MARC of the Beast trendwatch: Romance novels make a lot of money by encouraging women to imagine themselves as part of the narrative. What better way to accomplish this than to have no women at all depicted on the cover? At a time in series romance publishing when at least half of the novels published feature babies and children, its getting easier and easier to excise women from the picture altogether, leaving the presumed fantasy objects—hot guys, cute kids, and, in this case, a faithful dog—center stage.