10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Love in the time of MAGA bros: Why women are craving romance novels
There, seeking escape from reality, and also encouragement, empowerment, and companionship, were shoppers who were almost uniformly so enthusiastic they seemed like extras in a romcom hoping to be discovered.
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But their smiles didn't tell the whole story. In fact, often, they concealed it.
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Jaclyn Nee, a single 28-year-old speech therapist, was browsing with a friend in 'contemporary romance.' It's a sub-genre where, increasingly, women find love later in life (which, in romance novels, means in their 30s, but, hey, it's progress).
Nee worries she lost
But, she said, a particular type of romance novel can make her feel better. 'I like stories where things don't always go according to plan.'
'Why?' she was asked.
Nee and her friend exchanged a glance and burst into laughter. 'Ask my therapist!' she said.
A few clusters of pals away, Lauren Parker, a lingerie-store worker, admitted she used to tease friends who read romance novels. But now she's crossed over, almost out of necessity.
'Guys in the real world don't want to date, don't want you to be their girlfriend,' she said. 'But the men in these books, they're your dream man.'
Wait! Let's step back a moment. Someone had the chutzpah to open a romance-book store in Harvard Square, the intellectual capital of the world? And not only that, but one that flaunts its existence with a magnificent canopy of faux flowers over the entrance and brims with attitude-y merch? 'my type is fictional,' baseball caps proclaim. 'Men to Avoid in Art and Life' are the wall calendars for sale.
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What about the stigma that romance novels have always had? Are people sneaking in through a back door? No, said owner
Some of the books and items for sale at Lovestruck Books.
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
But as far as the question of whether the shame is gone — of people no longer deriding the books as lowbrow, girly, poorly written — the answer is kind of yes and kind of no.
On one hand, romance has earned respect, grudging though it may be, by its whopper sales. In January, '
Lovestruck itself is a sign of the change. In the past few years, the number of romance bookstores in the country has multiplied, and the names alone tell you no one's hiding. There's
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How did this happen? The pandemic-era emergence of #BookTok, where readers and
Malden-based Instagram account, @readmylipsboston, has hosted pop-up book shops featuring romance titles vetted for diversity and representation.
Provided
Indeed, there are 4.4 million posts on TikTok using #RomanceBooks, according to TikTok, with a 70 percent increase in posts between 2023 and 2024.
Along the way, the books themselves have changed. The 'happily ever after' ending is still a must, Kanter, the Lovestruck owner said, but now love can be part of a woman's life, not the only thing.
And today, not only is the act of reading a romance novel being positioned as 'self care' by some publishers, there is a sub-genre for everyone. LGBTQ romance, sports romance, dark romance, fantasy romance, historical romance, reverse harem romance.
And within each category, more categories.
Rachel Kanter got Lovestruck Books ready for opening last December.
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
Crucially, said Kanter, the novels often center characters who have disabilities,
And yet, despite the gains, because the books are written primarily by women for women, there will always be a stigma, said
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'Anything that girls and women love' — like pumpkin spice latte, she said, or the Twilight series — 'a lot of people want to make fun of it or denigrate it.'
Perhaps the status, or lack thereof, was best captured by a Harvard Business School student shopping at Lovestruck over the weekend.
When classmates asked what she did over break, she'd say, 'A lot of reading.' But, she told a reporter, she would 'hedge' and not immediately reveal what she was reading ('Iron Flame' and 'Onyx Storm'). But when she did, it turned out others were, too.
And her name? She preferred to remain anonymous.
Rachel Kanter of Lovestruck Books.
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
Beth Teitell can be reached at
