Romance novels begin with a couple who is not currently in a romantic relationship and present an obstacle that works to keep the couple apart before they finally fall in love.
The most common misconception of the romance novel is that the stories are old fashioned and that the female characters are all virgins.
Almost half of all the paperback books printed and distributed for the North American market are romance novels of various types.
Though there are exceptions, most romance novels are significantly shorter than standard paperback novels, with some as short as 50,000 words in length.
Romance novels come in hundreds of different themes, including Christian, vampires, cowboys, historical, contemporary, futuristic, medical, single parents and many more.
Romance novels have been one of the most popular types of fiction books for decades, and are now popular in 120 countries.