Back on April 9–does anybody really know what time it is?–The Ripped Bodice (bookstore in Culver City, CA, on twitter is @TheRippedBodice) tweeted these tables using romance tropes in the Quarantine Restaurant. I had so much fun reading which tropes romance readers and writers love and hate. The Ripped Bodice admitted to deliberately seating some of the most hated with the most loved at the same table just to make it harder to choose. Many people wanted to float table to table and sample a little from here, a little from there. Or sit at one table but watch another table with longing. It was a meta romance experience.
Throughout my life, I think I’ve read more romance than I realize, but I’m certainly not as versed in romance as tons of devoted readers. The past few months, thanks to free and low-priced ebooks, I’ve read more new-to-me writers and writers who are contemporary (because admittedly, a lot of the romantic suspense and regency romances I’ve read were written decades ago). It’s been a great escape, sometimes surprisingly moving, and the best part is getting familiar with writers and characters who are dissimilar to me in race, national origin/region, religious background, careers, and age, for example.
I’m not sure which table I’d pick, so I decided to see if there were any tropes I’ve used in my own fiction from among these. And I can tell you, I was shocked at how many people HATE billionaires, which is sad, because I have one, and he’s very special to me across several books I’ve written (shut up, Marika, he is NOT A SERIAL KILLER).
From Table 1, I have served a Billionaire.
Table 2, definitely a Secret Identity, at least twice, maybe three times.
Table 3, Amnesia and Nurse Back to Health.
Table 4, Love Triangle and My Sibling’s Best Friend.
Table 5, I haven’t done a Secret Baby, but definitely a baby whose paternity is a secret. More than once. And Fated Mates goes without saying. I am a strong believer in Fated Mates, and it’s probably my most used trope.
Table 6, Matchmaking Gone Wrong I believe I once used in one of my pseudonymous short stories.
Thoughts on what you like and don’t like in your romances? Are there some missing tropes you do or don’t enjoy reading?