Eirini Arvanitaki received her PhD from the University of Hull, UK. Since then, she has taught at the University of Hull, the University of Liverpool, UK, the Hellenic Mediterranean University, Greece, and the University of Cyprus. Currently, she is teaching at the Hellenic Open University (School of Social Sciences). She has served as an Evaluator Expert of the Marie Sk¿odowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships and has participated in several EU-funded projects. Her research interests lie in the fields of gender, sociology, social policy, popular romance fiction, gender studies, feminism, cultural sociology, and English literature. She is the author of Masculinities in Post-Millennial Popular Romance (Routledge) and a co-editor of three books on pay gap between genders and working women and motherhood.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. What is Love

Lust or Love: Confluent vs. Romantic Love

2. The Love Continuum

Pre-Personal Relationship

Semi-Personal Relationship

Personal Relationship and the Process of Emotional Development

Romantic Jealousy

Guilt and Shame

Anger

Altruistic Love

Realisation of Love

Conclusion

From Confluent to Romantic Love

Index