Valentine's Eve: Romance Resources including Robin Bradford's NEW book

Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and whether or not you celebrate this holiday, there is no denying that it is a great time to highlight Romance fiction at your library. 

We all know that Romance its among our most circulated genres at the library, but for the non-regular Romance reader, the occurrence of Valentine's Day on the calendar moves the genre to the from of their mind. This is why we need to make sure our displays are as current and interesting as the Romance genre is right now.

There are so many resources that feature diverse Romance titles, stories that open up a while new world of authors and characters to all readers. You need to make sure you aren't just pulling Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele, and the old standbys.

To that end, here are some of my favorite romance resources to help you:

First, here is the Romance section from a list of my favorite FREE genre resources, a document that is always available on my Ten Rules of Basic RA Service page, at the bottom:

 Romance: 

• All About Romance: Reviews and Heat Index: https://allaboutromance.com 

• Smart Bitches,Trashy Books: http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/  

• Swoon Awards: https://www.theswoonawards.com 
• Emma Awards:https://rsjconvention.com/2021-emma-award-winners-announced/

Second, for the most up to date lists, display ideas, readalikes, and essays about the Romance genre, go to Book Riot's category coverage for Romance.

Third, don't forget to check out the RUSA Codes Reading List genre award winners [with readalikes] and runners up from 2014- the present. Romance is one of the genres. Click here for this year's winners, and here for the archived database.

Fourth, here is everything I have ever tagged Romance on this blog, in reverse chronological order, thus putting the most recent posts fist. 

And finally, there is a brand new resource coming your way this Spring. It is a new book in the series that contains my Horror book. The Readers' Advisory Guide to Romance, by my friend and colleague Robin Bradford. You NEED to pre-order this for your library (and grab my updated Horror book if you don't have it while you are at it). Robin worked very hard to make sure that this book is inclusive and representative of the true state of the genre right now. No one in the library world knows more about Romance than Robin. This book is a must own for anyone helping leisure readers at a public library.

Showcase your Romance titles this week, just make sure your selections represent the breadth of the human experience of love-- all races, nationalists and sexual preferences-- because there are awesome books out there, titles that you may be overlooking if you don't take just a few minutes to use the resources I have provided to you to help identify them.

One final side note:  I am on record saying that Romance readers are my favorite readers to work with art the library because they do not read for plot. They read for everything else-- appeal, themes, characters, frames, etc.... As a result, they are the most willing to talk about why they love a book, not what happens in it. So have some fun making your lists and displays, but also chat with some Romance readers. They have a lot to teach you.