My Top Ten Romance Tropes

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Girl. Each week there is a different topic. This week’s topic is a Love Freebie so I decided to do a post about my favorite romance tropes with two book recommendations for each one. I’m the kind of person that loves having some kind of romance in just about every book I read… I’m a hopeless romantic, what can I say lol. A lot of romance tropes drive people crazy and I’ll admit there are quite a few that do not float my boat at all. But the ten on this list are ones that I usually end up enjoying. Click on the book cover image to go to the Goodreads page for each book.

 

TIME TRAVEL

Anything with a person traveling back in time and finding true love, I am there for it. Might be a bit obvious with my first choice of Outlander but hey, that’s one of my all time-favorites so it had to make the list. In addition to Mariana I would also recommend The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley that would fall under this category. I really enjoyed both.

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ENEMIES TO LOVERS

In this category you’ll find books like the classic Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen but I decided to recommend two that I have recently read and enjoyed. Well Met was super cute and I loved seeing Emily and Simon’s relationship shift and change throughout the book. Dating You/Hating You was also a fun read.

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FORBIDDEN LOVE

There are so many great books with a forbidden love story but I decided to go with two of my favorite fantasy forbidden love stories. In A Discovery of Witches, Diana, a witch, and Matthew, a vampire, are forbidden to be together and yet their love will change the world of the supernatural forever. In Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Karou and Akiva are beings from two different worlds… or are they? They are two different beings but who Karou really is makes their relationship forbidden.

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FAKE RELATIONSHIP

I put off reading To All The Boys for the longest time because I thought it would be too cutesy but I adored it. I devoured the entire trilogy in a few days and I’ve watched the Netflix adaptation probably at least 3 times. I’m really looking forward to the sequel which premieres on Netflix on the Feb. 12th! Lara Jean and Peter K forever! Another fake relationship story I really enjoyed was The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.

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SECOND CHANCE AT LOVE

I really love when characters are able to take a second shot at love with someone it didn’t work out with the first time around. I love second chances in general so adding the romance to it has me sold. Say You Still Love Me was a book I really got into. A cute first love story that didn’t work out and years later they get another chance to rekindle the flame.  And of course, I couldn’t get through this list without adding one from Jane Austen. Persuasion is one of my favorites.

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OPPOSITES ATTRACT

I love reading about two people who seemingly wouldn’t fit together but something sparks between them. These are two recent favorites that fit into that category. Bringing Down the Duke has Annabelle, a recent female entrant into Oxford from a poor family and Sebastian, the Queen of England’s favorite duke. In The Simple Wild, Calla and Jonah are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum… She’s a city girl, he’s a wilderness man.

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SECRET ROMANCE

For one reason or another, some romances need to be kept a secret. In the case of The Royal We, a prince falls in love with an American and they try their hardest to keep their romance out of the tabloids. In Slammed, the new girl and the boy next door hit it off, and then find out that he is her teacher so their relationship has to be kept a secret.

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FRIENDS TO LOVERS

I loved both of these books. F*ck Marriage had a little bit of a difference where the guy had been carrying a torch for the girl for a decade while she was with his best friend. Maybe Someday had two strangers connecting over music, becoming friends and then more.

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SOULMATES/FATE

Last year I ended up binge reading the first 9 books in the Charley Davidson series. If you’re looking for a great paranormal series with a soulmate/fate angle, then look no further than First Grave on the Right. Another great fantasy series in this category is the Caster Chronicles series starting with Beautiful Creatures.

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LOVE TRIANGLE

Lastly there is the love triangle. I don’t typically read a lot of this trope but these are a couple that I really enjoyed. The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher and The Host by Stephenie Meyer.

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What are some of your favorite romance tropes?