If you’ve been around romance books long enough (and I’m fairly confident we all have!), then you’re familiar with the concept of tropes. This is the literary device authors use as the theme of their romance—the means of which they center their meet-cute all the way to their happily-ever-after around. And, if we’re being honest, we all have our favorites and those we may shy away from if we get a hint of them in the back cover blurb. For example, I’m a bit of a sucker for enemies-to-lovers and marriage of convenience stories while I tend to not be as enthusiastic about love triangles. Some people may think that tropes exist solely in romantic fiction. They are a literary device, are they not? But, as with most things fiction, the basis comes from real life.
Skeptical? I am a living, breathing “secret baby” trope. My mom never told my bio dad that she was pregnant with his child. 38 years later and he still doesn’t know I exist (which I am ok with, by the way, in case you just gasped). In the case of my love story with my husband, I’d say we are opposites attract as well as a reformed rake on his part—and we all know reformed rakes make the best husbands. ;)
In case you still aren’t convinced that tropes happen in real life, I asked some of the other ladies here at InspyRomance about their own love stories and the tropes they’ve lived out outside the pages of a book. Here’s what they said:
Julie Carobini: My husband and I are a second-chance romance. He was a widower and I was divorced. Plot twist: I had a serious illness at the time. Some told him to run since he’d already lost his first wife to illness. But we’ve been married 31+ years and counting (My book, Walking on Sea Glass, is inspired by our story )
Toni Shiloh: My hubby and I are instalove. I met him the first day I arrived to my duty station. The airmen (including him) took me out to dinner as a welcome to England and the flight. My husband and I started talking and we’ve been together from day one ever since.
Liwen Ho: My hubby and I are opposites attract, as in a literal sense because he’s a ENTP and I’m an ISFJ. The year and a half when we were sheltering in place together with our kids was an absolute dream for him; me not so much. LOL He’s also a reformed rake , while I was (actually, still am!) a wallflower. Our friends were so concerned when we got together that my best friend took him out for coffee to “check him out” and another mutual male friend warned him not to break my heart. He was my first and only boyfriend and we’ll be married 21 years next month.
Meghan Whistler: Opposites attract! I was a creative writing grad student and he was a research scientist doing post-grad work at MIT. We met on a blind date
Jaycee Weaver: I’m the product of instalove—my parents met in May, married that Nov, had me next July and are still married. My hubby and I would be opposites attract, athlete/book nerd, and beta hero. Lol! I had to look up a list of tropes because I was blanking out after opposites attract and you have several here already. Lol! We met through a circle of friends. He was Mr. Popular Jock in high school, but mellowed to be a chill beta hero engineer in college. I was the book nerd/invisible girl in high school but became Ms. Spunk and Sass in college. We’ve been opposites in love for 22 years!
Elizabeth Maddrey: My hubby and I are best friends to love. Sarah Monzon: awww. Did you guys have the regular conflict of afraid to talk about your feelings for fear of loosing your friend? Elizabeth Maddrey: we did! I even gave him advice about the other girl he wanted to ask out. And then finally I sent him a letter through the college post office that I thought we should consider being more than friends and he called me and said “We need to talk” and I thought oh no…just killed that friendship.
What about you? What is your real-life trope story? Do you have a favorite or least favorite trope in fiction?
Winner of the Holt Medallion and Selah Award, Sarah Monzon is a stay-at-home mom who makes up imaginary friends to have adult conversations with (otherwise known as writing novels). As a navy chaplain's wife, she resides wherever the military happens to station her family and enjoys exploring the beauty of the world around her.
I was unaware of how many “tropes” there are connected with writing a book
Mum and Dad were Love at first sight but it still took dad several months to act on it. They were at a NYE picnic with the church at a nearby lake and someone asked mum how she was getting home and she said Jack is taking me isn’t that right. Turns out Dad wanted to ask her out but was scared she would say no. They were engaged by Easter.
I don’t really like the secret baby trope. It can depend how its done but mostly not my favourite.
The first two testimonials are repeated! It is the same paragraph.
My parents were friends, they met when my mom was 12 and he was 15, they got together years later when they were both college students and the age difference wasn’t that noticeable. For a while my mom was just a “little friend” of dad he liked my mom’s cousin who was 16 hahahaha.
I still don’t have my own love story but I would prefer friends over trust, I couldn’t establish a relationship without trusting the other person even if he or she is a Christian or we go to the same church. I hate insta love all the other tropes there are ways that I like them depending on the narration insta love I see it as a very strong attraction that needs to be confirmed by knowing the person there is no way I believe that this is real love in a novel or book, see someone and you know what it is for you? If it turns out, I see it as luck, but it really isn’t the rule. Many stories start like this and end badly. It would have to be a saga for me to like it, to see them meet and grow as a couple… maybe if they were a secondary couple who experience insta love for 5 or 4 books but can’t establish a relationship due to some factors or are very young ( high school boys for example) we see them dance around each other, get to know each other and finally make the move in the last book.
I guess I don’t like it either because there are young people today (lots of them) who think it’s only love if it’s instant attraction, sometimes love comes softly!
They wrote part of it wrong, hahaha it’s not my native language clearly my partner must be a boy for some reason up there it sounds like something else.
welcome today. My husband and I were strangers to friends to married. A fellow friend set us up. I love to read about strangers to more, about mail order brides, about second chances.
Good for your mom. Haha.
Secret baby tropes aren’t my favorite either.
My apologies to Toni and Julie! I accidentally copied and pasted Julie’s comments a second time into Toni’s. *hangs head in shame*
There are SO many! The ones I mentioned are only a drop in the bucket.
Oooph. Yeah I messed up and accidentally copied and pasted Julie’s story twice. :(
I really like marriage of convenience stories, probably because those were the first ones I read! I read Harlequin’s in the 70’s, and was thrilled when Zondervan started publishing CF books like Jane Peart’s in the 80’s. I like any of the trope’s, except secret baby (sorry!), but marriage of convenience is still my favorite!
My hubby is the reformed rake/super popular guy. I am solidly the book nerd/wallflower. I still have no clue … other than God … how he even “saw” me, but he did and we’ve been together 13 years (and counting)!
You can edit it :)
I still don’t have my computer *sob face*
I love marriage of convenience! One of my favorites.
Same!
Not sure what my brother and SIL were but they met at a camp. Both were leaders (christian camp) Before the camp there was a group praying for my SIL as she didn’t know many of the leaders having moved back and praying she would find someone. Turns out that someone was my brother who was praying she find someone.
I’ve edited the post for Sarah – all good! Toni’s story is instalove :)
Opposites attract for me.
My favorite is friends to more. My husband and I fall in between friends to more as well as instant love. We took it slow and easy even though we each had feelings for each other. We dated a year and a half before we were married. We have been married for 33 years. Thanks for sharing. God bless you.
least favorite: triangles
My parents met & had me but my dad was always there for me. I haven’t read much books like that yet.
I find my dad came into my life when I was 5 & we moved to a safer place where I wouldn’t get into trouble & helped me with my health. He was my saver.
How are you guys opposites?
I like friends to more if the conflict driving the story is something other than “I can’t tell them I love them because it might ruin the friendship.” Mostly because I’ve read that so many times and I love unique story lines.
I’m not a fan of love triangles either
That’s awesome
Aww, no shame! No worries, lol
This one wasn’t mentioned, but I married my best friend’s brother.