Pick up a book. Any book. Now, if you have read it, remember what happened. Was there some sort of romance going on between any characters? The answer is probably yes (with some exceptions, such as "The Cultural Landscape," my AP Geography textbook, which has no love in it whatsoever). I've found that if there isn't anything going down between zombies and aliens at the moment, or the characters have stopped being hunted down, the author still needs some way to keep the story going.
A largely popular way to do that is to create a romance between two characters. Since now every love is the same, I have found that there are three different types of novel romance...
Number one: the love at first sight. These two characters fell in love the moment their eyes met! They are instantly physically and mentally attracted. There is usually a scene where the author describes, in great detail, every moment of their first meeting. They are shown to be perfect for each other, harmonizing in ways you never knew they could, and understanding each other about every hardship that they endure. The reader finds a satisfaction with this type of romance because it's the ideal relationship. Everyone wants someone who is simply perfect for them.
Number two: the big secret. This one is a little more complicated to explain, but here goes. Okay, so he loves her, and she loves him, but he doesn't know that she loves him, and she doesn't know that he loves her. This one is more of a secret between the author and the reader where the author slips in scenes from each character's point of view showing how they feel about each other. At this point, the characters are still in their own little worlds. As the book goes on, however, the author lets more and more of their feelings for each other show. Hopefully, the characters reach the ultimatum of knowing that they are in love and being together. This intrigues the reader and leaves you frustrated and screaming, "They need to be together!!! They just don't know it yet," to your mother at three o'clock in the morning because those two need to get their lives together and be in love already (not that I've ever done that.....)!
Number three: the meant to be. This is only slightly different from the love at first sight, but enough so that I thought I would recognize it. These characters also fall in love at first sight, the difference is they don't know it yet. Instead of knowing that they love the other character (like in "the big secret"), they don't even know their own feelings. Sometimes the author lets us see little moments that they have, like locking eyes with the other person and feeling their heart beat just a little bit faster. Or when they see the other character with someone else, they feel jealous and don't know why. Eventually we hope that they will discover their love, and that's usually what happens. I have yet to come across a book where they never realize their feelings, and if I did then it would be a very stressful read. The reader seems to be able to relate to this kind of love, and they like slowly watching the characters become knowing of their own emotions.
Romance is incorporated in a lot of books, and is a way to keep both the story moving and the reader interested. It gives us another layer of the story that makes the story itself more plausible. Whether the characters are in a huge arena fighting for their lives, or in a society that's trying to kill everyone who is special, romance brings the story back down to earth. Readers just seem to love love, and authors everywhere know it.
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