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Despite its importance in both economic and cultural terms, the field of Christian romances has received little in-depth analysis. In 2005, Matthew Kapell and Suzanne Becker stated that “while there [was] considerable historic criticism of the secular romance fiction market, few [scholars] have ventured into the magnetism of the IRF [Inspirational romance fiction] market” (147). Years later, Barret-Fox and Donnelly present a similar picture, confirming that there is still “relatively little scholarship published on Christian romance novels,” adding that it comprises “only two books […][,] three book chapters, and fewer than a dozen articles” (2021: 204-205). Alternatively, when it has been studied, the field has been approached in a number of biased ways. John Markert, for example, refers to Peter Darbyshire’s article, “The Politics of Love: Harlequin Romances and the Christian Right” (2002), as proof of those prejudiced approaches; in particular, he criticizes Darbyshire’s assessment of the field as based on only “one Harlequin Love Inspired novel, Heiress” (Markert 2016: 212). Barrett-Fox and Donnelly also point out that the existing scholarship tends to focus on “the genre’s messages about gender” and “how those messages resonate with broader evangelical teachings, or on the relationship between readers and their texts” (2021: 205). Barrett-Fox and Donnelly cite as examples the articles written by Laura Clawson (2005) and Neal Christopherson (1999), both of which show that “the messages about gender tend toward the conservative” (2021: 205), and Peter Darbyshire’s already referred to 2002 article, where Christian romances are presented as nothing but “Religious Right propaganda” (Barrett-Fox and Donnelly 2021: 205).