The creative work – Bachelor Dad on Her Doorstep – is a Harlequin Mills & Boon Sweet Romance. It details Jaz Harper’s return to her hometown of Clara Falls in the Blue Mountains after eight years away. Her return means confronting her past – in the shape of her high school sweetheart, Connor Reed, who broke her heart and who is the reason she left Clara Falls all those years ago. Connor is convinced that eight years ago Jaz cheated on him, dashing all their plans for the future. In the time since she left he has become a single father. The story details the development of their relationship from antipathy to empathy, and then from friendship to love. The accompanying exegesis discusses the conventions and constraints of the popular romance genre. It explores the challenges presented to a writer in creating and maintaining emotional intensity in a popular genre romance and the need to provide a satisfying and credible ending to that romance. Five well-known romance novels – Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Rebecca, The Grand Sophy, and The Republic of Love – are analysed for the manner in which they portray romantic love and for the narrative strategies that may be of use to the writer of category romance. Finally, the exegesis discusses how the conventions of the popular romance genre and the narrative strategies employed have combined to shape the creative work.
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