CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Romance novels have always spiced up quiet nights. Now, a genre that has sometimes been dismissed as a guilty pleasure is bringing readers and writers together through social media, book clubs and a growing number of romance-specific bookstores.
At a recent launch party for Nora Dahlia’s enemies-to-friends romance “Pick-Up” at Lovestruck Books, a romance-dedicated store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a crowd of women sipped cocktails from the bar-café as they browsed the shelves.
After Dahlia’s reading, patrons stuck around to mingle, swap contact info and trade author recommendations.
It was a particularly social event for a book talk. But the communal atmosphere is typical of events for romance fans.
Dahlia likened romance readers to “Comic-Con folks,” referring to the deep-rooted passion that defines comic-book fandom.
“They’re educated on the genre in a real way,” Dahlia said. “Many of them started reading romance – Danielle Steel, V.C. Andrews, Jude