Romance readers have feelings all over the map about the role of childern in romance novels.  Some readers don't like kids eating next to them in a restaurant and so they certainly don't want them mucking around in their sexy novels.  

Then, there are the baby crazy readers who get that glazed over hormonal look whenever they see a wee one and of course adore little sticky handprints all over their romantic fiction.

We also have the neutral readers who like kids mixed into the plot as long as the child characters are well written. 

I am with the neutral readers mostly but I do have one kind of romantic writing with childern I particularly  enjoy.  

I treasure romance novels that really contemplate motherhood. These stories think about maternal love. There is often a secondary love story there in the complicated rich love a mother has for her child or in the lack of mother/child love that one of the leads has experienced and now is getting to see.  These last kind trace the healing of that kind of love. 

These are not books about pregnant heroines but rather heroines balancing childern and romantic love or being mothered themselves in a way that makes the reader think about motherhood. Poignant and real. I love these books.

I have noted some of my favorite romances that do this tender work above and if you would like to make some recommendations, I would love to hear them.

You can also cast your votes on my Goodreads List: Love and Motherhood: Romance Novels