My Favorite Tropes in Romance Novels

Ramona Mead
4 min readApr 15, 2021
Photo by Cristian Newman on Unsplash

When someone tells me they don’t like romance novels, I always cringe inwardly (and sometimes outwardly) because I remember when I felt that way. Now I believe that if someone says they don’t like romance, it’s because they simply haven’t found the right kind yet!

When you think of romance novels, you might have one specific idea come to mind of what that means to you. But while there are criteria that must be present to make it a romance novel, there’s a whole world of sub-genres and tropes that give the genre a ton of variety.

If you love mysteries and thrillers but you pick up a historical fiction novel, you might find it slow and dry. In the same way that knowing what genres appeal to you, knowing what tropes you enjoy or dislike can help you find books that are a right fit. If you’re new at navigating the world of romance novels, tropes can be your friend.

Once you recognize what you like, you’ll want more of that! So here’s a guide to my favorite tropes with some examples.

My Favorite Tropes in Romance Novels

1. Second chance love

Second chance romances focus on couples who reconnect after time apart. Sometimes this is childhood sweethearts reuniting in adulthood, or it can be an adult couple who reconnect…

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Ramona Mead
Ramona Mead

Written by Ramona Mead

Avid reader, writer of true stories, book hoarder, eternal optimist

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