Among the many things I didn't learn in graduate school, the intricacies of genre fiction is one I regret the least, because I enjoy teaching myself. (Perhaps there were classes on this, and I didn't take them because I was busy taking Multicultural Literature for Children and Teens. But I don't recall classes on selecting adult fiction.)
Anyway, we don't really collect romance novels at my library. But we've been branching into the genres lately (mostly urban fiction), so I was thinking maybe we should consider a romance novel collection--particularly because some of our English language learners ask for them. Well, and also, because I learned a lot of technical stuff about sex by reading them in my own public library as a teen. See how I just related that to YA services? Which is my actual job?
When haters talk about romance novels, they say the same thing haters say about rap: it all sounds the same. Haters think it's hilarious that there are very specific guidelines for writing romance novels; haters also think this means they're all the same. I kind of thought this too, until I read a blog post about werewolf sex.
