Erotic romance or romantica is a blend of romance and erotica. These books contain primarily strong sexual content and tend to use more frank language. They generally avoid many of the euphemisms that are used in other books with milder sexual content. There are several sub-genres of erotic romance like contemporary romance, romantic suspense, inspirational romance and historical romance. Erotic romance should not be confused with pornography. While pornography focuses solely on sex acts, erotic romance books typically have a well-developed plot and characters that could also exist without the involvement of any sexual acts.

One of the earliest romance book was Samuel Richardson's "Pamela" that was published in 1740. The book was revolutionary on two counts. Firstly, it focused entirely on courtship and secondly, it depicted romance from the perspective of a female protagonist. Jane Austen further expanded the genre and her nineteenth century book "Pride And Prejudice" is widely regarded as the epitome of romance genre. Austen inspired Georgette Heyer who later introduced "Historical Romances" in 1921.

Romance books tend to be shorter than single-title novels. A few of these novels like Harlequin Blaze are published as part of a category while others are published as part of an anthropology. Themes like incest, pedophilia and bestiality are still considered taboo even in erotic romance books. These topics are generally discouraged by all publishers.

The modern romance genre was born in 1972. Kathleen Woodiwiss's "The Flame And The Flower" is considered the most sensual erotic romance book to date. The romance books are published in about 90 languages the world over. These books are available at leading online stores of the UK like Bookworm and Amazon UK. One can also easily search erotic romance books at these online book stores. These books are a favourite pastime for a large number of youngsters and older people.