For years, Sugar House's Central Book Exchange has been the pilgrimage of choice for local romance-novel readers.

Women of all ages walked through its doors to peruse newly arrived titles stacked against the walls. In acknowledgment of husbands who might tag along, the store also provided a modest stack of Westerns.

All that was before 2005, the year Pam Pedersen bought the store. She expanded the used-book offerings to suit the neighborhood's younger, professional clientele. "This is Sugar House, so of course we carry books on the environment, health and things like progressive politics," said the owner of the store at 2017 S. 1100 East.

All of these sell well, she said. Much like romance itself, however, the institutional memory of the store's old offerings endures. It happens three or four times every Saturday: women asking for the romance section or a used copy of the latest Nora Roberts title, while husbands and boyfriends trail off elsewhere in the store.

"For people who've been reading romance that long, [Roberts] is a staple," Pedersen said.

Derided by literary sophisticates as simplistic, formulaic, tawdry or, worst of all, poorly written "trash," few fiction genres garner more frowns than the romance novel. As is often the case, though, alleged sophisticates have little or no business sense.

According to Romance Writers of America, a national organization of almost 10,000 writers, romance novels make up more than 50 percent of paperback sales and more than one-quarter of all books sold -- paperback, hardback, trade and textbook -- for a grand annual total of $1.4 billion in U.S. and Canadian sales. Not even religious titles account for that much at the cash register. The love of romance readers isn't just passionate, but also fiscally tangible.

Ask any champion of the genre, too, and he'll tell you the genre has evolved by leaps and bounds. From the charm of Jane Austen to the heaving sighs of Harlequin romances and beyond is a fictional landscape that has grown to accommodate the paranormal romances of the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series by author Laurell K. Hamilton and the time-travel love interests penned by Diana Gabaldon in her celebrated Outlander series.

"It's diversified," said Pedersen, a self-described aficionada of paranormal romances. "Romance is still the core, but the narrative trappings blur genre lines."

If there's a crucial demarcation of customers' concerns, it's the line between how traditional or sexy a certain author or series veers. Like Mexican food, romance novels range from mild to piping-hot. "It's definitely something people want to know," Pedersen said.

RaeAnne Thayne, an award-winning Utah romance writer who has written 32 novels for publishers such as Bantam, Silhouette and Harlequin, said her work does well among women who prefer their romance in traditional and family settings -- sans overt erotica. Even then, a vibrant current of sensuality beneath the prose is almost mandatory, said the Smithfield writer. "Whether the writer closes the bedroom door or not, it's an important part of every romance."

In a lecture before the Utah Humanities Council's Book Festival last October, Thayne told her audience that while romance novels may not always incorporate feminist tenets, they never forsake the core conviction that not only can women enjoy the love and attention of men, they deserve it as well. Why else would women's shelters in Colorado stock their bookshelves with romances?

Still, even those who read romance novels admit their critics sometimes score an occasional point.

BephanyAllred, 33, who works in billing for a Park City health-care company and shops at Central Book Exchange, admits she doesn't like many book covers, which reek of fromage. "The covers that have a rose or castle on them -- I avoid looking at them as I'm reading," Allred said. "You want to develop the character in your own head without going back to that image."