Romantic International Settings in Romance Novels
When we think about romantic international settings, we typically think of places such as England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and other such Western European settings. However, as the world has become more accessible, and the romance audience explores more parts of it or their ideas of romantic places to visit expands beyond Europe, are there other international romantic spots that will draw readers in romance novels exploring new locals?
Shannon Young’s Ferry Tale (2016) is a love story set in Hong Kong. The heroine, Katrina, has just moved from New York City to Hong Kong. She needs to make a clean start, due to an unfortunate Youtube video that went viral. Early on, she muses:
“The green and white Star Ferry, like an oblong floating layer cake, one was of the only iconic Hong Kong things Katrina had actually known about before moving to the city. It sailed back and forth from Hong Kong Island to busy Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon, and she often took it to work in the evenings.”
[Star Ferry, Hong Kong]
Ferry Tales got me thinking about how romantic international settings for romance novels might change in the future.
Romance Reader Demographics
At present the largest romance reading market is still (I’m guessing) the United States. According to Nielsen’s 2015 Romance Book Buyer report (which focused only on the U.S.):
-the average age of a reader is 42, with 44% of them aged 18-44;
-a significant proportion of readers lives in the South or the Mid-West and tend to be retired;
-readers are still more likely to be female, but men are coming into the genre; in the first quarter of 2014, men accounted for 15% of romance book purchases.
I imagine that most readers in the U.S. – especially the older ones – prefer settings in the U.S. or, if they enjoy romantic international settings, it’s in familiar Western European countries like England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy and, every now and then, Greece.
Still, I can’t help but think that the sizable younger readership – the coveted millennials (aged 16 – 34) – will eventually have a taste for romantic international settings in less familiar locations.
So I decided to check out what is currently available in romances with more adventurous romantic spots. Without counting the erotic short stories I found set in places like South Africa and Japan, I came up with a few titles:
Romance Novels and Unusual Romantic International Settings
Rozsa Gaston, Budapest Romance (2014):
[Buda is on one side of the Danube and Pest on the other.]
Laura DeBruce’s The Riddle of Prague (2013) is set in 1990. The author is not trying to bring present-day Prague to life, but she does give a sense of the atmosphere of Prague just coming out from under Communism, all with a thriller plot.
[Prague today is all spruced up. In the 1990s it was a lot greyer.]
Mona Risk’s An Unusual Christmas (2013) is set in Minsk, Belarus.
[Minsk and its classic Soviet-style main square]
Tony Parson’s My Favourite Wife (2013) is set in Shanghai and isn’t a romance with an expected HEA. It is clear, however, that Shanghai is a character in the story and not just a backdrop, because Parson is concerned to characterize the changing physical and social conditions in this dynamic city.
[Shanghai with its Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower]
Romantic International Settings in My Books
However, I want more novels with diverse romantic international settings, and so I’ve gone about filling (my own) need.
Eager to read about Vietnam? Try my Forest Breeze series: Tied Up (2013), Captured (2014), and Knocked Out (2015).
[Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon – Central Square with Notre Dame in the middle and the pink post office on the left]
My grand idea of romance on a global scale turned into my paranormal trilogy:
The Blue Hour – set in Durham NC, Chicago and Paris of the 1880s and the present;
[Paris, Montmartre]
The Crimson Hour – set in San Francisco, Bucharest Romania and Hong Kong of the 1890s and the present;
[Bucharest, Piața Universității]
and
The Emerald Hour – set in London and Rio of the past and present, plus Wilmington, NC
[Rio, view of Sugar Loaf seen from the top of Corcovado]
I began that series twenty years ago already! I now ask the question: Romance and expanded international settings – continuing fringe or inevitable future?
Get Your Copy on Amazon Today!
Book One: Tied Up
Book Two: Capture
Book Three: Knocked Out
Categorised in: Adventure, Love, Writing, Writing Romance
This post was written by Julie Tetel Andresen
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