Category Romance
Category romance is also known as "Series" romance, depending on who's doing the talking. Category became the hallmark of Harlequin and Mills & Boon who created romance "series" that were published every month. The publishers would release four or more titles under a common "line" name, such as Silhouette Intimate Moments every month. Although called a "series" these books are not necessarily related by a common topic and are not related. They are issued with numbers identifying the order of their publication.
Each line has its own personality and tone, ranging from Sweet to sexy. Some lines focus, for example on suspense, Harlequin Intrigue is that publisher's romantic suspense line, others on Medical Romance, and others on family issues.
Regular readers of category romance pick up these books with clear expectations for the kind of tone and story they will be reading. Other hallmarks of category include shorter length (though Harlequin's Superromance comes close to Single Title length), standard look-and-feel in packaging, and a set number of titles published every month.
In today's market, category romance is synonymous with titles published by Harlequin. However, category romance is often used to describe a shorter story where the building romance between the hero and heroine dominates the story.
