We’re all aware that tropes used in many romance stories, right? Tropes are a plot device that provide a bit of structure. In romance, that’s structure that fleshes out the basic formula of “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.”
I thought it would be fun to look at some popular tropes and highlight various Inspy Romance authors who’ve written stories that fit. Or almost fit, because we wouldn’t want to be too predictable. As authors, it’s fun to see how we can take established formulas and tropes and give them a unique spin. Sometimes we can combine several tropes in one story. Yup, we are that talented a bunch!
Reunion
The reunion trope looks like it’s the most popular one with Inspy Romance authors! This story line involves a couple who dated and might even have been engaged at one time. Now they meet again, and the attraction is as strong as ever, but whatever it was that broke them up in the past still needs to be dealt with.
More Than a Tiara
by Valerie Comer
Now available only in
Home for Christmas box set
A Pinch of Promise by Elizabeth Maddrey
A Romance Rekindled by Kimberly Rose Johnson
The Little Black Wedding Dress by Lindi Peterson
The Wedding List by Autumn Macarthur
More Than a Tiara by Valerie Comer
Second Chance Reunion by Merrillee Whren
A Soldier’s Reunion by Cheryl Wyatt
Unraveled by Heidi McCahan
Second Time Around by JoAnn Durgin
Her Reunion Bond by Lee Tobin McClain
An Aria for Nick by Hallee Bridgeman
A Recipe for Family by Lynette Sowell
Secret baby
Can you imagine a reason not to tell your baby’s dad that he’s fathered a child? What happens when he finds out some time later? That’s the driving force behind the secret baby trope, a subset of the reunion trope.
Twin Hearts by JoAnn Durgin
A Carol for Kent by Hallee Bridgeman
Enmity to Romance
This couple knew each other before the story starts, too, but they hadn’t been dating. For one reason or another, there was a strong enmity in their previous relationship.
Serving up a Sweetheart by Cheryl Wyatt
The Cowboy’s Homecoming by Carolyne Aarsen
Love Flies In by Heidi McCahan
Secretly Yours by Valerie Comer
Marriage of convenience
This story line features a couple that is usually married early in the story, but for “convenience,” not love. The reasons a contemporary couple might marry without being in love are fewer than in historical times, so this one is harder to pull off.
An Unexpected Blessing by Merrillee Whren
Fake engagement
More common than a contemporary couple marrying for convenience is faking dating or an engagement for convenience. They plan all along to have a public breakup before the wedding, but what if one falls for the other while they are pretending?
Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by JoAnn Durgin
A Wedding Date in Hot Springs by Annalisa Daughety
Rich in Hope by Lindi Peterson
Left at the Altar
This trope involves runaway brides or jilted brides. In other words, either the bride or the groom gets cold feet and leaves the other at the very last minute. In this trope, the character finds love with a different character, not the one jilted.
Island Refuge by Kimberly Rose Johnson
The Heart’s Homecoming by Merrillee Whren
Falling for the Farmer by Narelle Atkins
The Bride’s Broken Bond by Lee Tobin McClain
Love is a Battlefield by Annalisa Daughety
Rich and Poor
Here you’ll find an extremely wealthy character falling in love with someone very poor. Usually it’s the hero who’s rich, but not always!
A Place to Call Home by Merrillee Whren
Sapphire Ice by Hallee Bridgeman
Billie’s Opportunity by Diane Lil Adams
Orphaned Hearts by Marion Ueckermann
Celebrity
This has undercurrents of the rich/poor trope, but the rich person lives a life in the limelight. He or she is either a professional athlete, a movie star, a music star, or some other celebrity. The other character not only needs to deal with the class difference, but with paparazzi and exuberant fans.
Believe in Me (movie star) by Autumn Macarthur
A Valentine for Kayla (music star) by Kimberly Rose Johnson
Kept by Sally Bradley (baseball star – though he is not the hero!)
Starlight, Star Bright (soccer star) by JoAnn Durgin
Covering Home (baseball star) by Heidi McCahan
A Melody for James (music star) by Hallee Bridgeman
Summer’s Song (music star) by Lindi Peterson
Single parent/nanny
This trope may or may not be similar to the rich/poor one, but the class difference doesn’t play as large a role. Here it is usually a single dad (though not always) who falls in love with the person he hires to take care of his child. It’s the addition of children that signifies this trope.
Falling for Mr. Write by Carol Moncado
Rich in Faith by Lindi Peterson
Arranged marriage
Arranged marriages are quite uncommon in contemporary first world cultures. Most examples of this trope seem to be linked to tales of royalty.
One Choice by Ginger Solomon
Hand-Me-Down Princess by Carol Moncado
Best Friends
In this trope, the couple have been friends forever. They have fallen for each other, but both are afraid to declare true love for fear of losing their friendship.
Wisdom to Know by Elizabeth Maddrey
Joint Venture by Elizabeth Maddrey
More Than Friends by Autumn Macarthur
Simply Mad by Christina Coryell
Time and Tide by Lynette Sowell
Spring Comes to Barncastle Inn by Lynette Sowell
Wedding bells
In this trope, the best man and maid of honor fall in love at the wedding of mutual friends.
Team Bride by Valerie Comer
You’d think by the number of Inspy Romance novels in some of those categories that a reader might get bored and find the stories overly predictable, but I don’t think that’s the case. We might use the trope as a general framework, but the stories are unique and told with our own distinctive voices.
I’m releasing Team Bride (the fourth Riverbend novella) next week, and it’s up for pre-order now. It starts out with the heroine as maid-of-honor and hero as best man meeting at their mutual friends’ wedding — Lindsey and Nick from Secretly Yours, if you’ve been following the series. But that’s only the beginning. There was still plenty of room for a twist toward the end — a twist that sets it apart from most other stories that fit this trope. I think you’ll find the same with any of the stories listed above. They’ll have certain things in common with the titles named above and below them, but there’s a fresh spin in each one.
Comment below with your favorite romance trope. Did you find something new to read today in that style? Tell me which book linked above you would like to read, and one winner will receive her choice!
Valerie Comer is a USA Today bestselling author and a two-time Word Award winner who writes where food meets faith and fiction. She injects experience laced with humor into her green clean romances. Her life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily-ever-afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.
Thanks for an informative blog about romance literature. So often romance novels are considered light literature. A good romance author does more than just write about boy meets girl. Character and plot development is important, as well as conflicts. Even as a avid reader and high school English teacher, I have never heard of “trope” in literature, I referred to this a “motif.” Thanks Valerie for giving me something new to ponder this morning and now as I read the various romances in Sweet Christmas Kisses 2 & Snowflakes and Mistletoe, I will identify the trope in each one.
Yes, you are a talented bunch, Val. I love this breakdown! Not only have you added to my TBR pile, but you got my imagination going for future stories I’d like to write. My favorite stories to read are the reunion and best friend tropes. Congratulations on your upcoming release. The cover is perfect for the season.
Great post, Val! (Though I think I’ve always called them motifs, too.) I will say when you asked about this to put the post together, I realized I might need to think about including more in my future books. Not every romance uses a trope–which might not be a bad thing–but they are a lot of fun when they’re there.
I love all the reunion stories!! My favs are fake engagement and celebrity tropes. Something about the rich and famous draws me in! Thanks for listing the books. More great stories to read.
Love this list and potential new reads! I tend toward reunion stories myself, when I’m writing. I have an inherent conflict and these people get a second chance. Something we all could use!
Hi Renate! I hadn’t heard the term “motif” for it before! But you won’t find a trope in each story. Many don’t rely on one. I’m curious what percentage you think might have one when you’re done reading.
Thanks, Jill! It got my imagination going, too. I find the best friend trope hard to pull off. At least, as a reader, I just want to smack them both more often than not!
See, I learned something new this morning. I hadn’t heard of motifs before! I agree that NOT using a trope is not a bad thing. It’s fun to put a twist on an old favorite, but there’s nothing wrong with a tropeless story. :)
There’s such potential in reunion stories! It’s no surprise they’re a favorite to write!
Reunion stories definitely have inherent conflict built in! Such fun to write. :)
Great post, Valerie. I must have made a mistake in the title I gave you. My reunion book is A Romance Rekindled. So sorry.
I love the colors in your Team Bride cover. :)
Thank you for compiling this list. I will keep it for further reference. My favorite are the celebrity and Rich and Famous. The rich and famous and celebrities draw me in. I love reading how normal they are and that they aren’t all the greedy types. It is also nice to read how the world does not revolve around them and that they are normal just like everyone else.
I’ll fix it :)
That’s a good point, Nancy. Especially in Christian romance, the celebrities are usually very down-to-earth behind the fame.
Great! Thanks. :)
I learned a new word. Thank you! And what a fun, fun list! :)
Glad to be of use! ;)
What about those plots where the hero and heroine didn’t know each other prior to the opening of the book? Those are some of my favorites.
Hey, this post is relevant to me today. I just figured out that my book-in-progress should be a marriage of convenience, not a secret baby story! Well, one morphs into the other. Fun to see what tropes everyone’s using.
Glad to be of help! ;)
That seems to be a trope-less romance! Most of mine are that way. Tropes are only some of the well-known trails for romance, but there are definitely a lot of romances that don’t fit a trope at all.
Such a great list of books and I can happily say I’ve read some of them, lol. I like many of the categories you listed above for tropes. My fav, I like the ones I’ve read. I haven’t read anything from the secret baby, fake engagement and left at the altar.
There are some really fun tropes, right? ;)
So many books to add to my TBR pile. If this keeps up, I won’t find any time at all for writing!
Hey Valerie – I liked the tropes blog. I’m a reader, and occasional blogger, so I don’t always consider the general plot of a story. The blog will have me analyzing my current and future books. Do I understand correctly: you are featured in two box sets coming out this month “Home For Christmas” and “Love’s Gift?”
Yes, Stacey. In “Home for Christmas” is my short novel, More Than a Tiara, which released last year as part of Snowflake Tiara. The other stories in H4C have also all been previously released.
Love’s Gift is a set of all-new stories, which includes Merry Kisses, my fifth Riverbend novella.
We can’t have that! You’ll have to carve a wee bit of reading time from somewhere else. You don’t need a clean house or daily food, do you??? ;)
Hmm, I wonder if that’s one of the reasons I like a lot of inspy titles. Reunion (what I call second chances) is one of my favorite themes because sometimes the right step is hard to see when you’re in the middle of it.
Don’t you think the tropes are as often used in secular romances? Hmm, I would have thought they were.
Oh, yes, they are, but I became an inspy reader sideways. Sort of discovered I was picking them without noticing the subgenre. In fact, I think you were the one to make me notice that rather than randomly running into characters with strong religious convictions in amongst the romances I’d read, it was a trend in the form of a subgenre.
I might plead guilty to that… :)
Reunion (or past loves), Marriage of Conveniece (mostly historical), and Mail-Order Bride (mostly historical, again) are my favorite troupes. Not sure I’d enjoy “Secret Baby” very much….why would you not disclose to the babies father that you are expecting? Just my opinion, I guess! Most of the other troupes mentioned here I haven’t read too many of. Guess it depends on your reading tastes :-)
It’s true there are tropes that are much more suited to historical than contemporary. And I’m not sure about the secret baby, either. There’s a limited set of circumstances where that makes any sense at all, but I’ve seen it pulled off well.
Good thing you enjoy the Reunion trope, as it seems to be popular with our authors as well!
I just started a book Intertwined by Jennifer Slattery that I think would fit the circumstances of lost love & reuniting. I
I would like to read the Home For Christmas collection.. I’m ready for some Christmas stories :)
Then it’s handy for you that Christmas stories are releasing these days :)
Oh, this was fun! I plan to add to my TBR pile with many of these and I have read some already! I have one in paperback that I didn’t realize was a fake engagement, so I am moving that book up in my pile! I want to read Team Bride by you, Valerie Comer, the most on this list right now though. I have been wanting to read it since I first read about it when you had your cover reveal.
So glad to be of help rearranging your TBR :) And I hope you enjoy Team Bride. The pre-order price is 99 cents, and it will go up when it releases. (Heads up!) But it will also be available for borrowing on Kindle Unlimited.
Oh, I’ve had it pre-ordered for a while now! :) I can’t wait!
Thank you!
I lean more toward no trope romances, these days. I prefer drama, intrigue, and danger. In my younger years, I would have scooped up everything in the best friends trope, and probably the reunion trope as well.
Ah so you are one who likes romantic suspense more. I wonder if that genre has tropes too?
It does. Best friend of victim joins family to help. Old love is last hope for stopping. Navy Seal to the rescue…