According to Tatin Yang in the article Romansang Pinoy: A day with Tagalog romance novels, Tagalog romance paperbacks were thin Philippine versions of romance novel books that could be found at the bottom shelves of the romance section of bookstores, wrapped and bound with bookcovers that are decorated with Philippine-comics styled illustrations, such as "a barrio landscape with a badly dressed guy and girl locked in an embrace". As a form of "escapist fiction" (escapism) and "commercial literature", Tagalog romance novels generally follow a "strict romance formula", meaning the narratives have happy endings (a factor influencing the salability of the novel), the protagonists are wealthy, good-looking, smart, and characters that cannot die. Normally, the hero or heroine of the story falls in love and "goes crazy" over the admired person. However, later authors of Tagalog romance novels deviated from portraying so-called "damsel-in-distress and knight-in-shining-armor characters". Contemporary writers also turned away from writing "rags-to-riches plots". The stereotypal or typical norm had been replaced by the incorporation of storylines with "interesting scenes, characters [who are ready to face challenges or to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of other people], dialogues, and new angles to old plots". Authors such as Maria Teresa Cruz San Diego, who used the pen names Maia Jose and Tisha Nicole, ventured into the fantasy romance genre, and into topics that are related to politics, ecology, gender issues, prostitution, mail-order bride syndicates, white slavery, non-governmental organizations, and breastfeeding programs. Apart from writing about ideal lovers (men and women) and ideal situations, other novelists wrote about true-to-life settings, or at least based the stories from personal experiences. Thus, Tagalog romance novels came to mirror or replicate the "roles that women and men play" in Philippine society.
The Tagalog novels in pocketbook or paperback format became the contemporary equivalent of the serial novels that appeared on the pages of Liwayway magazine novels and the illustrated novels of Philippine comics such as the Tagalog Komiks. A regular Tagalog-language romance pocketbook is composed of around 120 pages, with a dimension of 10 centimeters x 16 centimeters, giving the book the its characteristic portability, light-weight, and easy to pass on to other readers. The current price per book ranges from PHP 39.50 to PHP 54.50. The price of the pocketbook is dependent on the date of publication or the release date.
The Tagalog novels in pocketbook or paperback format became the contemporary equivalent of the serial novels that appeared on the pages of Liwayway magazine novels and the illustrated novels of Philippine comics such as the Tagalog Komiks. A regular Tagalog-language romance pocketbook is composed of around 120 pages, with a dimension of 10 centimeters x 16 centimeters, giving the book the its characteristic portability, light-weight, and easy to pass on to other readers. The current price per book ranges from PHP 39.50 to PHP 54.50. The price of the pocketbook is dependent on the date of publication or the release date.
