Romance Tropes: The Good, the Bad, and the Deliciously Predictable

From grumpy sunshine to force proximity, the world of romance is filled with incredible patterns that we can't get enough of. Today, we’re talking about tropes.

In this episode, we're discussing:

• Understanding the difference between tropes and micro-tropes and how they work together to create compelling romance stories
• Exploring popular trope categories, including character tropes, relationship tropes, and plot tropes
• My top six favorite tropes, with detailed book recommendations for each

By the end of this episode, you'll have a deeper appreciation for the role of tropes in the romance genre and a list of must-read recommendations to explore these beloved narrative patterns. Dive in and discover your new favorite trope-filled romance!

BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:

She’s Grumpy Roundup (Instagram)

Been About You by A.C. Taylor (Amazon)

Naked in Your Bed by Tuesday Harper (Amazon)

Just for the Cameras by Viano Oniomoh (Amazon)

Ep 9 with Margherita Scialla  

Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao (Amazon)

Back to Me by Katie Duggan (Amazon)

Chaos by Jack Whitney (Amazon)

Ep 4 with Jack Whitney

The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann (Amazon)

Roaming Holiday by Marina Hill (Amazon)

Bossed by the Orc by Saam King (Amazon)

Dark City Omega by Elizabeth Stephens (Amazon)

Ep 8 with Elizabeth Stephens

Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne (Amazon)

Sweethand by N.G. Peltier (Amazon)

Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon (Amazon)

Finding My Bodyguard by A. Blossom (Amazon)

Let Me Free You by Alexandria House (Amazon)

Ep 10 with Alexandria House

Butterfly Effect by Ruby Rana (Amazon)

Ep 6 with Ruby Rana

Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb (Amazon)

Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (Amazon)

Running list of books mentioned (Doc)

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This podcast was produced by Galati Media.
Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Romance Tropes
• 3:30 Identity is Not a Trope
• 7:00 Tropes vs. Micro Tropes
• 9:48 Exploring Trope Categories
• 14:01 Alesia’s Favorite Tropes

Transcript

Alesia Galati: 0:00

From grumpy sunshine to force proximity, the world of romance is filled with incredible patterns that we just can't get enough of. Today, we're talking about tropes, and make sure you listen through, because I'm going to be sharing a few of my favorite tropes, along with some recommendations for each of them. Listener discretion is advised. This podcast contains mature content intended for adult audiences only. Hey, friends, I'm Alesia. I am the host of this show. We read smut, and I am also the person behind the we read smut. Instagram account, if you are not familiar with me. Hello, go back and listen to episode one or even the trailer, just to get a kind of feel of who I am as a person. Today, we're going to be talking all about tropes, and this is a really important topic. One, if you're new to the romance industry, then you might be like trope what? But if you're someone who's even established, there's some things in here that you can still learn, and some book recommendations. Because, of course, you know, I'm always good for the book recommendations, and my goal is that you leave this conversation with at least one book that you did not know about before, and something that you can then go ahead and read, try out a new author. Alright, so what are tropes? Tropes are those familiar ingredients that favorite bits of a recipe and their recurring elements, character types and plot devices that make a romance novel feel familiar. Now you might be thinking, every romance novel is maybe a little different, yes, and there tend to be some pretty similar building blocks within certain books. And I don't just mean if you have a fantasy book, then those are all the same type of building blocks. We'll get into it, and you'll understand a little more of what I mean by that. But I want to make sure before we even get into all of that, I want to make sure that we note that identity is not a trope. I'm gonna say that, again, identity is not a trope. It is important, it is crucial, that we recognize that a person or a character's ethnicity, disability, size or sexual orientation are not tropes. What does that mean? You might have seen the trope roundups where an author will say there's Latinx rep or there's a Latina female main character. That's fine for the author to do, but when we're talking about tropes specifically, and us as reviewers, us as readers when we're quantifying what those tropes are, those character representations are not tropes. Reducing a character's identity to a specific trope can perpetuate harmful stereotypes and erase the complexities of the lived experience that the author is trying to present authentic representation in romance means that the authors are portraying characters with diverse identities as fully realized individuals with their own unique stories and motivations. When we treat identity as a trope. It can lead to tokenism and misrepresentation, which is very harmful for marginalized communities and not okay. For example, an enemies to lovers dynamic is a trope. A character being black or Latina is not a forced proximity scenario is a trope. A character using a wheelchair is not a character having a secret identity is a trope, but a character being part of the LGBTQIA plus community is not, hopefully, that clarifies things. If you were confused before, or you're like, wow, I'd never thought of it that way, hoorah, that's what this show is here for, is to kind of open our eyes and approach romance a little differently than we did before. So here are some reasons why we love tropes, because they create that familiarity and that comfort. If you are reading a forced proximity book and you realize, like, oh, that feeling of when they are forced together, and then they realize, Wait, we met, kind of like, like each other, and then usually they bang it out. They move their relationship from there, either in a positive or negative light, that kind of feeling, you're like, I know that feeling because I've read that feeling before, and it makes me think of sitting in my chair and reading that book. It also gives us a sense of predictability, which is beautiful about romance, that it has that happily ever after always there's no argument there. It always has that happily ever after, and you have that kind of. Feeling of that thread throughout romance, those tropes throughout it that give you that familiarity from a different book that you've read, and you can kind of determine, do I like the way that this author approached this trope, and how is it different than maybe another author was approaching this trope? And so I think it allows for a really satisfying resolution, but it also gives us kind of a formula to work with. We kind of know what to expect and we understand what's going to happen. So why do we see that people say, hey, here are some tropes that are included in this book. Now you might be someone who does not like spoilers. I love spoilers. I'm always down for spoilers. So if you want to spoil something for me, please do. I'm always open to that. But one thing that I love about tropes is that it establishes the type of story and the emotional journey that the author is going to take us on. For example, if there's a forest proximity scenario, then you know that there's going to be some intimacy and some tension in that book. So if you're ready for that kind of energy, then you can go into it. But maybe you're looking for maybe something with a grumpy sunshine trope, where that is more of a heartwarming story. Opposites attract, probably a bit of personal growth. And so you get to decide, knowing those tropes and going into a book, how you want to best prepare. Now this is not to say that when an author includes tropes into a romance novel that it makes the story dull. No any skilled author is able to take those common tropes, make them fresh, make them exciting, spin them a different way, and make it feel even more unique to those characters, which is what I love. Now, before we get into our lovely examples, because I'm so excited to share those with you, let's go ahead and go into micro tropes. This is something that I have seen so much. I like to think of tropes as your bigger pieces when you're building a house. I don't build houses, so this is literally the worst analogy I could possibly pick. But all right, let's do this, because that is not going to be a good example. I like to do paint by numbers. I like to listen to audiobooks, do some paint by numbers, and do puzzles. That's what I like to do when I'm not really feeling like watching TV or doing things during the weekend and I want to give myself kind of a break. Those are my spoil me moments. And so when I'm doing a paint by number painting, what I like to do is I will start with the bigger parts. I don't start with number one. I don't like, you know, usually they're labeled with numbers, and then the painting is labeled with numbers. I usually start with the bigger chunks of the painting. Now, you might do it the opposite way, where you start with the little pieces of the painting, or the little portions of the painting, and then move on to the bigger parts. It really is up to you. But what I like about that is that it allows me to see, okay, I'm getting a lot done, and then I can do the little smaller details. And if I paint over some things, it's not going to mess it up too much, because the lines are already there pretty well. The same thing goes for tropes versus micro tropes. Your tropes are your bigger pieces that make that paint by number picture, and then your micro tropes are those smaller, more subtle patterns that we see within a romance novel. Now, a micro trope is the recurring elements. It's the specific moments or the turn of phrase that pop up within the larger tropes, or even on their own. So here are a few examples to help you get an idea of what I'm talking about. He falls first. That is not a trope. It is a micro trope, and it describes this dynamic where one character, which is typically a male main character, develops romantic feelings for the other person before they do. And it adds a layer of vulnerability and a bit of pining that I could just eat up. And I love that trope, especially for your contemporary male female pairings. Those ones are just Yes. Anytime there's a he falls first, I'm usually in line for that. And then the accidental touch, this makes me think of if you've seen the Pride and Prejudice movie with Keira Knightley and Matthew McFadden, because, of course, I know his name, they have that moment where he like helps her up to the carriage, and he like flexes his hand. Right? That hand flex moment? Yes, you guys know what I'm talking about. Yeah, or you've got the moment in movies where they're kind of standing next to each other and their hands almost touch, right? It's that innocent but really dynamic physical, almost physical contact that just lights up the moment. It creates a little bit more of the underlying feelings and that tension and just Yes, chef's kiss love it that is a micro trope. It is not a trope. Another one could be trauma bonding. This is not a trope, but these maybe characters go through a shared lived experience. Pretty sure we see this a lot in some of those darker romances, especially those captive, dark romances where maybe two characters are trapped together, and this adds an emotional weight that can accelerate their relationship. So they're together in this confined space, and then they build this relationship a lot quicker than they would if they had other outside elements to impact them. Microtropes might seem like they are small pieces to this puzzle, but they still play a huge role in creating a wonderfully beautiful romance novel. Just adds a bit more tension, deepens the character development and the connection between these characters. So that is the difference between micro tropes and tropes. Now let's go ahead and explore some of those popular trope categories, because when I was even thinking about this, I didn't realize that tropes really could be categorized in a really simple way. So you've got your character tropes, your relationship tropes and your plot tropes, those are typically the three that we see. Relationship tropes could include grumpy, sunshine, cinnamon roll, main character, or maybe a bad boy. The relationship tropes tend to be enemies to lovers, fake relationship, or maybe it's a second chance romance. And then you've got your plot tropes, which are forced proximity, secret identity, and my least favorite, amnesia, which this is just not my thing, not interested, not about it. But here are six of my favorite tropes, and I'm gonna give you three examples of each one. So our first is friends to lovers. Now, friends to lovers can be a really complex one. There's so many angles that it can be played with. And you've got your estranged friends to lovers, you've got your childhood friends to lovers, your college friends to lovers, or even your workplace friends to lovers. There's so much there, but let's go ahead and get into some of my favorite examples of this. Ben About You by AC Taylor, it's a male female, black contemporary romance. After being betrayed by his fiance right before his wedding, Blaze heads to his best friend bree's house. She consoles him, and as time goes on, one thing leads to another, they discover that, wait a minute, I actually could have romantic feelings for my best friend. This one was really interesting to read because Bree, the female main character was not interested in having a standard relationship. She just wanted the benefits. She was not trying to be in love, and she fought it for most of the book. But I really enjoyed this one. I thought it was so good. Another one is naked in your bed by Tuesday Harper, it is a female, female, sapphic, black romance between roommates who are also friends. They're having a party at their house. One thing leads to another, and then they finally tell each other how they feel. There's a bit of a dynamic there too, because not only are they roommates, which gives you the forced proximity trope as well, but there's some drama with the other roommates and them how they feel about them being in this relationship. Another one is just for the cameras by Viano omiyomo, and that is a polyamorous black romance. It is. Mmf, so male, male, female, and I'm going to try to describe these as best I can as I'm going through them, because I tend to just talk in bookish acronyms when I'm sharing things. And so I want to make sure, if you're not privy to these bookish acronyms, that I'm describing it to you as best I can. This one is between an established sex cam couple, so we've got a bit of sex work in there, and their demisexual roommate. So you will find a lot of these demisexual relationships in the friends to lovers, since being friends or getting to know someone is what leads to sexual attraction for a demisexual person. 10. You'll also notice that there are some demisexual relationships in the forced proximity, specifically around workplace, where they get to know someone, they've maybe been working for someone or with someone for an established period of time, and then they have that sexual attraction. If you want to know more about demisexuality, please make sure to check out episode nine with Margarita, where we talked about sexual and romantic spectrums. All right, next we have our forest proximity. This is very similar to friends to lovers, in that it captures a lot of nuance. It's more of a trope that people use, but for a lot of different things, and that could include roommates, neighbors. Maybe they're forced to work on a project together. Maybe they're snowed in, or maybe they work together. So it's not that they want to work together. Have to, because they both have this job, and so it's anything that forces these characters to be in a space physically that they otherwise wouldn't be. So some recommendations I love is make room for love by Darcy Lau. It is a FF trans main character in Butch, lesbian contemporary romance. They're roommates. There's also some by awakening and some really sweet caretaking in this book. It is so good, highly recommend. Another one is back to me by Katie Duggan. This is a female, female contemporary romance. It has ADHD, fat and chronic illness representation, which I love that we've got all this representation in this book. They dated as teenagers, and now they're roommates, so it's got a bit of that second chance trope as well. And then we've got chaos by Jack Whitney. You can see me interviewing her on episode four, and that is a male female contemporary rock star romance where we have a bi male main character. He's a golden retriever, and he faked eight, a very grumpy autistic and ADHD, mid sized model with some dark secrets. Now this one has some suspense elements that are outside of the couple. So it's not considered a dark romance. I would consider it more of a suspense romance. The next one is grumpy sunshine. This one's pretty self explanatory, but there's also this idea that a lot of people use with grumpy sunshine, and that is, they will use the verbiage of reverse grumpy sunshine. There should not be a reverse trope. So it just makes it sound like only the male main characters can be grumpy, and that's not really how it works. I mean, I'm tend to be a pretty grumpy person sometimes. So I'm all about a female main character being grumpy, and I do have a post I'll make sure I link it in the show notes, in the description, where I give recommendations for grumpy sunshine and she is grumpy. That's a post that I love to refer back to, and it's a good one. So for this one, let's go ahead and jump into some of my favorites. We've got the romantic agenda by Claire Khan. This is an interracial, male, female contemporary romance. It's got an asexual female main character. Make sure you go check out that episode eight with Margarita, so that way you can understand asexuality. If that's something that you're not familiar with, it's a bit of a love square. But you've got your female main character who is in love with her best friend, he's in love with someone else, and her best friend, the male main character is in love with her. And so it gets to be a bit interesting. The main characters end up fake dating each other to make the other couple jealous, only to realize, Wait, we kind of really actually do like like each other. So that one is quite a ride, but so much fun roaming holiday by Marina Hill. That's an interracial male, female royalty, bodyguard romance. Those are a bit more of your character tropes. You've got a royalty or a bodyguard. I like to think of this book as Princess Diaries two, which it maybe is dating me, but who cares? I'm a millennial. Princess Diaries two, but instead, Mia is mixed race and falls for her bodyguard. Yeah. And there's a bit of like, understanding that there's some parts about royalty that they want to change, giving power back to the people, actually helping the people. There's a lot of those elements that I really, really love, so that one's a good one. And. Then bossed by the orc by SAAM King. This one is so delicious. It is a male female, faded mates, urban fantasy. It's between a rich, business minded orc and a woman down on her luck. There is a clear size difference. The female main character is, I want to say mid size or plus size as well. I don't know if she's either mid or plus size. And the book is spicy. It is delicious. Him fighting the whole faded mates thing is so funny to read, and it's just so good. Next we have the enemies to lovers. This one tends to also encompass rivals to lovers, or inconveniences to lovers, sometimes as well, where the person's slightly inconvenienced. It's an enemies. Some people get really upset about that. I don't really carry their way. So the ones I picked, I tried to pick ones that are at least mostly real enemies to lovers. So we've got dark city omega by Elizabeth Stevens, who I interviewed in episode eight. Go ahead and check that episode out, which is a male female dystopian Omega verse fantasy where the Omegas are hunted down by the Berserkers, and our male main character is a Berserker, and our female main character is an omega. So there's some serious enemies to lovers in that one. Next we have pride and protest by Nikki Payne, which is a male female, interracial, modern retelling or adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I loved that this book has some little nods to the original. In this one, the female main character wants to take the neighborhood back from the developers, and he's the CEO, and it's got a bit of that opposite sides of the track, micro trope on there, since he grew up really rich and she did not Next, we have sweet hand by Engie Peltier. That is a male female black romance. It's got a bi male main character. And this one has a bit of force proximity as well. Since these two enemies have to work together for a wedding that they're both in, he's the best man. She's the maid of honor. This one, I would say, is not your standard enemies to lovers. It's more of an I don't like you to be grudging friends to actual friends to lovers for that one, and then we have marriage of convenience. This one is interesting, because we see marriage of convenience tends to be conflated with arranged marriage. And here's how I like to differentiate them for myself and how I view them. And honestly, this is up to you. If you decide you don't want to view them this way, that's okay too. There are no rules to this, except that romance has an HTA, okay, so marriage of convenience, I like to think of that as you have something that you need in in order to get that thing, you have to be married. And we'll go through some examples as we talk through this. But the arranged marriage, I like to think of that as something outside of yourself is forcing you to this arrangement. There might be some convenience in this arrangement. Maybe it saves your family, maybe it does something good for you, but it's someone outside of you telling you that you have to do this in order to move forward, and so Zeni, by Rebecca Weatherspoon, is a great example of a marriage of convenience. I love that it's subtitled A marriage of inconvenience, because that's how a lot of these marriages of convenience really feel like. So you've got a buy for buy male female romance between a black woman and a very sweet, plus size Scotsman. The marriage of convenience takes place because they have to get married in order for both of them to receive an inheritance from zenny's Aunt. It's really great for some family secrets. Really delicious smut, and the audiobook is chef's kiss so good. Next is finding my bodyguard by a blossom. This is a male female black romance, and our female main character finds herself in need of protection from her current fiance and her father, who are both mafia mob, and what better way to protect someone than to marry them, to keep her safe? And so it's a bit of that kind of energy really good next. Let me for you by Alexandria house. Be sure to check out Episode 10, where I talked with Alexandria house. Is about all of her books. This one is a male, female, black romance, and it is a part of the McLean brothers series. So we see Neil throughout the series, and this is, I want to say, the second to last book in the series. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book, since I didn't really like Neil in the other books, so I like this one. In this one, the female main character needs to get married so that she doesn't get deported, and he's willing to help her out. So I really like that aspect, because I hadn't personally read a book like that before, but I am starting to see some that have this dynamic where someone is going to get deported and someone else is willing to help them next. We have fake dating. I love a good fake dating. Literally. I feel like there's no reason anyone would ever need to fake date, but I still like those tropes. So we've got butterfly effect by Ruby Rana. I interviewed her in Episode Six, and this one is a male female contemporary hockey romance. We have a bi male main character who ends up having to fake date a very fiery sports anchor. There is so much pining because he falls first, which, like I said, is one of my favorite micro tropes, and there's also some pegging. So it's wonderful. Great book. Next we have birding with benefits by Sarah T dub. I just finished this one like two weeks ago. Also Sarah T dub writes spicy novellas as Aliza McLean, so you might know her from there. This one is her contemporary romance, and it is a male, female, mature romance. The characters are in their 40s, and if you've seen the movie The Big Year, then I think this is the kind of book that you would like and enjoy, especially if you thought that one was interesting, they go birding. It's a bit of a romantic comedy. There's nature, there's sleeping in a tent. You do not have the only one sleeping bag in this one, but I really just like this one of this woman rediscovering herself after divorce, right on the cusp of being a free bird, or that's what my, one of my clients, likes to call being an empty nester. Is being a free bird, and she is just trying to discover who she is and what she enjoys, and follows her falling in love through that. And so I love, love, love, love, this book so good. Next is take a hint. Dani brown by Talia Hibbert. This is a male female romance. We've got a bi and witchy female main character who works in academia and a former rugby player, which means them thighs, who is a security guard at her job. They break a table with their activities. I feel like that's all you really need to know in order to want to read this book. So I want to know what your favorite romance trope is. You can find me on Instagram at we read smut. If you're on Spotify, you can comment below. If you're on YouTube, comment below. Let me know what your favorite trope is. I want to know, but romance tropes, well, I know they can be a bit predictable. Are some really fun tools in storytelling. They can make the story more connected, more emotional and give us readers exactly what we want. I think that by understanding and appreciating tropes, we get a deeper insight into what it actually takes to make this romance genre, and remember that even within the most familiar tropes, there's always room for creativity and stories that really delve into issues that we are dealing with, issues that we know and love and can learn from. Thank you for listening to this podcast. I'll catch you next time. Whoa,