A trope, according to Merriam-Webster, is a common or overused theme or device : CLICHÉ. I’m going to ignore the overused part of this today and focus on common themes in, of course, romance. Masterclass, in its earnest article on how to write a romance novel, offers nine common tropes:
1. Love Triangle (Court of Thorns and Roses, Reflected in You, From Twinkle with Love)
2. Secret Billionaire (Butt Dialing the Billionaire)
3. Friends to Lovers (People We Meet on Vacation, Like Lovers Do, Two Tribes)
4. Stuck Together (The Roommate, Georgie All Along, Twice Shy)
5. Enemies to Lovers (Lord of Scoundrels, It Had to Be You, The Hook Up Plan)
6. Forbidden Love (Sinner, Long Shot, A Gentleman’s Position)
7. Second Chance (Spells for Forgetting, Before I Let Go, Tanked)
8. Soul Mates (Lord of the Fading Lands, Barbarian’s Prize, A Hunger Like No Other)
9. Fake Relationship (For Butter or Worse, A Counterfeit Betrothal, Wilder with You)
Other sites mention Meet Cute, Love in the Workplace, The Bet, The Rake, False Identity, Marriage of Convenience, and oh so many more. (For a truly comprehensive and genuinely odd list, click here. We also have tags for many of these and more.)
My favorite is a tie between enemies to lovers and marriage of convenience. For the former, I love The Viscount Who Loved Me, What I Did For a Duke, Season of the Wolf, and Bench Player, just to name a few. For MoC love stories, I adore Ravishing the Heiress, Kiss an Angel, Dukes Are Forever, and a Match Made in Scandal.
How about you? What’s your favorite trope? And if you can think of other great examples of any of the above, let us know!
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Are second-chance romance novels considered to be a trope? Because those are the ones I usually gravitate towards. I was lucky enough to find a new author in April, Lisa Battalia, and her two books in the Midlife Romance Series (“Awake” and “Second Chances”). They are all about how life and love can give you a second chance. It left me feeling hopeful about the possibility of finding love (dating has BEEN AWFUL – the struggle is real). The story follows Lori, a dedicated wife and mother, who is struggling after her husband of 20 years abandons their marriage. She had stopped focusing on herself and what made her happy and just focused on the family, so she truly has to start from scratch.
Brandon an old friend/lover, is also a single parent who is struggling to make ends meet. Despite the many obstacles in their way, Lori and Brandon reconnect and take a chance on romance and begin a long-distance relationship.
I loved the realistic portrayal of modern romance in this book. The characters are complex and relatable, and their relationship has that great will-they-won’t they tension. The sex scenes are steamy without being gratuitous, and I appreciate that the story doesn’t shy away from intimacy. If you do end up checking it out, I would love to hear what you think of it. Here is the author’s website with more info – https://www.lisabattalia.com/
Stuck Together and Soul Mates! I enjoy the escapism of insta-love and the intensity of fated forever-love. <3
I love stories like The Parfit Knight by Stella Riley, Katerina and the Reclusive Earl by Alicia Cameron, and Dark Predator or Dark Possession by Christine Feehan, each of which combines a bit of both tropes. Adriana Anders’ Uncharted (Survival Instincts #2) is a great Stuck Together romantic suspense read.
I’ve just watched several shows in which a spouse has died–Shrinking, Unstable, Dead to Me–(It’s like the dead mom thing in Disney has suddenly infected TV shows.)
It occurs to me I like getting over the other dead love of your life to love again romances. My favorite of these is Serena Bell’s Sleepover. I also enjoyed Lisa Kleypas’ Where Dreams Begin, SEP’s Dream a Little Dream, and JAL’s What I Did for a Duke.
I was thinking about this topic this weekend while running errands and remembered another one I like a lot – opposites attract. It takes a good writer to pull it off but the romances can be memorable when it works.
Second chance romance. I am a sucker for the idea that once you fall truly in love, there’s always something there that endures despite time. There’s a whole lot of emotional angst about the pain of breaking apart, which is bearable only because you know they are going to end up together. It’s a bit of a hard-won road to love. I love “Persuasion” by Jane Austen. Others I remember are Mimi Mathew’s “The Lost Letter,” Lisa Kleypas’ “Again the Magic” and Judith McNaught’s “Paradise.” A somewhat related trope is that they knew each other in the past, nothing came out of it, but there was something there for at least one of them. I think Kleypas’ “Love in the Afternoon” fits this. I also love stories where the man has a wicked sense of humor and the dialogue just zips along and the heroine gets him and they’re just sort of amusing observers. I don’t know if this is a trope per se I can’t think of one right now maybe because I haven’t read one for so long. But those who like these tropes, do suggest some more possibilities for my future reading.
I too love second chance romances!
Another excellent second chance romance is Mia Vincey’s A Scandalous Kind of Duke.
Well let’s see…unlike many although I like “Pride and Prejudice” I love more “Emma” and “Northanger Abbey” that means the first trope I’m going to mention is “friends to lovers” a book I read a few days ago little of this and I loved it was “Love, Laughter, and Luminarias” by Jaycee Weaver a christian romance and “Fair as a Star” by Mimi Matthews and “John Eyre” Well, there was also a class difference, but I would say that they had a kind of friendship before they fell in love.Then I have the marriage of convenience with “The Matrimonial Advertisement” by Mimi Matthews (yes I love her so much hahaha).
Finally enemies to lovers I have a hard time finding anything good that is first of all without explicit sex (actually more like no sex unless it’s a few paragraph allusion) and where they doesn’t absolutely hate each other and then are kissing. I will mention “To kill a kingdom” by Alexandra Christo, “P.S. I Like You” by Kassie West, “For Love of Liberty” by Julie Lessman, “The Heiress’s Convenient Husband” by Regina Scott and I have on my reading list just bought “A Thousand Heartbeats” by Kiera Cass.
I combine Marriage of Convenience/Fake Dating, and it’s one I enjoy, along with well done Enemies to Lovers. Stella Riley’s Garland of Straw (Roundheads and Cavaliers 2) is historical fiction with romance, and has both of these tropes. So well done. Some of my favorite MOC stories is A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer, and Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell. Favorite EtoL books are Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, and On Board by Jay Hogan.
I like Friends to Lovers romances like Infamous by Jenny Holiday and A Raven’s Secret by KC Bateman. Second Change romances I’ve enjoyed include Out of Character by Annabeth Albert (also a spin on the enemies to lovers trope), and King’s Man by Sally Malcolm. (You need to read the novella Rebel first for full impact.) I just finished Josh Lanyon’s Fair Game which has a nice Second Chance romance.
I also like Road Trips, which are often accompanied by Forced Proximity, such as H.L. Day’s 13 Kingdoms series.
My all time favorite trope is enemies-to-lovers. I think it’s because there is so much passionate feeling from the start. There are also several trope pairings that always draw me in. I love a good grumpy-sunshine pairing. I also like books where one of the characters is a nerd. I think nerd-jock is one of the most common of these. Lastly, I’m a sucker for one of the main characters being a librarian. One of my favorite examples is Lily Morton’s M/M romance Charlie Sunshine, which is best friends-to-lovers (not one of my favorite tropes) but has grumpy-sunshine and Charlie is a librarian!
I enjoy a second chance romance, and like others, I consider Jane Austen’s Persuasion the gold standard for this trope. Sally Malcolm does a wonderful m/m version with Perfect Day.
BevBB mentioned partners in crime as a favorite trope, and I realized that I like that as well. There are so many ways this can manifest, and it can be combined with other tropes such as friends to lovers or enemies to lovers.
Enemies to lovers can be too much arguing and bickering for me, unless it’s really funny. However, respectful rivals or opposite sides of the track storylines can be interesting. Many historicals feature class difference storylines, and those work if well done.
“BevBB mentioned partners in crime as a favorite trope, and I realized that I like that as well. There are so many ways this can manifest, and it can be combined with other tropes such as friends to lovers or enemies to lovers.”
Yes, it can & I think part of the reason is because it’s about “what they’re doing” as opposed to “who they are”, i.e friends to lovers etc.
I love a love triangle, but I think I’m in the minority. It’s interesting that it’s done well on Kdramas but not so much in books. I’d welcome book recs and I’ll check out the ones Dabney mentioned.
Two good love triangle love stories are Jennifer Haymore’s A Hint of Wicked and Emma Wildes’ An Indecent Proposition.
Ever since falling in love with Pride and Prejudice at an impressionable age, I’ve been a big fan of enemies-to-lovers (as long as the couple isn’t too childish or mean-spirited during the “enemies” stage). I think it’s because the conflict is baked in, and it means both members of the couple have to grow and develop to get to the happy ending.
I also love a fake relationship and a marriage of convenience — basically any situation where characters have to deal with the external trappings of a romantic relationship without the actual romantic feelings. And when the feelings do develop, I love experiencing that (secondhand) tension of wondering whether the other person feels the same way!
(Different sides) enemies-to-lovers as opposed to the usual petty dislike enemies to lovers.
That is a PROPER impediment for love to overcome IMHO. Notable books with it are The Spymaster’s Lady and a couple of the other books from Joanna Bourne, Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold and, in the book I am rereading now, Nina and Matthias in Six of Crows.
I also have a soft spot for knew each other as kids, Rogue Spy by Joanna Bourne is my exemplar of that.
Another one I like a lot if it’s well done is the “Friends to Lovers”. But the author has to sell that they really are friends or it won’t work for me. I think that goes back to modern romances having to work at showing that the couple actually has a relationship with each other that works.
This reminds me of the time my now ex-husband couldn’t figure out why I loathed Sleepless in Seattle after one viewing. My grumblings that they didn’t actually get to know each other before the end of the movie were lost on him because he was sold on the “love story” aspect. By comparison, and while it isn’t necessarily a favorite movie of mine, I completely got into the romance in When Harry Met Sally.
I mean, they actually knew each other first, you know.
Emma by Austen is a great friends-to-lovers.
I’ve always been partial to second chance romances like Persuasion by Jane Austen. Road trip romances are favorites too, for example, A Lady’s Secret by Jo Beverley. Some authors are able to do some interesting stuff within the confines of those overused tropes.
Which is your favourite Persuasion movie? I prefer 2007 for Sally Hawkins’ unmatched yearning over 1995 and the less said about last year’s abomination, the better.
I haven’t seen the 2007 version. I love the 1995 version. It introduced me to Ciaran Hinds.
I’m not sure I have a favourite as such – there are some I probably gravitate to more than others – enemies-to-lovers, age-gap, fake-relationship, second chance… in HR I like marriage of convenience. There’s one trope I really dislike, however, which is what I always call ‘chicks in strides’ – heroine who dresses as a man and nobody notices! I’ve read a handful of historical romances where the author has made it work reasonably well, but that’s probably the one trope that makes me stop reading once I’ve finished the blurb!
Really though, I’ll happily read most tropes if they’re done well.
I am a sucker for Cinderella tropes — particularly Regency or Victorian poor relations stories. (Marion Chesney had a Poor Relations traditional Regency series, but sadly, I couldn’t get into the first book.)
I do like Beauty and the Beast stories, as long as it’s not an excuse for the hero to be a huge jerk. And as long as the hero is not strangling stagehands. :)
When I started thinking about my favorite tropes, I realize there are a number of tropes I gravitate toward and will usually at least give a book look if it features one (or more) of them: Bodyguard: I love a good bodyguard/protector romance—especially if it incorporates another of my favorite tropes, enforced proximity. It seems that the bodyguard and enforced proximity tropes are made for each other because at some point in a bodyguard romance the MCs usually have to hide out from the bad guys in an isolated place. Romeo Alexander’s TO LOVE AND PROTECT (which I recently gulped down after a rave review here) was a perfect synthesis of the two tropes: a U. S. Marshal has to protect the star witness in a mafia trial; they have to spend time a long time alone together in a safe house (bringing in another favorite trope, slow burn). As a side note: although most bodyguard romances hand-wave the ethical implications of a bodyguard getting involved with a client, CD Reiss’s BODYGUARD is one of the few bodyguard romances to address it. Enforced proximity: whether or not a bodyguard is involved, I like a good enforced proximity romance—if the proximity can take place in a snowbound cabin, so much the better. M.M. Crane’s Alaska-set BOLD FORTUNE does this beautifully (with a dash of grumpy-sunshine) as the two MCs are stranded together in a cabin during a blizzard. What I think of as “standard fake relationship” isn’t one of my favorite tropes, but there are a couple of sub-tropes of fake relationship that I really like. The first one is when a person is in a fake relationship and begins to fall for another person but can’t let the object of their affection know because they’re supposed to be in love with someone else. ACTING LESSONS (m/f) by Katie Allen (aka, Katie Ruggle) does this very well—albeit with a little more humor (and Daddy-baby kink) than I generally like. Molly Joseph’s m/f BEARD (also a bodyguard romance) has a heroine (in a fake relationship with a closeted star) who falls for her bodyguard but can’t let him know her marriage is fake. Alessandra Hazard’s JUST A BIT HEARTLESS (m/m mafia) does this very well too. Another sub-trope of fake relationship is when a couple is in a fake relationship but only one MC knows it’s fake. This is a staple of the Harlequin Presents universe: generally where a man courts a woman and married her “for revenge” against her family, but she falls deliriously in love. As time goes on, the hero sees the error of his ways and starts falling for the heroine, but then the heroine discovers—gasp!—she was just a pawn in the hero’s plan. Natasha Anders’s THE UNWANTED WIFE does this with over-the-top angsty goodness. Although it may be overused, I like the amnesia trope (another HP staple) when it’s implemented correctly the right way. Elyse Springer’s WHITEOUT (not to be confused with the Adriana Anders novel with the same title) is a gripping m/m romantic-suspense where a man wakes up with no memory of the other man with him—who claims to be his boyfriend…but is he? Then there are a barrage of HPs—like Caitlin Creed’s THE SICILIAN’S FORGOTTEN WIFE or Maisey Yates’s heart-breaking CARIDES’S FORGOTTEN WIFE—that address what it means to start a relationship from scratch when one partner’s memory is erased. And a special shout-out to N.R. Walker’s beautiful Missing Pieces trilogy which covers the long road to recovery of a man who has lost his memory of the past five years—including meeting and falling in love and making a life with his partner. A trope I love but don’t see too often can best be described as “Ooops, we’re still married”—when two people, long divorced, suddenly discover their divorce wasn’t finalized and they have to reunite to process the divorce, but of course the spark is still there! I don’t mind if one spouse has been aware that the marriage is still legal (as in Annika Martin’s JUST NOT THAT INTO BILLIONAIRES), but at least one MC has been blithely going through life assuming they’re divorced. I can’t wait to see what Zoe York does with this trope in her upcoming REBEL AT HEART. The stepbrother trope requires careful handling to avoid becoming icky or porny, however, when done right (MCs’ parents had to have married when the MCs were older—late teens or beyond – it can result in an angsty story that has layers… Read more »
Sorry for the incomprehensible stuff midway through the discussion of the stepbrother trope. I was typing while talking and must have activated my talk-to-text—but I have no idea what that was all about, lol.
I went in and edited – hopefully it’s okay now!
I’m glad you enjoyed To Love and Protect – as I said in my review, it was a surprise hit! I really liked Whiteout, too – it kinda fizzles out towards the end, but the first two thirds is terrific!
I also enjoyed To Love and Protect. It didn’t actually deal with the ethics, but I wasn’t too worried because it ended on a HFN, so there were several loose strings besides Marcus’s job that weren’t dealt with. I think the reader is meant to assume they’d work it out at a later date. (Which is fine.) I was thinking it would be interesting to see the “rest of the story” how all those logistical things will have to be addressed in order for a true HEA. (Staying vague to give no spoilers.)
I’ve always favored what I call “Partners In Crime” (credit Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence) where the couple has to work together on something. Yes, usually it’s some kind of mystery solving but it doesn’t have to be. Jayne Ann Krentz (all AKAs) does this type of romance very well. Really, just pick one of hers randomly and that’s usually what’s happening.
FYI, not sure what is going on but in order to comment here I had to sign in on the forum. When I tried to sign in on this page, I either got an error or it said I was already signed in but wouldn’t let me post anything.
Hero and heroine working together to get shit done WORKS for me, notable in the unmatched Flashpoint series by Rachel Grant which includes a member of my Pantheon of Heroines.