While a Clean Romance is clearly about two characters falling in love, a great Clean Romance prioritizes a story that highlights the love story as well as another aspect of the main character’s growth. The stories can’t just be about sex because Clean Romances don’t step into that territory. This means that a novel-length Clean Romance hits storytelling out of the park!

Clean Romances Do Storytelling Better!

“I think clean romances do “going deeper” better. Because authors can’t rely on the physical aspect as much, they have to dig into what brings characters together beyond the skin-deep level. The story becomes more a union of minds, souls, and values. Don’t get me wrong, the physical aspect is important in a relationship too. I just find too often authors stop there or rely on it too heavily over the other components of a relationship. When it’s taken off the page, it forces authors to delve deeper. Some good examples of this would be Mimi Matthews or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society*.”

Elizabeth Olmedo, Eli’s Novel Reviews

The best clean romances I’ve read require the main characters to grow or change alongside their romantic interests. It’s simple really. The main characters either have to overcome something in their past or rise to the occasion to handle something they’d never choose on their own. A great Clean Romance isn’t JUST about the love.

A Relatable Struggle or Achievable Desire

In Teal Paisley Tights*, Jadyn desires to live out her creative life and pay the bills – I don’t know a more relatable struggle than the practicalities of life alongside the passion pursuits. Meanwhile, in Take a Right at the Mistletoe*, Matilda is trying to achieve her desire to become a trained and true pastry chef. These women have passions and interests outside of love, but they ALSO have some really attractive men to add delight to their lives.

Red Flags in Relationships

Ever read a romance where the main character’s crush has some questionable characteristics? I know I love a bad boy with a gold heart, but this can create a really interesting conflict between love interests as a good girl is attracted but concerned about a bad boy. This option would either require the good girl to become bad (like Sandy in Grease) or the bad boy to reveal his good heart, and this creates a really interesting story facet.

Self-Growth & Discovery

Almost every Clean Romance brings the option of self-growth and discovery to its main character because he or she may need to overcome a flaw, wake up to their problematic behavior, or make a change in their lives. For Jadyn in Teal Paisley Tights*, she needed to overcome her people-pleaser tendencies so she could live a life that lined up with her own values.

While readers of Clean Romance love the opportunity to see how two characters fall in love, a great Clean Romance strives for strong storytelling. Do you have a Clean Romance book that you loved with great storytelling? Hit reply and share it with me!