Time-travel romance is a
subgenre of
romantic fiction associated with
paranormal romance. Time-travel romance focuses on
romantic love
Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a Interpersonal attraction, strong attraction towards another person, and the Courtship, courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant ...
and includes an element of
time travel. Time-travel romance stories may or may not have a
happy ending.
Jude Deveraux's ''
A Knight in Shining Armor'' is one of the best known time-travel romance novels,
famous for the lack of a happy ending. Time-travel romances feature at least one character transported to a time period which is unfamiliar to them. A recurring theme is the conflict of falling in love and subsequently the character must decide to stay in the alternate time or return to the time he or she came from.
Time-travel romance settings may vary, from a present-day character sent back to the past, as in ''Binding Vows'' by
Catherine Bybee, or with a character from the past sent forward to the future, as in several books in the ''
Highlander'' series by
Karen Marie Moning. A common location theme in time-travel romance is
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, such as in the popular ''
Outlander'' series. Although the focus of time-travel romance is the love story between the characters, there is always some mechanism of
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
or
magic involved to facilitate travel through time. Enchanted stones, magical jewelry, and time machines are all methods employed to send the character to the destination time period. Examples of authors specializing in this genre include
Diana Gabaldon,
Catherine Bybee,
Karen Marie Moning, and
Susanna Kearsley.
The term "timeslip romance" is sometimes used for a relational, if perhaps more focused on nostalgia than romance, genre with examples of that form including ''
Portrait of Jennie'' and ''
Time and Again'',
[ The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, pg 1227] although some definitions of timeslip romance do not require a romantic aspect.
References
External links
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{{Romance novel
Fantasy genres
Fiction about time travel
Fiction by genre
Literary genres
Romance genres
Speculative fiction