The Romance Tropes Tag

Another tag! Another tag!

This one covers my two favorite things: romance and tropes.

I found this tag on Another Bookworm, where I had a lot of fun reading Karla’s answers. (She’s 100% right about The Ex Hex.)

You can find the original post at The Infinite Library. If you’d like to do the tag yourself, Ashley left a template at the end of the post.

Love at First Sight

A book you fell in love with almost immediately

I wouldn’t call American Royals “good.”

The book has STILL not confirmed whether or not the American monarchy ENDED SLAVERY.

I GENUINELY can’t tell how much of the anti-democracy commentary is SINCERE.

That said, it’s an alternate history romance with some of my favorite tropes and a MIDDLE CHILD POV. I am LOSING MY MIND.

[Addendum: I wrote this last week and have since DNFed the book. I refuse to believe MULTIPLE women would bend over backwards for a guy named JEFF.]

Forbidden Love

A romantic pairing you probably shouldn’t love but do

Seven years after the release of The Force Awakens, I am still Reylo trash.

Allegedly, We’d Know By Then is Reylo fanfic.

It just shot to the top of my TBR.

Stuck Together/Forced Proximity

A book you felt pressured to read (by a friend, Bookstagram, bloggers, etc.)

(I’m writing a Forced Proximity romance and iiiiit’s my favorite. I. Love. Mess.)

I’m finally reading The Eye of the World after a decade of resisting.

I held out so long because of someone I met in college who tried to convince me to read Wheel of Time by trashing my favorite series.

Hey, you want to know what DOESN’T make me want to read something? Talking shit about something I love!

I’ve since read other fantasy books and am finally dipping my toe into ’90s doorstoppers.

It’s been a journey.

Mistaken Identity

A book that wasn’t what you were expecting

I fixated on the reviews of The Bone Shard Daughter that mentioned sapphic romance.

I was expecting an enemies-to-lovers story in the vein of Crier’s War.

Instead, the book had an ensemble cast like The Priory of the Orange Tree.

It was very different from what I’d expected, which is a mood reader’s nightmare.

Second Chance Romance

A book/series you enjoyed more the second time around

I wrote an article about my experience rereading The Night Circus.

In more recent reads, I enjoyed Stardust much more the second time I read it.

This time, I was ready for the adult content.

I still think the ending is kind of sad. Overall, though, it’s a sweet story.

Opposites Attract

A book you love from a genre you don’t normally read

I don’t talk about Our Tragic Universe very often because it’s very weird and hard to describe.

It’s navel-gazey and literary with some strange sci-fi twists.

I love it a lot and kind of want to reread it now.

Enemies to Lovers

A book/series whose second half is better than its first or a series that gets better over time

It’s been a hot second since I mentioned If We Were Villains.

I hated the first 60 pages of this book.

By the end, it had become a favorite.

The ending is infamous for a reason.

Love Triangle

Your house is on fire & you can only save one series! Which two series do you die trying to choose between?

HOW AM I TO ANSWER THIS?

I own the entire 23-volume set of Fruits Basket in its original English translation.

I also own the Crescent City books in hardback.

I love Fruits Basket with all my heart and this is still a difficult choice.

Friends to Lovers

A book you wanted more from

The wording of this prompt is perfect.

Gonna offer an apology to Kait to start with.

Xie gifted me a copy of Tink and Wendy and I didn’t care for it.

My favorite part about Peter Pan is Neverland.

When I read a retelling that spends most of its time in the real world, I feel cheated.

Also, while Tink’s crush on Wendy was cute, I didn’t understand her interest in Peter at all.

There’s only room for one obnoxious person around these parts and it’s ME.

Wait, no, I figured it out. Wendy and Peter had a mother/son dynamic and that’s my LEAST FAVORITE. All the romance left my body. (I…guess this is true to the original text. Whoops.)

Side note: I was most invested in John’s crush on Peter and the book was NOT, so we had to part ways.

Meet Cute

A book that got you hooked on romance

Well Met was one of the first romance novels I read in 2021 and the one that turned me into a romance reader.

It has Enemies to Lovers! Forced Proximity! Grumpy x Sunshine! I’m obsessed!

Soulmates

Two characters who are made for each other

I started Hang the Moon and DNFed pretty quickly.

I thought it hewed too closely to traditional gender dynamics. It wasn’t cute.

While skimming reviews for an excuse to DNF, I found this absolute gem of a review:

“Their boring vanilla asses are perfect for each other and it works.”

True soulmates. ❤

Bonus!

Your favorite romance trope(s) & a book that features it

I have SO many tropes I love AND some relevant book recs!

For slow burn romance, read Winter’s Orbit!

For Was It All a Lie?, read House of Sky and Breath!

For Enemies to Lovers, check out Sweethand!

For angel/devil shipping, try Good Omens!

For a bodyguard crush, read A Thousand Pieces of You!

I have been reading a lot of fantasy lately. I gotta read more romance.

Throw me your favorite romance recs!

If you know of an SFF book with a strong romantic subplot, even better!