Paranormal romance is a type of story that combines romance with elements from speculative fiction. These stories focus on love and include events or characters that cannot be explained by science, such as those found in fantasy, science fiction, or horror. Paranormal romance stories can be traditional romances set in unusual worlds or stories with plots from fantasy or science fiction that include a romantic part. Common relationships in these stories involve humans and supernatural beings like vampires, shape-shifters, ghosts, or other imaginary creatures.
Besides vampires, shape-shifters, ghosts, or time travel, these stories may also feature characters with special powers, such as moving objects with the mind or reading thoughts. The popularity of paranormal romance has grown because of modern technology, like the internet and electronic publishing. Paranormal romance is one of the fastest-growing types of romance stories.
Examples of authors who write this genre include Dani Harper, Nalini Singh, Jessica Bird, Kresley Cole, Christine Feehan, Kelley Armstrong, and Stephenie Meyer, who wrote the Twilight series. According to 2013 data from the fantasy publisher Tor Books, 57 out of 100 writers of urban fantasy or paranormal romance are women, and 43 are men. In contrast, men write more stories in historical, epic, or high fantasy, with about two men for every one woman. Men also write more science fiction stories, with four men for every one woman, and they write 83 out of 100 horror stories.
Definition and subgenres
Paranormal romance combines real-life situations with magical or science fiction elements. These stories may take place in a world similar to ours but include supernatural beings like vampires, werewolves, or ghosts. Other stories feature humans with special powers, such as witches or people who can read minds. Some paranormal romances are set in the past, future, or on other planets, or they may involve time travel.
These books often mix romance with other types of stories, like mystery or suspense. Some are set entirely in the past, like traditional historical romance novels. Others are set in the future or on different worlds. A few include time travel, where one character travels to another time period. Between 2002 and 2004, the number of paranormal romance books published in the United States doubled to 170 each year. Some popular books in this genre have sold over 500,000 copies.
Like urban fantasy, many paranormal romances mix everyday life with magical beings. Sometimes people in these stories know about the magic in their world, and sometimes they do not. Some books focus more on the romance than on the details of the magical world, while others carefully build the setting with rules for magic and unique cultures.
The first futuristic romance published by a major romance publisher was Sweet Starfire by Jayne Ann Krentz in 1986. This story was a "classic road trip romance" that happened to take place in a different galaxy. Since 2000, this genre has become more popular. Krentz says these stories are like traditional historical romances but set on other worlds.
Time-travel romances are a type of "fish out of water" story. In many, the heroine from the present day travels to the past to meet the hero, as seen in the manga series Inuyasha. In some stories, the hero from the past travels to the future to meet the heroine. A good time-travel romance shows characters reacting logically to their new environment and exploring differences between their usual world and the one they have entered. Some books end with the main characters unable to be together because they are stuck in different time periods, which many readers find disappointing.