Overview
''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
Smart, funny and passionate: An ode to a beloved genre and a brilliantly insightful piece of cultural criticism
Acclaimed author Ella Risbridger takes romantic fiction seriously, as a fan and a thinker, in this original new book, journeying through the genre''s rich history and many fascinating iterations.
From Jane Austen to Jilly Cooper, regency romance to cowboys, vampires and fanfic, romance reflects the concerns of the age and continues to evolve in new directions, while consistently offering its readers pleasure. It deserves our attention!
In Love with Love is a tour through romantic fiction, a loving but sharp assessment of these books and our reading habits, and a celebration of generations of longing glances...
'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 passionate: 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 kissing: 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
- | Author: Ella Risbridger
- | Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
- | Publication Date: Nov 06, 2025
- | Number of Pages:
- | Language: eng
- | Binding: Paperback / softback
- | ISBN-13: 9781399749237
- | ISBN-10: 1399749234
