The happily ever after is what makes a romance a romance. Whether it’s romantasy or dark romance, there has to be a happily ever after in the end to be called a romance novel. This is my single most favorite thing about the genre, and it’s an absolutely essential piece for readers.
Some readers of more traditional literary fiction might think this is boring. If you know what happens in the end, what’s the point of reading the book? The thing about a guaranteed happy ending is it doesn’t necessarily eliminate a twist. It just forces authors to get creative with it. A perfect example of this is Sierra Simone’s New Camelot series. Readers knew it would end happily somehow or another, but no one could have predicted how the author would get there.
I have a pretty severe anxiety disorder. Since I was a little girl, rewatching or rereading things over and over again has been basically a part of my personality. I always know what will happen next on Bones, so watching it over and over again brings me comfort. Reading romance is the same way. I don’t always know exactly what’s going to happen, but there is something deeply calming in knowing that it’s all going to work out in the end.
For the normal people out there who aren’t running around with heart rates well above the normal level, the happily ever after still provides something to certain readers that’s really important. The world is burning. Everything is kind of garbage out there in the real world. It provides a very necessary escape to read something that centers around love and knowing that it will end well for the characters. We all may live in a dystopian nightmare, but we can escape through these characters and their happy endings.
The requirement for a happily ever after is not up for debate. Well, it is, if you ask X or Threads, where everything is always up for debate, but here it is a defining feature of the genre.
I read a book a few weeks ago that was marketed as a romance that did not feature an overt happily ever after. The ending was quite ambiguous, and it wasn’t the first in a series. That was just the end. It was a gorgeous, well-written, truly amazing book. But should not have been marketed thusly. Yes, I just said thusly. Yes, I know how obnoxious I am. No, I don’t care.
Anywho, the happily ever after is not only a defining feature of the genre, it’s the reason many romance readers fell in love with this world in the first place.
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