Romance is a genre of tropes — enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, stuck together, fake relationships — with a preference for a certain type of heroine: a young woman who is idealistic yet flawed, and “white, middle-class, heterosexual, young and single”.
But a TikTok rom-com boom and recent reader demands for diverse storytelling seem to be having an effect. New romance titles starring bold, culturally connected heroines – who manage to break genre moulds while remaining faithful to what readers love about romance – are starting to hit the market.
