A romance novel is a literary genre where the primary focus is on the relationship and romantic love between two people. The main plot of the novel, that is, the central conflict and climax, is directly related to the core theme of romantic love between the protagonists.
Women's fiction is not a direct sub category of the romance novel. Women's fiction is a broad term which encompasses any type of literature that is targeted to female readers. This can include romantic fiction, romantic suspense novels and chick lit. Women's fiction is however different from women's writing. Women's writing is literature written by female writers while women's fiction is writing for women readers.
Chick lit is American college slang and first appeared in print form in the year 1988. Chick lit is a genre of fiction that addresses the contemporary issues of womanhood, often in a light manner. This type of writing went beyond the idea of women as suffering victims of situations and included writing that covered a lot of modern female experiences including love, courtship and the female identity. Chick lit sometimes deals with violent and sexual themes in an explicit manner.
Typically, Chick lit deals with an independent, career oriented woman in her twenties and thirties. According to some definitions, these women are obsessed with their looks, love affairs and shopping. But it is not always as superficial as that and can deal with issues like motherhood, social or marital status of women and even religion.
The romantic suspense genre is a sub genre of the romance novel. At the centre of the plot is a suspense or intrigue that the main characters or the protagonist has to solve. The romance element comes from the woman who is one of the protagonists and the relationship that develops between her and the hero. The heroine is presented as a victim of a crime or even an attempted crime and she embarks on a journey to solve the mystery. In her endeavours, she is helped by the hero who is also her protector. Typically, he is in a police officer or an FBI agent and is in a position to assist her in her investigation.
In the romantic suspense novel, the solving of the mystery and the development of the romance are given equal importance. The twists and turns of the romance impact the suspense element of the story: the emotional condition of the hero and heroine reflects on the decisions they take in dealing with the intrigue and vice versa. These novels end with the suspense resolved and the protagonists united in a lifelong relationship.
Mary Stewart was a famous romantic suspense author who perfected the art of effortlessly combining the romance and the suspense elements. She wrote ten romantic suspense books between1955 and 1967. In her romantic suspense books, the way the hero conducts the investigation and solves the suspense shows his personality and qualities and this attracts the heroine towards him. Generally, the romantic suspense novels are set in a modern setting, but the romantic suspense authors such as Amanda Quick developed the historical romantic suspense genre quite successfully.
Jane Rosenthal is an award winning poet, radio journalist, a romantic suspense author, and an educator. She received a degree in Creative Writing from San Francisco State where she studied with Frances Mayes. Anyone who loves, reading, writing, gardening and believes in changing the world one small step at a time should write her at allaboutjanesranch.com.
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