Well it’s been a hot minute since I’ve written one of these posts. I said I’d post these more consistently back in October but clearly that didn’t happen. This is the type of post I’d forget about as I didn’t have a plan for posting them. But no more! I’ve officially written a list of my favourite tropes I want to talk about in future posts, so this time I actually mean it when I say I’ll be posting them more consistently.
Meet cute
I’m not sure if this is an official trope as it’s used in pretty much all romance books, but it does have a special place in my heart as I had one myself. At least I think I did? The very first interaction I had with my boyfriend was me shouting “where did you get that pizza?” across the street when we were 16. We didn’t meet again until over 6 months later and then another 6 months after that we were dating. That was over 9 years and we’re still together now in a flat we own with our two guinea pigs and whippet. So you can probably understand why I love meet cutes so much.
Getting to witness the moment that the love interests meet for the first time is so special. I especially love funny ones. You know it will be true love if they completely embarrass themselves but fall in love anyway.
A good meet cute is the best way to make me instantly invested in a romantic couple. It’s a great way to build a connection and can even give you a reason to believe the romance. I’ve read so many books with romantic relationships that I think feel platonic. Do you know what could have changed that? An interesting meet cute.
Forbidden love
As humans we naturally want what we’re told we can’t have, especially when it comes to love. Boy do I love forbidden love. Not only is it a great trope but it’s also packed full of sub-tropes that make it so wonderfully frustrating. Nothing gets me invested in a story more than rooting for a couple that can’t be together but hoping that it will all work out for them in the end. I still haven’t read Our Violent Ends as I’m not ready for the heartbreak that I’m sure will be the ending of Roma and Juliette’s relationship. I mean, it’s prewritten right? I’m assuming it has the same end as the original story but it’s probably more heartbreaking.
I was going to talk about mutual pining as this is a sub-trope of forbidden love but I’ll probably talk about it in another post. I’m a big fan of mutual pining though, especially when the male main character pines harder.
I personally think this trope only works in fantasy/romantasy books. Not being able to date because your workplace forbids it is not true forbidden love. You need extremely high stakes like actual death or war for it to really work. Karen from HR can’t be the big bad that’s stopping you from being with your true love.
It’s been a while since I read a great forbidden love book, so please send some recommendations my way!
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