When people first ask me why I read romance novels, I tend to answer with Why not? For so long, romance novels have been given the reputation of not being “real books.” But even as a young queer teen, I always asked Why not? It has everything a “real book” has – words, pages, a cover. So why is a romance novel not a “real book?” It wasn’t until I became an adult that I realized that the general public tends to see romance as a genre that only women read. And we all know how the general public tends to treat things that women only allegedly enjoy.