Why Is Paranormal Romance So Popular?

Over at Romance Novel TV, Maria Lokken is discussing “Why Paranormal?”, after running a poll and discovering that 37% of romance readers prefer paranormal romances. I couldn’t find the results of the poll, so I don’t know how big a margin that is, but given the huge number of categories of romances out there, that’s a fair majority.

If you scan through the comments left so far, you can see that most readers feel like they’re not even close to sick of paranormals yet.

I know I’m not. There’s so much more left in the field to discover, anyway. Just when you think you’re getting jaded, a new twist or idea or slant emerges and the whole subgenre renews itself and you fall in love with it all over again. The Urban Fantasy scene, for instance, was a fresh take on paranormal romance, which had been around for much longer. Paranormal romance lovers embraced it. Moving our favourite fantasy creatures into our cities and apartments only invigorated the genre and allowed us to take our heroes to bed instead of being seduced in a bed chamber.

Where would you like to see paranormal romance go? Darker? Steamier? (Yet) more vampires? Or different creatures altogether? What cranks your dial for you?

Or are you one of the silent minority who are genuinely growing tired of paranormal romances? Can you figure out why?

This post first appeared on the Teal Ceagh website, before Teal Ceagh “came out”.

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