{"id":128294,"date":"2026-02-13T17:19:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=bu-article&p=128294"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:19:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:19:32","slug":"alumni-romance-authors","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2026\/alumni-romance-authors\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Is in the Air\u2014and on the Page"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Illustrations by Mallory Heyer<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCFA Alumni<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Writing with a little sweetness\u2014and a little spice\u2014these Boston University alums and authors are helping to fuel a rise in romance fiction
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February 13, 2026<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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This article was originally published in Bostonia<\/a><\/em> on November 25, 2025. By Alene Bouranova<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EXCERPT<\/h4>

Enemies to lovers. Opposites who attract. Rekindled flames. Casual hookups grown deeper. A maybe-not-so-straight crush. Vacation flings turned year-round love affairs. Romance literature, once considered a guilty pleasure, is having a moment in the sun. The genre\u2019s bright, breezy covers grace bookstore shelves around the world\u2014including at a new crop of romance-only bookstores, like Harvard Square\u2019s Lovestruck Books. If you look at readers on the beach or the bus, odds are you\u2019ll clock at least one with their nose in a coyly titled book. (Giggling, blushing, and kicking feet sometimes, but not always, included.)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As for who\u2019s knocking back these titles: romance readers skew heavily female\u2014up to 82 percent, according to a\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0commissioned by the trade association Romance Writers of America\u2014and younger, often in their 30s and under.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there is so much good to be had from having this avenue for safe, healthy, happily-ever-after escapism,\u201d says Kimberly Swiszcz<\/a> (LAW\u201916), author of a romance series set in the fictional New Hampshire lake town of Wilcox Grove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swiszcz is one of a crop of BU\u2019s romance and romance-adjacent alumni authors, which includes best-selling novelist\u00a0Kate Quinn<\/a>\u00a0(CFA\u201904,\u201906) and author and sociologist\u00a0Patricia Leavy<\/a>\u00a0(CAS\u201997), who published\u00a0Cinematic Destinies<\/em>\u00a0(She Writes Press, 2025), the finale in her\u00a0Red Carpet Romance<\/em>\u00a0trilogy, in September. (Another Boston University connection: the Special Collections of the BU Libraries holds the papers of the late, famed romance novelist\u00a0Barbara Cartland<\/a>, along with many others who have written in the genre. Cartland wrote more than 700 books.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romance as Comfort<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always smile because it seems this comes up every few years, that romance is having a moment,\u201d Quinn says. \u201cBut romance novels are some of the most lucrative titles that keep publishing houses afloat.\u201d (There\u2019s a reason\u00a0Pride and Prejudice<\/em>, published in 1813, has had so many film and TV adaptations\u2014including a forthcoming Netflix series\u2014and received consistently rave reviews on Goodreads and Google Books.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kate Quinn (CFA\u201904,\u201906)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Interest in romance often surges during times of trouble, Quinn says. She cites the COVID-19 pandemic as a huge boon for the genre. \u201cPeople read romance and watch rom-coms for that warm bath of reassurance that, no matter how sad or dark things are, the couple is going to be fine,\u201d she says. \u201cThat is really comforting, whether you\u2019re living through a pandemic or a period of extreme political upheaval, or whatever you\u2019re going through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quinn\u2019s hit historical fiction novels include\u00a0The Alice Network\u00a0<\/em>(William Morrow Paperbacks, 2017), where two women\u2019s lives intersect amid the back-drops of World Wars I and II;\u00a0The Huntress<\/em>\u00a0(William Morrow Paperbacks, 2019), a Nazi-hunting page-turner set in the aftermath of World War II; and\u00a0The Briar Club\u00a0<\/em>(William Morrow, 2024), a tale of female friendship and betrayal during the paranoia of the McCarthy era. She\u2019s not a romance author by definition\u2014writing about history, she says, she can\u2019t guarantee you a happy ending\u2014but her work always has strong romantic themes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always have a romance in [my stories],\u201d Quinn says. And in her reading habits, \u201cI tend to gravitate back toward romance in dark times. It\u2019s all about that comfort you get from seeing a couple on page one who hate each other, but who you know will work their way towards each other at the end, and enjoying the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hear from other alum romance authors in bostonia<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\t