Recession-proof Romance

Fancy being swept away by a billionaire? Harlequin is happy to oblige.

Last week while waiting for the subway, I was assaulted.

The attack was purely visual. An onslaught of cheesy posters promoting bodice-rippers wallpapered my train stop. Before I averted my eyes, I saw that the posters were ads for the latest Lifetime movie-of-the-week series, a collection of Nora Roberts romance novels brought to life on the small screen.

Over four million viewers tuned in to the first of the series “Northern Lights” two Saturdays ago, topping Lifetime’s list of 2009 movie premiere ratings. The project stars LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian, (who, according to tabloid reports, had an affair during the shoot). Whatever the real temptation of this Lifetime series, the cable network might be on to a recessionary trend. Sales of Harlequin novels are on the upswing—for the fourth quarter of 2008, the publisher reported a rise of at least $3 million. Despite the recession, romance titles as a whole have seen a steady increase in sales, according to Borders Books and Music…