So it’s a trope. The New Year means new beginnings, new plans, new goals, and new dreams. We can’t stop ourselves from making New Year’s Resolutions.

Every year at least half of the United States makes resolutions on January 1st and only twelve percent actually keep them throughout the year. Writer Emrys Westacott says that New Year’s Resolutions “represent the triumph of hope over experience.”  Hopeful Americans all vow to lose weight, get out of debt, or reach their full potential.

And people have been hoping for a long time. Emperor Julius Caesar moved the New Year celebration from the Babylonian March date to January first in honor of the god of new beginnings, Janus. But those Babylonians were the ones that gave us resolutions. They regularly made promises to their gods at the new year in order to obtain favor in the coming months.

So what does this have to do with romance?

The romance novel is the genre of new beginnings and of hope. It is the perfect book with which to celebrate the new year.

Think about it–

The most basic plot is main character meets romantic interest and they fall in love. A new love, a new relationship.

Another favorite plot is MC meets RI, MC loses RI, and then years later they meet to fall in love all over again. A new beginning to an older relationship. Hope supplants despair.

So this year while you’re trying (and hopefully succeeding) to keep your New Year’s Resolutions, try reading a romance and celebrate a new beginning and a new hope.