Major Genre Confusion

Hi guys,

I have a question that I've searched everywhere for, and I just can't seem to find a straight answer. Maybe there is no straight answer, which is fine, but I thought I'd come on here and ask for your input.

I know what romance is, but in terms of genre (and what to say in a query letter), I'm massively confused. I write romance, but it's not "typical romance" - there are POV's from more than one character, the subject matter tends to be pretty heavy and philosophical, and the plot is never straightforward. The closest comparison I can make is probably "The Time Traveler's Wife," in terms of style and execution. And I have no idea what genre this book is, or where I'd look for it in a bookstore.

I've written three WIP's, and they all seem to suffer from the same kind of genre ambiguity. All are romances, but all are kind of literary, too. And all have at least one pretty detailed sex scene (not sure if this changes things - sometimes I wonder if I should put sex in there at all). They all have pretty happy endings, but they're kind of bittersweet. And all are single-title, so at least I have that straight.

So I don't know. I'm just confused. I also don't have a beta reader, so I'm not getting input from anyone who has read the actual mss. I'm querying one of them now, and have had some requests, but I'm just wondering if I'm misrepresenting my work in the query letter, or if it even matters. On this note, I was wondering if I could call it "literary fiction" instead of "romance" in order to query different agents.

Sorry for the long-winded post. Any help would be appreciated!