I love that a genre that makes up over a quarter of all book sales and is either the highest or second-highest-grossing genre each year can be completely panned by people.

My library gave me a booklet of 2020 recommendations. It had just under ninety books listed and only one romance novel. The chosen romance was also not a very good one, but it had a “catchy” title. I was disappointed by the list, to say the least.

My local indie bookstore doesn’t have a romance section. It’s a large building, and yet nothing. They’ve got sci-fi/fantasy, cookbooks, mysteries, and all the other expected areas, but no romance. At first, I thought maybe they put them in with fiction. They were not. The only Nora Roberts book they had was her most recent fantasy series. They’ll let me order them online, though.

It’s frustrating. People are clearly reading a genre that has such high numbers in sales and earns so much. Yet, if I want to support an indie bookstore in my local area, I can’t just go in and pick something up from my favorite genre. I can’t get good recommendations from library mailers either.

I guess I’ll just roll my eyes and move on, but one day it would be nice not to be ignored or treated like I’m “silly” because I enjoy reading something that gives me joy.