It may be safe to say that Stephenie Meyer and her burst of popularity with the Twilight Saga a few years ago gave rise to the Paranormal Teen Romance genre. Although Twilight started the craze, Paranormal Romance has been popular since the first stories were told (very popular in mythology). The question remains though, why teenage romance?
Growing up my mother had a collection of romance novels; as a teen I became curious about them and picked one up to read. These particular novels were along the lines of great classics like Pride and Prejudice, although easier to read with 20th century voice. The plots are the same boy meets girl, there's some sort of disagreement between the would-be lovers (unrequited love, an angry dispute, commitment issues, etc.), followed by the happily ever after (HEA) ending.
Paranormal Teen Romance (PTR) novels are the same only they are filled with magic abilities, vampires, fallen angels, werewolves, and other mythical creatures like gods/goddesses and the demi-gods. The majority of these novels focus on how a human and a non-human can have a relationship that wont leave one or the other dead. Twilight had this as well but what separates Twilight from the others is that the main character Bella falls for Edward who presents himself as a stalker and somewhat controlling personality. In today's society we are told not to believe in fairy tales, however no one can stop us from reading. These books provide teenage girls (and some boys who secretly enjoy this genre) a way to believe in the fairy tales again, however prince charming has been replaced by vampires. Twilight is perhaps one of the worst examples of PTR, other books that fall under this genre are sagas such as Hush, Hush, The Vampire Diaries, The Mortal Instruments Series (City of Bones, City of Glass, City of Ash, etc.), The Eternal Ones, and more. These books although they do focus on the romance between characters, they also focus on the struggles and difficulties the characters face that make the words become a story.
Several authors and readers feel that PTR gaining its own section at Barnes and Nobel (and other chain book stores) is a sign of change, but is it really? Not necessarily; PTR is nothing but a subgenre that has gained substantial popularity since 2005 with the success of Stephenie Meyer's series taking off in film format. This is just a fad that has caught the attention of Hollywood, in the next five to ten years there will be a decline of PTR. The truth is that PTR is the same as paranormal romance published by Harlequin (and other publishers that focus strictly on romance/paranormal romance stories) the difference is that PTR is aimed at the younger audience and therefore in most cases is cleaner and only hints at sexual scenes rather than giving full detail. The category may continue to exist after the decline only because there are so many novels already published (easier to find than to categorize).
Growing up my mother had a collection of romance novels; as a teen I became curious about them and picked one up to read. These particular novels were along the lines of great classics like Pride and Prejudice, although easier to read with 20th century voice. The plots are the same boy meets girl, there's some sort of disagreement between the would-be lovers (unrequited love, an angry dispute, commitment issues, etc.), followed by the happily ever after (HEA) ending.
Paranormal Teen Romance (PTR) novels are the same only they are filled with magic abilities, vampires, fallen angels, werewolves, and other mythical creatures like gods/goddesses and the demi-gods. The majority of these novels focus on how a human and a non-human can have a relationship that wont leave one or the other dead. Twilight had this as well but what separates Twilight from the others is that the main character Bella falls for Edward who presents himself as a stalker and somewhat controlling personality. In today's society we are told not to believe in fairy tales, however no one can stop us from reading. These books provide teenage girls (and some boys who secretly enjoy this genre) a way to believe in the fairy tales again, however prince charming has been replaced by vampires. Twilight is perhaps one of the worst examples of PTR, other books that fall under this genre are sagas such as Hush, Hush, The Vampire Diaries, The Mortal Instruments Series (City of Bones, City of Glass, City of Ash, etc.), The Eternal Ones, and more. These books although they do focus on the romance between characters, they also focus on the struggles and difficulties the characters face that make the words become a story.
Several authors and readers feel that PTR gaining its own section at Barnes and Nobel (and other chain book stores) is a sign of change, but is it really? Not necessarily; PTR is nothing but a subgenre that has gained substantial popularity since 2005 with the success of Stephenie Meyer's series taking off in film format. This is just a fad that has caught the attention of Hollywood, in the next five to ten years there will be a decline of PTR. The truth is that PTR is the same as paranormal romance published by Harlequin (and other publishers that focus strictly on romance/paranormal romance stories) the difference is that PTR is aimed at the younger audience and therefore in most cases is cleaner and only hints at sexual scenes rather than giving full detail. The category may continue to exist after the decline only because there are so many novels already published (easier to find than to categorize).