Can Contemporary Romance Feel Realistic Today?

Someone has just texted “here” instead of coming to the door. Someone else has spent twelve minutes workshopping a reply with the group chat. A third person is pretending they are absolutely fine after being left on read by a man whose dating profile described himself as “fluent in sarcasm”. If that sounds more like your Tuesday than a sweeping declaration beneath a thunderstorm, you may be asking: can contemporary romance feel realistic?

Yes. But realism in romance is not the same as making readers watch two people compare energy tariffs, queue at the pharmacy, or spend 40 pages discussing whose turn it is to buy loo roll. A believable love story needs the texture of real life, then it needs to know when to cut to the good bit.