The Rom-Commers

by Katherine Center

For a long time, I maintained that romance novels were no worse than any other kind of novel: no more ridiculous than wars in the stars, no more unrealistic than superheroes in bodysuits, no more nerdy than wizards in the forest, no more impossible than a zombie apocalypse. But now I’m changing my mind. Maybe it’s not just that love stories aren’t any worse than other kinds of stories . . . Maybe they’re better. Maybe love is more valuable than we think. Maybe stories that help us see our best possibilities are exactly what this bedraggled world needs. Because love stories let us witness infinite ways that characters master pro-social behaviors.