Some of the acronyms, abbreviations, words & Phrases in Romancelandia are the same as in the rest of the world.

But many of them are only used in our world. When reading blogs and bulletin boards you sometimes stumble upon this cryptic language and you might find yourself staring into cyperspace wasting precious readingtime.

On this page you will probably find the information you are looking for.

I made this page for a BSJ, AKA Megan, who is new to CT reads and about to become a RJ and who's KISA and SO is a Beta male. I wish you HEA! And now DEAR girl, DEAR! And let me know if you read your first HST.

 

 

 

 

 

AA	African American
AAR	All About Romance
AB	Automatic buy (also Auto Buy)
AG	Angel
AKA	Also known as
AKISA	Jude Deveraux' A Knight in Shining Armor
Alpha male	Macho hero. The one you want to read about but don't want to have. See Beta male
ARC	Advanced Reader Copy
BB	Bulletin board (message board)
BDB	Black Dagger Brotherhood. One of the most popular paranormal romance series by J.R. Ward
Beta male	Sensitive hero. The one you want to have but seldom want to read about. See Alpha male.
Beta Reader	A person who is close to the author and he/she reads and gives feedback on a work in progress
Big Mis	H/H having a huge dramatic conflict over something easily resolved with a 2-minute conversation. As in normal life.
Big Separation	H/H are separated for a significant period of time in a book
BSJ	Bookstore Junkie
Clean	No sex scenes in this book!
CR	Celebrate Romance
CT	Contemporary
DEAR	Drop everything and read
DIK	Desert isle keeper
DNF	Did not finish
ER	Erotica (Assumed to be Male-Female couple)
ER-FF	Erotica (Female-Female)
ER-FFM	Erotica (Menage a Trois, Female-Female-Male)
ER-FMM	Erotica (Menage a Trois, Female-Male-Male)
ER-MM	Erotica (Male-Male)
FS	Fantasy (Magic, Genie, Djinn, etc.)
FT	Futuristic
FY	Fairy
GH	Ghost
Glom/Glomming	Discovering a new-to-you author and buying up their backlist in a frenzy
GT	Gothic
GY	Gay (Non-Erotic)
Hanky Read	Romance novel for a good cry. Also Tearjerker.
HB	Hardback
HC	Hardcover
H/H	Hero and heroine
HEA	Happy ever after
HFN	Happy for now. Usually a serie of books with an open ending. Authors are holding off on the HEA and stringing readers along.
HST	Historical
HTF	Hard to find
IN	Inspirational
JAK	Jayne Ann Krentz
Keeper	Great romance novel - to be protected from earthquakes, fire, relatives, friends, etc. not to be taken out of the house by someone else. Very comforting and to be read and again. See DIK
KISA	Knight in shining armor
LB	Lesbian (Non-Erotic)
MC	Multi-Cultural (Mixed race such as: Latino/Caucasion, African American/Caucasion, African American/Latino, etc.)
MJP	Mary Jo Putney
NYR	Not yet released
OOP	Out of print
PB	Paperback
Pet Peeve	Bothersome aspect of romance novel(s). A particular or recurring source of irritation.
PN	Paranormal (ESP, Psychic, etc.)
RC	Reincarnation
RE	Reissue (or Reprint)
Read-enditis	Inability not to read the end of a romance first.
RG	Regency
RITA	Romance Writers of American awards
RJ	Romance Junkie
RS	Romantic Suspense
RT	Romantic Times
SEP	Susan Elizabeth Phillips
SO	Significant Other
TBB	To be bought
TBR	To be read
TJ	Tearjerker (romance novel that makes you cry) Also Hanky Read.
TRR	The Romance Reader
TSTL	Too Stupid to Live. This is usually the heroine. Readers often hate heroines who are TSTL.
TT	Time Travel
TT-CT	Time Travel Forward in Time
TT-HST	Time Travel Backward in Time
UBS	Used book store
UTC	Under the Covers
VHTF	Very hard to find
VM	Vampire
Wall-banger	Book you want to throw against the wall, toss in garbage, return, give away, or just leave behind after finishing your Big Mac. Allowed to be taken out of the house by anyone.
WE	Werewolf
WL	Wish list
WT	Witch
NF	Non-Fiction