While looking through Twitter, I’m noticing a lot of historical romance promo tweets from indie authors. Authors are still pumping out these romance book themes. Why?
I suppose, it’s that yearning we always have of romanticizing the past. For example, when we fantasize about the era of kings and queens, we often dream of being one of the royalty. In truth, wouldn’t over 90 percent of the population not be royalty? If you lived during their times, you would most likely be working shifts longer than eight hours per day… without indoor plumbing.
But, that’s why we love fiction! In historical romance book themes, there’s usually an aristocrat or even royalty who falls in love with a commoner. The majority of us aren’t nobility, and so we can relate. It’s a dream we like to think about. You can cherry pick which lifestyle in the past you’d like to experience by delving into these books.
I suppose, you could say, that historical romance book themes are the modern versions of the classic trope of a prince falling for an ordinary girl… So, we can all relate to wanting to be found by a prince charming.
But, the prince and girl trope is overdone. So, now, we have the rich man in his 20s and 30s falling in love and pampering a common girl. Same idea, very dreamy to some readers.
A Call Back to Your Favorite Era
I think everyone has a time period in our human (or non-human) history that we like to think about and romanticize. I mentioned the whole era of king and queens, but some people love the 50s too.
I won’t lie – I, too, used to romanticize the 50s in America. No financial problems, you could walk everywhere without crime being an issue. People were more romantic back then, too… High school sweethearts got married and everyone had a home, white picket fence, and two children. But, gladly, I’ve moved on from that reverie as I grew older, gained experience, and matured. If you’re interested, Arthur Miller’s All My Sons depicts the duplicity of the 50s: the ideal and the lies.
I suppose, many of us change our favorite time periods as we grow older. And, that’s what’s so great about historical romance book themes! When you’re younger, you can buy a historical romance book set in the medieval era, then when you get a bit older, you might find eras closer to yourself more appealing, so you can buy a historical romance book set in the 80s, or something, when rock and roll set the environment.
After all, when Stranger Things was popular, the fans of the series were technically fans of an 80s historical romance.
It’s perfectly normal to move on from more fantasy-like eras to more realistic eras as we mature.
A Blend of Being Grounded in Reality While Using Plot Devices Exotic to Our Reality
Another reason why people love historical romance book themes is because they align more with reality than fantasy, but still want their imaginations to soar and enter worlds foreign to their own. Historical romances offer that.
In a historical romance, you’re swept into a world of different social hierarchy, different clothing, different language, and a different lifestyle – none of which you’ll find in any other country currently. A world where everyone may carry a sword or wear wigs. But, you’re still able to grasp reality because that world existed. There are people who need that anchor to reality, and historical romances offer that.
Historical romance book themes are definitely a popular trend that won’t be going away soon. As humans, we always want to relive a past time for a multitude of reasons.
The first book in the Kana Series is actually a historical romance!
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