 by Viking Books for Young Readers. The book is a New York Times Bestseller and was well-received by critics.
The Forgotten Waltz is an adult romance novel by Anne Enright. Published on April 28 2011, the book was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction that year.
Racism in the romance fiction industry is a recognized issue that has received scholarly attention since the 1980s. Romance novels featuring protagonists of color were not published before 1969 in the United States and did not become part of the mainstream romance fiction industry before 1980. Romance novels featuring Black protagonists were marketed differently and, as of 2021, have been frequently shelved in segregated sections. Black novelists have felt unwelcome in industry organizations and industry awards are not regularly accorded to their work.
The Love Hypothesis is a romance novel by Ali Hazelwood, published September 14, 2021 by Berkley Books. Originally published online in 2018 as Head Over Feet, a Star Wars fan fiction work about the "Reylo" ship between Rey and Kylo Ren, the novel follows a Ph.D. candidate and a professor at Stanford University who pretend to be in a relationship.
Simone St. James is a Canadian author of mystery, historical fiction, and romance novels. Simon lives outside of Toronto, Canada and had twenty years of experience in the television business before leaving to write full-time.
Anger Is a Gift is a young adult novel by Mark Oshiro, published May 22, 2018 by Tor Teen.
