According to Romance Reuters of America, "Every romance novel has two basic elements: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and hopeful ending." Both the controversy and the climax of the novel should be directly related to this basic theme of establishing a romantic relationship, although the novel may include sub-plots that are not specifically related to the romantic love of the main characters. Other definitions of romance novels can be broad, including other plots and endings or more than two people, or narrow, romance or conflicting types.
