As I may have mentioned, I’ve gotten really into the ACOTAR books lately, which contains all the fantastic romance tropes I love, so I thought, why not make an absolutely unhinged blog about my favourite romance tropes in books?

So, what is a trope?

My favourite ones, in no particular order:

  1. The ‘who hurt you?’/ ‘who did this to you’ trope
    Unparalleled. I will not be taking a discussion on this. It will always be the punch-to-gut, heartbreaking moment where character a realises how deeply character b cares.
    *chefs kiss*

    Like, Goodreads literally has a list of them
  1. The Enemies to lovers one
    Overdone? Yes. Always walking that tricky line between sexy and toxic? Also yes.
    But every time a story has this is hits the fucking spot.
    Every.
    Single.
    Time
    
  1. The fated/ mated/ soulmate trope
    Hmmm could be considered in contradiction to the former point but if a book’s clever it can run in parallel (like in the second ACOTAR book or in The Five Kindoms of Okrith books).
    Girly swoons all round. I love that shit.
Shout out to Leigh Bardugo for this bad boy of a quote
  1. The flirty/ witty banter trope
    Maybe it’s just because I’m a sarcastic bitch when I’m being flirty but I fucking love this one.
  1. Himbo guy with the bitch queen trope
    Iconic.

    Nothing more to say.

  2. The ‘she’s mine/he’s mine/they’re mine’ trope
    Again, we might be walking the dangerous toxic line again but these are fictional men so bore off.

  1. Grumpy character and sunshine character fall in love trope
    Ohhh I’m a sucker for it and I will not feel shame about it.

  1. Fake relationship trope
    Ohhh they need to ‘pretend they are dating’, oh noo…
  1. ‘Letting go of a breath they didn’t know they were holding’ trope
    Yes please. Any day of the week. Please and thank you.

  2. When Character A does something badass and character B is turned on trope
    A little too specific? Because it’s everywhere once you start to notice it and I fucking love it.

  3. Character A is injured and Character B cares for them trope
    Bonus points if they sleep all night next to them waiting for them to recover/ wake up.
  1. Never say they’re name/ name is said like a prayer tropeBonus points if its during a spicy scene and it’s what makes it… *ahem* finish
  1. Help/ hold each other during a nightmare
    This will never, ever fail to make to my little girly heart bleed.

    Bonus points if the character a sleeps naked and character b is trying to preserve their dignity and not notice.

There you go, I’ve shown you mine and probably give the internet a far deeper glimpse into my psychology than I would like, will you tell me some of your favourite tropes?

(Also, these incredibly specific memes took bloody ages to find, so y’all better appreciate.)