Tagalog pocketbooks  Tagalog romance novels, sometimes collectively referred to as Tagalog pocketbooks, Tagalog paperbacks, Tagalog romance paperbacks, Tagalog romance pocketbooks, Philippine romance novels, Filipino romance novels, Pinoy pocketbooks, Tagalog popular novels, or Tagalog popular romance literature are commercialized novels published in paperback or pocketbook format published in the Tagalog or the Filipino language in the Philippines. Unlike the formal or literary romance genre, these popular romance novels were written, as described by Dominador Buhain in the book "A History of Publishing in the Philippines" as a form of traditional or conventional romance stories of "rich boy meets poor girl or vice versa who go through a series of obstacles and finally end up in each other's arms". According to Tatin Yang in the article "Romansang Pinoy: A day with Tagalog romance novels", Tagalog romance paperbacks were thin Philippine versions of romance novel books that could be found at the bottom shelves of the romance section of bookstores, wrapped and bound with book covers that are decorated with Philippine comics-styled illustrations, such as "a barrio landscape with a badly dressed guy and girl locked in an embrace". As a form of "escapist fiction" (escapism) and "commercial literature", Tagalog romance novels generally follow a "strict romance formula", meaning the narratives have happy endings (a factor influencing the salability of the novel), the protagonists are wealthy, good-looking, smart, and characters that cannot die. Normally, the hero or heroine of the story falls in love and "goes crazy" over the admired person. However, later authors of Tagalog romance novels deviated from portraying so-called "damsel-in-distress and knight-in-shining-armor characters". Contemporary writers also turned away from writing "rags-to-riches plots". The stereotypical norm had been replaced by the incorporation of storylines with "interesting scenes, characters [who are ready to face challenges or to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of other people], dialogues, and new angles to old plots". Authors such as Maria Teresa Cruz San Diego, who used the pen names Maia Jose and Tisha Nicole, ventured into the fantasy romance genre, and into topics that are related to politics, ecology, gender issues, prostitution, mail-order bride syndicates, white slavery, non-governmental organizations, and breastfeeding programs. Apart from writing about ideal lovers (men and women) and ideal situations, other novelists wrote about true-to-life settings, or at least based the stories from personal experiences.