Reading in Public No. 27: How Romance made me a better Literary Fiction reader

How comfort, predictability, and joy can lead to deeper reading

Hey readers! In the last of this batch of guest posts, my friend and Novel Pairings co-host Chelsey Feder explores how reading romance novels has enhanced her literary fiction reading. Chelsey is the person I talk most with about books, reading, content creation, parenthood…you name it. So it’s always a treat to read Chelsey’s writing and learn something new about her reading life.

In today’s piece, Chelsey explores why her best year of literary fiction reading coincided with the year she read more romance than ever. Along the way, she discussing how she began reading romance more critically and the way comfort can lead to deeper reading. Whether or not you read romance novels, this essay is an invitation to lean into the nerdiness of your most beloved genres and extend your passion into every book you read.

After you read this wonderful essay, be sure to subscribe to Chelsey’s Substack, The Eclectic Reader. You can also follow her on Instagram and, of course, find us both chatting about classic literature on the Novel Pairings podcast.

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Chelsey and Sara meeting for the first time after three years of podcasting together.

In 2023, I noticed a big shift in my reading life—a change I’d been working towards for many months: I finally found myself sinking into literary novels with focus, clarity, and joy. It didn’t matter the format; whether I read a slim novel with a weird plot or an audiobook in translation, I was more absorbed than I have been in years. I’m sure I owe a large part of this shift to time. It takes more patience than I expected to climb out of back-to-back years of doom-scrolling and postpartum brain fog. However, when I glanced at my 2023 reading data, I discovered another possible explanation. 

In 2023, romance novels accounted for 62% of my total books read—more romance novels than I’d ever read in a single year. With over half of my entire reading life taken up by romance novels, I was a little surprised that I also had my most satisfying literary reading experiences to date. 

Here’s my theory: in addition to providing me with escapism and pure joy, reading heaps of romance novels enhanced the rest of my reading experiences by strengthening my deep reading muscles. By spending copious hours immersed in love stories, I became a better literary fiction reader. 

“Better” reading can mean anything from reading more pages per day to tackling a classic tome on your bucket list. For me, becoming a “better” reader means I spend less mental effort on analysis while I read. I pick up on literary structures, authors’ voices, and other narrative choices more quickly and easily, and with utter delight! “Better” reading is deeper reading, which connects me to my inner English major and makes me feel like a student again.

With a steady plot pattern and consistent archetypes, romance novels have a reputation as “cookie cutter” entertainment for mindless consumption—not your typical fodder for deep literary discussion. I’ll concede that romance novels are formulaic by design, but I refuse to count that as a mark against the genre. In the “cookie cutter” pattern of romance, I’ve found a perfect place to practice the invisible mental work that contributes to deeper reading and more intentional comprehension.  

A serious stack of romances.

At some point in the last few years, I stopped treating romance novels as a guilty pleasure or a separate, escapist facet of my reading life and dove into the genre with scholarly dedication with podcasts like Fated Mates (and, of course, Novel Pairings) inspiring me to treat all of my reading experiences with equally nerdy enthusiasm. Instead of breezing through my romance reads, I started looking for writers who play with the genre’s constraints and push boundaries, analyzing romance trends based on social movements, and decolonizing my historical romance bookshelf. 

In addition to providing much-needed stress relief in the early days of motherhood, romance novels provided a path to recovery for my foggy, technology-addled, and sleep-deprived  brain. Yes, love stories are worthy of literary analysis—but I can’t deny their point of entry is easier than hefty literary novels. 

Yes, romance novels follow the same plot formula: a meet cute, a tension-building courtship, a third-act break-up (or communication breakdown), a healing, and a happy ending. They also contain familiar tropes like enemies to lovers, fake relationship, forced proximity, or second chance romance. Many readers find these well-trodden narrative paths to be cozy and comforting; they read romance because it’s easy to sink into while shedding the worries of the day. Same here! But I also find these oft-traveled story arcs to be invigorating.

 I read romance because it’s easy to focus on voice, structure, and theme when I have a broad idea of what will happen next. 

I was hooked on People We Meet on Vacation not because of the bright characters and romantic tension—but because I wanted to see how Emily Henry would pull off an ambitious structure while hitting classic romance beats. I fell head over heels for Tia Williams’ forthcoming novel A Love Song for Ricki Wilde because of her unique choice of narrator and genre-bending scenes. I frequently reread Tessa Dare’s books because her blend of heart and humor helps me appreciate wordplay across all genres. 

The more romance I read, the easier it is to recognize subtle differences in authors’ dialogue cadence, word choice, and sentence structure. The same is true for reading lots of literary fiction back to back—with certain authors, I feel as if I could recognize their writing in a blind test. However, there’s something special about witnessing how romance authors work with and around the constraints of the genre to make their unique voice known. In literary fiction, authors are often allowed to be more experimental; in romance, rules must be followed. It is a feat when romance authors stand out in the crowd. 

Obviously, romance novels tackle themes of love, communication, and sex. Set those ideas aside, and more nuanced themes emerge, like how trauma chips away at self-love, or how friendships create an outlet for emotional intimacy. In order to investigate possible themes, I ask myself: what are the characters struggling with? How are they changed by the end? After reading one hundred romance novels in one year, those questions became innate to my reading experience, like the muscle memory of driving a car.

Full romance immersion keeps me attentive to the nerdy literary analysis I love, which, in turn, builds my deep reading muscles for more focused, intentional reading across other genres. When I open a literary fiction novel, I’m prepped and ready for a deeper reading experience. I expect I’ll always be reading or listening to romance novels alongside an eclectic mix of genres, but I confess I am craving more literary fiction at the moment. With (some of) my focus restored, I look forward to a year of deep reading and new discoveries. 

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Chelsey Feder is the reader and writer behind the Eclectic Reader Substack. You can also hear Chelsey discuss classic literature and the literary landscape on the Novel Pairings Podcast podcast.