Negative perceptions of the romance novel persist to this day, but now it comes more from feminist critics than male. Claims that this type of fiction reinforces sentimental traditional roles for women in society are common coming from feminists. Accusations that romance novels are anti-feminist and promote the idea that a woman’s fulfillment can only come from her roles as wife, mother and housekeeper. It is obvious to me that the negative opinion of Renaissance critics has affected modern opinions on the romance novel. The disreputability of romances in contemporary criticism strongly indicates its basis in Renaissance criticism.

It is absurd, in my opinion, to discount this valuable female voice when it is still very hard for female writers of fiction to break into the market that is dominated by best selling male writers. In recent years feminist opinions on the romance novel have altered slightly to include the fact that romance authors provide women with an entertaining read but in no way does the world of romance reflect reality. What could possibly be more empowering to women than to have a personalized voice in the publishing industry?

Romance fiction critics claim that romance novels are all formulaic pornography for women. Elaine Wethington, a sociologist with an interest in popular cultural studies, believes that instead of finding fault with the formulaic qualities of category romances we should examine whether publishers pressure romance authors to conform to a formula because of what they write. To a certain extent, series romances are formulaic because of the guidelines developed by publishers. Is it sexism that makes the novels formulaic or the author’s plot devices?

The romantic novel has been the most consistently vilified form of fiction throughout its history. Margaret Ann Jensen, author of Love’s Sweet Return: The Harlequin Story, believes the reason for this is simply because it is a form of popular culture that has reached phenomenal proportions whose one drawback is its association with women. Romances association lessens its value in our sexist society. Critics read Harlequins as tales of defeat and female subjugation to biased patriarchal traditional models.

Romance author Susan Elizabeth Phillips expressed her feelings about criticism and the appeal of romance as this: “[The] romance novel was providing me with a fantasy of which I was very much in need. But it wasn’t the fantasy that I had always assumed romance writers were offering their readers - that of a wonderful man or glamorous fulfilling career… Instead, the fantasy these novels offered me was one of command and control over the harum scarum events of my life - a fantasy of female empowerment.”

That is the appeal of the romance novel. They give readers the illusion that we can control what happens in our lives. They give us some place to go where the hero is always a nice guy underneath it all and the heroine has the courage to effect change in her life. The heroine is strong when she doesn’t have to be, she does not rely on the hero to solve her problems but she welcomes his help if he is willing to help not take over. The characters are ideals, we know they are not real - we may not even wish they were but it is a fantasy that allows us to live out our dreams in the safety of a book.

The sexual relations of the couples in the books are not always the draw for the reader. It is the beauty of the relationship that allows for each partner to express himself or herself fully with someone who loves them and shares their intensity of feeling. The most recent incarnation of the category romance developed by Harlequin is the Blaze line that incorporates the sensuality of erotica with romance in its plots.

In the last twenty years it has become profitable to publish romance fiction for women. Several publishers have added imprints of romantic fiction to their available lines. There are two formats that romances are published in:

Series or ”category” romances - short romances that are released in numerical order on a monthly basis, with a series number on each title.

Single-title romances - longer romances released individually and not as part of a numbered series.

To meet marketing demands for romantic fiction written by women for women, nearly all of the ten big publishers created romance imprint divisions in their companies. Normally these divisions were headed-up by female executives in a nod to feminist sensibilities. Then the novels were made available in different levels of sensuality form regency era to contemporary explicitness.

According to the Romance Writers of America year end statistics for 2000, romances generated $1.37 billion in sales, how can such a profitable business that appeals to thousands of readers, male and female, be discounted as fluff and trash. John Grisham is a best-selling author with millions of his books in print, but his books are not considered trash. Contrary to popular belief Danielle Steele is not a romance author, she writes women’s fiction a great of difference lies between them.

Women’s fiction does not have to have the happy ending that is synonymous with romance novels. Neither does it have to end with the heroine and hero developing a relationship. Women’s fiction is simply that, fiction that appeals to women and is aimed at entertaining. Romance fiction ends in a way that makes the reader feel good and reinforces the idea of innate emotional justice - good things happen to good people the couple that struggles for each other and their relationship is rewarded. The conflict in the book centres on the love story. The climax of the book resolves the love story.