Romance set in the present day, grounded in realistic modern settings, relationships, and social dynamics.
Contemporary romance is the largest romance subgenre, set in the here and now with real-world settings and situations. No time travel, no vampires, no dukes. Just two people navigating modern life and falling in love. The genre covers everything from lighthearted romantic comedies to emotionally intense slow burns, and its grounding in present-day reality means it evolves constantly with cultural shifts.
Contemporary romance is the entry point for most romance readers and the most commercially dominant subgenre. If you're writing romance, you're likely writing contemporary. Understanding its conventions (meet-cutes, the midpoint pivot, the 'dark moment' before the HEA) helps you deliver what readers expect while finding room to surprise them.
Two writers with opposite genres swap styles for the summer, combining meta-literary commentary with genuine chemistry.
Office rivals forced into proximity, the contemporary romance template executed with precision.
A friends-to-lovers story told in alternating timelines, showing the subgenre's structural flexibility.
Write a meet-cute: two characters encounter each other for the first time in a mundane, modern setting (a coffee shop, a delayed flight, a shared rideshare). The interaction should be slightly awkward, slightly electric, and give the reader a reason to root for these two people to see each other again.