Want Some Romance with Your Adventure or Adventure with Your Romance?
It is never good when your beta readers say, “I loved it. It’s so different.” They think they’re giving you a compliment, but if you’re a writer, you hear, “No one is going to know where to put this on the shelf, and I’m never going to get an agent.” I came to terms with that a while ago, and I’m okay with it. My day job has a lot of formulaic writing for very specific purposes. A lot of it is really heavy (think what happens when people can’t access healthcare). In my free time, I write the books I want to read, the ones that offer me an escape and hopefully my readers too. I want there to be real stakes, real danger, the actual possibility of the protagonist getting hurt or maybe even killed, but I also want fun, witty banter, chemistry between the main characters, and knowing going in there will be a happily ever after at the end (even if it takes six books to get there).
Technically, the difference between an Adventure Romance and a Romantic Adventure is that, in an Adventure Romance, romance drives the plot (Lukens, 2024). In a Romantic Adventure, the plot focuses on the adventure first, and the romance is second (Lukens, 2024). My books are definitely romance, but how that engages with adventure gets a little murky. I focus on the adventure when crafting the outline and then layer in the romance on top. Eventually it becomes a conversation between the two because real stories are characters reacting to what happens to them, so of course the romance is affected by the events of the adventure. Honestly, the whole categorization thing can feel a little like splitting hairs, but clean categories make books a lot easier to sell in the traditional way. What I know is my books have a big adventure and a big romance, and somehow those work together to get us to the end.
Although it does seem these can be a little hard to place on the shelf, they have an incredibly long tradition and have been very popular through the years. Book examples include Nora Roberts’ (I mean really a lot of things but if I had to pick one…) Hot Ice (1987), Linda Howard’s Heart of Fire (2011), and Elizabeth Peters’ The Night of Four Hundred Rabbits (1971, 1989, 2009). While these comps are a little dated, they’re also still trending fairly well according to Amazon, which does have a romantic action and adventure category. More recent ones I would include are Ally Carter’s Blond Identity (2023), Mae Lovette’s Guarded Treasure (2023), and Elise Sax’s Partners in Crime (2020). While none of these are necessarily hitting best-seller lists, their numbers are respectable, at least for their Amazon Kindle editions. There are quite a few movies too (The Lost City, Fool’s Gold, Romancing the Stone, The Princess Bride, and The Mummy (with Brendon Fraser and Rachel Weisz)).
When looking at more traditional categories, these books tend to fall under the large, somewhat amorphous category of Romantic Suspense. But even narrowing it down to adventure romance, the category remains huge. Books can range from tongue-in-cheek romps to more serious seat-of-your-pants quests. There are some things all of these books have in common, though. They include (Lukens, 2024):
A Romantic Plot
An Adventure With Stakes (what I call getting the heroine out of her comfort zone)
Memorable Characters
Smart and Often Witty Dialogue
Lots of Romantic Tension
I love Adventure Romance/Romantic Adventure, and I think books in this category are due for a resurgence in a really big way. People want to escape right now, and there’s nothing that screams escape like being chased through the jungle by mercenaries while looking for lost treasure and falling in love with the guide. Besides writing them, I’m hoping to start highlighting some with honest reviews. I’d say highlighting the best ones, but I want to read things that are fresh (not just things I’ve read before) and share them. It will also give me an opportunity to think through the common tropes, which ones are being updated and which ones are being left in the past, and how they align with my own writing. So if you’re interested and you love this category as much as I do, stay tuned because there’s a lot more to come. If you have some recommendations, please share in the comments for everyone to enjoy.
Source:
Lukens, F.T. (2024). 5 Tips for Writing Adventure Romance. Writer’s Digest. Available August 6, 2026: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/5-tips-for-writing-adventure-romance