February 26, 2025 • 29 mins
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alesia Galati (00:00):
From grumpy sunshine to force proximity, the
(00:03):
world of romance is filled withincredible 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. Listenerdiscretion is advised. This
podcast contains mature contentintended for adult audiences
(00:26):
only. Hey, friends, I'm Alesia.
I am the host of this show. Weread smut, and I am also the
person behind the we read smut.
Instagram account, if you arenot familiar with me. Hello, go
back and listen to episode oneor even the trailer, just to get
a kind of feel of who I am as aperson. Today, we're going to be
(00:49):
talking all about tropes, andthis is a really important
topic. One, if you're new to theromance industry, then you might
be like trope what? But ifyou're someone who's even
established, there's some thingsin here that you can still
learn, and some bookrecommendations. Because, of
course, you know, I'm alwaysgood for the book
recommendations, and my goal isthat you leave this conversation
(01:14):
with at least one book that youdid not know about before, and
something that you can then goahead and read, try out a new
author. Alright, so what aretropes? Tropes are those
familiar ingredients thatfavorite bits of a recipe and
their recurring elements,character types and plot devices
(01:36):
that make a romance novel feelfamiliar. Now you might be
thinking, every romance novel ismaybe a little different, yes,
and there tend to be some prettysimilar building blocks within
certain books. And I don't justmean if you have a fantasy book,
then those are all the same typeof building blocks. We'll get
into it, and you'll understand alittle more of what I mean by
(01:58):
that. But I want to make surebefore we even get into all of
that, I want to make sure thatwe 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
(02:22):
orientation are not tropes. Whatdoes that mean? You might have
seen the trope roundups where anauthor will say there's Latinx
rep or there's a Latina femalemain character. That's fine for
the author to do, but when we'retalking about tropes
specifically, and us asreviewers, us as readers when
(02:46):
we're quantifying what thosetropes are, those character
representations are not tropes.
Reducing a character's identityto a specific trope can
perpetuate harmful stereotypesand erase the complexities of
the lived experience that theauthor is trying to present
authentic representation inromance means that the authors
are portraying characters withdiverse identities as fully
(03:10):
realized individuals with theirown unique stories and
motivations. When we treatidentity as a trope. It can lead
to tokenism andmisrepresentation, which is very
harmful for marginalizedcommunities and not okay. For
example, an enemies to loversdynamic is a trope. A character
(03:31):
being black or Latina is not aforced proximity scenario is a
trope. A character using awheelchair is not a character
having a secret identity is atrope, but a character being
part of the LGBTQIA pluscommunity is not, hopefully,
that clarifies things. If youwere confused before, or you're
(03:54):
like, wow, I'd never thought ofit that way, hoorah, that's what
this show is here for, is tokind of open our eyes and
approach romance a littledifferently than we did before.
So here are some reasons why welove tropes, because they create
that familiarity and thatcomfort. If you are reading a
forced proximity book and yourealize, like, oh, that feeling
(04:20):
of when they are forcedtogether, and then they realize,
Wait, we met, kind of like, likeeach other, and then usually
they bang it out. They movetheir relationship from there,
either in a positive or negativelight, that kind of feeling,
you're like, I know that feelingbecause I've read that feeling
before, and it makes me think ofsitting in my chair and reading
(04:42):
that book. It also gives us asense of predictability, which
is beautiful about romance, thatit has that happily ever after
always there's no argumentthere. It always has that
happily ever after, and you havethat kind of. Feeling of that
thread throughout romance, thosetropes throughout it that give
(05:03):
you that familiarity from adifferent 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 wasapproaching this trope? And so I
think it allows for a reallysatisfying resolution, but it
also gives us kind of a formulato work with. We kind of know
(05:25):
what to expect and we understandwhat's going to happen. So why
do we see that people say, hey,here are some tropes that are
included in this book. Now youmight be someone who does not
like spoilers. I love spoilers.
I'm always down for spoilers. Soif you want to spoil something
(05:46):
for me, please do. I'm alwaysopen to that. But one thing that
I love about tropes is that itestablishes the type of story
and the emotional journey thatthe author is going to take us
on. For example, if there's aforest proximity scenario, then
you know that there's going tobe some intimacy and some
tension in that book. So ifyou're ready for that kind of
(06:09):
energy, then you can go into it.
But maybe you're looking formaybe something with a grumpy
sunshine trope, where that ismore of a heartwarming story.
Opposites attract, probably abit of personal growth. And so
you get to decide, knowing thosetropes and going into a book,
how you want to best prepare.
(06:31):
Now this is not to say that whenan author includes tropes into a
romance novel that it makes thestory dull. No any skilled
author is able to take thosecommon tropes, make them fresh,
make them exciting, spin them adifferent way, and make it feel
even more unique to thosecharacters, which is what I
(06:54):
love. Now, before we get intoour lovely examples, because I'm
so excited to share those withyou, let's go ahead and go into
micro tropes. This is somethingthat I have seen so much. I like
to think of tropes as yourbigger pieces when you're
building a house. I don't buildhouses, so this is literally the
worst analogy I could possiblypick. But all right, let's do
(07:21):
this, because that is not goingto be a good example. I like to
do paint by numbers. I like tolisten to audiobooks, do some
paint by numbers, and dopuzzles. That's what I like to
do when I'm not really feelinglike watching TV or doing things
during the weekend and I want togive myself kind of a break.
Those are my spoil me moments.
And so when I'm doing a paint bynumber painting, what I like to
(07:43):
do is I will start with thebigger parts. I don't start with
number one. I don't like, youknow, usually they're labeled
with numbers, and then thepainting is labeled with
numbers. I usually start withthe bigger chunks of the
painting. Now, you might do itthe opposite way, where you
(08:03):
start with the little pieces ofthe painting, or the little
portions of the painting, andthen move on to the bigger
parts. It really is up to you.
But what I like about that isthat it allows me to see, okay,
I'm getting a lot done, and thenI can do the little smaller
details. And if I paint oversome things, it's not going to
(08:23):
mess it up too much, because thelines are already there pretty
well. The same thing goes fortropes versus micro tropes. Your
tropes are your bigger piecesthat make that paint by number
picture, and then your microtropes are those smaller, more
subtle patterns that we seewithin a romance novel. Now, a
micro trope is the recurringelements. It's the specific
(08:47):
moments or the turn of phrasethat pop up within the larger
tropes, or even on their own. Sohere are a few examples to help
you get an idea of what I'mtalking about. He falls first.
That is not a trope. It is amicro trope, and it describes
this dynamic where onecharacter, which is typically a
male main character, developsromantic feelings for the other
(09:11):
person before they do. And itadds a layer of vulnerability
and a bit of pining that I couldjust eat up. And I love that
trope, especially for yourcontemporary male female
pairings. Those ones are justYes. Anytime there's a he falls
(09:31):
first, I'm usually in line forthat. And then the accidental
touch, this makes me think of ifyou've seen the Pride and
Prejudice movie with KeiraKnightley and Matthew McFadden,
because, of course, I know hisname,
they have that moment where helike helps her up to the
(09:54):
carriage, and he like flexes hishand. Right? That hand flex
moment? Yes, you guys know whatI'm talking about. Yeah, or
you've got the moment in movieswhere they're kind of standing
next to each other and theirhands almost touch, right? It's
that innocent but really dynamicphysical, almost physical
contact that just lights up themoment. It creates a little bit
(10:18):
more of the underlying feelingsand that tension and just Yes,
chef's kiss love it that is amicro trope. It is not a trope.
Another one could be traumabonding. This is not a trope,
but these maybe characters gothrough a shared lived
experience. Pretty sure we seethis a lot in some of those
(10:38):
darker romances, especiallythose captive, dark romances
where maybe two characters aretrapped together, and this adds
an emotional weight that canaccelerate their relationship.
So they're together in thisconfined space, and then they
build this relationship a lotquicker than they would if they
had other outside elements toimpact them. Microtropes might
(11:02):
seem like they are small piecesto this puzzle, but they still
play a huge role in creating awonderfully beautiful romance
novel. Just adds a bit moretension, deepens the character
development and the connectionbetween these characters. So
that is the difference betweenmicro tropes and tropes. Now
(11:25):
let's go ahead and explore someof those popular trope
categories, because when I waseven thinking about this, I
didn't realize that tropesreally could be categorized in a
really simple way. So you've gotyour character tropes, your
relationship tropes and yourplot tropes, those are typically
the three that we see.
Relationship tropes couldinclude grumpy, sunshine,
(11:46):
cinnamon roll, main character,or maybe a bad boy. The
relationship tropes tend to beenemies to lovers, fake
relationship, or maybe it's asecond chance romance. And then
you've got your plot tropes,which are forced proximity,
(12:07):
secret identity, and my leastfavorite, amnesia, which this is
just not my thing, notinterested, not about it. But
here are six of my favoritetropes, and I'm gonna give you
three examples of each one. Soour first is friends to lovers.
Now, friends to lovers can be areally complex one. There's so
(12:30):
many angles that it can beplayed with. And you've got your
estranged friends to lovers,you've got your childhood
friends to lovers, your collegefriends to lovers, or even your
workplace friends to lovers.
There's so much there, but let'sgo ahead and get into some of my
favorite examples of this. BenAbout You by AC Taylor, it's a
(12:54):
male female, black contemporaryromance. After being betrayed by
his fiance right before hiswedding, Blaze heads to his best
friend bree's house. Sheconsoles him, and as time goes
on, one thing leads to another,they discover that, wait a
minute, I actually could haveromantic feelings for my best
(13:16):
friend. This one was reallyinteresting to read because
Bree, the female main characterwas not interested in having a
standard relationship. She justwanted the benefits. She was not
trying to be in love, and shefought it for most of the book.
But I really enjoyed this one. Ithought it was so good. Another
(13:36):
one is naked in your bed byTuesday Harper, it is a female,
female, sapphic, black romancebetween roommates who are also
friends. They're having a partyat their house. One thing leads
to another, and then theyfinally tell each other how they
feel. There's a bit of a dynamicthere too, because not only are
they roommates, which gives youthe forced proximity trope as
(14:00):
well, but there's some dramawith the other roommates and
them how they feel about thembeing in this relationship.
Another one is just for thecameras by Viano omiyomo, and
that is a polyamorous blackromance. It is. Mmf, so male,
male, female, and I'm going totry to describe these as best I
(14:24):
can as I'm going through them,because I tend to just talk in
bookish acronyms when I'msharing things. And so I want to
make sure, if you're not privyto these bookish acronyms, that
I'm describing it to you as bestI can. This one is between an
established sex cam couple, sowe've got a bit of sex work in
(14:44):
there, and their demisexualroommate. So you will find a lot
of these demisexualrelationships in the friends to
lovers, since being friends orgetting to know someone is what
leads to sexual attraction for ademisexual person. 10. You'll
also notice that there are somedemisexual relationships in the
(15:05):
forced proximity, specificallyaround workplace, where they get
to know someone, they've maybebeen working for someone or with
someone for an establishedperiod of time, and then they
have that sexual attraction. Ifyou want to know more about
demisexuality, please make sureto check out episode nine with
Margarita, where we talked aboutsexual and romantic spectrums.
(15:30):
All right, next we have ourforest proximity. This is very
similar to friends to lovers, inthat it captures a lot of
nuance. It's more of a tropethat people use, but for a lot
of different things, and thatcould include roommates,
neighbors. Maybe they're forcedto work on a project together.
(15:51):
Maybe they're snowed in, ormaybe they work together. So
it's not that they want to worktogether. Have to, because they
both have this job, and so it'sanything that forces these
characters to be in a spacephysically that they otherwise
wouldn't be. So somerecommendations I love is make
room for love by Darcy Lau. Itis a FF trans main character in
(16:16):
Butch, lesbian contemporaryromance. They're roommates.
There's also some by awakeningand some really sweet caretaking
in this book. It is so good,highly recommend. Another one is
back to me by Katie Duggan. Thisis a female, female contemporary
romance. It has ADHD, fat andchronic illness representation,
(16:42):
which I love that we've got allthis representation in this
book. They dated as teenagers,and now they're roommates, so
it's got a bit of that secondchance trope as well. And then
we've got chaos by Jack Whitney.
You can see me interviewing heron episode four, and that is a
male female contemporary rockstar romance where we have a bi
(17:04):
male main character. He's agolden retriever, and he faked
eight, a very grumpy autisticand ADHD, mid sized model with
some dark secrets. Now this onehas some suspense elements that
are outside of the couple. Soit's not considered a dark
(17:25):
romance. I would consider itmore of a suspense romance. The
next one is grumpy sunshine.
This one's pretty selfexplanatory, but there's also
this idea that a lot of peopleuse with grumpy sunshine, and
that is, they will use theverbiage of reverse grumpy
sunshine. There should not be areverse
(17:49):
trope. So it just makes it soundlike only the male main
characters can be grumpy, andthat's not really how it works.
I mean, I'm tend to be a prettygrumpy person sometimes. So I'm
all about a female maincharacter being grumpy, and I do
have a post I'll make sure Ilink it in the show notes, in
(18:09):
the description, where I giverecommendations for grumpy
sunshine and she is grumpy.
That's a post that I love torefer back to, and it's a good
one. So for this one, let's goahead and jump into some of my
favorites. We've got theromantic agenda by Claire Khan.
This is an interracial, male,female contemporary romance.
It's got an asexual female maincharacter. Make sure you go
(18:32):
check out that episode eightwith Margarita, so that way you
can understand asexuality. Ifthat's something that you're not
familiar with, it's a bit of alove square. But you've got your
female main character who is inlove with her best friend, he's
in love with someone else, andher best friend, the male main
character is in love with her.
(18:55):
And so it gets to be a bitinteresting. The main characters
end up fake dating each other tomake the other couple jealous,
only to realize, Wait, we kindof really actually do like like
each other. So that one is quitea ride, but so much fun roaming
holiday by Marina Hill. That'san interracial male, female
(19:19):
royalty, bodyguard romance.
Those are a bit more of yourcharacter tropes. You've got a
royalty or a bodyguard. I liketo think of this book as
Princess Diaries two, which itmaybe is dating me, but who
cares? I'm a millennial.
Princess Diaries two, butinstead, Mia is mixed race and
(19:40):
falls for her bodyguard. Yeah.
And there's a bit of like,understanding that there's some
parts about royalty that theywant to change, giving power
back to the people, actuallyhelping the people. There's a
lot of those elements that Ireally, really love, so that
one's a good one. And. Thenbossed by the orc by SAAM King.
This one is so delicious. It isa male female, faded mates,
(20:07):
urban fantasy. It's between arich, business minded orc and a
woman down on her luck. There isa clear size difference. The
female main character is, I wantto say mid size or plus size as
well. I don't know if she'seither mid or plus size. And the
book is spicy. It is delicious.
(20:34):
Him fighting the whole fadedmates thing is so funny to read,
and it's just so good. Next wehave the enemies to lovers. This
one tends to also encompassrivals to lovers, or
inconveniences to lovers,sometimes as well, where the
person's slightlyinconvenienced. It's an enemies.
(20:56):
Some people get really upsetabout 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 tolovers. So we've got dark city
omega by Elizabeth Stevens, whoI interviewed in episode eight.
Go ahead and check that episodeout, which is a male female
dystopian Omega verse fantasywhere the Omegas are hunted down
(21:21):
by the Berserkers, and our malemain character is a Berserker,
and our female main character isan omega. So there's some
serious enemies to lovers inthat one. Next we have pride and
protest by Nikki Payne, which isa male female, interracial,
modern retelling or adaptationof Pride and Prejudice by Jane
(21:44):
Austen. I loved that this bookhas some little nods to the
original. In this one, thefemale main character wants to
take the neighborhood back fromthe developers, and he's the
CEO, and it's got a bit of thatopposite sides of the track,
micro trope on there, since hegrew up really rich and she did
(22:07):
not Next, we have sweet hand byEngie Peltier. That is a male
female black romance. It's got abi male main character. And this
one has a bit of force proximityas well. Since these two enemies
have to work together for awedding that they're both in,
he's the best man. She's themaid of honor. This one, I would
(22:30):
say, is not your standardenemies to lovers. It's more of
an I don't like you to begrudging friends to actual
friends to lovers for that one,and then we have marriage of
convenience. This one isinteresting, because we see
marriage of convenience tends tobe conflated with arranged
(22:51):
marriage. And here's how I liketo differentiate them for myself
and how I view them. Andhonestly, this is up to you. If
you decide you don't want toview them this way, that's okay
too. There are no rules to this,except that romance has an HTA,
okay, so marriage ofconvenience, I like to think of
that as you have something thatyou need in in order to get that
(23:15):
thing, you have to be married.
And we'll go through someexamples as we talk through
this. But the arranged marriage,I like to think of that as
something outside of yourself isforcing you to this arrangement.
There might be some conveniencein this arrangement. Maybe it
saves your family, maybe it doessomething good for you, but it's
(23:36):
someone outside of you tellingyou that you have to do this in
order to move forward, and soZeni, by Rebecca Weatherspoon,
is a great example of a marriageof convenience. I love that it's
subtitled A marriage ofinconvenience, because that's
how a lot of these marriages ofconvenience really feel like. So
(23:56):
you've got a buy for buy malefemale romance between a black
woman and a very sweet, plussize Scotsman. The marriage of
convenience takes place becausethey have to get married in
order for both of them toreceive an inheritance from
zenny's Aunt. It's really greatfor some family secrets. Really
(24:17):
delicious smut, and theaudiobook is chef's kiss so
good.
Next is finding my bodyguard bya blossom. This is a male female
black romance, and our femalemain character finds herself in
need of protection from hercurrent fiance and her father,
(24:39):
who are both mafia mob, and whatbetter way to protect someone
than to marry them, to keep hersafe? And so it's a bit of that
kind of energy really good next.
Let me for you by Alexandriahouse. Be sure to check out
Episode 10, where I talked withAlexandria house. Is about all
of her books. This one is amale, female, black romance, and
(25:02):
it is a part of the McLeanbrothers series. So we see Neil
throughout the series, and thisis, I want to say, the second to
last book in the series. I wasactually pleasantly surprised by
how much I liked this book,since I didn't really like Neil
in the other books, so I likethis one. In this one, the
(25:24):
female main character needs toget married so that she doesn't
get deported, and he's willingto help her out. So I really
like that aspect, because Ihadn't personally read a book
like that before, but I amstarting to see some that have
this dynamic where someone isgoing to get deported and
someone else is willing to helpthem next. We have fake dating.
(25:45):
I love a good fake dating.
Literally. I feel like there'sno reason anyone would ever need
to fake date, but I still likethose tropes. So we've got
butterfly effect by Ruby Rana. Iinterviewed her in Episode Six,
and this one is a male femalecontemporary hockey romance. We
(26:11):
have a bi male main characterwho ends up having to fake date
a very fiery sports anchor.
There is so much pining becausehe falls first, which, like I
said, is one of my favoritemicro tropes, and there's also
some pegging. So it's wonderful.
Great book. Next we have birdingwith benefits by Sarah T dub. I
(26:34):
just finished this one like twoweeks ago. Also Sarah T dub
writes spicy novellas as AlizaMcLean, so you might know her
from there. This one is hercontemporary 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 isthe kind of book that you would
(26:57):
like and enjoy, especially ifyou thought that one was
interesting, they go birding.
It's a bit of a romantic comedy.
There's nature, there's sleepingin a tent. You do not have the
only one sleeping bag in thisone, but I really just like this
one of this woman rediscoveringherself after divorce, right on
(27:22):
the cusp of being a free bird,or that's what my, one of my
clients, likes to call being anempty nester. Is being a free
bird, and she is just trying todiscover who she is and what she
enjoys, and follows her fallingin love through that. And so I
love, love, love, love, thisbook so good. Next is take a
(27:43):
hint. Dani brown by TaliaHibbert. This is a male female
romance. We've got a bi andwitchy female main character who
works in academia and a formerrugby player, which means them
thighs, who is a security guardat her job. They break a table
(28:03):
with their activities. I feellike that's all you really need
to know in order to want to readthis book. So I want to know
what your favorite romance tropeis. You can find me on Instagram
at we read smut. If you're onSpotify, you can comment below.
If you're on YouTube, commentbelow. Let me know what your
(28:24):
favorite trope is. I want toknow, but romance tropes, well,
I know they can be a bitpredictable. Are some really fun
tools in storytelling. They canmake the story more connected,
more emotional and give usreaders exactly what we want. I
think that by understanding andappreciating tropes, we get a
(28:46):
deeper insight into what itactually takes to make this
romance genre, and remember thateven within the most familiar
tropes, there's always room forcreativity and stories that
really delve into issues that weare dealing with, issues that we
(29:07):
know and love and can learnfrom. Thank you for listening to
this podcast. I'll catch younext time. Whoa,
From grumpy sunshine to force proximity, the
(00:03):
world of romance is filled withincredible 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. Listenerdiscretion is advised. This
podcast contains mature contentintended for adult audiences
(00:26):
only. Hey, friends, I'm Alesia.
I am the host of this show. Weread smut, and I am also the
person behind the we read smut.
Instagram account, if you arenot familiar with me. Hello, go
back and listen to episode oneor even the trailer, just to get
a kind of feel of who I am as aperson. Today, we're going to be
(00:49):
talking all about tropes, andthis is a really important
topic. One, if you're new to theromance industry, then you might
be like trope what? But ifyou're someone who's even
established, there's some thingsin here that you can still
learn, and some bookrecommendations. Because, of
course, you know, I'm alwaysgood for the book
recommendations, and my goal isthat you leave this conversation
(01:14):
with at least one book that youdid not know about before, and
something that you can then goahead and read, try out a new
author. Alright, so what aretropes? Tropes are those
familiar ingredients thatfavorite bits of a recipe and
their recurring elements,character types and plot devices
(01:36):
that make a romance novel feelfamiliar. Now you might be
thinking, every romance novel ismaybe a little different, yes,
and there tend to be some prettysimilar building blocks within
certain books. And I don't justmean if you have a fantasy book,
then those are all the same typeof building blocks. We'll get
into it, and you'll understand alittle more of what I mean by
(01:58):
that. But I want to make surebefore we even get into all of
that, I want to make sure thatwe 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
(02:22):
orientation are not tropes. Whatdoes that mean? You might have
seen the trope roundups where anauthor will say there's Latinx
rep or there's a Latina femalemain character. That's fine for
the author to do, but when we'retalking about tropes
specifically, and us asreviewers, us as readers when
(02:46):
we're quantifying what thosetropes are, those character
representations are not tropes.
Reducing a character's identityto a specific trope can
perpetuate harmful stereotypesand erase the complexities of
the lived experience that theauthor is trying to present
authentic representation inromance means that the authors
are portraying characters withdiverse identities as fully
(03:10):
realized individuals with theirown unique stories and
motivations. When we treatidentity as a trope. It can lead
to tokenism andmisrepresentation, which is very
harmful for marginalizedcommunities and not okay. For
example, an enemies to loversdynamic is a trope. A character
(03:31):
being black or Latina is not aforced proximity scenario is a
trope. A character using awheelchair is not a character
having a secret identity is atrope, but a character being
part of the LGBTQIA pluscommunity is not, hopefully,
that clarifies things. If youwere confused before, or you're
(03:54):
like, wow, I'd never thought ofit that way, hoorah, that's what
this show is here for, is tokind of open our eyes and
approach romance a littledifferently than we did before.
So here are some reasons why welove tropes, because they create
that familiarity and thatcomfort. If you are reading a
forced proximity book and yourealize, like, oh, that feeling
(04:20):
of when they are forcedtogether, and then they realize,
Wait, we met, kind of like, likeeach other, and then usually
they bang it out. They movetheir relationship from there,
either in a positive or negativelight, that kind of feeling,
you're like, I know that feelingbecause I've read that feeling
before, and it makes me think ofsitting in my chair and reading
(04:42):
that book. It also gives us asense of predictability, which
is beautiful about romance, thatit has that happily ever after
always there's no argumentthere. It always has that
happily ever after, and you havethat kind of. Feeling of that
thread throughout romance, thosetropes throughout it that give
(05:03):
you that familiarity from adifferent 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 wasapproaching this trope? And so I
think it allows for a reallysatisfying resolution, but it
also gives us kind of a formulato work with. We kind of know
(05:25):
what to expect and we understandwhat's going to happen. So why
do we see that people say, hey,here are some tropes that are
included in this book. Now youmight be someone who does not
like spoilers. I love spoilers.
I'm always down for spoilers. Soif you want to spoil something
(05:46):
for me, please do. I'm alwaysopen to that. But one thing that
I love about tropes is that itestablishes the type of story
and the emotional journey thatthe author is going to take us
on. For example, if there's aforest proximity scenario, then
you know that there's going tobe some intimacy and some
tension in that book. So ifyou're ready for that kind of
(06:09):
energy, then you can go into it.
But maybe you're looking formaybe something with a grumpy
sunshine trope, where that ismore of a heartwarming story.
Opposites attract, probably abit of personal growth. And so
you get to decide, knowing thosetropes and going into a book,
how you want to best prepare.
(06:31):
Now this is not to say that whenan author includes tropes into a
romance novel that it makes thestory dull. No any skilled
author is able to take thosecommon tropes, make them fresh,
make them exciting, spin them adifferent way, and make it feel
even more unique to thosecharacters, which is what I
(06:54):
love. Now, before we get intoour lovely examples, because I'm
so excited to share those withyou, let's go ahead and go into
micro tropes. This is somethingthat I have seen so much. I like
to think of tropes as yourbigger pieces when you're
building a house. I don't buildhouses, so this is literally the
worst analogy I could possiblypick. But all right, let's do
(07:21):
this, because that is not goingto be a good example. I like to
do paint by numbers. I like tolisten to audiobooks, do some
paint by numbers, and dopuzzles. That's what I like to
do when I'm not really feelinglike watching TV or doing things
during the weekend and I want togive myself kind of a break.
Those are my spoil me moments.
And so when I'm doing a paint bynumber painting, what I like to
(07:43):
do is I will start with thebigger parts. I don't start with
number one. I don't like, youknow, usually they're labeled
with numbers, and then thepainting is labeled with
numbers. I usually start withthe bigger chunks of the
painting. Now, you might do itthe opposite way, where you
(08:03):
start with the little pieces ofthe painting, or the little
portions of the painting, andthen move on to the bigger
parts. It really is up to you.
But what I like about that isthat it allows me to see, okay,
I'm getting a lot done, and thenI can do the little smaller
details. And if I paint oversome things, it's not going to
(08:23):
mess it up too much, because thelines are already there pretty
well. The same thing goes fortropes versus micro tropes. Your
tropes are your bigger piecesthat make that paint by number
picture, and then your microtropes are those smaller, more
subtle patterns that we seewithin a romance novel. Now, a
micro trope is the recurringelements. It's the specific
(08:47):
moments or the turn of phrasethat pop up within the larger
tropes, or even on their own. Sohere are a few examples to help
you get an idea of what I'mtalking about. He falls first.
That is not a trope. It is amicro trope, and it describes
this dynamic where onecharacter, which is typically a
male main character, developsromantic feelings for the other
(09:11):
person before they do. And itadds a layer of vulnerability
and a bit of pining that I couldjust eat up. And I love that
trope, especially for yourcontemporary male female
pairings. Those ones are justYes. Anytime there's a he falls
(09:31):
first, I'm usually in line forthat. And then the accidental
touch, this makes me think of ifyou've seen the Pride and
Prejudice movie with KeiraKnightley and Matthew McFadden,
because, of course, I know hisname,
they have that moment where helike helps her up to the
(09:54):
carriage, and he like flexes hishand. Right? That hand flex
moment? Yes, you guys know whatI'm talking about. Yeah, or
you've got the moment in movieswhere they're kind of standing
next to each other and theirhands almost touch, right? It's
that innocent but really dynamicphysical, almost physical
contact that just lights up themoment. It creates a little bit
(10:18):
more of the underlying feelingsand that tension and just Yes,
chef's kiss love it that is amicro trope. It is not a trope.
Another one could be traumabonding. This is not a trope,
but these maybe characters gothrough a shared lived
experience. Pretty sure we seethis a lot in some of those
(10:38):
darker romances, especiallythose captive, dark romances
where maybe two characters aretrapped together, and this adds
an emotional weight that canaccelerate their relationship.
So they're together in thisconfined space, and then they
build this relationship a lotquicker than they would if they
had other outside elements toimpact them. Microtropes might
(11:02):
seem like they are small piecesto this puzzle, but they still
play a huge role in creating awonderfully beautiful romance
novel. Just adds a bit moretension, deepens the character
development and the connectionbetween these characters. So
that is the difference betweenmicro tropes and tropes. Now
(11:25):
let's go ahead and explore someof those popular trope
categories, because when I waseven thinking about this, I
didn't realize that tropesreally could be categorized in a
really simple way. So you've gotyour character tropes, your
relationship tropes and yourplot tropes, those are typically
the three that we see.
Relationship tropes couldinclude grumpy, sunshine,
(11:46):
cinnamon roll, main character,or maybe a bad boy. The
relationship tropes tend to beenemies to lovers, fake
relationship, or maybe it's asecond chance romance. And then
you've got your plot tropes,which are forced proximity,
(12:07):
secret identity, and my leastfavorite, amnesia, which this is
just not my thing, notinterested, not about it. But
here are six of my favoritetropes, and I'm gonna give you
three examples of each one. Soour first is friends to lovers.
Now, friends to lovers can be areally complex one. There's so
(12:30):
many angles that it can beplayed with. And you've got your
estranged friends to lovers,you've got your childhood
friends to lovers, your collegefriends to lovers, or even your
workplace friends to lovers.
There's so much there, but let'sgo ahead and get into some of my
favorite examples of this. BenAbout You by AC Taylor, it's a
(12:54):
male female, black contemporaryromance. After being betrayed by
his fiance right before hiswedding, Blaze heads to his best
friend bree's house. Sheconsoles him, and as time goes
on, one thing leads to another,they discover that, wait a
minute, I actually could haveromantic feelings for my best
(13:16):
friend. This one was reallyinteresting to read because
Bree, the female main characterwas not interested in having a
standard relationship. She justwanted the benefits. She was not
trying to be in love, and shefought it for most of the book.
But I really enjoyed this one. Ithought it was so good. Another
(13:36):
one is naked in your bed byTuesday Harper, it is a female,
female, sapphic, black romancebetween roommates who are also
friends. They're having a partyat their house. One thing leads
to another, and then theyfinally tell each other how they
feel. There's a bit of a dynamicthere too, because not only are
they roommates, which gives youthe forced proximity trope as
(14:00):
well, but there's some dramawith the other roommates and
them how they feel about thembeing in this relationship.
Another one is just for thecameras by Viano omiyomo, and
that is a polyamorous blackromance. It is. Mmf, so male,
male, female, and I'm going totry to describe these as best I
(14:24):
can as I'm going through them,because I tend to just talk in
bookish acronyms when I'msharing things. And so I want to
make sure, if you're not privyto these bookish acronyms, that
I'm describing it to you as bestI can. This one is between an
established sex cam couple, sowe've got a bit of sex work in
(14:44):
there, and their demisexualroommate. So you will find a lot
of these demisexualrelationships in the friends to
lovers, since being friends orgetting to know someone is what
leads to sexual attraction for ademisexual person. 10. You'll
also notice that there are somedemisexual relationships in the
(15:05):
forced proximity, specificallyaround workplace, where they get
to know someone, they've maybebeen working for someone or with
someone for an establishedperiod of time, and then they
have that sexual attraction. Ifyou want to know more about
demisexuality, please make sureto check out episode nine with
Margarita, where we talked aboutsexual and romantic spectrums.
(15:30):
All right, next we have ourforest proximity. This is very
similar to friends to lovers, inthat it captures a lot of
nuance. It's more of a tropethat people use, but for a lot
of different things, and thatcould include roommates,
neighbors. Maybe they're forcedto work on a project together.
(15:51):
Maybe they're snowed in, ormaybe they work together. So
it's not that they want to worktogether. Have to, because they
both have this job, and so it'sanything that forces these
characters to be in a spacephysically that they otherwise
wouldn't be. So somerecommendations I love is make
room for love by Darcy Lau. Itis a FF trans main character in
(16:16):
Butch, lesbian contemporaryromance. They're roommates.
There's also some by awakeningand some really sweet caretaking
in this book. It is so good,highly recommend. Another one is
back to me by Katie Duggan. Thisis a female, female contemporary
romance. It has ADHD, fat andchronic illness representation,
(16:42):
which I love that we've got allthis representation in this
book. They dated as teenagers,and now they're roommates, so
it's got a bit of that secondchance trope as well. And then
we've got chaos by Jack Whitney.
You can see me interviewing heron episode four, and that is a
male female contemporary rockstar romance where we have a bi
(17:04):
male main character. He's agolden retriever, and he faked
eight, a very grumpy autisticand ADHD, mid sized model with
some dark secrets. Now this onehas some suspense elements that
are outside of the couple. Soit's not considered a dark
(17:25):
romance. I would consider itmore of a suspense romance. The
next one is grumpy sunshine.
This one's pretty selfexplanatory, but there's also
this idea that a lot of peopleuse with grumpy sunshine, and
that is, they will use theverbiage of reverse grumpy
sunshine. There should not be areverse
(17:49):
trope. So it just makes it soundlike only the male main
characters can be grumpy, andthat's not really how it works.
I mean, I'm tend to be a prettygrumpy person sometimes. So I'm
all about a female maincharacter being grumpy, and I do
have a post I'll make sure Ilink it in the show notes, in
(18:09):
the description, where I giverecommendations for grumpy
sunshine and she is grumpy.
That's a post that I love torefer back to, and it's a good
one. So for this one, let's goahead and jump into some of my
favorites. We've got theromantic agenda by Claire Khan.
This is an interracial, male,female contemporary romance.
It's got an asexual female maincharacter. Make sure you go
(18:32):
check out that episode eightwith Margarita, so that way you
can understand asexuality. Ifthat's something that you're not
familiar with, it's a bit of alove square. But you've got your
female main character who is inlove with her best friend, he's
in love with someone else, andher best friend, the male main
character is in love with her.
(18:55):
And so it gets to be a bitinteresting. The main characters
end up fake dating each other tomake the other couple jealous,
only to realize, Wait, we kindof really actually do like like
each other. So that one is quitea ride, but so much fun roaming
holiday by Marina Hill. That'san interracial male, female
(19:19):
royalty, bodyguard romance.
Those are a bit more of yourcharacter tropes. You've got a
royalty or a bodyguard. I liketo think of this book as
Princess Diaries two, which itmaybe is dating me, but who
cares? I'm a millennial.
Princess Diaries two, butinstead, Mia is mixed race and
(19:40):
falls for her bodyguard. Yeah.
And there's a bit of like,understanding that there's some
parts about royalty that theywant to change, giving power
back to the people, actuallyhelping the people. There's a
lot of those elements that Ireally, really love, so that
one's a good one. And. Thenbossed by the orc by SAAM King.
This one is so delicious. It isa male female, faded mates,
(20:07):
urban fantasy. It's between arich, business minded orc and a
woman down on her luck. There isa clear size difference. The
female main character is, I wantto say mid size or plus size as
well. I don't know if she'seither mid or plus size. And the
book is spicy. It is delicious.
(20:34):
Him fighting the whole fadedmates thing is so funny to read,
and it's just so good. Next wehave the enemies to lovers. This
one tends to also encompassrivals to lovers, or
inconveniences to lovers,sometimes as well, where the
person's slightlyinconvenienced. It's an enemies.
(20:56):
Some people get really upsetabout 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 tolovers. So we've got dark city
omega by Elizabeth Stevens, whoI interviewed in episode eight.
Go ahead and check that episodeout, which is a male female
dystopian Omega verse fantasywhere the Omegas are hunted down
(21:21):
by the Berserkers, and our malemain character is a Berserker,
and our female main character isan omega. So there's some
serious enemies to lovers inthat one. Next we have pride and
protest by Nikki Payne, which isa male female, interracial,
modern retelling or adaptationof Pride and Prejudice by Jane
(21:44):
Austen. I loved that this bookhas some little nods to the
original. In this one, thefemale main character wants to
take the neighborhood back fromthe developers, and he's the
CEO, and it's got a bit of thatopposite sides of the track,
micro trope on there, since hegrew up really rich and she did
(22:07):
not Next, we have sweet hand byEngie Peltier. That is a male
female black romance. It's got abi male main character. And this
one has a bit of force proximityas well. Since these two enemies
have to work together for awedding that they're both in,
he's the best man. She's themaid of honor. This one, I would
(22:30):
say, is not your standardenemies to lovers. It's more of
an I don't like you to begrudging friends to actual
friends to lovers for that one,and then we have marriage of
convenience. This one isinteresting, because we see
marriage of convenience tends tobe conflated with arranged
(22:51):
marriage. And here's how I liketo differentiate them for myself
and how I view them. Andhonestly, this is up to you. If
you decide you don't want toview them this way, that's okay
too. There are no rules to this,except that romance has an HTA,
okay, so marriage ofconvenience, I like to think of
that as you have something thatyou need in in order to get that
(23:15):
thing, you have to be married.
And we'll go through someexamples as we talk through
this. But the arranged marriage,I like to think of that as
something outside of yourself isforcing you to this arrangement.
There might be some conveniencein this arrangement. Maybe it
saves your family, maybe it doessomething good for you, but it's
(23:36):
someone outside of you tellingyou that you have to do this in
order to move forward, and soZeni, by Rebecca Weatherspoon,
is a great example of a marriageof convenience. I love that it's
subtitled A marriage ofinconvenience, because that's
how a lot of these marriages ofconvenience really feel like. So
(23:56):
you've got a buy for buy malefemale romance between a black
woman and a very sweet, plussize Scotsman. The marriage of
convenience takes place becausethey have to get married in
order for both of them toreceive an inheritance from
zenny's Aunt. It's really greatfor some family secrets. Really
(24:17):
delicious smut, and theaudiobook is chef's kiss so
good.
Next is finding my bodyguard bya blossom. This is a male female
black romance, and our femalemain character finds herself in
need of protection from hercurrent fiance and her father,
(24:39):
who are both mafia mob, and whatbetter way to protect someone
than to marry them, to keep hersafe? And so it's a bit of that
kind of energy really good next.
Let me for you by Alexandriahouse. Be sure to check out
Episode 10, where I talked withAlexandria house. Is about all
of her books. This one is amale, female, black romance, and
(25:02):
it is a part of the McLeanbrothers series. So we see Neil
throughout the series, and thisis, I want to say, the second to
last book in the series. I wasactually pleasantly surprised by
how much I liked this book,since I didn't really like Neil
in the other books, so I likethis one. In this one, the
(25:24):
female main character needs toget married so that she doesn't
get deported, and he's willingto help her out. So I really
like that aspect, because Ihadn't personally read a book
like that before, but I amstarting to see some that have
this dynamic where someone isgoing to get deported and
someone else is willing to helpthem next. We have fake dating.
(25:45):
I love a good fake dating.
Literally. I feel like there'sno reason anyone would ever need
to fake date, but I still likethose tropes. So we've got
butterfly effect by Ruby Rana. Iinterviewed her in Episode Six,
and this one is a male femalecontemporary hockey romance. We
(26:11):
have a bi male main characterwho ends up having to fake date
a very fiery sports anchor.
There is so much pining becausehe falls first, which, like I
said, is one of my favoritemicro tropes, and there's also
some pegging. So it's wonderful.
Great book. Next we have birdingwith benefits by Sarah T dub. I
(26:34):
just finished this one like twoweeks ago. Also Sarah T dub
writes spicy novellas as AlizaMcLean, so you might know her
from there. This one is hercontemporary 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 isthe kind of book that you would
(26:57):
like and enjoy, especially ifyou thought that one was
interesting, they go birding.
It's a bit of a romantic comedy.
There's nature, there's sleepingin a tent. You do not have the
only one sleeping bag in thisone, but I really just like this
one of this woman rediscoveringherself after divorce, right on
(27:22):
the cusp of being a free bird,or that's what my, one of my
clients, likes to call being anempty nester. Is being a free
bird, and she is just trying todiscover who she is and what she
enjoys, and follows her fallingin love through that. And so I
love, love, love, love, thisbook so good. Next is take a
(27:43):
hint. Dani brown by TaliaHibbert. This is a male female
romance. We've got a bi andwitchy female main character who
works in academia and a formerrugby player, which means them
thighs, who is a security guardat her job. They break a table
(28:03):
with their activities. I feellike that's all you really need
to know in order to want to readthis book. So I want to know
what your favorite romance tropeis. You can find me on Instagram
at we read smut. If you're onSpotify, you can comment below.
If you're on YouTube, commentbelow. Let me know what your
(28:24):
favorite trope is. I want toknow, but romance tropes, well,
I know they can be a bitpredictable. Are some really fun
tools in storytelling. They canmake the story more connected,
more emotional and give usreaders exactly what we want. I
think that by understanding andappreciating tropes, we get a
(28:46):
deeper insight into what itactually takes to make this
romance genre, and remember thateven within the most familiar
tropes, there's always room forcreativity and stories that
really delve into issues that weare dealing with, issues that we
(29:07):
know and love and can learnfrom. Thank you for listening to
this podcast. I'll catch younext time. Whoa,
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