Love In the Stacks and …Happily Ever Afters

From USA Today, an interview with Romance Writers of America’s Librarian of 2014, Sean Gilmartin.

Interviewer: From your bio on RWA’s website: Growing up, (Sean) would read his mother’s romance novels, partially for the juicy parts, and knew that one day he would write a romance himself.

Why romance novels? What about them appeals to you personally?

Sean: Love is a complicated and strange thing. I have always been drawn to the bond that love creates between people, whether that is romantic or not. I am fascinated by love that blossoms unexpectedly. To have a rough and tough character who vows to never open his or her heart, only to have it stolen by the last person they expected … ah, it gets me every time!

As a teen librarian I keep up-to-date with YA novels and many of them have some form of romance in them. If you think about popular songs or movies, there is usually some aspect of a loving relationship between two characters. It’s almost inescapable. When I read romance I get hopeful and happy because two people are finding a love that completes them. I find it so satisfying when I finish a novel and everybody lives happily ever after.