Editor’s note: As our Official Romance Correspondant, Rebeca aka “Renegade” has put together a little primer for the romance-curious. 

Romance gets a bad rap.

Actually, most of my favorite book genres get a bad rap: Fantasy, YA, Science Fiction, Romance. I guess you could say I go for the ‘bad boys’ of book genres. Of course, if you actually said that out loud, I’m pretty sure you’d be thoroughly mocked.

But I digress.

In the spirit of not assigning value judgements to our reading, I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite Romance Novels for the Romance-curious. They are big-R Romance in the fullest sense of the word: they are about relationships and include hopeful endings. (Jennifer Crusie has a wonderful essay on what makes a book a romance novel, which is really required reading.)

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

For Fans Of: YA

Any Dessen book is guaranteed to rock. I think she must put it in her contract or something. Anyway, this is my favorite of her books in a large part because of Wes, the love interest. Trust me when I say that he is perfect in a completely three dimensional, I-am-not-Edward sort of way. Perfect. Okay, now I have to go read about Wes again… *sigh*