The abbreviation "HEA" (which stands for Happily Ever After) is regularly mentioned by romance novel readers when discussing the genre. A romance novel that lacks a HEA is usually considered not only a disappointment, but not even a romance novel. This is because one of the requirements of a book marketed as a "romance novel" is that it must have a happy ending for the main characters (the lovers) that are the subject of the book.
Because sequels and series have become so popular and prevalent, the abbreviation "HFN" (Happy For Now) is allowed as an alternative to the HEA, in order to fulfill the romance novel's requirement of a happy ending. The HFN indicates that within the book in which their love story is featured, the romantic partners will be together and happy by the end of the book. HFN does not guarantee eternal bliss for the main characters of the first book in the next book of the series, however, or in other books down the line.
But where did the phrase "HEA" come from?
From my examination of 1980s issues of Romantic Times, I was unable to find a mention of the abbreviation "HEA" within their pages. A happy ending was understood to be the desired ending of any romance novel, but the shorthand word "HEA" itself -- so ubiquitous today when discussing romance novels -- was nowhere to be found (at least that I saw in my perusal of the issues I have).
The earliest example that I found of the word "HEA" in print was in Romantic Times #93 (Dec. 1991). Shown below is the top half of the article by author Bobbi Smith titled "EQ = HEA2" (presumably a pun on Einstein's famous "E = MC2" equation). The "EQ" in the article stands for the "Emotion Quotient" -- a romance novel's ability to "touch our readers' hearts and make them 'feel' what our characters are feeling." (You can read the article in its entirety here.)
The internet was known early on for its unique abbreviations ("LOL" being perhaps the most famous) and so I suspected that "HEA" may have been the result of internet discussion about romance novels.
The earliest reference to "HEA" that I have been able to find online was in a post by author Jo Beverely (1947-2016) on the newsgroup RRA-L (Romance Readers Anonymous-List) on March 20, 1994 (screencap below), replying to another member about happy endings:
In the above post, Beverley is writing about how different types of readers respond to a book's ending. The "HEA" reader is one who may question whether the couple will be able to sustain their relationship, despite the happy note on which the book ends.
In the thread replying to Jo Beverley's post, other readers chimed in saying whether they considered themselves "HE" or "HEA" type readers.
On March 24, 1994, Jo Beverley posted a reply regarding the responses that she had received to her post about the "HE" and "HEA" wherein she clarified what she meant by "HEA." Even if the novel had an epilogue showing the couple happy, if the outcome was not convincing that their love would overcome future obstacles, then it was merely an "HE." "HEA is a feeling I get at the end of a book, epilogue or not," she wrote. "HE is for me when this feeling isn't there, and I've experienced it even with epilogues showing them happy."
This definition, then, is a more subjective determination, based on the willingness of the reader to accept the happy ending. In this early discussion of "HEA," it was more about the reader and her response to the likely permanence of the happy ending rather than whether the book had a happy ending or not.
To give an example from my own reading experience, in a review of a Harlequin Presents novel a couple years ago, I wrote the following: "Sure, they get it all resolved 10 pages before the novel ends. But realistically, what kind of stable relationship could two such distrustful people have in real life? One can imagine the same miscommunication problems happening again, destroying their relationship." So, in that instance, the book had a happy ending, but failed to reassure me that (as Beverley put it) their "love will endure and that this couple can handle life and stick together." I was not convinced that the couple's issues were truly resolved and that the problems they had in the rest of the novel wouldn't come up again in the future, potentially ruining their happiness.
However, "HE" and "HEA" were subsequently discussed by others in relation to the book (not the reader) and "HEA" would become shorthand for whether a work could be considered a romance or not. In May 1994, there was discussion on the list about the 1992 novel The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller, where the lack of an "HE" and "HEA" indicated that it was not a romance novel.
On the newsgroup, "HEA" was often used as shorthand to indicate a happy ending (and thus a romance novel) while "HE" disappeared. In practice, it appears that "HE" was eventually replaced by "HFN," although that particular abbreviation doesn't show up in my searches of RRA-L posts, and I don't know when "HFN" became regularly used.
In her column on online romance in Romantic Times #119 (Feb. 1994), Cathie Linz noted that "New technologies create new words. Just as each generation has its own catchwords, computer bulletin board users have developed a language of their own." Examples that she gave included "BBB" (book buying binge), BHA ("BookHoarders Anonymous") and IMHO ("In my honest opinion"), but not "HEA." (Actually, IMHO stands for "in my humble opinion," as a RRA-L member posted on March 17, 1994.)
Occasionally the meaning of such abbreviations was posted about on the RRA-L, but HEA was not listed among them until the following post in January 1997.
By the mid-to-late 1990s, conversations and activity gradually drifted from the text-based newsgroups to the image-oriented WorldWideWeb, with many authors, publishers and readers setting up webpages relating to the romance genre. Since Oct. 2020, with the demise of Yahoo Groups, the RRA-L can be found on the groups.io site (which operates similarly to Yahoo Groups).
The first installment of Laurie's News & Views, from March 1, 1996, included a survey question asking visitors whether a romance novel had to include an HEA. So far this is the earliest reference to "HEA" that I've seen on a webpage (as opposed to a newsgroup post).
The webpage was produced by Laurie Gold who went on to found the All About Romance website. She mentions that debate about the issue was occurring on the RRA-L newsgroup. Her inclusion of the abbreviation "HEA" after the phrase "Happily ever after" suggests familiarity with its use, even though the inclusion of an abbreviation seems unnecessary here since it only appears once. (In these screencaps, I have highlighted the instances where the word "HEA" appears, to make it easier to see at a glance. You can click on the image to view it larger.)
In the second installment, dated March 17, 1996, Laurie provided the results of her survey, showing that most readers preferred a "Happily Every After (HEA)."
A year later, in installment #27 (June 4, 1997), Laurie raised the topic of the HEA again. Although she again provided the meaning for what the letters stood for, the presence of the abbreviation is far more prevalent here than in the previous installments. As highlighted by me here, we can see that the word "HEA" appeared 7 times. So, it's safe to say that by 1997, "HEA" had already become familiar shorthand for readers discussing the content of romance novels.
The webpage published the comments of many authors and readers on the subject of the HEA, which can be read here. Even back in 1997, a HEA was considered "essential" and "required" for a love story to be considered romance by most of the genre's readers.
And yet, for something so "simple," the HEA component of romance novels continues to this day to be a topic of debate on internet message forums, from Twitter to Facebook to romance fiction websites. Through the years, even the definition of what constitutes a HEA (for example, marriage and/or children) has changed.
The HEA can be used by readers to determine not only whether a book ought to be read, but whether an individual ought to be trusted. Too often media commentators will recommend or reference novels that lack the HEA as "romance novels," and the simple act of doing so exposes their lack of understanding of the genre.
Or, to quote another popular variation of the HEA abbreviation: "HEA or GTFO."
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