Popular romance fiction constitutes the largest segment of the global book market. Bringing together an international group of scholars, The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction offers a ground-breaking exploration of this global genre and its remarkable readership. In recognition of the diversity of the form, the Companion provides a history of the genre, an overview of disciplinary approaches to studying romance fiction, and critical analyses of important subgenres, themes, and topics. It also highlights new and understudied avenues of inquiry for future research in this vibrant and still-emerging field. The first systematic, comprehensive resource on romance fiction, this Companion will be invaluable to students and scholars, and accessible to romance readers.

Jayashree Kamblé is an Associate Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College in the City University of New York. She is the author of Making Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction: An Epistemology (2014) and a Vice-President of the International Association of the Study of Popular Romance.

Eric Murphy Selinger is a Professor of English at DePaul University, Executive Editor of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies, and President of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance. He is the author of What Is It Then Between Us? Traditions of Love in American Poetry (1998) and co-editor of New Approaches to Popular Romance Fiction (2012) and Romance Fiction and American Culture (2016).

Hsu-Ming Teo is a novelist and cultural historian at Macquarie University, Australia, where she is an Associate Professor of literature and creative writing. Her academic publications include her monograph Desert Passions: Orientalism and Romance Novels (2012), and the edited books The Popular Culture of Romantic Love in Australia (2017) and Cultural History in Australia (2003).