Categorizing Paranormal Romance - OwlCrate's VersionUpdated 2 months ago

We lightly touched upon how we will be deciding where to include Paranormal Romance when it comes to our Adult Fantasy, Adult Romance, and Adult Romance subscriptions (which you can see HERE) but we wanted to provide a bit more insight into our choices here. 

The discussion around where the subgenre of Paranormal Romance will sit within our subscriptions is complicated, and it is important to us that we do not rush to categorize these books into one subscription too quickly. 

When you look into the history of the genre, it primarily stems out of the general Romance genre as opposed to Fantasy. There are going to be exceptions, of course, but it's also important to note that how we think about the modern PNR differs from how we might have categorized the subgenre 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

For example, these modern takes on PNR, like Good Spirits by B.K Borison or work by Ashley Poston, will more often be put under Contemporary Romance and therefore could be included in our Adult Romance subscription or as Romance Limited Editions. 

The setting will be a big factor when it comes to categorizing PNR. If something is not set "within our world", then we're moving into High Fantasy territory which could change a book from being a Romance pick to a Romantasy or Fantasy pick - depending on the spice level.

If a reader can understand everything about the world the book is set in - because it's "our world", and the only "unrealistic" change is that there are ghosts, vampires, etc, - it becomes familiar enough to be a Romance pick.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood is a great example of this. Where the omegaverse is involved changes how one would understand the world the story is set in, and how they understand the dynamics between characters, which moves the book out of the Romance space for us and into Roamntasy territory. 

There isn't a simple answer or hardline. We do not want to dismiss a book as a potential pick because it may cross over across more than one subscription subgenre or have blurred lines of its genre. We will always look at a book individually, on a case-by-case basis, and our curators will work together to find the best subscription for that book. 

As always, subgenre details will be given in all theme reveals. We tend to drop some pretty good hints. ;)