I hang out in a lot of romance groups on FB. I thought I’d do a post about my predictions for romance novel trends in 2024.
What I noticed in 2023 for trends
Now some of these may be trends that existed pre-2023, but this is what I saw requested the most:
- Bully romance started strong in 2023, but I feel like it started to peter out as the year came to a close
- Dark romance and romantasy both grew in 2023
- In the fall of 2023 we saw a rise in the “masked man”/”skull face” trend. Every other post seemed to be asking for this
- Hockey romance was big in 2023, to the point that romance readers/authors were being noticed for it outside of our happy reading bubble.
- Holiday romances were requested a lot in November and December, which I’m sure is a normal trend, but it just seemed to be MORE this year. People also really wanted Thanksgiving themed books, which I haven’t seen a ton of requests for in the past.
What did I personally try last year?
I tried a couple hockey and sports romances, but I wasn’t really feeling it. I downloaded several samples but couldn’t finish more than one or two. The intensity just wasn’t there for me.
That said, I’m not super fussy on really dark romance. And those that know me, and how I read, I tend to stick to authors I know and love. I did start on a mafia kick, which I suppose is darker, though the ones I read were REALLY dark. I read through Nora Ash’s Made and Broken series, which was excellent, and then I got hooked on L.K.Shaw’s Brooklyn Kings and Dublin Kings, which were absolutely amazing, and I’ll definitely be re-reading them.
What about the coming year?
Based on what I’ve been seeing in romance FB groups here are my predictions on what will be popular in 2024:
- There’s a rise in requests for plus size MFC, but not the she’s curvy kind, the thighs rub together, cellulite, stretch marks, curvy and she owns it type, and he freaking loves it.
- Breeding is always a hit, but I think there’s going to be a bigger shift from the ‘must claim and breed my woman’ to the single parent trope. The already established parent who is trying to cope in a challenging world. And more parents of teens, not just little kids.
- Mafia/dark romance/fae/romantasy I think they’ll all say strong. People want an escape these days
- F/F romance. For years now, M/M has had a big following, but I’m seeing A LOT of readers looking for bi, F/F and poly relationships that stem beyond the M/M relationships we’ve been seeing and loving for years. (If you’re an author looking to get a jump on a trend that will boom, this is my prediction, but take that with a grain of salt!)
- Woodsmen/lumberjacks will continue to grow
- The dad body MMC will continue to gain followers
These are my predictions for 2024. At the end of the year we’ll look back and see how right/wrong I was!
What are your predictions? What are you hoping we’ll see more of?
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