Word Count

I see such conflicting advice online regarding how long your genre should be. I'm writing romance suspense. It has nearly 60,000 words but is that enough? I ask myself what does the reader know about the main characters? I've told where they come from, what they do, past heartbreaks, their peculiar habits, their friends, there family members, the city they live in and described it.  In my opinion the reader should have a feel for who these people are, they should feel like they know them or someone like them.

I've tried to give the two main characters a plausable explanation as to why they don't just hook up. I've tried to ensure the reason wasn't something that one or the other could have just come out and asked the other about and wa la, they'd fall into each other's arms. Sure to some extent a little more communication could have cleared things up, but in real life people don't always say or ask the things that are on their mind. When the main characters do it in my story, it's understandable why it doesn't get cleared up sooner.

And the ending I think is satisfying. It's a romance, so the reader already knows (to some extent) that it will have a happy ending, but how does that happen? How do these two dorks manage to get from A to Z despite tripping over themselves?

My story is also suspense. The main character finds herself at the wrong place at the wrong time. Her life is in danger, but even as attempts on her life are made--she doesn't know she's in danger. The attempts are sometimes feable and thought to be accidents. Surely, not murder attempts?

My story is also funny. The banter, most of the time good humored, but sometimes cranky like friends do, goes on between the two main characters from the first time they meet. It's easy to see how easily they fell into the friends-only zone. But that friendship is the foundation for the love that eventually follows.

So is 60,000 words enough? I think so, I hope "they" do too.