If you have spent any time browsing romance books or reading reviews, you will have seen the same phrases again and again: enemies to lovers, slow burn, forced proximity. These are tropes, the familiar story patterns that romance readers know and love. Far from being a bad thing, tropes are one of the best tools you have for finding books you will enjoy. Once you know which ones you love, choosing your next read becomes much easier.
Here is a guide to some of the most popular tropes in steamy romance.
Relationship Tropes
These tropes describe how the main couple, or group, come together.
- Enemies to lovers: two characters who start out as rivals or even sworn enemies slowly realise the tension between them is something else entirely. The sparks fly long before the first kiss.
- Friends to lovers: a long friendship turns into something more. These stories are often warm and emotional, with a lot of history between the characters.
- Second chance romance: former lovers meet again years later and have to face what went wrong the first time.
- Fake dating: two characters pretend to be in a relationship for practical reasons, and of course the feelings become real.
- Forbidden love: something stands between the couple, whether that is family, rank, rules or a rival world.
Setting and Situation Tropes
Some tropes are about the situation the characters find themselves in.
- Forced proximity: the characters have to share a space, such as a snowed-in cabin, a road trip or one bed in a hotel room.
- Marriage of convenience: a practical arrangement that turns into a real relationship.
- Fated mates: common in paranormal romance, where the characters are destined for one another. Shifter stories often use this trope.
- Workplace romance: a boss, a colleague or a business rival, with all the tension that comes with it.
Character Tropes
These tropes focus on who the characters are.
- The alpha hero: confident, protective and often a little dangerous. A favourite in paranormal and dark romance.
- The grumpy one and the sunshine one: one character is closed off and serious, the other is warm and cheerful, and they balance each other out.
- The morally grey hero: not quite a villain, not quite a good guy, which makes him all the more interesting.
- Why choose: the heroine does not have to pick just one love interest. This is the heart of reverse harem stories.
Paranormal romance is especially rich in these, from vampire warriors to shifters and fae. Browse our paranormal romance books if those are the tropes that call to you.
How to Use Tropes to Find Your Next Read
Tropes are a shortcut to books you are likely to love. Try these tips:
- Make a list of your favourites. Think back to the books you could not put down. What did they have in common?
- Notice what you skip. Knowing which tropes you do not enjoy is just as useful.
- Read the blurb carefully. Most book descriptions hint at the main tropes, even if they do not name them.
- Try a new combination. If you love enemies to lovers in contemporary romance, try it in a fantasy or paranormal setting.
- Follow reviewers who share your taste. Reviews often mention tropes, which makes it easy to tell whether a book is for you.
There is no right or wrong when it comes to tropes. Some readers stick happily to their favourites, others love to try everything. Whatever your taste, knowing the language makes it much easier to find the stories that keep you up at night. For more inspiration, take a look at our pick of steamy romance books.