You have to love a love story. The meeting, the flirting, the falling, the struggling, and ultimately the happy ever after.

Maybe you're an experienced romance reader, but maybe you're just getting your feet wet as this genre, like a lot of others, evolves.

Either way, it's always good to get some recommendations, some basic background, and a few things to look for when you choose love stories for yourself.

I'm Linda Holmes, I'm co-host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, and we're teaming up with LifeKit for a beginner's guide to romances.

Joining us is Karen Griggs-B-Bates. She's Senior Correspondent for NPR's Coats, which podcast. Welcome back, Karen. Hey, thanks.

And joining us from what I'm sure is a highly romantic setting is Christina Tucker of the unfriendly Black Hotties podcast. Hello, Christina.

Hello, hello. And also with us today is romance writer Adriana Herrera. Welcome, Adriana. Hello.

It is wonderful to have you all here. So for anybody who isn't familiar with this fact, there are definitions of a romance, and it is not actually every love story.

One definition that comes from the romance writers of America says you need a central love story and what they call an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.

In other words, if the whole thing goes to pieces, that may be a great book, a fantastic book, but it wouldn't be classified as a romance novel as writers and readers generally understand that term.

Another thing to understand about romance, it is huge. Romance novels make big money. Romance readers help publishing stay afloat. They help bookstores.

And romance was the home of early experimentation with both e-readers and self-publishing. And you know, just be conscious of the fact that what we talk about on this show, whatever you hear, is going to be a small, small slice of romance landia.

And so whatever you are looking for, even if we don't mention it today, there's a good chance you can find it. I want to start actually with Adriana. If you were describing the romance genre to people other than the things we've already talked about, what kinds of things might people expect to see in a romance?

What are kind of the basic structural pieces, the kind of traditional elements?

I mean, it's genre fiction, right? So there's sort of conventions to the beats of a story, the things that need to happen. So usually there's a relationship and sometimes mostly appearing, but it could be a poly romance where there's more than two people.

Sure. And there's going to be a meet queue where those people are going to meet sometimes it's a crash sometimes it's a clash, but it's usually something that's momentous. And then there's the moments, the romantic beats where they come together, they pull apart, there could be intimacy and that's there's varying heat levels.

It could be close door to more graphic scenes with intimacy. And then of course there's a dark moment or the black night of the soul where there's a break up, something happens, someone messes up and all is lost. And then of course the grand gesture when people get it together, they come to their senses and they do that big thing that we'll

sigh for and cheer for and then of course, the happily ever after, which is the one rule that every romance must have a happy ending.

Yes, and it doesn't have to be like a perfect everything is solved ending. It just has to be as the definition says, satisfying and optimistic. In other words, that there's some sort of reward to these people for kind of toughing it out in this relationship.

It doesn't have to solve all the problems are all the other problems, but it has to find, you know, some cause for optimism. And I would ask you, Adriana, I think it's fair to give you a chance to say, how do you describe the kind of stuff that you write?

So I am African Dominican and my whole tagline is I write romance full of people who look and sound like my people getting an on apologetic happy ending and I'm an immigrant, bisexual. So the books I write are books that include all of those things, but usually centering afferloty next culture.

Yeah, Karen, I want to ask you, if you are describing what kinds of romance is you like to read, what kinds do you tend to gravitate toward?

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