Insta-Love

Insta-love is a romance in which attraction is immediate and love is decided within hours or days rather than chapters. Instead of anticipation the trope offers impact: one look, one dance, one night after which nothing is the same.

The word is sometimes used as a complaint by readers who prefer the long road. But insta-love has its own craft. The story has to make you believe, quickly, why these two recognise each other on sight. When it succeeds, every page reads like a raised pulse.

The timeframe is tight: a night, a train journey, a ball. The attraction isn't denied, it's marvelled at. And the obstacle comes from outside, a mask, a ticket, the end of the line.

In “The Mask of Signorina” the host of a Venetian ball leads you onto the floor believing you are someone else, and you don't want the dance to end. In “The Train to Verona” polite distance becomes, over twelve hours, something that no longer feels like coincidence.

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