In Love with Love

The Persistence and Joy of Romantic Fiction

By: Ella Risbridger

Narrated by: Ella Risbridger

'A literary and deeply heartfelt exploration of an under-appreciated genre. It is heaven from start to finish'
INDIA KNIGHT, The Times

'This book is funny, wise, and joyfully obsessed with its subject'
MONICA HEISEY

'Endlessly witty, breathtakingly clever, a book you'll read in one sitting'
CAROLINE O'DONOGHUE

'The love letter the genre deserves'
MHAIRI McFARLANE

Smart, funny and passionate: An ode to a beloved genre and a brilliantly insightful piece of cultural criticism

Cowboys and aliens, dukes and dancers, power dynamics, death and domesticity, vampires and veterans, tradwives and single dads and sisters and small-town politics, private jets and princes and horses, hopes and dreams and fears, and so, so much kissing: this is a love letter to romantic fiction, but it's also a book about creativity and creation and the job of art in this crazy old world.

Why do we read? Why do we write? What makes some books last forever, and others vanish from memory? What is the point of everything, anything, when everything - especially romantic love - is so fleeting in the grand scheme of things? How do we love when the world is falling apart? And what does it mean that love is the one subject of which we never seem to tire?

Part literary criticism, part investigation, total passion project, In Love with Love is a wild tour from the very beginnings of kissing in books through historic trends, favourite tropes, beloved friends and brand-new loves, from Jane Austen to Jasmine Guillory, Jilly Cooper to Georgette Heyer, from the depths of the ocean to the furthest reaches of the outer galaxy . . .

'A joyful and brilliant book by a joyful and brilliant writer'
JESSICA STANLEY

'This passionate and profound love letter to the love story will make any romance reader's heart beat a little faster'
SARRA MANNING, Red Magazine

'I swallowed this book whole. Full of warmth and -- you guessed it -- love, this is an astute, thoughtful and literary exploration of a subject that is often regarded as the opposite... Long live kissing books, and all hail Ella'
CLAIRE DAVERLEY©2025 Ella Risbridger

Critic reviews

I am, appropriately, completely smitten with In Love With Love by Ella Risbridger, which is a literary and deeply heartfelt exploration of an under-appreciated genre. It is heaven from start to finish. Risbridger writes like the cleverest, funniest, most moving, most warm-hearted angel. Everyone's getting it for Christmas (India Knight)

There's no one I trust on love more than Ella Risbridger. This book is funny, wise, and joyfully obsessed with its subject (Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually)

A celebration of romantic fiction, its rich history and many forms, taking both a literary and personal approach to a genre that is so often disparaged

Endlessly witty, breathtakingly clever, a book you'll read in one sitting and then quote at dinner parties forever. Risbridger writes with a warmth and an expertise that is deeply earned yet lightly held (Caroline O'Donoghue, author of The Rachel Incident)

This passionate and profound love letter to the love story will make any romance reader's heart beat a little faster (Sarra Manning)

The love letter the genre deserves (Mhairi McFarlane, author of Cover Story)

Mills & Boon novels of every stripe are accorded the kind of sustained attention more usually given to Proust, while Judith Butler's theories of gender are buttressed by a deft analysis of Rupert Campbell-Black, caddish hero of the Rutshire chronicles by the late, great Jilly Cooper (Kathryn Hughes)

A joyful and brilliant book by a joyful and brilliant writer. I'm in love with Ella Risbridger's mind! (Jessica Stanley, author of Consider Yourself Kissed)

While it may seem like romantic fiction is having a moment, Ella Risbridger proves that romance books have always been culturally important in this love letter to our literary love. From romantic tropes to romantic leads, Heathcliff to Darcy (Austen's and Bridget's), the author of Midnight Chicken brings her characteristic passion and knowledge to a much-loved but often overlooked subject that not only considers what makes us love romantic fiction, but what makes us love at all? (Chrissy Ryan)

This is a cosy, clever treat of a book! To use Ella's words, it gave me a "warm buttered toast" feeling. I shall continue to read ~silly novels by lady novelists~ on repeat. Imagine listening to someone at a dinner party tell you about the amazing book they just read. This is that book (Emma Gannon, author of OLIVE)

Clever, comforting, sharp and funny, In Love with Love is as enjoyable and compelling as the most satisfying romance - the happiest coupling of subject and author (Lisa Owens, author of Not Working)