She told me that her book club has read all four of my novels because, as she put it, “We’re a trashy book club; we only read trashy books.”She meant it with pure affection. Who wouldn’t want to be in a book club like that? I’ve called books trashy myself, and I meant it with love. It’s the fastest-growing category in publishing, with US print romance sales up 24 per cent in the past year and more than 51 million copies sold. Colleen Hoover has sold upwards of 20 million books, Emily Henry is a household name and Ali Hazelwood has managed to put women in STEM at the very top of The New York Times bestseller list.