Ah ha. This explains why so many romance novels I had were EXACTLY 132 pages long. I kept track of what books I read one summer, complete with pages counts, and I noticed that trend.
Sounds like you were reading from one of the series/category lines like Harlequin or Silhouette and not from one of the single title lines like Avon, Leisure/Love Spell, Kensington, etc. Within each line, there are specific page count ranges but the series/category books as well as the traditional Regency Romances are by far the smallest. I don't have the paperback page count numbers handy but those shorter books generally top out at a couple of hundred pages and publishers are a lot stricter about staying within the individual line guidelines. By comparison, most single title paperback romances fall in the 300-500 page range and the length variation between individual books even for the same publisher is a lot less strict. It's rare for any romances to reach epic lengths (700+ pages) nowadays but it does still happen on occasion.
Beverly
