# Just Wondering here, Why are Love stories so popular?



## DefySense (May 4, 2013)

I was never a fan of love stories, I'm just hoping someone can tell me why they're so popular and worth reading? My favorite books of all time have nothing to do with love so it makes me wonder.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

DefySense said:


> I was never a fan of love stories, I'm just hoping someone can tell me why they're so popular and worth reading? My favorite books of all time have nothing to do with love so it makes me wonder.


If you mean romance novels, that question could be asked about any genre, and the answer is simply because a lot of people like reading about relationships, especially ones with a guaranteed happy ending. Just like you like ... whatever you like.  That other people like romance novels, find them worthy, doesn't mean you will, and that's okay. When it comes to personal taste, you can't argue, debate, or persuade someone into enjoying something they simply are not wired to enjoy. (Maybe you can make them intellectually get it, but that's a long way from real understanding.)


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

If you mean just straight romance with no other elements added, I think they are popular simply because everyone wants to find true love. Let's face it: these books are popular because they provide escape for women who may be bored with their lives or dissatisfied in their current relationships. I have never been fond of the popular romance books that have the simplistic formulas of "boy meets girl, boy hates girl, girl likes boy, boy likes girl, girl hates boy, but all's well that ends well," (yawn) and that's all there is to it. 

Now if the lovers are real people like the couple portrayed in the classic Joy In the Morning, where two young people fall in love in college and have to face reality when they graduate and discover how hard the first years of marriage are but are committed to one another to make it through, great! Likewise The Notebook, where devotion and just LIKING each other although they are different make it possible for an odd couple to last a lifetime.

But count me out of the popular romance genre in its basic form. I tried reading a few of them in my teen years; forget them as soon as I finished them.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

DefySense said:


> I was never a fan of love stories, I'm just hoping someone can tell me why they're so popular and worth reading? My favorite books of all time have nothing to do with love so it makes me wonder.


DefySense--

what are some of your favorite books of all time? What do you like?

Betsy


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

lmroth12 said:


> If you mean just straight romance with no other elements added, I think they are popular simply because everyone wants to find true love. Let's face it: these books are popular because they provide escape for women who may be bored with their lives or dissatisfied in their current relationships.


This is the stereotype. The reality is at least one study that says romance novel readers tend to have more satisfying sex lives. Do I think some readers enjoy them as an escape from a life that falls short of what they want? Sure. That would be a safe bet. Just like when men read a book where the hero is bedding a different woman ten pages they might be searching for a missing element in their lives. But I'm not going to assume this is the case.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I think it would be like saying people who read murder mysteries have a secret desire to murder someone.    That may or may not be true....

Speaking for me, I like all kinds of genres, including romance.  I just like a good story, doesn't matter so much the genre.

Betsy


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## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

Love is a universal theme, with elements that (hopefully) readers of love stories can relate to - the excitement, fear, euphoria all rolled into one. I think that's why the romance genre endures.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

I like a love interest in my genre's which are usually SF or Fantasy....it would be a strange life to read about that had no love of any kind in it...I guess that could be a story in itself....but definitely not every story.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

I suspect love stories and romances are popular because:

a. everyone wants to love and be loved.
b. everyone wants an exciting sex life.
c. women (I assume men too) want to feel attractive and desired, even if only vicariously

Add to that romantic love is a shared human experience most everyone has had at least once and there you go. People can relate to it and it can end with an ideal happily ever after.


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## mistyd107 (May 22, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I think it would be like saying people who read murder mysteries have a secret desire to murder someone.  That may or may not be true....
> 
> Speaking for me, I like all kinds of genres, including romance. I just like a good story, doesn't matter so much the genre.
> 
> Betsy


ITA


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

Cos love makes the world go round? (It makes my eyes go round...)


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## DefySense (May 4, 2013)

Lol. I actually like a lot of "Classics" so the catcher in the rye, the outsiders, animal farm, of mice and men, 1984 some scifi. Also, the great gatsby but not for the romantic effect, i'm one of those people who likes to find hidden meaning within the book. It's a good way to truly learn about the author.


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## Sondrae Bennett (Mar 29, 2011)

Dara England said:


> I suspect love stories and romances are popular because:
> 
> a. everyone wants to love and be loved.
> b. everyone wants an exciting sex life.
> ...


I agree with everything Dara said, but I think there's more to it than that. One of the things I like best about romance novels (and I love every type of romance novel) is that they typically bring the lead to a very low point where the character feels emotionally hopeless, but they work through it and in the end always get their happily ever after. I think that can be uplifting and inspiring. A good romance story will make the reader laugh, and cry, and then laugh again (possibly while crying). What more could you ask for in a book?


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Sondrae Bennett said:


> I agree with everything Dara said, but I think there's more to it than that. One of the things I like best about romance novels (and I love every type of romance novel) is that they typically bring the lead to a very low point where the character feels emotionally hopeless, but they work through it and in the end always get their happily ever after. I think that can be uplifting and inspiring. A good romance story will make the reader laugh, and cry, and then laugh again (possibly while crying). What more could you ask for in a book?


Good points there. For me its the road that makes romance special for me. Its not the HEA, which of course I have to have, but its what happens to get there. 
I also love that I can have so many different sub genres with word building to blow my mind. I can follow the adventure, the lows, the laughs, the cries. Some romance I read is so heart wrenching it rips my heart out. There is such a huge range of options in the genre that is pretty much endless. I can go really really dark picking stuff to read, the despair, the suffering.

A good romance makes me wonder if there is even a positive end, or how can it possibly go there. I get that with Anne Stuart sometimes. Even though I know it has to, because its a romance, a skilled writer makes me still wonder. Every. Single. Time.

I can take a trip back in time, basically anywhere I want. I can go on the sea with pirates, I can chase down bad guys with a badge. I can go to the dark side with some really messed up people. I can go to the future, experience a world more fantastical I could ever come up with myself. All the while knowing that no matter what happens, the joy, the pain, everything, I will get a pay off at the end. Most of all, romance makes me feel, something.

That is the magic or romance.

And no, I don't sit around depressed eating bon bons not getting any.

Interesting that men never have to defend their choice of fiction.


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## Carlotta (May 7, 2013)

Have you ever experienced a love story like the ones described in romance books?
No? Neither I had.
A book describing a real love story would be so boring that no one would read it.
A romance book is a kind of sci-fi story set in a perfect world.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

Carlotta said:


> Have you ever experienced a love story like the ones described in romance books?
> No? Neither I had.
> A book describing a real love story would be so boring that no one would read it.
> A romance book is a kind of sci-fi story set in a perfect world.


Boy meets girl
Boy _____ girl
Boy marries girl
Boy/girl give birth to boy/girl
Boy/girl live happily ever after or Boy/girl get divorced.........and boy meets a different girl......


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## chipotle (Jan 1, 2010)

A lot of people think reading a romance novel is the exact same story told the exact same way over and over again. That isn't true (just as that isn't true for mysteries or other genres) and each love story is as different as the characters involved. 
We human beings are all individuals and interesting in our own ways and romances are the same.

I also think romances have greatly improved in the past 20 years so if the last time you read a romance novel was a long time ago, you might try again. And if you're looking for suggestions, you can't go wrong with the AAR's Top 100 Romances of All Time linked below. There are classics and historicals and paranormal and suspense and contemporaries - something for everyone.

http://www.likesbooks.com/top1002010results.htm


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## Not Here (May 23, 2011)

Atunah said:


> And no, I don't sit around depressed eating bon bons not getting any.
> 
> Interesting that men never have to defend their choice of fiction.


Right? I was thinking the same thing.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I would note there's a difference -- in my mind at least -- between a "love story" and a "romance" (as the term is currently understood.)

_Romeo and Juliet_ (and any number of stories that draw from it) is a love story -- but not a romance because they clearly do NOT live happily ever after -- which is what 99% of "Romance" readers are looking for.

Another example is Love Story (duh!). Both of these feature 'great' loves but are ultimately tragic.

Romance readers want to know if it's a true "Romance" or not -- with a 'romance', they're happy to go through all manner of trials and tribulations as long as HE and SHE end up together and happy. Book might be a great love story, but many readers won't be happy if they think it's a 'romance' in the genre sense and then ends. . . . . wrong.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

The Liaden Universe books are some of my favorite Sci-fi romances...(although I would never admit the romance aspect outside of this thread) that said, the romance is a part of the story, but definitely not the sole plot..and there's no explicit romance if you get my drift


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## DefySense (May 4, 2013)

Chad Winters said:


> The Liaden Universe books are some of my favorite Sci-fi romances...(although I would never admit the romance aspect outside of this thread) that said, the romance is a part of the story, but definitely not the sole plot..and there's no explicit romance if you get my drift


-wishes that I could like this post with a like button-
That's what I mean, having it being the center piece. It's important, but it shouldn't consume the protagonist's life.


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## FFW (May 4, 2013)

Why is love being linked to romance? Romance is purely self-based. It refers to the games we play when we experience the advent of a new person in our life that triggers certain desires that firm up our ego. Love, itself, is a completely altruistic phenomenon that is driven by the need to enhance the life of another, even to the detriment of one's own life.

But of course fiction is fiction.


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