The hero dons the mask of the warrior as romance novels attempt to fathom the spikes in a jingoistic nationalism as voiced by the state - and almost on the heels of it, to challenge the alignment of armed aggression with democracy and capitalism that has progressively become a commonplace in the U.S. [...]
Unable to fully reject the notion of going to war (since political rhetoric in the U.S. has fused American military offensives with the concepts of democracy and freedom), yet aware of its daily fallout, romance novels solve the problem by insisting on the American soldier's right to a long, happy marriage. Put differently, the genre's fundamental narrative imperative of lifelong romantic happiness gives rise to the warrior romance, with its wariness of a patriotic fanaticism that can only result in individual isolation, death, and widowhood. (154)