I'm a little different from most readers because I don't actively seek out romance books anymore. I don't know why but I'm so sick of reading about romance. It's not that it's awful- I can enjoy it. I hate however that it's beyond a norm, almost like a rule in YA. It's almost impossible to find a book without the main character having some sort of love interest. I thought I would do an "experiment".

Procedures 

Look at the last 10 YA books I read and discern whether the main character had any type of romance going on. I'll categorize what I find into four groups. All groups are chosen based on the "end state" of the novel. Everything here is subjective.

• Crush 
• Relationship
• Angst (they broke up, etc.)
• None

Hypothesis

I don't seek out romance so I'm expecting 70% of the books I read to have some sort of romance. 

Observations

Book	Romance Level
The Color of Rain	Relationship
Boy Nobody	Angst
Seizure	None
Black Heart	Relationship
The Madness Underneath	Angst
White Lines	Relationship
Sanctum	Relationship
The Piper's Son	Relationship
Prophecy	Relationship
Pretty Girl 13	Crush

Conclusions

90% of the books I read had some sort of romance in them. The only one that didn't, had a 14 year old main character. There's nothing wrong with romance; it's like sprinkles. Even if there's a lot of them, they can be enjoyable. However, I think 90% is a way too high figure. 

There's a lot more to teenage life than crushes and relationships. Sometimes I get so fed up with romance because it's unrealistic: why can't characters be single, and enjoy being single? Looking at this list, most YA books end off with the characters in a relationship. I can only speak from experience and looking around at my school, but 60% of the teens there don't have relationships. More like 10-20%. There's nothing wrong with being single and enjoying it.

The reason I did this was to say that not every book needs a romance. They're not necessary. Why not have a super strong parental bond? A sibling relation? How about a variety of friends? Epic Reads hosts an event called #TeaTime and they were talking a little along these lines yesterday, about womances (girls that are BFFs) or the lack of womances. It's obvious that most people would enjoy a focus on other relationships.

Would you? Do you think there's too much romance?

-P.E.