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In Love with Love: The Persistence and Joy of Romantic Fiction
'A literary and deeply heartfelt exploration of an under-appreciated genre. It is heaven from start to finish'
INDIA KNIGHT, The Times
'This book is funny, wise, and joyfully obsessed with its subject'
MONICA HEISEY
'Endlessly witty, breathtakingly clever, a book you'll read in one sitting'
CAROLINE O'DONOGHUE
'The love letter the genre deserves'
MHAIRI McFARLANE
Smart, funny and An ode to a beloved genre and a brilliantly insightful piece of cultural criticism
Cowboys and aliens, dukes and dancers, power dynamics, death and domesticity, vampires and veterans, tradwives and single dads and sisters and small-town politics, private jets and princes and horses, hopes and dreams and fears, and so, so much this is a love letter to romantic fiction, but it's also a book about creativity and creation and the job of art in this crazy old world.
Why do we read? Why do we write? What makes some books last forever, and others vanish from memory? What is the point of everything, anything, when everything - especially romantic love - is so fleeting in the grand scheme of things? How do we love when the world is falling apart? And what does it mean that love is the one subject of which we never seem to tire?
Part literary criticism, part investigation, total passion project, In Love with Love is a wild tour from the very beginnings of kissing in books through historic trends, favourite tropes, beloved friends and brand-new loves, from Jane Austen to Jasmine Guillory, Jilly Cooper to Georgette Heyer, from the depths of the ocean to the furthest reaches of the outer galaxy . . .
'A joyful and brilliant book by a joyful and brilliant writer'
JESSICA STANLEY
'This passionate and profound love letter to the love story will make any romance reader's heart beat a little faster'
SARRA MANNING, Red Magazine
'Risbridger's knowledge of this type of fiction is both broad and deep . . . marvellous, laugh-out-loud'
CAROLINE CRAMPTON, Observer
INDIA KNIGHT, The Times
'This book is funny, wise, and joyfully obsessed with its subject'
MONICA HEISEY
'Endlessly witty, breathtakingly clever, a book you'll read in one sitting'
CAROLINE O'DONOGHUE
'The love letter the genre deserves'
MHAIRI McFARLANE
Smart, funny and An ode to a beloved genre and a brilliantly insightful piece of cultural criticism
Cowboys and aliens, dukes and dancers, power dynamics, death and domesticity, vampires and veterans, tradwives and single dads and sisters and small-town politics, private jets and princes and horses, hopes and dreams and fears, and so, so much this is a love letter to romantic fiction, but it's also a book about creativity and creation and the job of art in this crazy old world.
Why do we read? Why do we write? What makes some books last forever, and others vanish from memory? What is the point of everything, anything, when everything - especially romantic love - is so fleeting in the grand scheme of things? How do we love when the world is falling apart? And what does it mean that love is the one subject of which we never seem to tire?
Part literary criticism, part investigation, total passion project, In Love with Love is a wild tour from the very beginnings of kissing in books through historic trends, favourite tropes, beloved friends and brand-new loves, from Jane Austen to Jasmine Guillory, Jilly Cooper to Georgette Heyer, from the depths of the ocean to the furthest reaches of the outer galaxy . . .
'A joyful and brilliant book by a joyful and brilliant writer'
JESSICA STANLEY
'This passionate and profound love letter to the love story will make any romance reader's heart beat a little faster'
SARRA MANNING, Red Magazine
'Risbridger's knowledge of this type of fiction is both broad and deep . . . marvellous, laugh-out-loud'
CAROLINE CRAMPTON, Observer
Audible Audio
First published November 6, 2025
118 people are currently reading
2638 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
November 19, 2025
i love you romantic fiction, so so much. and it is WONDERFUL to read a book that celebrates romantic fiction the way this one does.
December 6, 2025
What a treat this book is! I loved the foray into the different romantic fiction worlds, each told with such wit and palpable curiosity.
I’ve adored Ella’s work for years, from her gorgeous cookbooks to her appearances on the Sentimental Garbage pod. This book is packed full of enthusiasm and optimism and I feel better for reading it!
I’ve adored Ella’s work for years, from her gorgeous cookbooks to her appearances on the Sentimental Garbage pod. This book is packed full of enthusiasm and optimism and I feel better for reading it!
August 31, 2025
An engaging, thoughtful overview of the romance genre, this is the perfect non fiction for me. It wears its erudition and learning lightly, it invites you in as the reader and after a while you forget you're reading because it feels a lot like you're having a chat with a trusted friend. This is humorous without being patronising and thoughtful without being ponderous or judgmental. We go from Jane Austen to tentacle porn, from the classics to ebooks and fan fiction and there is not a hint of snobbery in the way Risbridger engages with any of it. I came away with a huge reading list, which I was very happy about.
February 22, 2026
People tend to think I don't like romance books, but I do. I love a good love story. Just perhaps not the same ones as others. But the beauty of romance books is that there are so many different types. Some the obvious, some not so.
I also love books about books and Ella Risbridger's writing, so I was always going to enjoy this book. She has written about every type of romance book going here. Some you'll have read, and some you wouldn't have believed existed - Ice Planet Barbarians anyone!!!!!
Enjoy this celebration of the love story
I also love books about books and Ella Risbridger's writing, so I was always going to enjoy this book. She has written about every type of romance book going here. Some you'll have read, and some you wouldn't have believed existed - Ice Planet Barbarians anyone!!!!!
Enjoy this celebration of the love story
January 11, 2026
Loved the beginning of the book and was hooked from the beginning. However I felt like it went into more of a review of every romantic fiction book ever towards the end. Good start, disappointing finish
December 31, 2025
mandatory reading for romance readers and romance reader haters! it’s an essay collection, so there are definitely one or two essays that aren’t as strong as the rest, but this is a brilliant collection examining romantic fiction, its readers and its writers. she manages to put a lot of my own thoughts and feelings onto paper, and i think most other romance readers will resonate with her thoughts too. it strengthens my own love for the genre and community.
August 22, 2025
God I feel seen
February 22, 2026
Full disclosure: I probably wasn’t the right target audience for this book, given that I don’t read much romantic fiction (i.e. “chick lit”, for lack of a much better term)…
Ella Risbridger’s writing, however, is so contagiously joyous, funny, and enthusiastic that she makes for the perfect advocate for the genre. This enthusiasm and love of love was a treat to read, amidst the backdrop of one of the dreariest British Februarys I have lived through…
But I do think the book could have benefitted from better editing. Sometimes her paragraphs and the organization thereof were all over the place, and I think she was frequently long-winded in making her points.
Also (sorry, going to say this in the least snobby way I possibly can), some of her points felt painfully obvious to me in 2026. Her theses often felt like low-hanging feminist fruit, and some of the writing felt, for lack of a better phrase, chronically online – like reading a tumblr post rather than a book.
I understand she has a popular Substack, and I feel like her writing would be better suited to that medium than this one. It just didn’t fully work for me, and I wanted her to dig deeper than, say, Sylvia Plath’s oft-referenced fig tree simile (as much as I love it).
Ella Risbridger’s writing, however, is so contagiously joyous, funny, and enthusiastic that she makes for the perfect advocate for the genre. This enthusiasm and love of love was a treat to read, amidst the backdrop of one of the dreariest British Februarys I have lived through…
But I do think the book could have benefitted from better editing. Sometimes her paragraphs and the organization thereof were all over the place, and I think she was frequently long-winded in making her points.
Also (sorry, going to say this in the least snobby way I possibly can), some of her points felt painfully obvious to me in 2026. Her theses often felt like low-hanging feminist fruit, and some of the writing felt, for lack of a better phrase, chronically online – like reading a tumblr post rather than a book.
I understand she has a popular Substack, and I feel like her writing would be better suited to that medium than this one. It just didn’t fully work for me, and I wanted her to dig deeper than, say, Sylvia Plath’s oft-referenced fig tree simile (as much as I love it).
November 13, 2025
Funny, witty, heartfelt and a thoughtful meditation on the genre and what romantic literature says about the world we live in and the readers who read it.
To think we can live without love and therefore without literature about love is to deny a fundamental truth (some might say universally acknowledged), that we all go through this life seeking out love and seeking to explore our own desires. That for many, to read romantic fiction is to imagine a world different to the one we may find ourselves in and to be seen for who we are in amongst the pages and characters that lie within.
Romantic literature says I am here with you. I am seeking the same thing, exploring the same thoughts. I am also in love with love.
“Romantic novels tell us there is space for love in this world […]. Romantic fiction is mostly about two people but it is also always about the world in which they live and ways the world shapes and scars and marks the people within it. We are in some ways everyone we’ve ever met.”
(Lots to add to the TBR!)
To think we can live without love and therefore without literature about love is to deny a fundamental truth (some might say universally acknowledged), that we all go through this life seeking out love and seeking to explore our own desires. That for many, to read romantic fiction is to imagine a world different to the one we may find ourselves in and to be seen for who we are in amongst the pages and characters that lie within.
Romantic literature says I am here with you. I am seeking the same thing, exploring the same thoughts. I am also in love with love.
“Romantic novels tell us there is space for love in this world […]. Romantic fiction is mostly about two people but it is also always about the world in which they live and ways the world shapes and scars and marks the people within it. We are in some ways everyone we’ve ever met.”
(Lots to add to the TBR!)
January 31, 2026
I enjoyed this book so much! I think Risbridger repeats herself a bit at the beginning, but by the end has settled into the book fully. If you’re looking for a serious lit crit with footnotes, this is not for you. But, if you want to listen to someone who loves the romance genre so dearly and knows it inside and out talk about what romance does socially and imaginatively, please give this book a read!
November 20, 2025
Love coming out of a book with a long reading list!
December 5, 2025
Truly a love letter to romance novels!!
Enjoyed this as an audiobook and have left with some weird and wonderful book recommendations, and feeling very inspired towards the genre 💘💘
Enjoyed this as an audiobook and have left with some weird and wonderful book recommendations, and feeling very inspired towards the genre 💘💘
January 28, 2026
Probably a 4.5 rounded up but so funny and thoughtful and interesting
February 20, 2026
lots of fun. I love love
December 5, 2025
What a lovely book. I completely forgot I had pre-ordered this last year after listening to an episode of Sentimental Garbage, so when it turned up in my kindle library I thought 'oh god, I'd better not waste this'. It's been a lovely read - it felt equal parts like having a deep chat with a close friend about various romance novels we've loved, and like a fun encyclopedia of romance novels and romance novel tropes from an incredibly excited romance novel lover. The fanfiction chapter in particular made me think of the first time I had the courage to confess that I read fanfiction, and that one friend who said they did too - so exciting to be taken seriously and get to talk about that massive shared world that for some reason feels embarrassing to discuss in the open!
I have referenced this book and Ella's trope outlines in several conversations now since beginning my read. I was particularly partial to the chapter breaking down the hot billionaire trope - I feel like all the subtropes are burned into my mind now forever, a lens I can't stop seeing through! Also the time she basically just listed every pride and prejudice adaptation that exists - doing the lord's work.
Although a little later in the book I was drifting a little through some of her really enthusiastic ideas about what it is to be a writer or reader of romance, I still enjoyed it and the general positive energy, not to mention the endless fun facts of the romance novel summaries peppered throughout.
The only reason it took me so long to finish was that I had to take a break in the middle to read several actual romance novels - so thank you Ella for giving me back my romance novel reading enthusiasm!
I have referenced this book and Ella's trope outlines in several conversations now since beginning my read. I was particularly partial to the chapter breaking down the hot billionaire trope - I feel like all the subtropes are burned into my mind now forever, a lens I can't stop seeing through! Also the time she basically just listed every pride and prejudice adaptation that exists - doing the lord's work.
Although a little later in the book I was drifting a little through some of her really enthusiastic ideas about what it is to be a writer or reader of romance, I still enjoyed it and the general positive energy, not to mention the endless fun facts of the romance novel summaries peppered throughout.
The only reason it took me so long to finish was that I had to take a break in the middle to read several actual romance novels - so thank you Ella for giving me back my romance novel reading enthusiasm!
September 14, 2025
I would, I think, quite happily read Ella Risbridger's thoughts on any subject. I've adored her blog, her newsletter, and her cookbooks, and despite seemingly wrestling with a different topic, her style translates really well into this contemplation of romantic literature. I found myself jotting down notes about new books to add to my TBR whilst reading In Love With Love, but I also greatly enjoyed the discussion around what motivates people to read and/or write romantic fiction.. I found the discussion of gender and sexuality in relation to how romance is published and consumed to be especially insightful - and especially in the consideration of fanfiction as part of the genre.
I will continue to seek out everything Risbridger writes, and can be fairly confident of having both an enjoyable and introspective time while reading it.
Thank you to Sceptre and Netgalley for the ARC.
I will continue to seek out everything Risbridger writes, and can be fairly confident of having both an enjoyable and introspective time while reading it.
Thank you to Sceptre and Netgalley for the ARC.
August 28, 2025
2.5 ⭐
ARC Review
The first chapter of this book was great and if was really interesting to see how similar the tropes are from classics but after the first chapter the book lost it's spark.
A lot of the sections and paragraphs were just too long and convoluted to understand the point of them.
Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.
ARC Review
The first chapter of this book was great and if was really interesting to see how similar the tropes are from classics but after the first chapter the book lost it's spark.
A lot of the sections and paragraphs were just too long and convoluted to understand the point of them.
Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2025
I only like books about other books, and this one was delightful. Even though I lean more romantic fantasy than straight romance, Ella’s deep dive into romance fiction through the ages was so much fun. She’s insightful and funny and unbiased and biased in all the right places. And ending the book with Twilight 👌🏼👌🏼
September 26, 2025
Gorgeous!! Thanks to Sceptre for my proof
January 18, 2026
If ever there was a textbook that holds your hand and takes you through the journey from Ice Planet Barbarians via Pamela,. paying attention to Persuasion via Dracula and Bridget Jones, this is the book for you.
Sociologically how our fantasies change and how if you are any kind of man who wants to understand a woman, watch and listen to what they read and why
This is about why women read what they read, about being female and what we enjoy and why tolerance, understanding and love is
still the only story in town.
Sociologically how our fantasies change and how if you are any kind of man who wants to understand a woman, watch and listen to what they read and why
This is about why women read what they read, about being female and what we enjoy and why tolerance, understanding and love is
still the only story in town.
September 9, 2025
Overall I enjoyed this book looking at the different types of romantic fiction available. Interesting to see how recurring character tropes have and continue to appear throughout literary history. I was surprised not to read about some authors work in this collection. But was pleased to add a few more books to my never ending "to-read" list, from authors I hadn't heard of. Mainly I just love reading books about books! This was a nice addition that complimented my book clubs theme this month, which was the works and related works of Jane Austen.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this book in an exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this book in an exchange for an honest review.
December 1, 2025
I want Ella to read me this book while my head is in her lap and we are both drinking cups of tea and there’s a fire in the background and I’m eating biscuits and it’s snowing outside but I have cosy socks on and there are cats wandering around us. Alternatively we are at a table and she’s telling me all her thoughts about love and I am giggling and nodding my head and going “so true bestie soooo true” this book feels like this
November 9, 2025
“Why not, while we can, end with joy?”
I love a book that simultaneously takes romance novels seriously while also celebrating their inherent silliness too. If you’re not a big romance fan, I’m not sure this would convert you or speaks usefully to you – but this one is for the fans, as they say, and that’s more than ok.
I love a book that simultaneously takes romance novels seriously while also celebrating their inherent silliness too. If you’re not a big romance fan, I’m not sure this would convert you or speaks usefully to you – but this one is for the fans, as they say, and that’s more than ok.
January 4, 2026
I enjoyed these essays which are a love letter to romantic fiction, in all its shapes and forms. I’m not a huge romance reader (particularly by the author’s standards) but this book definitely made me want to pick up more!
January 31, 2026
I enjoyed delving into introductory realms of various romantic fictions throughout time, some I’ve read and some I’ve added to my TBR. I found it difficult to follow at some parts but overall always enjoy reading words written by and for romantics. Would read again!
Read
January 12, 2026Fantastic exploration of romantic fiction! Highly recommend for anyone who's big into romance (hi Evie).
Does anyone have a list of all the books mentioned in this?
Does anyone have a list of all the books mentioned in this?
January 29, 2026
“Silly novels by lady novelists”. I love romance 4 ever.
February 24, 2026
Thoroughly delightful
January 6, 2026
Ella is the best, this book is delightful and spoke ditectly to my heart of hearts, I love it so much and I love reading about love, romance 4ever, love is real and I know it!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews