Romance Tropes, Ranked // Exposing myself and my reading tastes
Hello hello! Happy Friday, and welcome, weekend!!
I’ve been stuck on the same book for the past week and am trying to chug on through it so I can get a review up, but for today, I thought I’d do something a bit more fun that I’ve seen some other book bloggers do! And that is: ranking popular tropes from least favorite to favorite!
I’m sure that there are many, many more romantic tropes out there, but I’m going with these eight for this post in particular! So, without any more rambling, let’s dive into em!
I am so SO not an instalove fan. I feel absolutely no connection to the characters and have no cares whatsoever for what happens to them. While I sometimes cringe at the “slow” aspect of a slowburn, I’d so much rather an author drag out the romance rather than throw two characters together at the beginning of the story. Where’s the chemistry? Where’s the angst? Where is literally anything I need to have to care about this relationship?
Hello, early 2010’s! Here, take your trope back. We don’t need it anymore. There are SO many other great tropes that have not been done to death, and while this is ~sometimes~ (I use that word with a LOT of hesitation) done well, it very rarely ends without me screaming in frustration.
I’m actually reading a book with this trope right now, and while it’s good, I’m getting tired. This trope is always intriguing for the first little bit, and then it just gets old and I find myself wishing that the characters would just get over it already. Like, I get it, you can’t be together because she’s a princess and he’s a royal guard or some shit like that, but how many times are we gonna play this one out?
I don’t hate second chance, and I honestly don’t think I’ve read too many books with this type of trope, so I can’t speak too much on it. However, I will say that I think it’s hard t connect with the characters in a second chance romance because it’s assumed that they already have an established dynamic, and unless the author can do a really great job of roping us readers into said dynamic, then I usually just feel like I missed the first part of the story.
(I will say, my most recent favorite second chance romance was You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle, she did an amazing job at this and I’d highly recommend!)
Again, I have to have a really good sense of the characters’ relationship prior to the start of the book to really enjoy this trope, but it has been done before and I do usually tend to be into it. I mean, it is only a natural progression from friends to lovers oftentimes, and it’s usually super cute when one friend realizes that they’re into the other romantically *hehe*.
(Mild spoilers: The two books that come to mind for this trope are The Grisha Trilogy & Felix Ever After, both of which I thought were great!!)
When the burn is TOO slow, I riot. I feel like authors have been enjoying our pain and suffering these days and have made a lot of current releases have just the slowest of slow burns (lookin’ at you, Cassie Clare!). I bet it’s like a game amongst authors – how much suffering can we put our readers through before they begin to write their own fanfic? The answer is always “never enough”.
Can we get all my NA romance ladies in the house?? Christina Lauren? Helen Hoang? Talia Hibbert? Where you at?!
No but I do really love me a good fake dating situation, especially if it incorporates an enemies-to-lovers trope??? A double hitter??? We stan. While I do think that a lot of the contemporary books that feature this trope are often pretty cut-and-paste when it comes to plot progression, I’m still (and always will be) trash for them.
And the one, the only top ranked trope is, of course, the beloved enemies to lovers trope. We can thank ACOMAF for blessing (re: cursing?) us with this painfully angsty trope, something that I am utterly wrecked by. I also think that, if done right, this trope can incorporate so many tropes into one: the slowburn, the love triangle, the fake dating, the second chance romance, SO many! I also love the snark that so many authors are able to write into this trope – enemies argue, okay?? I just love this trope all around and while I think it’s well on it’s way to become the most overused and overdone trope in the book world, I can’t imagine ever not being excited welcome the emotional pain and joy that it brings.
So my friends, that’s all for this one!
What do you think? What would you rate as your highest and lowest tropes? Do you want to fight me over any of my rankings on here?
Thank you so so much for reading, and I’ll talk to ya after I finish this 600+ page mammoth of a book I’m currently reading!
30 Comments
Jawahir
My least favorites are also insta love and love triangles! As a reader I need time to get my feelings out straight on how I think about the two love interests. And as for love triangles, I get tired just thinking about it.
Enemies to lovers are also my favorite! But girl Enemies to lovers x forbidden love is a whole another level of angst…
erin
Ooooooh I don’t think I’ve read an enemies to lovers x forbidden love but I can imagine the angsty is off the charts – I don’t know if my emotionally weak heart could handle it!!
Tasya @ The Literary Huntress
I love this and totally agree with this ranking! I hate insta-love with a burning passion, along with “established romance” right after it. Not that I hate established couples, but I find it harder for me to connect if the romance is already ongoing. I enjoyed second chance romance though, maybe because we still see the spark and courting process again with this trope 🙂 I love the increasing trend of fake-relationship trope in books lately! And enemies to lovers is just my favooorite 🥺 It’s very rare that I did not enjoy it (when this trope just crosses the line and became toxic) and in general, I love it!
erin
Yes!! So many fake-relationship books lately – I always worry when I see it in the synopsis that it’s gonna be just a loose copy of other fake relationship stories, but a lot of them have really surprised me with their uniqueness and I end up loving them!! 🥰
Corina
I LOVE Enemies to Lovers, and FORBIDDEN – lol. Second Chance and Friends to Lovers don’t always work for me. But I hate Love Triangles, it’s so bad that I refuse to read the books. Also Insta Love is so overused. 😀
erin
RIGHT like why is instalove even a trope? I want to talk to someone who actually likes that in books because how?!
Noura
Love this! My favorites have to be enemies to lovers and fake dating.
erin
thank you! 🥰 two superior tropes (:
Joss @theonewhoreadit
ok but how can you write great posts every single time? Oh my, I completely agree with you on insta-love. I read a book recently with that trope (What If It’s Us) and I just did not like it. It was so annoying and yeah I felt like the romance went out of nowhere. Yeah, not for me. I don’t really like second chance romance for the same reasons you’ve mentioned and I am SO DONE with the fake dating trope. Enemies to lovers is the best. I do like a slowburn honestly but I agree that sometimes it can be too slow. And WOW good luck with finishing your current read!
erin
Aw thank you love!! 🥰 I didn’t like What If It’s Us either, I feel like they went from not knowing each other to being a couple of like 50+ years in only, like, 50 pages?? Not into it! And totally agree, fake dating is so fun in some situations but I think the market has been oversaturated at this point and we def need to shake things up!!!
Linda @ flourishreader
Enemies-to-lovers is the ultimate romance trope and I absolutely agree. 👍🏼 I also like the forbidden lovers and slowburn trope (kinda shakespearean but still works for me). I haven’t read many books ft. fakedating as a trope so that’s something I need to catch up on. 🤔
erin
Oooh yes, if they’re forbidden lovers it def has to be a slowburn, honestly I should’ve ranked slowburn higher because it’s so gratifying when it pays off!!
Emme
Your order is pretty much exactly the same as mine!
The only thing I would change is enemies to lovers with friends to lovers! 🙂
erin
Haha I respect it!! Both good tropes, imo 🥰
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Margaret @ Weird Zeal
Insta love really is the worst 👎 I would take the most agonizingly slow slowburn over insta love any day.
Fake dating is so much fun, even though the situations that lead to it can be really contrived. But all the tropes that come along with it never get old!
One of my favorite niche tropes that I don’t see nearly often enough is friends to enemies to lovers. The angst is so good!!
erin
Oh yeah I don’t think I’ve ever read a friends to enemies to lovers but that seems….amazing?? wow i can’t even imagine the angst that would come with!!!
April Lee
great list!! enemies to lovers and the fake dating are 100% my faves! i especially love the wit and snark between characters. the 👏 best 👏 i also can not stand the insta-love. to me, the best part of romance is watching all of the feelings develop from little caterpillars to beautiful relationship butterflies. insta-love just sucks all the happy gooey feelings right out of it for me. ick
Breanna
Enemies to Lovers (or Hate to Love) is the crème de la crème of romance tropes! It doesn’t matter how many times I read it, I will never tire of it lol. Friends to lovers and fake dating are fantastic as well. I’m also huge trash for “kissing to hide in plain sight” and ~there’s only one bed 👀~ tropes! Great post, Erin! 💕
erin
Oh my gosh YES top tropes!!! kissing the hide in plain sight? peak romance. thank you!! 🥰
Olivia @ Purely Olivia
I love this ranking, Erin!! I don’t know how I didn’t make the connection that ACOMAF was completely enemies to lovers until I read that in your post (I only just read the ACOTAR books for the first time last month, haha), but it really is, and I did love the slowburn. I think enemies to lovers when paired with slowburn is the best….but ahh, I also love friends to lovers so much, just because it’s always so adorable and I love watching the romance slowly and sweetly develop.🥺
erin
YES slowburn paired with any trope is honestly so superior!! I need to read more friends to lovers, I can imagine there’s some super cute ones out there that I’ve totally missed! 🥰
Bron
Aaaaaah this is such a fun post!
As a self-confessed Hallmark romance movie fan my favourite trope is probably country girl who has moved to the big city returns home for some reason and then its either old school friends to lovers or new in town guy enemies to lovers!
Fake dating, and there’s only one bed are also favourites of mine!
erin
OH yes that sounds like golden trope content!!! I’m getting Hart of Dixie vibes and I love it. Totally agree, add only one bed to any romance scene and it’s automatically elevated(:
Ruby Rae Reads
Ah I LOVED reading this post and seeing where you ranked everything!!
I think ~sometimes~ insta-love can be done well, but I’m SO WITH YOU on preferring angst slow-burn so have to agree with you there. Same goes for love triangles. I’ve only seen it done well once but otherwise NOPE. I HATE having to choose between two characters, especially when you can clearly tell the author is leaning towards one of them *cough* The Hunger Games *cough* Okay no, I have no faults by Suzanne, because I understand why she had the two there but I HATE Gale with a burning passion lmao so yeah.
I also don’t have many opinions on second chance because I haven’t read all that many, and I’d like to read more to see what I feel hehe. But I agree, if the author doesn’t make us believe that there is previous chemistry, then its not great. I AM SO EXCITED to read You Deserve Each Other!! I was actually a bit scared that maybe the dynamic wouldn’t be there and the story would be kinda useless but I’ve been assured haha.
SO SO SO WITH you on fake dating and enemies to lovers. Also two of my faves. Friends to lovers would be number three for me though. I think. Actually no I think I’d put slow-burn at number one because all three of those can be slow burn.
erin
RIGHT like why you tryin to make us conflicted with a love triangle when we’re clearly gonna lean towards the person the author wants us to lean towards…also just SO overdone!!
I can’t wait to see you freak out over You Deserve Each Other omg PEAK friends to enemies to lovers I hope you love it so so much ❤️
El
Enemies to lovers! But I kinda prefers the teasing beginning bit to the lovey end so maybe my favourite trope is flirting enemies? 😂 Give me ALL the angst
erin
Anything flirting is top tier honestly, enemies who have that ~angsty flirting~ is SUCH a good trope ugh you’re so right
Lais @ The Bookish Skies
ahhh, i have to disagree with forbidden lovers. i love it! it’s definitely one of my favorite tropes, even the princess and the guard that can be so overdone works like magic for me every time lol. it’s such an overdramatic trope, i can definitely see why it can be tiring, though.
i think second chance romance can be done very well but also very badly. i don’t really love whenever it’s a back and forth situation (like in the movie love rosie, idk if you’re familiar but yeah not a fan), but i love circumstances of failed relationships like in ‘you deserve each other’ or ‘the bromance book club’. i think it’s so interesting because since the characters already know each other, they know just how to push each other’s buttons but also how to win them back!
i’m not a fan of enemies to lovers, but fake dating would have to be my #1. it works for me *every single time* and i really need to read christina lauren and talia hibbert’s take on this trope!
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