From a New York Times story by Lulu Garcia-Navarro headlined “The Critics Scoffed. Nora Roberts Just Kept Writing.”:

It’s no exaggeration to say that the writer Nora Roberts has shaped how generations of people, especially women, think about relationships and sex — not to mention, what makes a great story. Before Roberts, the romance genre was dominated by tepid and virginal women who were overpowered by brooding men. Roberts changed all that by thrusting romance into the modern era.