About half-way through my second book (Courage to Change), one of the side characters started to whisper quietly in the back of my mind.
He was a good guy, he said. He’d like to fall in love. And okay, sure, maybe he was in school right now, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t ready to find Mrs. Right.
I kept shushing him. Honestly, I had books to write! At the time, I’d planned a third in that original series and maybe a prequel novella. And then there was another set of stories already tugging at me. So I looked at Jackson and told him to shut up, sit down, and wait his turn.
He did.
But he was grumpy about it.
As I wrote those other books, he kept occasionally clearing his throat loudly and reminding me that he was around.
And then finally, FINALLY, I was finished with the plan I’d laid out and casting around for the next best idea and there he was. Graduated from college with a fancy new job working for a Senator and desperate for his own story.
And thus was A Splash of Substance born.
At the time, I didn’t necessarily decide on the trope I was going for before I started writing. So it’s kind of tricky to go back now and figure that out, because I didn’t glue myself to tropes in their entirety. There’s a little bit of hate to love and a whole bunch of opposites attract when it comes to Jackson and Paige.
Jackson, of course, had roommates. And it wasn’t long into the writing of A Splash of Substance that Ben and Zach were wandering onto the page and looking at me with expectantly raised eyebrows.
So A Pinch of Promise gave Ben a second chance with his long-lost love Rebecca. And A Dash of Daring gave Zach a workplace romance with his teacher friend Amy.
And then I hit a little snag. Because trilogies seem to have gone the way of the buffalo these days, so I knew I needed more. Rebecca had friends, thankfully, who came into the series with her. And so book four, A Handful of Hope, shifted to Rebecca’s friend Jen. This is another workplace romance with a tiny bit of love at first sight in there. And finally, book five, A Tidbit of Trust, is a hate to love story for Rebecca’s other friend, Sara.
I love this series. Even though it doesn’t follow those trope guidelines maybe as well as it should. And even though my first blurbs weren’t fabulous, so it never really has gotten much attention from readers. I’ve had reasons to dig back into the stories lately and they just make my heart happy.
I also love that, if you’ve read Kinsale Kisses (my novella set primarily in Ireland), you get a chance to see more of Colin and Rachel in several of the Taste of Romance books — including their wedding in A Handful of Hope. (If you haven’t read Kinsale Kisses, it’s my only book not in Kindle Unlimited. This is because it’s free to my newsletter subscribers. You can sign up and get a copy here.)
Another thing I love is that this series is a spin-off of the Grant Us Grace series. So you’ll see characters from that first series pop up. And they all go to the same church, where Pastor Brown (a fairly large minor character in the Grant Us Grace books) dispenses God’s word from the pulpit every week. In fact, I enjoy Pastor Brown and his church so much, that he and his church are showing up in a new series of mine that will release next summer (initially as part of a box set.)
One thing I sometimes get asked is “Why Taste of Romance?” Well, initially the whole series was going to be focused on food. In A Splash of Substance, Paige is a caterer who’s looking to keep her fledgling business alive while still holding tightly to her desire to source sustainably. She even gives a little shout out to Valerie Comer’s Green Acre Farm (from her Farm Fresh Romance series). And then, the life of a pantser kicked in, and while there are still food-related issues that are involved, it’s not what I’d thought it was going to be. So the series name maybe doesn’t work as well as it could, but the titles – with their cooking terms – are still accurate. For now, I’m going to leave it alone, but maybe one day I’ll come up with a different series name.
If you haven’t yet read the books in my Taste of Romance series, the first box set featuring books 1-3 is on sale for 99 cents for a little bit longer. And I’d love to gift two commenters the last two books in the series to round out their collection.
To enter, let’s talk tropes. Do you prefer when the romance trope is super obvious in the story, or are you okay with a little blending?
Elizabeth Maddrey is a semi-reformed computer geek and homeschooling mother of two who lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace on their way to their own romantic happily ever after.
honestly I don’t really take notice of tropes (except the ones I don’t like, such as secret baby). I don’t go looking for a book because of a trope. I go looking for a book that I like the look off or is an author I know. If I don’t know the author I go by the blurb and cover. If I don’t like the cover I often won’t look at the blurb.
I like the sound of your series. Its interesting as a series I read once it was a secondary character I Identified with and really loved and was so glad when he got his own book. His name was Gilbert and its when I fell in love with the name Gilbert.
I don’t really mind the tropes I enjoy them as they come but I definitely don’t like to be misled. I love your books haven’t started this series yet but read all the others.
I’m OK with a blend but it’s got to have a strong romance plot line.
I enjoy lots of different tropes and enjoy a good blend! Several tropes work well combining with others, like fake relationship/marriage of convenience or enemies-to-something more. As long as there is sweet romance, it doesn’t matter to me what the trope is.
I like blending most if the time!
I’m like this myself. I don’t think I consciously look for tropes. But I am starting to notice that books where the author clearly focused on a trope tend to have a somewhat more satisfying story. Not always – and not exclusively – but it’s a developing trend.
I fell in love with the name Gilbert reading Anne of Green Gables :)
Being misled is never a good thing.
Oh for sure. And you can have a strong romance with a blend of tropes. These books are all about the couple getting together – so definitely romance.
There are definitely tropes that blend well. And I’m seeing more and more books making that effort to have a couple.
Yes!
I like a little blending. Cat and mouse if you will😁
Yes!
I love it both, for me it doesn’t matter because if it is a good story I will read it anyway.
I honestly don’t pick a book by troupe instead I look for an author I love, a genre I prefer, or at times a cover I can’t resist .
I like a blend. I honestly don’t pay much attention to the trope. I just like to be drawn into the story from the beginning. I don’t pay attention to find out if it’s true to one trope or another. I don’t read to dissect, which is why I hated doing that in American Lit and British Lit in school. The Bronte sisters didn’t write their books to have us dissect them years later!
That’s always good to hear :)
I imagine that’s a common way to go consciously at least.
I don’t read to dissect either – I do wonder how much we pay attention subconsciously, because it’s clear from sales data that books with clearly stated tropes sell WAY better than those without.
I’m fine with blending tropes because in real life everyone doesn’t live a single trope.
I don’t care if it follows a set trope as long as it keeps my attention
I like blending but am open to variety
Ha. That’s true. No one’s life is a single perfect trope.
Do you find that tropes are a good way for a book / story to keep your attention though?
Variety is good!
Blending for me.
It’s nice to find romance, suspense romance, humorous, and mystery books that are sweet, clean and wholesome.
Sorry wrong comment. I like the blending.
It tends to happen so that’s good.
Happens to all of us! And you’re not alone.
I don’t mind if the tropes are blended, especially if it is small town and second chances!
Small towns get a lot of reader love for sure!
I personally look for tropes. And if it’s a romance, then the romance plot had better be the main plot. ;) I am a hopeless romantic and can sniff out a crush a mile away. But unless it’s an action or a sci-fi, I expect Christian romances, inspirational romances, and sweet romances to revolve around the hero & heroine getting together. Other tropes or subplots blending in is fine, but I expect the romance to be the first major conflict, and it had better be the climax, the main point of the whole story.
If the hero and heroine getting together isn’t the point it shouldn’t be classified as a romance. That’s basic genre rules. :) I’m sorry if you’ve run into some one who mislabeled their book!
I don’t really seek out tropes as far as when it comes to choosing books. I look more for what the story is about, but there are a few tropes. It just depends on my mood I guess.
Mood is definitely a driver on my choice too.
I like either way with tropes blending or obvious.
Yay!
I think I’m good either way. I do like tropes in that they give me some idea of what is going on. Otherwise the story can get stressful and I don’t want to be stressed out by my books.
Me too! I hate when I start getting stressed out when I’m reading.
I tend to prefer a little blending in stories, but I also don’t mind if the romance is super obvious. A good balanced story is best in my opinion. But I’ve always said, a well-written novel/ novella is one I enjoy….heavy on romance or blended with other elements. :-)
And I find it funny when an author says a character won’t leave them alone & demands their story to be told. I’ve often heard this from other writers. I find it especially funny when they say a character doesn’t want to do what the writer wants them to do! Almost as if the character has a mind of his or her own, lol! Now I really want to meet your Jackson, he sounds like an interesting person (wink)!
I don’t mind if there’s a blending of tropes.
That’s interesting! I wonder how they determine that. Oh, well, I know I’m slightly an oddity, as I don’t rush out to buy all the newest gadgets with all the bells and whistles. As my advertising and marketing teacher told me, I’m the person that advertisers and marketers hate.
Jackson is awesome. I love him. I hope you get to meet him.
And my characters definitely have minds of their own lol.
Yay for blending :) I’m seeing a theme – love it
I’m just determining from my own sales :) the ones where I can clearly say “second chance” or whatever in the tagline sell way better.
But I don’t think I’m unusual since Love Inspired, for example, has always put trope in their titles.
I’m not the person marketers love either
Hmmm. I’m still kinda surprised. I can’t even decide if I like Historical, Contemporary, Western, or what as a favorite, so what do I know! Lol!! I just know I love a good story!
I dont really follow tropes too much. I love to open a book and fall into it and not want to leave. (this is dangerous at times, LOL) I love to see what they have to go through to build their romance and keep it strong
Ha. Yes! I have ignored a lot of housework over the years because of books.
I don’t mind blending tropes. I agree with several other commenters that the growth of the relationship matters more. The “how” of it can take a winding path. I would think that, from a writer’s perspective, the advantage of a clear trope is that it clarifies plot decisions. I can only guess that that would make a difference to readers if their personality longs for clear and concise exposition. If the reader is looking more for immersion, then a mix of tropes shouldn’t matter. If you are seeing a sales difference, it might be interesting to put a label on some of your mixed-trope stories (pick one of the parts of the mix) and see if it makes a difference. It may be that readers are using the presence of a label as a way to narrow the field when looking for something to read. Having made the choice, the blend may not be an issue at all. From a marketing standpoint, you could present the blend of, say, hate-to-love and opposites-attract as “an intriguing twist on opposites attract”. FWIW, IMHO, YMMV.
I picked up the box set. It would be fun to win the other two. Fingers crossed. :)
This is good analysis. I’m actually trying to go back through and explicitly name a trope on my older books to see if it helps. So we’ll see.
I think trope blending makes the stories even more interesting and fun. I love to read book series because I like to find out how book characters go on or what they do with their lives. Have a Great week and stay safe.
I love that about series too!
When I was writing for Love Inspired, the editors loved having more than one trope in a story. Two or three were good. I think there’s always a major one, but the more the merrier.
I think maybe what I was getting at specific to these books is that I’m not sure I had a major one – just a whole lot of blending.
I never read Anne of Green Gables (Did see the mini series). As a child I loved reading but I struggled with some books and words etc. I was given Pollyanna and the first Anne of Green Gables books at about 12. I loved Pollyanna but I found I couldn’t handle Anne of Green Gables. It was above the my reading age. I never got back to it for that reason. I remember as a 12 year old having to read Lord of the Flies for school and it was a huge struggle cos it wasn’t what I normally read and the subject was way above me. (I was still reading Enid Blyton).
If I had married and had a boy I wanted to call him Gilbert. Was going to call a cat that but it just didn’t suit Henry. I picture him as a ginger cat. But did name a friends cat Gilbert.
Blending tropes is fine but let’s not overdo it! Billionaire with a surprise baby who was the next door neighbour and sibling’s best friend…..
I love when it blends. I am not one that looks at a book by the troupe. I look at a book by the story itself.
While I’m a bit more partial to certain tropes (like enemies to lovers, opposites attract, MOC, and a few others), I’ll enjoy any as long as the writing’s done well and there’s at least a dash, if not a lot more, of romance ;) So, honestly, for me, sometimes the trope doesn’t have to be super obvious since most of the time I won’t recognize it if I’m having too much fun just enjoying the reading experience :)
Also, I’m just really glad you paid attention to all those loud clearing throats or raised eyebrows since they sure sound like great, fun reads. I’ll definitely be checking those books out and adding them to my TBR.
I enjoy a lot of different romance & blends.
I like romance type for sure. Haven’t read many blend type.
Definitely blending.
I’m good with both!
Love the cover and title <3
Thank you for sharing. This was really nice to read.
I LOVE your Taste of Romance series! I never once noticed that the trope isn’t obvious in them, so I guess that means I’m ok without that being there!
I actually really enjoy both! I like knowing what the trope is, but I am also okay with it blending in.
I love that the series makes your heart happy!
As to tropes and genres, well to me each book is unique and I am more interested in the story itself, regardless of the trope, though it just occurred to me if I saw something advertised as “bully” I would probably ignore it.