You don’t want to work, stress, plan, or even wait. Happily-ever-after is yours for the taking. As the single most devoured genre, romantic stories scratch an itch and satisfy in a way no other genre can, leaving the reader leaning back with a smile and a sigh as the last page ends. A romance novel offers a gentle escape from daily demands. It’s a treat to look forward to during down time. As readers, we get to enter another world – a simpler world where two people will find each other, fall in love, hopefully share intimate moments, and end up joyfully together. We know what to expect. We know the book will deliver. And if that wasn’t enough (and it is!), romance novels also remind us what it feels like to be infatuated in that over-the-top new-love kind of way. If we have a life partner, the magical feelings leak into our relationship, and for a while, the best parts of our hero are right in front of us. If we live our lives alone, we’re reminded that true love exists. With each novel, that predictable, euphoric feeling rushes us through pages toward a final resolution even though we know we’ll be sorry to finish reading.

Until the next book.