Creative Convos: Do Books Need Romance To Be Interesting?

This is a question I have been asking myself for a while and I don’t think there is a straight answer. Some people love romance and need it to be present in every book they read, but others hate it and would rather not see it in their books.

Personally, I’m the type of person that loves romance in books as I’m a big fan of the genre, but I can see how it can overshadow other elements of a book.

On the other hand, a romantic subplot can add a lot of character development and who doesn’t love character development? There are far too many books that have either weak or no character development, so I do like it when a character meets someone and changes for the better because they’ve found love.

A huge reason why books have romance (I’m generalising, take this with a pinch of salt) is because it’s a great source of drama and conflict. Although, the miscommunication trope that is part of every single romance, does get old very quickly. I’m also really not a fan of the ‘third act break up’ trope that also seems to be in most romance books, especially the ones that make no sense. If there’s a valid reason for these to be used, fair enough, but when it’s something silly like ‘you didn’t tell me about that one tiny thing that I didn’t have a right to know and now I don’t want to be with you anymore”, I hate that.

I know some people who can’t read a book unless it has romance and honestly fair enough, but it’s not something that’s terribly important to me. If I’m reading a lore heavy fantasy book, I don’t care much for romance, but if it’s a subplot that’s fine. I do love a romantasy though.

One thing I am a little tired of seeing is books being marketed as romance without actually having any romance. This doesn’t really fit into the context of this post, but it really annoys me so I had to get it off my chest.

I personally feel like books don’t need romance to make them interesting, but it can be a great plot driver and it does make a good subplot if you’re into romance, some people aren’t.