They are casual, familiar and as sweet as cotton candy. Pop novels are the laid-back, stress-free weekend nibbles to whet many readers' appetites.

As about a third of the country's population are young and active and live in cities, the novel genre ' mostly portraying women, romance and urban life ' has a solid standing with almost a decade in presence.

Starting with the adoption of chick lit and young adult novels from the US and UK, it has developed into urban contemporary novels, which delve into urban lifestyles and attract more male readers.

Nanien Yuniar, is in her twenties, single and lives in Jakarta, fancies novels that tell about uptown socialites.

'There's Nyonya Jetset [Mrs Jet Set] by Alberthiene Endah, I found it very interesting. The intricacy and dark side of a woman's life is very interesting for me,' said Nanien of the 2009's novel, which focuses on issues of romance and violence in marriage.

Despite the dark story, Nanien admitted that pop novels were a kind of reading that demanded nothing. 'Most of them are down to earth, quite familiar because the stories are about women, and they're so fun to read.'

Pop novels emerged in 2004 as Metropop, a brand created by Gramedia Pustaka Utama [GPU] publishing, offering stories surrounding lives of urban people in their 20s and 30s along with their daily lives.

Alberthiene along with Clara Ng and Syahmedi Dean are among a few pioneers of this genre. It was warmly welcomed by readers and other publishers soon followed the trend. Among the popular ones was Icha Rachmanti's Cintapuccino, a romance about a young woman's long time obsession to her senior since high school. It was adapted to cinema in 2007.

Another pop novel reader, Julyono, said he was aspired by the lives of young adults in a big city.

'I fell in love with Metropop novels after I read Alberthiene's Cewek Matre [Material Girl] in 2004 when I was still in Balikpapan [East Kalimantan]. I was so obsessed by living in a big city. The novel inspired me to work harder to reach my dream,' he said. Julyono is currently working in Jakarta.

For a country so segmented in development, the busy, glitzy lives of Jakarta fascinate people living in other cities and regions, where even electricity is hardly accountable for 24 hours. From hectic work hours at skyscraper offices in downtown Jakarta to all the good and bad parts of living or travelling abroad, these are among the favorite settings in wrapping up the romance in the novels. Meanwhile, for Jakartans, the familiarity of the story background is its major appeal.

Jakarta is the main market for pop novels, followed by Surabaya. So far, all five novels by Ilana Tan are all-time best-selling Metropop novels with each title selling more than 50,000 copies.

GPU on average sells 3,000 Metropop novels every year, while other novels sell half that number. Another publisher, Mizan, sells more than 5,000 copies of similar pop novels, which it categorizes as romance.

Ika Natassa, who authored A Very Yuppy Wedding and Divortiare novels, works in a bank in Medan, and makes the lives of bankers a major theme in her works.

'I present specific stories of a banker's life, which happen to be interesting for my readers. For example, conflicts in the love life of a couple who are working at the same bank,' said Ika, adding that by using a banker character, she did not have to do much research.

She is particularly interested in depicting the anxiety of urban life, for example, a woman who has a troubled personal love life despite having a successful career.

Hetih Rusli, a GPU senior editor, said despite Metropop novels being for both men and women, they had more of a feminine flavor due to the majority of its readers.

'Around 70 to 80 percent of novel readers in Indonesia are women,' she said.

Hetih observes there has been a significant shift in the potrayal of women in romance novels, including Metropop, throughout the years. In novels of the 1980s, she said, women characters are looking for potential husband. Now, women characters in Metropop are financially independent.

'In the early years of Metropop, women characters showed the world they didn't need men. Now, they admit they do ' but it's about finding love, not so much about getting married.'

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