What Makes a Romance Feel Modern?

You can usually tell by page three. One character makes a joke that actually sounds like something a real person would say, someone has a complicated relationship with their phone, and the love story understands that attraction now comes with baggage, boundaries and at least one badly timed message. That is often what makes a romance feel modern - not just the setting, but the sense that these people belong to the world we’re currently living in.

A modern romance is not simply a romance with Wi-Fi. If anything, readers are getting better at spotting the difference between books that use contemporary props and books that actually understand contemporary emotional life. A mention of Hinge, a group chat and a flatshare can help with atmosphere, but they do not automatically make a story feel current. What matters is how the romance handles intimacy, power, humour, communication and choice.