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Romance & reality

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Don’t be a wallflower, John

Best mate of first love and first husband of best mate would agree.

Latest

Renee Woolnough left her job in corrections to open up Brisbane’s first romance bookshop.

Why Renee walked away from her job to open Brisbane’s first romance bookshop

“It was getting too much and I was burning out and I’m like, ‘my life is too short’.”

  • Dominique Tassell
Olivia Nuzzi and Ryan Lizza attend a White House Correspondents Dinner after party in April 2023.

A White House love story: The very public break-up that has Washington gripped

She was a swaggering reporter. He was a star correspondent. Together they helped shape our understanding of the Trump era. Then they made themselves the story.

  • Monica Hesse
Juliet Capulet receives thousands of letters from the heartbroken every year, with many travelling to Verona, Italy, from across the globe to ask her about their deepest and darkest desires and fears. The fictional 13-year-old often gets the same question. And she writes back.

Thousands flock to Italy to write love letters to Juliet. They all ask the same question

For decades, the world’s lovelorn have confessed their biggest secrets to a fictional 13-year-old. But they’re not screaming into a void. She writes back – and has lots to say.

  • Bronte Gossling
Romance author Ali Berg.

I’m a bestseller. My genre keeps bookshops alive. Stop calling it ‘trash’

In 2024, readers snapped up 3 million books romance novels worth $46.4 million, and the category grows nearly 50 per cent year on year.

  • Ali Berg
Lisa and Scott Sligers renew their vows in Las Vegas

Going ‘full bogan’ in Las Vegas: The footy fans getting hitched by Elvis

Rugby League fans are flocking to Las Vegas’ wedding chapels to get married before the footy. At one, Elvis presided over 12 Aussie couples in a single afternoon.

  • Jordan Baker and Billie Eder
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Di Morrissey: ‘My publisher wanted me to write sex scenes, but my readers hated it’

The author is renowned for her romance novels, yet she remains refreshingly grounded in reality.

  • Caroline Baum
Sarah J Maas

The sex lives of elves and fairies? Welcome to the world of ‘romantasy’

This popular book genre is taking readers into magical worlds and earning the authors millions of dollars.

  • Georgie Gordon

My family was facing financial ruin. Then I discovered romance writing

We all know sex sells, and my books certainly are spicy, but at their core they are traditional love stories with the happy endings everyone dreams of.

  • T L Swan

I want what she’s having: One bride’s Mr Darcy makes another woman weep

The newlyweds’ perfection was painful to watch.

  • Anson Cameron