The new adult (NA) genre is a relatively recent genre that emerged in the early 21st century as a response to the gap in the publishing industry between the young adult (YA) and adult fiction markets. The NA romance genre is a subcategory that focuses on the pivotal romances between characters in their late teens or mid-twenties. These stories typically include protagonists who are navigating their first adult milestones, such as college, first jobs, and serious romantic relationships.

The NA genre took shape in the early 2000s, spurred by the realization that there were limited stories geared toward readers who had aged out of YA but did not yet resonate with adult fiction. Before the inception of the NA genre, popular YA authors such as Sarah Dessen and Meg Cabot wrote books with “crossover appeal”: novels that target readers of two different age categories. These precursors to NA fiction were marketed as YA but hinted at more mature themes.

In 2009, St Martin’s Press took on a significant role in formalizing the NA genre, officially coining the term “new adult” during a writing contest. The publisher sought stories that were similar to YA fiction but could be marketed and published as adult fiction.