I’ve always been a young adult book kind of girl. It’s what I have been reading since I was at least 12-years-old. And in reality,  I thought I wouldn’t ever read anything else. But, over the last year or so I’ve been reading more and more new adult and adult romance – and I love it.

As I’ve been in the blogging and online community for nearly 7 years now – I’ve seen a lot of discussions about romance books, especially from the YA community. And most of the time it wasn’t great. It didn’t paint new adult and adult romance books with a great eye, and it put me off. I felt that it wasn’t good to read them, that if you love YA, that you should not read romance. Obviously, that is a really stupid way of thinking and don’t know exactly where it came from. And it wasn’t until the middle of last year that I started to let those worries go, that I fell in love with romance books and now I don’t want to put them down. 

Now romance books for me are a great way to just let myself go for a while and not worry about anything else. And because a lot of the time they are contemporary, I don’t need to worry about world building or new languages. I just fall into the book without a care in the world. 

There are many misconceptions about romance books that I feel the prey of for many years. And I still think that there are many other readers that feel the same way.

It’s not all about the sex

I think this was my main misconception about romance books. It’s one of the first things that I thought it was about. Sex, Sex and more Sex. Maybe it’s because some of the biggest romance books that are highlighted in the media did include that. Fifty Shades of Grey and Mills and Boon books were what immediately came to my mind. 

But in reality, it isn’t like that at all. Of course, there are the romances that do sway more to the erotic fiction side – and that is totally okay. They aren’t for me, but I don’t give a crap if you do read them. But then you can also get series like Laura Kaye’s Hard Ink and Raven Riders, where some are sexier than others. It’s not just the story, but different characters like people behaviour different. Check out my reviews of Ride Hard, Ride Rough and Ride Wild. 

There are many romance books that have maybe 1 or 2 sex scenes and that’s it. Some of them aren’t even that graphic. Some romance books don’t even have sex scenes. So to say that romance books = sex. Is such a major misconception, that I know I fell for and hope others now, don’t feel the same way. 

Romance books have substance 

Along the same lines that romance books = sex. There is also the impression that there is no substance to romance novels, that it’s all about the romance and sex. And nothing else. But do you know how many romance books have made me bawl my eyes out?  

Okay yes, I am a cry baby. But there is something about romance books that make me more emotional. I have learnt so much from them. About sports, the army, health. Romance authors do there research just as much as anyone. If you want some Ice Hockey romance recommendations, check out a post I did a couple of months ago. 

The Flight & Glory series by Rebecca Yarros has taught me so much about the army life in the US. If you didn’t know I’m a massive fan of fighter jets and army plans so getting to see these in books was so cool. 

And while many romance books explore relationships, they also explore life. It’s not all sunshine and daisies. It’s grief, hurt and finding love. And that is what I really love about romance books – that I can feel so many emotions in 300 pages. 

It’s good writing 

Another aspect of romance books that I’ve been around is that the writing is bad. Just because these books focus more on romance doesn’t mean it’s shit writing. Obvious there are many that aren’t great writing wise – but that is with every readership and genre. It’s isn’t just romance books. 

Over the last year, I’ve probably read 40 or so romance books. I’ve had ones that I loved and ones that aren’t that great. But that is like everything else. You don’t know what you are getting into until you pick up and read. 

Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy have become two of my favourite romance authors. I love their writing and while there are clique storylines. I still have so much fun reading them. From Ice Hockey to ex-army. They are so much fun. And you know what bets these two authors on their own? When they collab, the Him and Wags series are some of my favourite romance books. That deals with different aspects of life on many different levels. 

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There are a couple of people that I need to mention quickly that really changed my outlook on romance novels. Firstly, Danielle Binks – she loves YA just as much as any of us do, but she also loves romance. Danielle was one of the first people that I saw that read both young adult and romance books – and I loved it.

I can’t write a post about romance books without mentioning Tash. I’ve known her for many years, we started blogging at similar times and have become great friends. I use to read her romance reviews and think ‘I need to read this book’. Now we talk for ages about romance books, I am also getting recs from her – and it’s great. 

Overall, if you want to read young adult and romance books then do it! Don’t be scared or worried about being judged. Read what you want to read, don’t let others dictate what you can’t. Or convince you that reading romance is bad. Because people I love romance books now. I won’t get enough of them, I will continue to read them – and there are so many interesting ones coming out soon. 

Do you read romance books? How much do you love them? What are some of your favourites? Have you been pushed away from reading new adult and adult romance? Let’s Chat!