Coastal Romance. Is It Just the Settting?


Is a Coastal Romance any romance set by the sea? Such an open definition would drive some people crazy and I understand their point. A pretty but two dimensional background that could just as easily be a mountain or outback or city setting doesn’t seem to warrant a special label. Surely a Coastal Romance has to make the sea integral to the plot?Where to?

I’m not convinced.

I’ve heard these arguments before in the Steampunk community. Some people want a rigid definition that allows lines to be drawn and people clearly put either inside or outside the community/genre/magic circle. But I’m more about inclusion. If a person self-identifies as a Steampunk, then that’s what they are.

So when it comes to Coastal Romance , if the author or readers identify a book as Coastal Romance, then it is.

*shrieks from the peanut gallery and a shower of peanut shells*

Yes, I do know that this is unhelpful in the extreme for deciding metadata. If everyone and their dolphin can join in, the label of the sub-genre risks becoming meaningless. Still, there is a lot of power in the wisdom of the crowd and I think we can trust it.

There will be discussions and mishaps and a few raspberries blown, but I think that as a community of readers, writers, editors and reviewers we will develop an effective working definition of Coastal Romance.

This is where I’m starting from:

Coastal Romance is about freedom, wide open horizons, taking chances and daring to love. It celebrates the sea in all of its moods. When we escape the everyday, anything is possible.

[Also see my earlier post, Coastal Romance: The New Wave of Rural Romance]


8 responses to “Coastal Romance. Is It Just the Settting?”

  1. For me, the seaside is inextricably linked with holidays and escape from everyday drudgery. At the same time, I sometimes wonder what it's like living in one of those little coastal towns that get swamped with visitors every summer.

  2. Hi Jenny!

    I love to escape. And if I can escape to the sea or the coast, sun, sand and surf in a story-all the better! Congratulations on the release of your latest coastal romance!

  3. If you can feel the sand beneath your feet, hear the seagulls overhead and see the sea stretching out to the horizon, it's a coastal romance. It's very coastal romance when the sea is an integral part of the plot. 🙂

    • Carol, I am so glad you said seagulls — I keep putting them in my stories! I thought I was the only gull-fan.

      I always used to think seagulls were annoying; all that scavenging at garbage tips. Then I watched Sir David Attenborough (Life in Cold Blood documentary) talking about the gulls here on a local island, Carnac Island, and how they take on tiger snakes. Brave birds! http://www.mandurahmail.com.au/story/1493086/rats

  4. Interesting Jenny!
    I think the coast needs to be the setting for most of the book, and the story needs to happen there. I don't think it would work if a book was set in a non-coastal area, & the hero & heroine go to the beach one day for lunch, and yo-ho, it became a coastal romance.
    So I guess it's to involve water, beach walks, the scent/rhythm of the ocean. I wrote a scene last night in my WIP talking about the rhythm of the ocean and a sense of renewal the heroine found there…
    So those types of things – but I like your definition above.
    I'm not much of a 'rules' girl, so I'm not shrieking & throwing peanuts.
    Cheers
    Lily M

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