A Love Letter to Whiskey

A Love Letter to Whiskey is an example of contemporary romance, a genre characterized by happy endings and familiar plotlines but also a tendency to focus on the main characters’ personal growth and the obstacles they must overcome to achieve their happy ending. As in A Love Letter to Whiskey, most contemporary romance heroines and heroes are flawed; these narratives often show protagonists helping each other overcome barriers not only to becoming romantically involved but also to being better, happier people. A Love Letter to Whiskey and other contemporary romances center the emotional relationship between their protagonists, but they also deal with themes of grief, trauma, and toxic relationships; other examples include Chloe Walsh’s Binding 13, Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics and The Seven Year Slip, Emily Henry’s Happy Place, and Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us.

Just as contemporary romance novels rely on familiar narrative structures, they often feature readily recognizable tropes, archetypes, and scenarios, such as “friends to lovers” relationships and frequent, serendipitous meetings. A Love Letter to Whiskey uses many conventions typical of contemporary romance novels, including the “forced proximity” trope, in which continually being in the same settings and situations forces characters to confront feelings that they have been trying to avoid. A Love Letter to Whiskey is also a “second chance” romance, as B and Jamie have an on-again-off-again relationship throughout the novel. This category of romance focuses on the changing dynamics of a relationship as characters consider their past alongside their future. As a new adult contemporary romance, A Love Letter to Whiskey also emphasizes the main characters’ high school and college experiences, which drive their relationship.