Romance Glossary from the NYT (Gift Link)

Romance has always been among our most popular genres in terms of library checkouts and enjoying romance publicly has definitely become more socially acceptable since 2020. Think pieces and collage classes about the genre have also proliferated. But nothing says Romance is mainstream more than the New York Times creating a glossary for general readers to understand it better.

I am posting that glossary (from 2/12/26) here with a gift link because I know that while some library workers are Romance super fans, many more are barely literate in the lingo. It is way past time that you get up to speed.

Every single library workers needs to access this glossary so that we can understand the current state of Romance and how its fans interact with this perennially popular genre. But we also need it to help those new to Romance (whether they are coming from Romantasy or Heated Rivalry or Cozies or just because they have always wanted to try it and were embarrassed, but now as it is in the NYT, they see their opening to go for it). Romance writers rely on readers knowing and understanding key terms and themes. The writers build off of this knowledge to enhance the stories they are telling, the frames, and the characters. 

As I teach in my Genre overview program, Romance is all about how the authors deliver on tropes, themes, and characters. Since the basic arc of the plot is predetermined by definition, Romance wins over the hearts of its readers with the details. In fact, as I argue in my genre program, Romance readers not only demand creativity, interesting situations, and well built characters, but they also expect the authors to surprise them within the confines the established rules. Understanding this is the key to helping established Romance readers and shepherding those new to the genre as well.

Get up to speed yourself with the NYT's guide to all things romance in a glossary format. Below I have included the introduction. Click here to read the access glossary via a gift link.

Your A–Z Guide to
All Things Romance

From cinnamon rolls to stern brunch daddies, here are 101 terms you should know to understand the popular literary genre.

By Jennifer Harlan Illustrations by Millie von Platen

Jennifer Harlan spent years reading hundreds of romance novels to prepare for this story. Her favorite trope is black cat/golden retriever.

Apron tugger. Shadow daddy. Wallflower. Fae. Sometimes it can feel as if romance novels come with their own special language — one you must learn in order to achieve maximum swoon. If you’re a dedicated reader, this terminology can help you pinpoint exactly which books will be your speed; if you’re new to the game, they can overwhelm you like so much overdressed word salad. 

Whether you’re a superfan or a casual reader, if you’re genre-curious or you just want to understand why people keep talking about “spice” at the bookstore, here are 101 terms you should know. If you see something that strikes your fancy, we’ve got recommendations for books that show off these terms at their best. With any luck, you’ll find something to fall in love with — which, after all, is the whole point.

Again, click here to access the full glossary. I have also added it to my Free Genre Resources handout in the Romance section and will be adding it to my Genre slides when they are updated for 2026 (coming soon).

A Discussion of Using Themes to Help Readers

What happens in a book does not matter as much as how the story is told. People don't read for what happens as much as they read for how the story makes them feel. As I like to put it (and how you can see in my Greatest Hits archive), why someone likes the book, not what happens is what we need to focus on as we match books with readers.

But hand in hand with appeal we now also have themes. While appeal describes the feel of a book and is specific to that book, themes are common story elements that pop up in many books and can be applied across genres. Or, to simplify it-- “appeal” is why you like the book you are holding, while “theme,” is about the things in that book that enhance the reading experience and make you want to seek them out in other books.

NoveList has done a great job of fleshing out this idea and developing themes--  story elements that can be applied to books across genres. An example of a theme would be "times slip" or "vengeance is mine" or "fake relationship" or "dark academia."

If you have a NoveList subscription, you can go to the "Browse By" drop down menu at the top of every page and choose "Themes" to learn more and see them applied to titles.

Themes can be a huge appeal factor for many readers, it can be the things they care about more than anything. For example, if someone loves "dark academia" stories, they might not care if the book is character centered or plot centered, methodical or fast paced. For this reader, the "dark academia" theme is what they want, at all costs. 

Also, because they can cross genres easily, it helps us to have a resource that allows us to help readers navigate all of fiction, not just the genres and authors they already know about. I had a reader like this. She loved stories with a "Tudor" frame. She craved them so much she read fiction, nonfiction, all ages levels, any genre that was set in that time period,including speculative fiction and graphic novel formats. For her theme was the top consideration. 

But NoveList is not the only place where themes are discussed; it is just the easiest to search in one centralized location. 

Here is another example. Book Riot recently had this post entitled, "9 Classic Types of Sci-fi Plots." I cross referenced this with the themes list for SF on NoveList [you need a subscription to see it] and there is a lot in common here. This Book Riot list is an excellent starter pack not only to understand common themes in SF but also to see how you can use them in tour RA interactions-- both to make matches and have deeper conversations about why the reader in front of you enjoys a specific type of book.

Yes, this article is organized and presented within the frame of only one genre, but reading this list will allow you to think about the applications to other books as well. Understanding why these plot types are common and the different ways they are applied, begins to ope up your mind to using this knowledge across the entire book landscape.

Check out the SF article here. But there is also one for Horror, Crime Fiction, Mystery. And for Romance, you can use the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Bookbinder to search by dozens of themes.

What I am trying to show you with this post is that appeal is great; it is our old standby, solid and true. We can quickly get to the heart of why someone likes a specific book and even what kind of book they want to read next by focusing our conversations on the feel of that book through discussing it's storyline, tone, pacing, characters, frame, language, etc... But we can also make connections across books when we add in a consideration of theme as well. This takes a little more time and practice, though.

Take some time to peruse the resources I have mentioned in the post. Orient yourself with the concept of themes. Then actively apply what you have learned to your RA conversations. Start with a trusted patron. Be totally open and honest. Say that you are trying to incorporate "themes" into your tool box of resources you use to help readers. Engage that patron in the conversation and see what you learn.

I think you will find that by considering and discussing theme you will enrich the experience for both you and the reader you are helping.

And if you learn something from this experience that you want to share with all of my readers, contact me so we an talk about a guest post. 

It's Alive.....HWA Presents the 4th Annual Librarians' Day With Help From ARRT

All of the details for the 4th annual HWA Librarians Day are below, and if you have registered, the email to ask questions to the panelists just went out!.

And, if you haven't registered, there is still time to do so.  All of the details, links to resources, and video access are all on this single, easy to use page. 

This information will also be added to my recent presentations page as I appear in 3 of the panels.

Below, I have screen shots of the table our partner, ARRT,  has created on that page to make access to all of the videos and resources a bit easier. However, if you just want to access the video playlist, click here. From each video you can link back to this resource page too. 

It's a choose your own adventure experience, with 6.5 hours of continuing education that, while framed by horror, provides helpful information for any library worker who works with any type of leisure reader. That is our goal each year with this event; it's horror themed, RA training.

Please note, if you need CE credit, make sure you log into YouTube to watch the videos. It will mark if you have watched a video and then we have created this certificate. You get 1 certificate per video. In other words, you can get 6 hours of CE credit from Librarians' Day.

So join us. But also, register so you can interact with our panelists via our month long asynchronous Q&A.

Finally, this event is a lot of work when it is in person at StokerCon, but in a pandemic, that was obviously magnified. This event, while not a perfect representation of the in person day, is infinitely more accessible. Our pre- registrations alone were 4x what we we could have accommodated in person. And, this event was pulled off by a group of volunteers who have all worked very hard behind the scenes. None of us had ever run virtual conference before. I am proud of what we have created even as all of us navigated reopening our libraries admit a pandemic.

I would like to personally thank every panelist and moderator for giving up their time to appear on the videos, and for agreeing to be available this month for questions. Their names are on this resource page and below.

NoveList, LibraryReads, and Flame Tree Press, our lead sponsors, never gave up on us and for this we will always be thankful. If you enjoy this event even a little, please support them all.

The Naperville [IL] Public Library continued to support us even after the event was no longer going to be in their building, even as they navigated operating in a pandemic, even as they served the citizens of the third largest city in IL. Specific staff members who went above and beyond are noted here.

I would also like to publicly thank the ARRT Steering Committee for their support. Without ARRT there would be no Librarians' Day this year. I could NOT have done this alone. While the entire organization helped, in particular I would like to thank our Zoom hosts, Ally, Melissa, Megan, Emily V, and Mary Kay, and our web mistress, Stacey. And last, but not least. the steering committee members who worked on this program as part of our committee-- Karen, my co-chair, Christi, Emily V, and Emily B. Please click here to see more about ARRT including a list of all Steering Committee members.

Now go enjoy it all. And let us know what you think.

Genre Crash Course in Historical Fiction

One of the best resources for the current state of each genre are the LibraryReads-NoveList Crash Courses. I have a link to the archives with access to each recording on my constantly updated "Becky's Favorite Free Genre Resources" page which you can access directly here or anytime at the bottom of my Ten Rules for Basic RA Service page.

So far they have tackled:

• Science Fiction on January 15, 2019
• Crime, Mystery, Thriller on March 19, 2019
• Fantasy on May 21, 2019
• Romance on July 17, 2019 
• Horror on September 24, 2019

Next up....Historical Fiction. See below or click here for details and to sign up. I generally miss the live webinar but I alway sign up so they send me the recording. 

I have learned something from every single one, even the horror one. Everyone should watch these to get up to speed on the current trends, hot authors, and best practices when helping fans of the genre.

Webinar: Crash Course in Historical Fiction

Do you have a go-to strategy for helping historical fiction readers? Whether your readers are fans of family sagas or shady ladies, let NoveList and LibraryReads break down the best historical fiction has to offer your readers — from Biblical fiction to World War II and everything in between.

Join us as they cover:

• Why readers love historical fiction and how libraries can ramp up their collections
• How historical fiction developed, including classics, newcomers, and awards to know
• Subgenres and trends
• NoveList insider information on genre headings, appeal terms, and more

We welcome anyone interested to stay for an additional 15-minute training to share search strategy tips and learn where to access genre-related information in NoveList.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020 from 2-3pm Eastern
Optional NoveList training from 3-3:15pm Eastern

Click here

By submitting your personal information, you acknowledge that EBSCO Information Services will collect and process your information in accordance with its Privacy Policy, including the categories and purposes of use for such information as described here.

Panelists:

      

Michael Santangelo is the Deputy Director of Collection Management at BookOps, the technical services collaboration between the New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library.  Since starting as a children’s materials selector in 2005 for Brooklyn, he has had various positions working with collection development and technical services.  He is currently the co-chair of ALA’s Public Libraries Technical Services Interest Group and is on the LibraryReads' Board of Directors.  He reads in many genres and books published all around the world.  Besides reading, his newest favorite pastimes are going to movie revivals, visiting friends up and down the East Coast, and daydreaming on the subway.

A former lit instructor and medieval scholar-turned-RA Librarian, Kimberly Burton brings in-depth knowledge of genre fiction -- plus a passion for helping readers discover stories they’ll love -- to all she does at NoveList. She loves a great list (who doesn’t!) and develops Recommended Reads book lists, Book Discussion Guides, and other innovative RA content throughout NoveList databases. An omnivorous reader, Kimberly especially likes medieval fantasies, historical fiction, gothic fiction, and supernatural horror. Her first crush was Sherlock Holmes (more recently supplanted by David Rose of Schitt’s Creek). She enjoys true-crime TV, making art, and petting cats. Kimberly is a former ACRL fellow and current NCLA member.

Moderator Halle Eisenman leads the Editorial Content Team which oversees the creation of the lists, articles, book discussion guides, and all the other amazing and informative content you can find in NoveList. Prior to working at NoveList, she spent a dozen years working for a public library system in a variety of roles, but no matter what her job title, her favorite part of any day was suggesting books to patrons. When not at work, Halle can often be found walking her dogs (they get lots of exercise when she’s listening to a particularly riveting audiobook), binge-watching TV shows aimed at teenagers, baking, or sitting on her back porch with a book. She is currently serving on the RUSA CODES Reading List Council.

Unlocking Themes To Improve Your Readers' Advisory: Repost and Reminder

In the last few weeks, the idea of using themes in tandem with appeal as we help readers to find the best book for them has come up numerous times, and I have been mentioning to people to watch my webinar with NoveList on this topic from last Fall.

Since it has come up in so frequently, I figured it was time to repost the link so all of you can. view it.

Below [or here] you can find the recording and the link to my live slides. And I have checked the links and they all still work.

Please note, you do not have to have access to NoveList in order to learn from this presentation, but if you do want a free trial, contact me and I will have a rep contact you.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

Recording and Live Linked Slides from Unlocking Themes Webinar

Thanks to everyone who attended the NoveList webinar yesterday.

And as promised, in less than 24 hours, NoveList has uploaded the recording and the link to the slides.  Now to be fair, the animations where I built images on top of each other don't work with that link, but you can have the full experience the way it was in the recording by using this link to view my presentation on your own.

For those who are new to a Becky style of presentation, I include many links to articles by me where I go into greater detail on the topic of that slide. So by viewing the live, linked slides, you can explore topics that are of the most interest to you in greater detail, and ignore the detail on the things that don't apply to you.

Click here or see below to watch the webinar and get your attendance certificate.

Event Date: September 18, 2018

Webinar: Unlocking Themes to Improve Your Readers’ Advisory

From Rookie on the Beat to Secret Babies, there are dozens of themes that your readers adore. Let RA expert Becky Spratford and metadata maven Cathleen Keyser show you how adding themes to your RA toolbox can supercharge your readers’ advisory, circulation, and programming.

We welcome anyone interested to stay for an additional 15-minute training to help you find all those great themes (and the books that go with them) in NoveList.

This webinar is archived.

Click below to watch the recording or skip ahead to the training session that took place after the webinar.

Click to view

RESOURCES

• Attendance certificate
• Presentation slides

Recording and Live Linked Slides from Unlocking Themes Webinar

Thanks to everyone who attended the NoveList webinar yesterday.

And as promised, in less than 24 hours, NoveList has uploaded the recording and the link to the slides.  Now to be fair, the animations where I built images on top of each other don't work with that link, but you can have the full experience the way it was in the recording by using this link to view my presentation on your own.

For those who are new to a Becky style of presentation, I include many links to articles by me where I go into greater detail on the topic of that slide. So by viewing the live, linked slides, you can explore topics that are of the most interest to you in greater detail, and ignore the detail on the things that don't apply to you.

Click here or see below to watch the webinar and get your attendance certificate.

Event Date: September 18, 2018

Webinar: Unlocking Themes to Improve Your Readers’ Advisory

From Rookie on the Beat to Secret Babies, there are dozens of themes that your readers adore. Let RA expert Becky Spratford and metadata maven Cathleen Keyser show you how adding themes to your RA toolbox can supercharge your readers’ advisory, circulation, and programming.

We welcome anyone interested to stay for an additional 15-minute training to help you find all those great themes (and the books that go with them) in NoveList.

This webinar is archived.

Click below to watch the recording or skip ahead to the training session that took place after the webinar.

Click to view

Resources

• Attendance certificate
• Presentation slides

NoveList Webinar on Unlocking Themes Featuring Me Coming Soon

Recently, NoveList introduced a new way to help match readers with the perfect book-- “Themes.” So now you can search by subject heading, appeal factors, and themes. What are themes and how can you use them to help readers? Well, here is a great intro article from the NoveList blog that begins to answer those questions.  From the first paragraph of that article:

Themes are popular and recurring plot elements found in fiction. Many readers have strong preferences about what themes they like or don’t like. For example, I’m a romance reader, and I’m *here* for a good Sudden Baby story but have no patience for Secret Baby stories. Preferences like mine are great for readers’ advisory because tapping into themes helps you narrow down your readers’ fantasy preferences down to the Hidden Heritage books they really love. Add in appeal and genre, and you’ve got all NoveList’s story elements working together to help you find a book your reader feels was especially written for them. 

But there is so much more to themes, how they were developed, cataloged, and even how we use them in conversation with readers-- whether you have a subscription to NoveList or not.

That’s where I come in. Along with Cathleen, one of the metadata librarians at NoveList, we will present a webinar on how to “unlock” the power of themes. Cathleen will talk about the backend- how the themes were created, built, linked etc.... all the stuff you need to know in order to use them properly. And I will be talking about how you can use themes to have more natural, “water cooler” conversations about books in the library. I will even use some real life examples of when a theme was more useful than appeal terms.

I can’t tell you more because it will give away all of our secrets but I can share this, we are totally ready to geek out on our love of stories. Even my son noticed. He got home early from the first day of 8th grade and I was still in a planning call with NoveList. When I got off he asked who I was talking to. I told him it was for work. He said, “You sure were laughing a lot for a work call.”

So even the 13 year old noticed how much fun we were having. And that’s just the planning stages; wait until showtime!

Click here to register. It is free and even if you cannot make it, by registering you get the recording faster. And it is meant to be helpful even if you don’t have NoveList. Although those of you who do subscribe, we will have a 15 minute post show where we will do a demonstration and tackle specific questions.

But don’t wait. NoveList announced this webinar last week and I am not kidding there are almost 1,000 people already signed up and they can only accept 2,000 total. So get on it. Of course, if you cannot get into the Live Event, I will post the recording on the blog too, but if you are there in person you can ask questions.

I hope to “see” you there.

Click here to register

From Rookie on the Beat to Secret Babies, there are dozens of themes that your readers adore. Let RA expert Becky Spratford and metadata maven Cathleen Keyser show you how adding themes to your RA toolbox can supercharge your readers’ advisory, circulation, and programming.

We welcome anyone interested to stay for an additional 15-minute training to help you find all those great themes (and the books that go with them) in NoveList.

Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Time: 2-3 pm Eastern 

Click here to register

Panelists

    

Becky Spratford is a Readers’ Advisor (RA) in Illinois specializing in serving patrons ages 13 and up and trains library staff worldwide on how to match books with readers through the local public library. She runs the critically acclaimed RA training blog RA for All and is on the Steering Committee of the Adult Reading Round Table. Spratford is also known for her work with horror readers as the author of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, 2d ed. (ALA Editions, 2012) and is a proud member of the Horror Writers Association. You can follow her on Twitter @RAforAll.

Cathleen Keyser is Metadata Strategy Manager at NoveList. Cathleen leads a team of metadata librarians whose work includes assessing and redefining our taxonomies to create clearer access points and targeted reading recommendations for every reader, from fans of Lovecraftian horror to tea-sipping cozy mystery aficionados. Together they build and refine dynamic metadata standards that respond to trends in the publishing industry and keep pace with readers’ evolving interests, such as creating an #ownvoices access point. Cathleen likes to read true crime, gossipy memoirs, and scary stories, especially ones about vengeful ghosts, bloodthirsty killers, and tacos. Her favorite themes involve revenge and body horror. Her favorite taco is carne asada.

Searching by Themes in NoveList

Today I have an announcement from NoveList, one I have been waiting to share with you for a while.

For years here on the blog I have talked about getting to the “why” people like a book through appeal terms. It is not plot that determines whether or not someone loves a book. Nope, not even a little. Don’t believe me? Here’s an exercise I do with people in my training sessions:

Think about a book you love. An all time favorite or a recent good read. Now think about the plot, what happens in the story....

 Okay, now think about a bunch of books you have enjoyed over the years. Just let them come to mind. Now, stop. Raise your hand if every single book you thought of has the same plot as that first book?

I haven’t seen a hand go up yet....ever.

It is the things other than plot which dictate whether or not you like it. It is the overall feel of the book, its appeal. Those appeal factors are in the categories of pacing, character, storyline style, tone, mood, frame etc... Those  adjectives I talk about with my “three words” in my reviews. Those appeal terms are also something you can search by in NoveList

But there are things that do show up in many of the stories that a single person may enjoy. These are things that, while not exactly plot, do tie in with the plot. Things like “suburban malaise” or “friends to lovers.” Themes that frame a story and are specifically tied with the plot without completely defining “what happens.”

People have asked me for years in my training sessions how they can search for these. All I would offer was keyword searching to capture those themes as mentioned in reviews, knowing that this was imperfect because individual reviewers would use different phrasing; it would not be a standard language. However, for a while now, I have known that NoveList has been working on adding these themes to their databases, standardizing the language, and tagging everything to make it all searchable. Late last week, it was finally unveiled.

I have also added “themes” as a tag here on the blog and will write about themes and how to use them to match readers with books more often, especially now that I know there is a resource for it.

Even if you do not subscribe to NoveList, I think the concepts they present in the announcement below can be used to help you help patrons. Just thinking about theme as an entry point into a “good read” for a patron is another conversation starter for your RA interactions.

Here is that announcement with links to contact them for more information and it is reposted [with permission] below.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Product update: Themes

Magnified Appeal and Themes

Appeal terms are a signature feature of NoveList, and since their introduction in 2010 have been helping librarians and readers around the world find books based on style and mood. 

We like to think of appeal terms as the secret language of books, all the ways a book speaks to a reader and lingers long after it’s been returned to the library. Of course, great book recommendations aren’t about appeal alone. They’re about how all the elements of a story fit together and create something special. Appeal, genre, and -- the newest addition to NoveList -- theme.

Themes are popular and recurring plot elements found in fiction -- think ‘chosen ones’ in fantasy or fake relationships in romance. You’ll see them in NoveList with the genre and appeal terms of a book.

   

NoveList librarians have been hard at work researching and developing themes, and we can’t wait to see what books themes guide you to discover. 

We want your readers to be excited, too, so we also created a series of bookmarks in LibraryAware with popular titles, their story elements, and reading recommendations for those story elements.

As you’re browsing NoveList and discovering themes for your favorite books, we want to know what you think! Contact us with your feedback -- and if you come across a theme you find particularly exciting (“secret baby” is a favorite around here) share it with us on Twitter or Facebook.