Romance Tropes

Arranged Marriage

Often the parents/guardians of the hero and/or heroine, assuming they know best arrange for a union between the two. Usually one or both parties will protest vehemently before underground machinations like blackmail, threatened disinheritance force them into the marriage. The marriage will start out shakily but eventually burst into cute butterflies and roses as the couple fall in love. The other version is the marriage of convenience where one party is forced to get married to get out of some trouble e.g. blackmail, gambling debts, collapsing business empires, trouble with the media. The trouble may be the makings of the other party to manipulate their hand.

Best Friend’s Big Brother

The heroine has always had a rather unhealthy fascination with her best friend’s older brother. Suave Alex on the other hand has never noticed little Miss Friend. One day she decides she’s over the whole love from a distance and decides to seduce him.

Best Friend’s Little Sister

The brother’s best friend has always been protective of her. He is just the right amount of protective and thoughtful, almost like a brother. Problem is she doesn’t think of him as a brother or he’s been latently attracted to her.  He won’t go after her because of the bro-code (let alone the fact that Big Bro has a reputation of pummeling potential suitors) and the feeling that he’s still responsible for her. But when another man enters the scene, he goes all Alpha male. What to do…

Best Friends

They’ve known each other since childhood, high-school or the first day of University and instantly clicked. Instead of becoming romantic their relationship went straight to friends perhaps because one was a plain Jane/Joe or too quiet to expose their feelings.  When the other finally realizes they have feelings too, conflicted feelings appear

Bet

Bets will make characters do just about anything. They will go to ridiculous lengths to prove they can win (even sabotage), lengths that could land the protagonist into a lot of trouble such as arranged marriages, one night in each other’s arms, a date.  Or maybe in the course of the games and competitions they find out that they are evenly matched and start to fall for each other.

Boss –Secretary

Okay so the boss-secretary romance trope is strange in this world of law suits and sexual harassment but true romantics still believe that office romance is alive and well. Often the hero will be an Alpha male with no intentions of being entangled. The underling on the other hand will harbor some feelings for the boss but never tell.

Brother/Sister’s Intended

A touch of the forbidden added to the betrayal of falling for a sibling’s intended. Never mind the fact that sibling dearest has no real feelings for their intended.  The intended is of course honorable and his fall from grace will be a painful emotional rollercoaster.

Fake Betrothal/Marriage

One of the main characters finds themselves in a fix that only marriage will solve. Because they are not willing to take the plunge only pretend will do. Till they discover feelings for their savior and suddenly pretend doesn’t seem so attractive anymore…

Family Enemies

Their families can’t stand each other maybe because of competing business interests or generational warfare that can be traced back to the Dark ages. But the two meet and suddenly sparks are flying. None of them wants this to happen furthermore their relatives are watching over their shoulders like hawks.

Family Friends but Enemies

Their families have always been family friends but for some strange reason these two cannot be in the same room without pans flying. Then suddenly they discover a common nemesis and have to work together and suddenly the only things flying are pants.

Guardian/Ward

The hero is responsible for the heroine’s well being. He is supposed to hand her off to marriage but suddenly they both discover feelings for each other. This trope has the unfortunate potential to degrade into a parody of incest, it is therefore important to make sure that the guardian does not know the heroine when she was a child (eww). He may be older but not old.

Learning to Love Again

Protagonist 1 has been bitten once two many times by love, a few deaths or heartbreaks will do. Finally s/he has decided that living single is not a bad thing. Enter protagonist 2 who decided to put on some moves to win this resistant heart. It may take some patience to soothe away the reluctance but we hope love will win.

Love at First Punch

They hate each other on sight in fact it may involve some kind of verbal abuse. She hates that he’s so arrogant; he thinks she is a witch. They immediately become enemies but apparently the town is too small because they keep meeting. Finally one of them discovers that their feelings aren’t quite as unfriendly as they thought.  The other doesn’t appreciate the sudden amorous attentions but finds her/himself attracted however. The worst if the two may eventually reform.

Love Triangle

Harry and Jim both love Liz, poor Liz can’t quite decide who she’d rather be with. Will it be dependable Harry or passionate Jim? Is Harry not quite as stodgy as we thought or has Jim got a dependable bone we never knew existed? Who will she fall for? Now make Harry and Jim siblings and see if we can make Liz’s life even more complicated. Then one of the suitors steps back because all they want is for Liz to be happy…but Liz was just poised to choose him.

Makeover

A plain Jane or plain Joe is transformed into an irresistible swan (can be done by protagonist 2). Protagonist 2 suddenly discovers latent attraction to the new Jane/Joe. Unfortunately Plain Jane/Joe has decided to play the field or still has insecurities considering their former warts.  The Ugly Duckling may interpret Protagonists 2’s sudden interest as some form of fickleness.  He/she then has to prove that s/he loves Ugly Duckling for who they are not who they look like.

Mistaken Identity

The hero/heroine is not what he/she is thought to be. The masquerade may be intentional or accidental. He/she cannot reveal who they really are because of the stakes involved. Usually there may be impersonating other characters and twins.

Opposites Attract

The two are completely different from each other; he’s a good boy, she’s a bad girl; he’s the school jock, she’s the nerd who has to tutor him. The neighborhood librarian and the flirt suddenly discover they have one or two things for each other. She’s rich, he’s dirt poor.

Second Chance

Once upon a time there were two lovers. They were passionate and intensely in love till they had a dramatic parting because of parental interference, infidelity, job transfers, tragedies etc. A miracle happens and they meet again – actually it might not be as much a miracle as the machinations of one of the characters. They rediscover their love finally understanding that they are soul-mates.

Secret Baby

Usually the secret baby is a product of an accidental pregnancy during a lost love phase. Of course the heroine doesn’t tell the hero because of past betrayal. In another context the hero could find out about his secret baby by another woman and the heroine comes riding in, maternal hat beneath her arm, to save the day.