What is Restorative Romance?

Restorative Romance is a newsletter for people interested in the bigger picture of what historical romance is and can be.

To me, romance cannot be separated from questions of justice and restoration. Because romance plots are about the journey toward couplings of intimate relationships, much of the conflict stems from interpersonal harm. In order to get to a satisfying narrative ending (generally, the promised happily-ever-after), some restoration must occur. The harms can range from violence, like in a traditional bodice ripper, to lack of open miscommunication. But something has to be set right.

Restorative justice, as the term is defined by Tony Marshall of the Restorative Justice Consortium and adopted by the United Nations, is “a process whereby all parties with a stake in a particular offence come together to resolve collectively how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future.” This definition is from 1996, but restorative justices practices predate the 1990s, or even the wider proliferation of in the Western world during the 1970s.

This newsletter borrows this framework and philosophical underpinning as a lens for the consideration of romance novels, particularly those with a historical setting.

Historical romance is my preferred subgenre because I love the novel’s structure and world building being in dialogue with the past. I frequently write about actual history here, not be prescriptive or a “historical accuracy” cop, but to provide context and discuss the backdrop of these books. Also, I cannot read a book where someone has a job where they receive emails, so I’m mostly stuck with historical romance.

Who are you?

I’m Emma! I love the Philadelphia Phillies, my dog Steve, gin martinis, oysters, and romance novels. I am the disgruntled barrister of Reformed Rakes and I’ve read four biographies of Napoleon Bonaparte. My favorite romance novel of all time is Lord of Scoundrels, my favorite book of all time is A Room with a View and if you couldn’t tell from the first two things, I studied abroad in Italy.1 I’m a law librarian, which just means I’m a librarian but more antagonistic.

What do I get for subscribing?

As a free subscriber, you’ll get most everything I publish. I can’t guarantee calendared posts, though I do at least one a month. My projects tend be long and I do a lot of research—brevity and deadlines are for litigators and I’m a librarian that doesn’t charge late fees.

If you’d like to upgrade to paid: you’ll get a once monthly edition of my non-romance romance series, where I explore a piece of media generally not considered a historical romance novel through my historical romance novel reader lens. I wanted to be able to guarantee anyone who chooses to pay will get something consistently and this series is just a blast for me to write.