Romance and Its Subgenres Explained

The above definition covers the love story part of a romance novel. But every romance has a plot outside the love story as well. This is where the subgenres come in.

Generally, every romance subgenre is the combination of romance and another fiction genre, though some denote a certain heat level, trope, or pairing. Some subgenres are broader and more cut and dry than others, and some overlap. Keep in mind your book may fall into multiple subgenres.

Note that there is some debate about whether some subgenres are actually subgenres or simply browsing categories, and this distinction can be murky. I’ve chosen to include as many as possible in this list because readers are probably not thinking about genre vs. category. They are just after what they want to read. In many cases, you will end up combining some of these subgenre names to describe your book (examples: erotic paranormal romance, historical romantic suspense), and when you publish your book, it’s likely to end up in multiple categories.

For each subgenre below, I have included what has been combined with romance to create it, a brief definition of it, and any Amazon Kindle categories that are associated with it. I have listed them in alphabetical order.